The need to understand how the performance and problems within the technical infrastructure impacts the capabilities of the business is massive. However, the
majority of companies can only measure application and specific asset performance,
whereas many issues within the infrastructure lie at the transport level, where packet
switching presents both great opportunities and major issues.
MAIN POINTS
• The business depends on the performance of the infrastructure
The technological environment for most businesses now means that companies
are completely dependent on it. Should there be problems in this environment,
the business will be immediately impacted – with associated business costs.
• Stopping at the network asset level is not good enough
Network performance, and therefore the impact on the business, is dependent on
how well the underlying transport is performing. Measuring data packet
performance provides the foundation for a complete understanding of the
business impact of technology.
• Technology and business reporting systems must be linked
Using drill down and drill up techniques, it must be possible for the business and
the technologists to share and hand over information in the easiest way possible.
A business person must be able to drill down through the information presented
to them until they reach a point where they can no longer understand what is
being presented – at this point, the technologist should be able to take over
directly.
• Understanding the infrastructure requires certain tools to be available
Companies must be in a position to know what technical assets they are dealing
with, what the interdependencies are between these assets, and what business
impact there will be on the failure or sub-standard performance of any asset.
The interaction of these assets – i.e. the packet performance – must also be
measured and reported on.
• Different data types and different applications need different management
Just taking an application optimisation view of the network will not solve today’s
issues of dealing with data, voice and video. The actual data traffic must be
inspected and managed to ensure that quality of service requirements are met,
and that security is maintained.
• Moving to a business impact management solution has to be inclusive
The majority of organisations will already have tooling in place to provide
reporting against technical issues. Where possible, these investments must be
safeguarded, and the new tooling brought in to provide business impact
management must be able to work and integrate with what is already present –
including existing physical resources and human skills.
CONCLUSION
Today’s companies are dependent on their technical infrastructure, yet few have the
capability to fully assess the impact that issues in the infrastructure have on the
business itself. With the majority of IT groups having to continually fight fires, the time
has come for businesses to have better visibility of how technical issues are
constraining the business – and so to prioritise and expedite technical fixes and
changes that will help to keep them at the forefront of their markets.