EMA on Management

By Jim Frey

The NOC on systems management

12/29/08

EMA recently completed a major landscape survey on network management, including updates on technologies, process, and organization affecting the tools and practices used within network operations. One of the more interesting themes that emerged was the overwhelming indication that systems management is now part and parcel of most network operations teams' daily lives.

How to make big plans work out (even when many of them don't)

12/15/08

If you're one of the growing number of enlightened advocates for strategic change, or caught up in the middle of an initiative, or managing a strategic initiative at a day-to-day level, or on a more executive level, then here are some ideas that might give you an indication if things are going well or badly - or if things aren't so rosy, how to right the ship.

Intelligence on tap

10/17/08

You might think that network taps are something of an esoteric, plumbing-like part of managing and monitoring networks, and to a certain extent you would be right – the products are designed to be simple and rock solid and to not leak a single bit (or byte). But the latest offerings are going far beyond this by adding substantial intelligence for flexible deployment of monitoring products and technologies. Why is this important? Two reasons – growing demands for access and the need to conserve cost.

End-to-end application management - the network perspective

10/06/08

What if your executive team needed to develop a true "end-to-end" application management strategy? What would it look like?

Automation, anyone?

09/16/08

One simple way to look at automation is that logically it falls into three classes: machine-to-machine, machine-to-human, and human-to-human. And of course some capabilities and products cut across all three. But there are fundamentally different traditions on the two extremes.

SolarWinds is doing something right

08/18/08

SolarWinds is an example of how dramatically lower price points and faster time to value are catching on in a sea of more complex, costly, and albeit usually more richly functional network management products.

Automating change management to ease compliance efforts

07/30/08

Change management is important to IT leaders and the enterprise as a whole. Over the past decade, companies have been tackling change management to some degree. While most enterprises have taken steps to establish and refine change management procedures, more can be done. And the importance of doing so is not simply a management issue, but also one of compliance with security, regulatory and audit provisions.

WAN Optimization: Tactical or strategic or both?

07/24/08

As you may have suspected from some of my prior columns, I've found the product strategies in the WAN optimization market something of a puzzle.

BMC's ITM Software acquisition affects every technology silo

07/11/08

As you may have suspected from some of my prior columns, I've found the product strategies in the WAN optimization market something of a puzzle.

'Quality of Experience' revisited: What it means for network managers

06/23/08

Building towards QoE with a good combination of technical metrics and a healthy dose of customer dialog is a fine art.

Why NCCM is more important than ever

06/16/08

As many of you know, I believe that the network management industry as a whole is in a state of redefinition - or just raw chaos. But one of the brighter spots has been the growth of network change and configuration management (NCCM). Even if it hasn't grown in dollar market value as fast as some areas, like WAN optimization, NCCM is more strategic in my opinion and an ultimately richer and more empowering investment.

Compliance puts new focus on managing software license agreements

06/02/08

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Keeping track of software licenses and contracts that permit their use is not a new problem for IT managers. Software asset management (SAM) has been on the list of priorities for a long time. But IT governance and compliance are raising the bar for this and other IT disciplines.

New happenings in network virtualization

05/19/08

While system virtualization - and to a lesser extent, desktop virtualization - has held most of the virtualization limelight, there is also a growing trend in network virtualization.

The CMDB System, the CMS, the 'CCS,' and the NOC

05/12/08

I've decided to go back to square one and discuss EMA's (and my own) evolving perception of what a CMDB System is or at least should be in a little more detail - and then look at how the meaning of 'CMDB' has itself changed, both within ITIL and within the industry.

What's the true meaning of unified communications?

04/28/08

Unified communications, or UC, can mean many different things, depending on where your industry focus happens to be.

CMDB in the NOC: Voices from the trenches

04/21/08

CMDB Systems are analogous to the so-called NOC War Room single pane of glass. And given that premise, here are a few 'voices from the trenches' taken from consulting and research.

CMDB in the NOC: Is it time yet?

04/14/08

The rise of CMDB System adoptions is striking. Data from EMA research shows that out of 75 respondents in healthcare and financial services with $1 billion in revenue or more, every one of them plans to implement a CMDB System.

Infra buy gets EMC into ITSM

04/07/08

Why Infra and why ITSM? EMC will use Infra technology to further solidify its 'Closed Loop Service Orchestration' strategy. This strategy takes the foundational components and insight into IT infrastructure, builds upon that with the auto-discovery capabilities, and will now add the top-line service management capabilities available in the Infra product suite.

Some signs of progress in IT asset management and financial planning

04/01/08

In many organizations, asset management beyond basic procurement gets lost in that netherworld beneath the back burner where obligations and hopes all too often go to die.

Network management: Who's really in control?

03/24/08

Network management no longer lives in a corporate vacuum and has to cohabitate with a myriad of other organizational groups and departments - departments the network team never before had to contend with or consult with in the course of accomplishing its daily duties.

What ever happened to network management?

03/04/08

What ever happened to network management? This column idea was sparked by a query from an executive in operations working with EMA to try to figure out what a viable network management strategy should look like in 2008. This was not a naïve individual, but one who couldn't sort out where to begin in planning to address network management in an environment so changed from what it had been even five years ago.

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