- Infrastructure management is facing challenges in keeping up with user expectations of 24/7 availability as well as new technologies like virtualization. - There is a growing need for sophisticated IT service management solutions to handle asset/change management, service level monitoring, root cause analysis, and reporting to both support processes and demonstrate business value. - While systems management tools are developing rapidly to address these needs, effective implementation of the new solutions also requires advancement of support processes.

1. Infrastructure ManagementWhat is happening?Tony LockFreeform Dynamics Ltd+44 7711 719113tony@freeformdynamics.comwww.freeformdynamics.com

2. What is going on?Current IT Initiatives

3. The Challenges for Infrastructure Management

4. The Market

5. ConclusionsThe view at the end of 2008... Has the ‘credit crunch’ had an impact on IT investment in your company?Is IT funding in your organisation generally on the way up or down?

6. Do you have or are you planning to begin initiatives over the next 6 months in any of the following areas?Overall

7. The virtualisation feel-good factor250-4999 employees

8. The impact of virtualisationOn management and support processesOn hardware acquisition strategy

9. What is going on?Current IT Initiatives

10. The Challenges for Infrastructure Management

11. The Market

12. ConclusionsThe Focus Areas For IT ManagementInfrastructure Basics

13. Asset / Inventory Management

14. Configuration and Change Management

15. Operational Management

16. Virtual / Physical Infrastructure Discovery

17. Service Level / Performance Monitoring

18. Service Level / Performance Management

19. Root Cause Analysis / Service Optimisation

20. Business Service Definition and Service Management

21. Monitoring and Management

22. Reporting

23. Financial / Service Feedback

24. Charge back

25. “What if” service modellingTo what degree are the following areas a burden to your IT department?At first glance it would appear that individual areas do not present a huge burden to the majority of IT departments. But the real story is very different

26. What degree of co-ordination exists within your IT management environment?Positively, we find that most IT departments report at least a co-ordinated approach to IT management, but this is hiding a multitude of sins

27. Do you try to maintain a clear view of how the various parts of your IT infrastructure relate to each other, e.g. which parts are dependent on which other parts?Few organisations have full capability here yet – half the challenge is in being able to articulate the need for it, the other half actually doing it.

28. How well do you think IT helps the business achieve its strategic and operational goals in the following areas?Contrary to some opinion, IT today does a pretty good job. That’s not to say it can’t do better, but in the main, things are ‘ok’Figure 1

29. To what degree does your organisation define SLA’s at an IT component or infrastructure level, e.g. for servers, the network, etc?Having taken most of the last 5 to 10 years to become mainstream, most organisations now track IT performance at component level.

30. What issues and challenges does this ‘fragmentation’ cause you?Fragmentation causes multiple headaches, not only within the IT department on a day to day basis, but it also limits the effectiveness to which IT can demonstrate its value

31. Does the organisation measure and report on the following in business terms, i.e. in a way designed for business people to understand?The game has changed. At a time where incremental gains separate performers from also rans, the current set-up is not conducive to allow IT to make its full contribution

32. To what degree does your organisation define SLA’s at a business service level, e.g. end-to-end SLAs for the performance and availability of applications?The game has changed from monitoring at component level to reconciling their performance against elements that have a business impact.

33. Does your organisation recognise the concept of “services” in relation to the delivery of IT?Freeform Dynamics projects have measure a constant upwards shift in the volume of organisations which are taking a services approach to IT – Freeform sees this as a key mainstream market shift that shouldn’t be ignored.

34. How well does IT help the business meet the following goals? ( IT management fragmentation levels 1 to 4, sum of scores 3 and 4)We see ITs ability to assist the business increase in a stepwise fashion as the degree of fragmentation in the IT management environment is reduced.

35. What is going on?Current IT Initiatives

36. The Challenges for Infrastructure Management

37. The Market

38. ConclusionsThe Focus Areas For IT ManagementInfrastructure Basics

39. Asset / Inventory Management

40. Configuration and Change Management

41. Operational Management

42. Virtual / Physical Infrastructure Discovery

43. Service Level / Performance Monitoring

44. Service Level / Performance Management

45. Root Cause Analysis / Service Optimisation

46. Business Service Definition and Service Management

47. Monitoring and Management

48. Reporting

49. Financial / Service Feedback

50. Charge back

51. “What if” service modellingWho’s playing?SpiceWorksNetworkGeneralCiscoIBMCAMicrosoftSymantecHPBMCNimSoftQuestAltirisWildPacketsBig HittersChallengersNiche PlayersOpen sourcers21

52. So who are offering Solutions Rapidly maturing market – consolidation

53. The gang of five

54. BMC PATROL

55. CA – Unicenter

56. HP OpenView

57. IBM/Tivoli Solutions

58. Microsoft

59. Many more niche solutionsSo who are offering SolutionsAsset, Service Desk, Change Management / CMDB

60. Hornbill

61. Intelliden (Network Asset Management)

62. LanDesk

63. Novell Zen

64. PS’SoftQualiparc

65. Symantec / Altiris

66. CA Service Desk and CA CMDBSo who are offering SolutionsService Level / Performance Management

67. Fujitsu SystemWalker

68. NetQoS

69. NetScout

70. Nimsoft

71. Quest

72. Radware

73. CA Traffic Accountant / CA eHealthWhat is going on?Current IT Initiatives

74. The Challenges for Infrastructure Management

75. The Market

76. ConclusionsSummaryUsers expect IT to work well 24 x 7

77. Systems Management tools are developing rapidly

78. There is a real business driven need for sophisticated IT Service Management solutions

79. Asset / Change Management

80. Service Level Monitoring / Management

81. Root Cause Analysis

82. Automation

83. Reporting and Changeback

84. The growing deployment of virtualisation and potentially flexible / cloud solutions adds to the need for such tools

85. Support processes need to advance to make effective use of new management solutions