The Future of IMS: Three Infrastructure Management Trends that CIOs and Providers Should Pay Attention to

Transcription

1 The Future of IMS: Three Infrastructure Management Trends that CIOs and Providers Should Pay Attention to What are the implications for IMS customers and providers? NIIT Technologies White Paper

2 CONTENTS Introduction 3 Moving Towards Monitoring an API World 3 New Monitoring Tools 3 New Procedures 3 Adapting to a Data-Ambient World 4 The Growth of Ambient Data 4 Infrastructure Ambient Data 4 Speed to Analyze Ambient Data 4 It s All about Monitoring Customer Experience 4 Ambient Data Toolset Needed 5 The Rise of Autonomics 5 The BEER Test 5 Moving Personnel to Higher Level Remediation 5 Summary 6 References 6

3 INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT Introduction Working through the current period of consolidation and optimization, Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) professionals are turning their attention to hybrid cloud management, software-defined infrastructure and application-centric approaches. 1 But, with rapid technology advancement, IMS continues to evolve. What are the IMS trends on the horizon and how will they impact the roles and activities of the CIO, the IT staff and the IMS providers? This paper outlines the three trends that IMS professionals should pay attention to, with the attendant implications for customers and providers. differ in their functioning. However, the tools employed to monitor business-critical processes will change dramatically. New Monitoring Tools Backend system APIs continue to do what they are known to do well - become highly optimized. However, the assimilated SaaS and Web APIs, being outside the IT span of control, require new tools and procedures to monitor. Communication, data or performance issues of a single API can ripple through the enterprise application ecosystem. To ensure rapid triage and remediation, tools must be used to alert staff when the API performance deviates beyond the established thresholds. #1 - Moving Towards Monitoring an API World Application acquisition and delivery is shifting to the cloud as more business applications are consumerized and extended to mobile devices. Thirty years ago, we did not have computerized engine controls in cars. When the car stopped, you took the vehicle to a mechanic and he would look at various components to diagnose the problem. Today, we have check engine lights and diagnostic codes. API monitoring is the check engine light for the application infrastructure. As enterprise IT moves beyond the traditional HR, ERP, SCM and accounting functions, to incorporate cloud-based CRM, e-commerce, social media and mobile functionality, application counts are increasing rapidly. According to a survey in 2014, an average company uses 20 or more SaaS applications. 2 The resulting growth of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) relative to in-house application development makes APIs a critical link for application performance and reliability. As application lifecycle times shrink, EAI will become a norm in IT to enable companies to compete with speed and agility. As more and more companies employ EAI processes to assimilate and assemble distributed applications using APIs, the core IMS activities of monitoring, triaging, remediating and escalating will not New Procedures The necessity of knowing who to call and how to determine the responsibility dictate the implementation of efficient communication and collaboration procedures. In future, we may also see new types of SLAs evolving to meet the performance requirements of distributed IT ecosystems. 3 The CIO or infrastructure manager, who once had direct control of the entire domain, now has to adjust and monitor activities outside the data center. Even an application running in the data center may have one or more components running somewhere else in the cloud. 3

4 Implications for CIOs Establish clear procedures and policies for API monitoring and remediation Develop procedures for efficient communication and collaboration with application API providers Develop stable, secure, agile and scalable APIs to export Implications for IMS providers Lead the way in adopting and standardizing new API monitoring tools Application and object telemetry play a major role. Like satellites relaying their status via telemetry, a database will tell us if it is full, or if an application is running slowly. Instead of the information coming from external monitoring, telemetry may originate from inside the network device or an application. Speed to Analyze Ambient Data Ambient data will have a huge impact on storage, but that s not an issue since storage is projected to keep pace. The question is - can we speed up the analysis of the data collected? Encourage customers to use APIs while building applications Evolve SLAs to meet performance requirements of distributed IT ecosystems #2 - Adapting to a Data-Ambient World The Growth of Ambient Data Data is the oxygen of today s digital economy. Most of the companies collect and analyze both Personally Identifiable Data (PID) and datasets found at the core of business processes. But today, more useful data, both outside and inside the enterprise, is available to be captured and exploited. With over two billion websites in our interconnected world, an ocean of ambient data is available. 5 Data from the fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT), comprising Internet-connected sensors in cars, machines, clothing and our bodies, is quickly expanding the amount of accessible data. Cisco projects that 50 billion things will be connected to the Internet by The latent value in the data to be collected creates a challenge and an opportunity for all of us. Every industry is working to capture and assimilate ambient data which will eventually tell them about the customer from their current PID data set. Storage is evolving from traditional hard drives to faster secondary storage devices to meet the increased need for processing speed. New server architectures are also being developed with long-term and short-term memory using the same technology. The increased input/output speed will be a prime enabler to effectively analyze ambient data. It s All about Monitoring Customer Experience At the deepest level, ambient data is all about customer experience. Anything in this world can be tracked with a sensor, a microprocessor and connectivity. Today, almost every human on earth has a device on them or nearby, with a sensor, microprocessor and network connection. By monitoring devices and the IoT, we can monitor the end-user experience with a house, a car, a tablet or a chair. In our highly competitive world, enhancing customer experience is of paramount importance. By analyzing ambient data, large companies can better predict and respond to the needs of their customers. For example, knowing that a customer has visited a relocation website can alert a financial services company to reach out to the customer and present available options to plan a lifestyle change. Infrastructure Ambient Data Ambient data will give us insight into what is happening within our infrastructure. Once we start tracking ambient data, we can do more with the existing infrastructure to make sure that it is continuously available for business. With the growth of ambient data, IMS is moving away from monitoring discrete devices to monitoring the end-user experience. This means companies now have to monitor a larger set of activities and things, including the critical ambient data that reveals conditions experienced by the customer while performing a task. 4

5 Ambient Data Toolset Needed The key concern for IMS is that the toolset required to track ambient data and analyze the data set is still being developed. Providers have the opportunity to contribute to and influence the development of these tools. To embrace the digital economy, IMS must step up to monitor the APIs and track ambient data. Implications for CIOs Develop procedures and priorities for monitoring and capturing ambient data Proactively monitor customer experience to ensure outstanding CSAT Implications for IMS providers Enable clients to measure and ensure an outstanding end-user experience Develop a toolset to track and analyze ambient data during infrastructure monitoring Adopt new server architectures to increase the speed of ambient data analysis #3 - The Rise of Autonomics Autonomics, or the automatic resolution of problems without human intervention, is gaining traction among early adopters - with the potential to drive significant cost reductions. 7 The rise of autonomics is due to the level of remediation maturity we have currently attained. Many problems have clear resolution steps that can be automated. When monitoring activities detect a fault, corrective actions are taken by the system. Automated IT infrastructure operations include optimization of resources and routine maintenance tasks, as well as remediation. Business requirements are rapidly addressed by triggering real-time tasks in response to events. The improved services delivery through consistent execution and decreased resolution times encourage autonomics adoption. The BEER Test Successful autonomics implementations pass the BEER test, which requires the solution to be Better, Efficient, Effective and highly Repeatable. Having performed the procedure manually for years, we know that it can be automated. And we have the tools and technology for reliable autonomics. For example, network switches can now default to other switches, or applications can restart when certain problems arise. There are hundreds of use cases for autonomics that can be safely applied without loss of data or time. Moving Personnel to Higher Level Remediation The increased adoption of autonomics will result in automation of Level 1 IMS procedures, elevating technicians to do Level 2 and Level 3 remediation. Personnel trained for higher-level work experience increased job satisfaction. IMS workers will need to enhance their skills to prepare to move up. Implications for CIOs Identify remediation procedures that can be automated Train staff to handle higher levels of remediation Question software vendors about the autonomics capabilities available in their products Implications for IMS providers Adopt new tools and solutions for network, server, database and application automation Develop service offerings that include autonomics capabilities to reduce costs 5

6 Summary API monitoring, collecting and analyzing ambient data, and autonomics will significantly impact IMS professionals and practice. Successfully leveraging these three IMS trends requires foresight, leading organizations to carry out informed planning and execution. The implications listed in this paper provide a useful starting point for CIOs and IMS providers. References 1. Washburn, Doug (September 30, 2013). The Future of IT Infrastructure and Data Centers: A New Wave of Consolidation and Optimization [blog post]. Retrieved from t_infrastructure_and_data_centers_a_new_wave_of_consolidation_a nd_optimization The development of API monitoring, collecting and analyzing ambient data, and autonomics are strengths of NIIT Technologies. With industry-focused solutions and operating experience, we can work with clients to monitor the linking of APIs to their business-critical applications Our leadership in object and application telemetry puts us at the forefront of managing infrastructure-generated ambient data At NIIT Technologies dedicated labs, we do a lot of research and testing to understand how to build autonomics in everything we do with infrastructure 2. Axelrod, Gail (March 17, 2014). These 40 Stats Will Change the Way You Think about Google Apps [blog post]. Retrieved from 3. Lango, Jason (January 6, 2014). Toward Software-defined SLAs. Retrieved from 4. Schneider, Toni (May 3, 2012) 1 billion web sites in 2013 [blog post]. Retrieved from 5. Howard, Alex (December 13, 2011). Tapping into a world of ambient Along with IMS thought leadership, NIIT Technologies also brings a practitioner s point of view to IMS engagements. Our industry-focused IMS offerings, linked with a DevOps approach, provide unique solution data [blog post]. Retrieved from 6. Martinez, Juan (June 10, 2014). The Internet of Things will cause IP traffic to skyrocket 300% by Retrieved from -of-things-will-cause-ip-traffic-to-skyrocket-300-by Alsbridge (December 8, 2014). Alsbridge Identifies Six Key Operational Trends For 2015 [news release]. Retrieved from onal-trends-for

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