White Papers

Most telecom providers rely on a large computing infrastructure running a diverse set of applications to deliver, manage and bill services. Transforming this infrastructure into clouds can reduce internal computing resource needs and release the excess for use by paying customers. Doing so reduces internal costs and increases revenue streams — a win-win situation for a telecom cloud provider. This paper will cover different aspects of cloud services and identify some of the considerations telecom providers must address in order to deliver and sustain quality cloud services to their customers.

At one time or another in our lives, we have all looked up at the clouds; watching a never ending parade of different forms and faces that stimulate our imagination. Many of the clouds are friendly and beautiful. Some are dark and threatening.

The many faces of cloud computing are no different. When done right, it can help your business soar. When not well thought out, it can rain on your parade and provide you a thunderstorm of woes.

This paper will try to clarify the many different facets of cloud computing and help your enterprise make informed decisions when leveraging cloud computing. Our goal is to help you dodge the dark clouds and guide you toward improved services and increased profits.

In a recent Forrester survey, 87 percent of respondents in North America and 80 percent in Europe declared that they could not run their businesses without technology. This creates a high-risk situation: The ability of an enterprise to master and manage its technological assets becomes critical for the life of the business.

Business units are demanding more services and greater reliability from IT, while also trying to constrain, or even reduce, budgets. In those rare cases where budget is not a constraint, power, cooling, floor space or administration soon become a limiting factor to installation of new equipment. As greater demands are placed on IT for efficiency and productivity, it is becoming more important for IT organizations to adopt more sophisticated methods; in other words, IT management processes must become more "mature."

There are two common avenues organizations can follow to exploit virtualization. The first is primarily motivated by cost and environmental savings. The second is one of dynamic routing of transactions and images to provide massively scalable operating environments. If your motivator is primarily cost savings and you aren’t pursuing the massively scalable environments using tools such as DRS, then there are significant additional savings to be had after your initial consolidation effort. Perhaps consolidating virtual machine instances—running more than one app per virtual machine—is something you should consider.

Capacity management has been around for quite some time, but only a small minority of IT shops have implemented it. With constantly lowering prices, IT shops have chosen to throw hardware at performance and capacity problems instead of properly managing what they currently have. Today's environment and moving forward, this approach faces several challenges and a different approach to capacity management. This guide is designed to help managers who are looking to assemble a capacity management organization and put in place the best practices to make it successful.

ITIL Version 3 is now available and being socialized among the IT community. Its modest beginnings are rooted in best practices for individual IT tasks such as cable management, environmental standards and fire precautions. Version 2 (V2) of ITIL took a higher level process view by covering the flow of information and work between business and infrastructure technology. V2 identified best practice workflows and in developing them, clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all participants — both business and IT. As a result there were fewer dropped handoffs between processes, coherent work flow among IT teams, and the business enjoyed improved service quality and in many cases, lower operational costs.

Improving the business workforce productivity through quality of service and improving IT efficiency by maintaining service quality while reducing costs are the main directions that are mentioned by the IT decision-makers surveyed in this report. In fact, the results show that, given the difficulties of resolving issues in production and the potential impact on the business workforce, capacity management processes and tools are the best ways to control both service levels and costs at the IT level and reduce the productivity and financial impact of problems at the business level. Read more.

Many organizations view virtualization as a key technology that can deliver real business value by making their IT infrastructures more efficient, dynamic and flexible. This increased flexibility can allow companies to enter new markets, improve their supply chain, or optimize internal and external processes. However a survey commissioned by TeamQuest shows that organizations are quickly realizing that virtualization without proper planning, management and service optimization capabilities can lead to performance headaches that can stymie attempts to leverage the technology for real business advantage.

TeamQuest is no stranger to service lifecycles. The company's IT Service Optimization (ITSO) five-step lifecycle approach to capacity management has been around since mid-2005. TeamQuest has steadily been improving its software and adding functionality to enhance ITSO analysis and reporting. Find out more in this white paper.

TeamQuest Model streamlines the process of predicting the effect of cross-platform migrations. Thorough capacity planning exercises require the evaluation of alternative configuration and a good capacity planning tool makes it quick and easy to evaluate alternatives.

Recently chip manufacturers added additional threads to the processors to further increase efficiency of the chips. The added capacity of multi-threaded processors is welcomed but they provide some challenges for the capacity planner. As work is added to a system, multi-threaded CPU cores perform differently from multiple single-threaded CPU cores in a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) environment. The meaning of per-process CPU time measurements depend upon chip technology, therefore measurement results and expected future performance may not be intuitively obvious any more.

This paper explains a conceptual architecture developed for modeling multi-threaded processors and the new functionality provided in TeamQuest Model to support multithreaded processors. A modeling example using Linux on Intel chips will be provided to aid your understanding.

Maximizing the use of computing resources while reducing the "carbon footprint" of an organization's IT infrastructure is the goal of green computing. Depending upon the goals and needs of your organization, some green computing solutions may fit, others may not.

This paper takes a look at some of the aspects of going green such as considerations regarding the infrastructure component, facilities, consumables options, developing a green strategy, and incenting behavioral changes.

This paper explores how ITSO can help implement a part of your green initiative. This can help you successfully launch your initial green effort with an early "quick win," or it can serve as just one piece of a much more involved overall green plan for your organization. But it is important that you not limit your green efforts to the techniques described here. More and more, consumers are looking to their vendors to lead the way in green initiatives.

In this paper, John Miecielica of Metavante provides a step-by-step example showing how he uses TeamQuest software to analyze IT resource consumption at an application level. This key capability is especially important in today's environments where multiple applications run on a server or multiple servers might be required to implement one application. It allows Metavante to solve complex performance and capacity management issues crucial to keeping their business running smoothly and efficiently.

This paper examines the various issues and concerns connected with reporting on the capacity of a distributed environment, and how to successfully compare apples with oranges using TeamQuest Performance Software.

Alla Piltser, manager of the capacity planning and performance management group at Merrill Lynch says capacity reconciliation at Merrill Lynch is accomplished using simple management reports revealing the total available CPU resource along with the amount of that resource that is being used.

Companies of all sizes and across all industries are embracing the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) in record numbers. Forrester Research reported that 13 percent of corporations with revenue exceeding $1 billion had adopted ITIL by the end of 2005. By the end of 2008 that number is expected to reach 80 percent. TeamQuest sat down with Best Practices Manager Ron Potter to get a better understanding of how companies can improve their chances of a successful ITIL implementation.

Widely adopted or considered, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 2 is still relevant today. Yes, a refreshed version has been released, but many organizations are at a maturity level where there is advantage to starting with Version 2. Many of the core processes in the new Version 3 are contained within the Service Delivery component of Version 2. Financial Management for IT is an important process within ITIL Version 2 and its processes are, for the most part, identical in the new version 3. No matter which version you choose, this paper will provide an informative overview of this important ITIL process that is responsible for managing and allocating the costs associated with delivering IT services to the organization and its customers.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one of the most talked about application development topics today. SOA provides a structure where applications or application components (i.e., services) more closely resemble business processes, where services are easily reused and interoperate well with each other. This paper explores the roles and changes SOA brings to capacity management.

Ensuring reliable IT services doesn't just require provisioning a single system, but a series of interrelated layers each delivering a part of the end service. This white paper describes how multi-system modeling can help IT professionals achieve the desired level of service to the end customer.

This is a continuation into the IT Service Optimization process developed by TeamQuest which is aimed at optimizing the planning and delivery of IT services. This process can help you consistently meet IT service levels while minimizing infrastructure costs.

This white paper describes how TeamQuest performance alarming and analysis capabilities can be integrated within the HP OpenView Operation for UNIX Fault Management solution.

Effective capacity planning requires more than just examining the performance statistics of IT equipment. It must also incorporate business planning and projections to see their impact on the IT infrastructure, as well as how the IT capacity affects the organization's ability to meet its business goals.

In previous installments of this series we have shown that ITIL Version 2 is still very relevant today despite the emergence of the newer Version 3. maturity levels and lack of processes are barriers to some to go down the more business-focused ITIL Version 3 path.

This paper will discuss the merits of taking a more conservative, staged approach by employing a Capacity Management pilot to quickly reveal to management the value ITIL brings to an organization. We will describe the work performed by a Capacity Management team and then give step-by-step instructions on how to put the people, processes and tools in place to take your IT organization to the next level.

Widely adopted or considered, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 2 is still relevant today. Yes, a refreshed version has been released, but that version relies on core processes from Version 2. Many of the core processes in the new Version 3 are contained within the Service Delivery component of Version 2. Service Level Management is one of the key processes of ITIL Version 2 and all the key elements of the process have been carried over to the new version. No matter which version you choose, this paper will provide an informative overview of this important ITIL process that is responsible for defining the scope and ensuring the quality of IT services delivered to its customers.

Nearly everyone employs some level of application and system testing prior to introducing changes into the production environment - ensuring quality and minimizing possible disruptions to business operations. The problem most organizations face in trying to address performance problems is building test platforms large enough to emulate production volumes. As a result, few companies perform performance related tests at actual production business levels. Discover how TeamQuest performance software can be a more cost effective solution to identify potential performance problems during pre-production testing and reveal long term risks to capacity plans due to changes in resource consumption.

Widely adopted or considered, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 2 is still relevant today. Yes, a refreshed version has been released, but that version relies on core processes from Version 2. Many of the core processes in the new Version 3 are contained within the Service Delivery component of Version 2. This paper will provide an informative overview of the ITIL component that is responsible for delivering quality, cost-effective services to IT customers.

Mainframes were once supposed to go the way of the dinosaurs, replaced by smaller, more nimble servers, but something went wrong along that evolutionary track. As servers proliferated, their inefficiencies became clear. Ten to twenty percent CPU utilization rates were not uncommon, and data centers filled up with barely used disk space. With their ability to create logical partitions (LPARs) to run multiple operating systems and workloads, mainframes suddenly looked a lot smarter.

The emphasis then shifted to server consolidation and storage to reduce unnecessary overhead and eliminate the need to support a large number of boxes. While this represented an improvement, it was not enough. It took virtualization to truly fulfill the promise of a server-based architecture.

But any IT breakthrough is only truly useful if it can be integrated and managed as part of the overall infrastructure. In particular, monitoring, managing and conducting capacity planning for virtual resources presents a unique series of challenges. That’s why TeamQuest added VMware to the platforms it supports, making it easy to seamlessly manage a mix of virtual and physical assets.

“With the advent of ITIL Version 3, is ITIL Version 2 still relevant?” is one of the most commonly asked ITIL questions. The answer is a resounding “YES!” This ITIL framework is a proven set of guidelines for IT managers to maintain control and op¬timum efficiency within their data centers and the IT organization as a whole. No matter what part of the world or what type of organization, the principles of ITIL can help ensure that IT services are delivered in the best possible way in order to serve the overall goals of the organization. Implementing ITIL Version 2 can be the stepping stone for your organization to reach the process maturity needed to evolve to ITIL Version 3. This first installment in our series provides a brief introduction to ITIL Version 2 and summarizes the IT processes that ITIL addresses.

IT Service Optimization (ITSO) is aimed at optimizing the planning and delivery of IT services. The goal is to consistently meet IT service levels while minimizing infrastructure costs and mitigating risks. This increased efficiency makes it easier to manage IT resources, adapt to business changes, and align with business objective.

This IDC White Paper examines the need for datacenter performance management and capacity planning, focusing on the solutions offered by TeamQuest Corporation, a 14-year-old company that specializes in performance management software. TeamQuest has a base of approximately 400 direct customers, and many more through resellers, with concentration in several vertical segments, including finance, insurance, telecommunications, and service providers.

TeamQuest Performance Software facilitates performance management and reporting for the Solaris Zones feature. TeamQuest software allows you to optimize the performance of your data center and align IT with business priorities. It provides an extensible monitoring framework to plug in user agents for data collection and a flexible report framework to visualize reports with various formats.

CIOs, managers and engineers will gain a greater understanding of the ins and outs of optimizing the business through capacity planning. This ebook illustrates successful processes with real world case studies. TeamQuest explains how service level management and capacity planning, two critical IT processes, share common goals.

This document focuses on how TeamQuest Performance Software helps Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) administrators manage server performance. This document also provides some useful examples for how to monitor Microsoft IIS.

Measuring the performance of applications deployed across a network and the components that comprise them is essential to maintaining service level objectives. TeamQuest® Performance Software collects and analyzes performance data from many levels including network, application, compute server, storage server, network device, operating system, middleware, and database. This paper concentrates on the end-to-end performance analysis of TCP/IP-based applications (e.g. web or client/server applications) available with the TeamQuest Network Application Agent. It overviews the performance measurements and describes the collection methodology. Examples are used to illustrate how the agent can be used in different environments.

This document shows how TeamQuest Performance Software can help manage the performance of Microsoft SQL Server Software. It demonstrates how to turn on performance parameters within TeamQuest software and provides examples of performance parameters. It describes how to create workloads to help you group processes to easily manage your SQL Server. It also describes how to set alarms on SQL Server statistics so you are notified when a performance parameter goes beyond a defined threshold.

Oracle is a vital component within many organizations' IT infrastructure. This paper shows how you can maximize the performance of your Oracle-based applications using TeamQuest Performance Software. You will learn how to configure the collection of Oracle performance parameters within TeamQuest software, and how to solve some common Oracle performance problems.

This paper describes why workloads are important and then shows how to create and use workloads. It walks you through building an example workload set using TeamQuest Performance Software. This paper assumes you have knowledge regarding the TeamQuest Performance Software architecture.

Learn how to use TeamQuest Performance Software to set service level thresholds and alarms on performance parameters so that you know in advance when an anomaly is about to occur. This will allow you to tune your servers or business applications before customers are impacted. One TeamQuest Performance Software solution, TeamQuest Alert, is described in detail, demonstrating how this solution can notify you of a problem before your customers notice any performance deficiencies or delays.

Outsourcing providers offer economies of scale and inexpensive off-shore expertise, compelling in-house IT organizations to prove that they are worth what they cost. Yet a savvy IT manager knows that cutting costs will never be enough. To win you must prove that you are adding business value. In this paper, we will show how you can attain alignment and add business value. We provide systematic instructions and real-life examples demonstrating how others have approached the alignment problem.

Many large-scale applications are implemented using tiers of identical servers to support layers of application functionality. While this approach offers considerable power and flexibility to the application provider, it results in a fairly complex environment for the capacity planner. This paper will identify some of the capacity planning issues for multi-tiered applications, examine an enterprise-wide approach to modeling a multi-tiered application, and look at an example that shows how this approach to modeling reduces the complexity of the application environment.

This document focuses on how TeamQuest Performance Software helps Microsoft Exchange administrators manage the performance of Microsoft Exchange server. Since e-mail messaging is becoming pervasive in the business world and you must manage increasing amounts of information, you need powerful performance software products to satisfy the requirements brought on by your Microsoft Exchange server. This document provides the information needed to monitor and plan for the future growth of your e-mail system.

In this paper, we will describe how TeamQuest Performance Software integrates with EMC Symmetrix. TeamQuest Performance Software provides performance data from both the host system and Symmetrix system. Understanding their relationship will enable you to be more effective in your performance analysis and capacity planning efforts. This paper will provide a basic overview and define some terms that will aid in the understanding of a Symmetrix storage system environment. The configuration and deployment of Symmetrix storage systems are varied and sometimes complex. We will present some basics that can be used as a foundation for your understanding of this environment.

This paper we will introduce the concept of an enterprise database, briefly explain the advantages of using enterprise databases, and discuss the issues that should be considered when setting up an enterprise database. This is a short introductory paper. For additional detail on how to use an enterprise database, see Getting the Most Out of the Enterprise Database.

It is very common for an IT organization to manage system performance in a reactionary fashion, analyzing and correcting performance problems as users report them. When problems occur, hopefully system administrators have tools necessary to quickly analyze and remedy the situation. In a perfect world, administrators prepare in advance in order to avoid performance bottlenecks altogether, using capacity planning tools to predict in advance how servers should be configured to adequately handle future workloads.

The goal of capacity planning is to provide satisfactory service levels to users in a cost-effective manner. This paper describes the fundamental steps for performing capacity planning. Real life examples are provided using TeamQuest® Performance Software.