Solution Set

Applications management is a delicate balance, and metrics help maintain that balance. It all begins with measuring quality and customer satisfaction.

Note

Applications management is a delicate balance, and metrics help maintain that balance. It all begins with measuring quality and customer satisfaction.

Solution Set

Many organizations collect metrics to validate they are keeping the lights on and the infrastructure running. But the Infrastructure Managers who are benefiting the most are taking steps to ensure they are getting the right metrics to help them...

Note

Many organizations collect metrics to validate they are keeping the lights on and the infrastructure running. But the Infrastructure Managers who are benefiting the most are taking steps to ensure they are getting the right metrics to help them...

Case Study

This case study showcases an organization that made better use of metrics by closely examining and eliminating more than 1500 metrics, making data more accurate and relevant to the running of the business, and enabling a savings of $2.7 million.

Tool

This template provides the means to track data on each metric to enable full lifecycle management. The definitions should be linked to a calendar for review frequency to ensure metrics remain relevant as the technology environment changes and...

Tool

Metrics are often collected using several tools and coming from several sources. Use this tool to centralize key metrics tracking and reporting.

Template/Policy

Infrastructure Managers are often blindsided by upcoming projects that were not accurately scoped in terms of impact on the infrastructure. Use this checklist to ensure you have the necessary details to plan changes to the infrastructure and...

Template/Policy

Establish quarterly metric reviews with your CIO to support capacity planning and management. Use this template to create a metrics report for your CIO.

Template/Policy

As an Infrastructure Manager, your time is scarce. Use this template to ensure that weekly metrics reviews are isolated to those facts you need to know about - SLA breaches, anomalies, and potential risks.

Tool

The majority of IT departments spend 66% of their time performing operational activity and 34% of their time on strategic activity. Shifting more focus to strategic activity can build competitive advantage, enable innovation, and increase key...

Note

IT departments that achieve their ideal mix of operational and strategic activity can advance their standing as a strategic partner in the organization. It's a matter of making IT run better so resources can be shifted to innovative and high...

Sentilla, one of several vendors in a growing category of off-the-shelf data center energy measurement solutions, recently announced the release of Sentilla Energy Manager 3.0. This release introduces several features and enables energy...

An increasing number of IT departments are gathering metrics and building a solid history to demonstrate exactly how IT serves the business. However, sometimes that picture is not a rosy one. This note traces five top-level staffing metrics and...

Solution Set

IT managers constantly need to justify their staffing and spending levels and strive to improve IT efficiency.

As IT evolves, so too does the need to be proactive in measuring and controlling the quality and efficiencies of IT. Metrics are a powerful management tool that can be used to effectively communicate, maintain, and improve IT effectiveness over...

IT metrics reports that span dozens of pages and center on technology-focused metrics such as volume of mainframe batch runs, megabytes of data stored, jobs processed, or number of patches installed, will be meaningless to business leaders. If...

Gathering and analyzing key budgeting metrics allows IT to maintain a quantifiable account that shows the business how money is being invested into IT. However, sometimes interpretation of the metrics doesn't result in a rosy-colored picture...

IT metrics are defined as the measurement of activities, processes, deliverables, or resources within IT. Considering the old adage "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it", an IT metrics program is essential for understanding, managing,...

Establishing metrics can be a sizeable undertaking. New IT leaders need to get their hands on some solid numbers fast to help build credibility and identify key areas for change. Get a few descriptive metrics in place in your early weeks on the...

Metrics must be effectively designed, collected, analyzed, and communicated to deliver value. The key to a successful metrics program for small and midsize enterprises is a proactive approach to metrics development.

Collecting data on end-user device energy use can be relatively painless, especially if IT already has built-in tools at its disposal. Learn why an understanding of the true operational costs of energy is now important to many businesses, and...

In the data center, options for energy monitoring and measurement are beginning to proliferate. Understand why IT shops are benchmarking energy use now, which components need to be measured in data centers, and three options for getting started...

A shift in data center economics is occurring, and data centers can expect new green responsibilities to measure and optimize power consumption. Learn about current and proposed server energy efficiency metrics to prepare for benchmarks that...

Benchmarks are a common fixture in efforts to manage IT performance. While benchmarks can be highly informative, they must be treated with caution. Use benchmark comparisons as directional indicators, but avoid acting on benchmarks prematurely.

Note

The process of establishing performance standards for enterprise networks is arduous, but essential to all enterprises. The network is the foundation for the delivery of enterprise IT services, and when it does not operate optimally enterprise...