Tool

Use this tool to identify leading vendors in the market and generate a customized shortlist of Systems Management vendors based on your key priorities.

Note

Systems Management can cover a wide range of functionality, from monitoring to incident management to capacity management/planning. Determine the right fit for your company's complexity and process maturity.

Tool

It is essential for IT to have a clear understanding of current costs, projected costs, and possible contingencies required for the budget cycle. Use this tool to elicit information from business units, develop individual project budgets,...

Note

In order to obtain budgeting success, IT leaders must first calculate current costs, build accurate estimates, consider potential changes to expenses, project costs by line item, create a budget proposal, and successfully negotiate gaps imposed...

Video

Address your concerns about budget preparation by understanding what works and what doesn't.

Solution Set

IT budget negotiations usually result in fewer dollars than IT leaders think they need. Preparation for negotiations is essential: a well-informed IT leader with valid reasons for budget requests is more likely to get what they need.

Video

Your IT infrastructure should evolve according to changes in business needs and as better technology options are introduced. This video will help you plan infrastructure change, identify cost-saving options, and secure approval for your investments.

Note

Infrastructure plans must support increasing performance expectations from the organization as well as continued growth. At the same time, expenses are constrained and IT Management must select low-cost solutions. It helps establish targets for...

Tool

Changes to applications, archived data and systems can put capacity pressure on your infrastructure. Complete this worksheet to help you to understand what infrastructure investments you should consider, based on your existing capacity and...

Tool

Infrastructure change can range in scope and scale. Use this tool to identify the best area(s) to focus your infrastructure efforts.

Solution Set

Knowing when and how to invest in a significant infrastructure change rather than a minor incremental purchase is difficult.

Template/Policy

Completing an annual review of the data center resource utilization and physical condition plays a crucial part in overall capacity planning and IT effectiveness. Comparing the current base-line state against information captured in future...

There is a significant cost reduction opportunity in consolidating smaller SQL databases while upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Over time, smaller databases have proliferated within many enterprises (serving departmental or line of...

February 19th, 2010 – London, ON - In an effort to educate and knowledge share with Canadian IT workers, The Quest for Canada’s Smartest IT is hosting a series of highly informative webinars to complement their campaign to find Canada’s...

Building or refreshing the data center is a large, time consuming, and expensive project that requires both in-house estimations and third party consultation. The requirements gathering process is one of the most important steps for the project....

Any small enterprise that wishes to create an agile, highly optimized server infrastructure can do so using the hardware and tools currently available. The utility infrastructure will continue to evolve and improve as more server rooms migrate...

Small enterprises will find that moving to a utility infrastructure will not happen overnight. It will require a long-term, phased approach with significant challenges along the way.

This note is first in a series that explores the backup and recovery software vendor landscape. The latest mainstream vendor product refresh sees new emphasis on the real point of backup: restore. Determine recovery points and compare...

After a thorough technical assessment of virtualization candidates, the next step in implementing virtual server infrastructure is to assess the physical server resources needed to support an optimum virtual infrastructure. Use capacity...

Note

The most often cited challenges to virtualization are related to people and processes, not technology. Take some time to think about all the people and processes that would be impacted by virtualization. Use this downloadable worksheet to...

Most IT decision makers are struggling to optimize IT performance measurement, delivery, management, and reporting. Broadly defined, these activities can be grouped together and defined as "IT service management." Understand where the enterprise...

Job Description

The System Administrator's role is to manage and tune in-house computer software systems and network connections to ensure high levels of availability and security of the supported business applications. This individual also participates in the...

Job Description

The Unix System Administrator's role is to operate and tune Unix systems, servers, and related components to ensure high levels of availability and security of the supported business applications. This individual also participates in the...