* In 2009 IT organizations need to focus even more than they do in normal economic times
Last week in Denver, Network World hosted an event entitled ‘IT Roadmap conference.’ At that conference Jim moderated two tracks – one track was on Network Management and the other was on Application Delivery. The overall conference was very interactive with a lot of dialogue amongst end users, industry analysts, and vendors. That dialogue highlighted the fact that in 2009 IT organizations need to focus even more than they do in normal economic times. With that in mind, this newsletter and the next two newsletters will discuss the need for IT organizations to focus on a handful of key applications.
Application delivery is a very complex task in part because most users access applications over the WAN and the WAN introduces varying levels of delay, packet loss and jitter. In addition, it is common for a Fortune 500 company to have hundreds, or possibly thousands of applications running on hundreds of servers that reside in multiple data centers interconnected by WAN links. These applications are typically accessed by users that are located in a wide variety of locations, including headquarters facilities, regional offices, branch offices, home offices, hotels, airports, coffee shops, etc.
Access to the corporate applications is supported by myriad security devices (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection devices, intrusion protection devices) as well as an elaborate network infrastructure that is comprised of branch office LANs, data center LANs, multiple WAN services (e.g., Frame Relay, ATM, MPLS) and the Internet. And just when you thought it couldn’t get more complicated, it does in fact get notably more complicated. The introduction of virtualization of servers and desktops, the growing use of software-as-a-service and cloud computing, as well as the increasing use of wireless handheld devices to access corporate applications will continue to complicate the task of application delivery.
The management complexity associated with application delivery can be daunting particularly if IT organizations regard every application and every component of the infrastructure as being equally important. Unfortunately, the culture inside of some IT organizations makes it difficult for the organization to acknowledge that not all applications and not all components of the IT infrastructure are a top priority. The reality is that if every application and every component of the infrastructure is treated as a top priority, then every application and every component of the IT infrastructure is simultaneously treated as the lowest priority.
The next newsletter will outline a process that IT organizations should follow in order to effectively focus on the handful of applications that a company uses to run its business. In the meantime, more information on the functions that IT organizations should focus on in 2009 can be found here.
Also, the next IT Roadmap conference will be held in Chicago on April 2. If you are in the area, try to attend, as we will continue the discussion of how IT organizations can best cope with the current economic challenges.
