EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

CHARBEL KHNEISSER , REGIONAL PRESALES DIRECTOR , MENA AT RIVERBED

oday , most organisations have invested

Unfortunately , as an industry , we have become accustomed to blaming any performance issues on the network . End-users typically don ’ t understand the complexity of application delivery so when service performance doesn ’ t match up to expectations , their first instinct is to assume it is a bandwidth issue . However , today , there are far more factors at play . Consider applications , for example , which are far more complex now than they were even just a decade ago . Historically , apps followed a three-tier model , but today if you look at missioncritical applications such as eCommerce platforms or core banking applications , it ’ s common for these to have up to 20 tiers , along with scores of dependencies and interconnections . All this introduces an unprecedented level of complexity which in turn makes troubleshooting significantly more challenging when issues pertain at the application layer .

To combat the skills shortage , organisations need to ensure that their IT resources are able to optimise their efforts . This means urgently addressing the time that is traditionally spent in identifying and resolving performance issues . Studies show that the mean time to resolve performance degradation is typically between four hours to two days . When we analyse this resolution process , we see that is it subdivided into four key areas : time to know ; time to identify ; time to rectify ; and time to verify . Due to the wealth of information that is today conveniently available no more than a few clicks away , time to rectify is actually the least demanding of these steps . However , because of the lack of visibility that IT teams have into their networks and applications , the majority of their effort is spent in the three other areas of the resolution process .

If organisations are able to address this , they can free up precious time for their IT resources who can then focus on high-value tasks that drive business outcomes . Actionable insight comes from visibility across all domains – the network , applications and data . In addition to powerful Network Performance Management ( NPM ) solutions , organisations must also invest in Machine Learning in order to gain the ability to proactively resolve issues before endusers are impacted . Using tools in this manner also enables them to correctly baseline performance which allows any deviations to be more rapidly detected .

Ultimately , we must recognise that data centre admins have certain core skill sets and have been hired for a specific purpose . By equipping them with the right tools , organisations can empower them to play to their strengths , rather than expending hours of effort on troubleshooting and other activities that are outside of their core competencies . This will help not only address performance issues , but will enable the industry to optimise abilities and effectively overcome the skills shortage .

30 Issue 21 www . intelligentdatacentres . com