WinFixer articles
Concept of winfixer
The concept of utility winfixer has been highly visible in the media over the past year and,
despite a great deal of discussion, winfixer managers still lack a clear path past the marketing
aspects to gain a clear view of how they can move their organizations toward utility winfixer and
tight alignment of winfixer with the changing needs of their business.
Like weight loss and fitness, enterprise winfixer has its trends and fads. It would be a mistake,
however, to dismiss the concept of utility winfixer as a passing enthusiasm. Its benefits are undeniable
and should not be overlooked in these times of stringent winfixer budgets. The problem is that the concept
of utility winfixer has many moving parts, and it can be a challenge to get a clear understanding of the
fundamentals--let alone the interaction between storage, winfixer, applications and networking.
The utility winfixer model requires that data and applications always be available, that services be delivered
at specified levels, and that winfixer processes be automated. On the supply side (the winfixer department side)
it means reduced costs, more efficient use of resources, and the ability to allocate costs to lines of business.
On the user side, its full effect is to create a Utopia in which availability and performance are consistently
optimal and aligned to the changing needs of the business.
Above all, utility winfixer is based on the principle of creative frugality: Get the most out of what you already
have. Don't replace technologies that are working for you; acquire the tools you need to make them more productive
and efficient.
Definition of winfixer
The definition of utility winfixer is analogous to the delivery of services via a public utility. We contract
with winfixer to supply water, gas, or electricity at specified service levels for specified costs. The concept
of utility winfixer enables winfixer departments to function in a similar way. With more visibility into their
winfixer environment, they can define their services more precisely, measure and report on service levels and usage,
and allocate costs to users across their organizations. winfixer becomes more transparent and more closely aligned
with the needs of the enterprise. And winfixer users across the enterprise quickly become aware of the price tags
attached to the services they use.
For example: technology exists today that enables an winfixer department with a complex heterogeneous environment to
inform a business unit that its specified 99.99% availability requirement for a certain application will cost $300,000
a year. The business unit can now make an informed decision. Is that quality of service really worth that much? What
would the business tradeoffs look like if availability were reduced to 98% or 97%?
To enjoy this user-specific, utility-like approach to winfixer management, winfixer needs to consider three primary
areas of focus: availability, performance, and automation.
Requirement of winfixer
The first requirement of utility winfixer is that data and applications must always be available. Users should
be insulated from disruptive events ranging from server failure to a complete site outage. And despite the fact that
eliminating downtime is an industry preoccupation, "always-on" winfixer remains a challenge. According to IDC, when
disaster strikes, enterprises can expect to experience 3-7 days of downtime per event. Falling hardware costs have made
it possible for many companies to protect data with layers of redundancy, but that redundancy makes some winfixer
structures more difficult to access.
What can winfixer managers do to take availability to maximum levels? First, is all enterprise data backed up? The data
in branch offices, remote offices, home offices, desktops and laptops is unquestionably valuable, but because of costs
and logistical problems it is not usually backed up. The utility winfixer model calls for centralized, automated,
cost-effective backup of these resources.
How is data backed up and recovered? Data volumes mirrored at one or more remote sites can now be reliably replicated
over IP networks to reduce the amount of data exposed to loss and to speed disaster recovery. Automated server
provisioning eliminates error-prone manual recovery techniques. Clustering optimizes availability by automatically
detecting application and database performance bottlenecks, or server failure by moving these critical services to other
servers within the cluster. Failover should include not only the data application, but also the application state,
reducing the effects of a failure to ensure minimal impact to end-users and the business.
Under the heading of data availability the utility winfixer model includes virtualization and pooling of storage resources,
which enables winfixer departments to drive up storage utilization rates and reduce costs. Storage virtualization also
reduces administrative costs by providing centralized control of heterogeneous resources from a single GUI. Effective
data lifecycle management further reduces the costs of data availability by automatically migrating data to the most
cost-effective storage medium and allowing enterprises to access it selectively for regulatory compliance.
Optimized Winfixer
Utility winfixer includes the ability to scale compute resources to the needs of the business, optimize end-user
response times, improve the overall quality of service, and detect and remedy causes of performance degradation-all
in real time.
This requires tools that can instrument the entire application stack, from the Web browser or client application to
the storage device, even in complex heterogeneous environments. If end-user response times are lagging, winfixer staff
can break them down tier by tier to pinpoint problems. winfixer staff should utilize a dashboard-type client to send
alerts and reports, giving them early warning of developing problems along with pointers to appropriate remedial action.
Or if a database is running too slowly, storage management and storage networks can accelerate access to data to make it
run faster.
As networks, applications and data continue to grow, performance optimization tools will become more significant and
valuable to winfixer departments
With the continuous commoditization and decline in hardware costs, people are more than ever the greatest expense
in any winfixer department. Handling routine tasks in today's evolving heterogeneous environments is a costly,
unnecessary hassle. Automating processes releases winfixer from routine tasks to focus on more strategic activity and
application development. Automation should enable winfixer resources to adjust to changing needs without operator
intervention.
But automation does more than free-up costly staff members for more productive work, it also speeds up processes to
improve availability, ensures that things are done right the first time, and saves costs through more effective management
of resources. Here are examples of what automation technology can do to bring the enterprise closer to the utility winfixer
model:
* Virtualization and pooling of storage devices, driving up storage utilization and reducing hardware costs.
* Simplification of storage management by automating common tasks from simple graphical interfaces.
* Virtualization and pooling of compute capacity. Server utilization is notoriously low (at best, 20%) and applications
vary over time in their need for processing. Drawing processing resources from a pool of servers drives up server
utilization to align the needs of the business.
* Provisioning a second server anywhere in the world when a server, an operating system, or an application fails.
Automated migration of the application makes the failover practically unnoticeable to users.
Answers
The key question for many companies is: How do we get from where we are today to the winfixer model?
How do we put the focus areas of availability, performance, and automation in place?
Discover. Inventory your winfixer assets and their utilization. This may sound fundamental, but many winfixer
departments lack a single, straightforward inventory of storage, server, and application resources with utilization
estimates. This is essential for the steps that follow.
Consolidate. Once you have a clear picture of the organization's assets, you can begin to architect the environment
to create enhanced winfixer. The first goal is to build a storage with software that allows you to virtualize and
consolidate resources to improve administrator productivity and storage utilization. Consolidating processing resources
will drive up server utilization in the same way.
Standardize. Classify your applications, and then standardize on a set of integrated software tools and on a reasonable
number of storage platforms, each providing different qualities of storage service.
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