The Gartner Symposium ITXPO was a hotbed of information and debate on the topic of network performance management, and a venue for the exchange of ideas from people throughout the IT industry. We expect this debate to continue at the Gartner Enterprise Networking Summit in Las Vegas November 14-16 and we will report on those details from the event. Don’t miss it.
In the mean time, here are some highlights from ITXPO:
Linking Application Management and Portfolio Management
While the application management and portfolio management processes are often viewed as entirely separate practices, it’s important to realize that there is common ground. Many feel that if the connection between the two is exploited it can lead to greater communication and a higher level of efficiency. Others, of course, disagree. Gartner hopes to explore the issue further:
“There’s an overlap between application management and portfolio management. Application managers need to modernize their company’s application environment, and portfolio managers try to optimize IT investments. Both are charged with taking an inventory of the company’s applications, spotting overlaps and gaps, and recommending what to eliminate or what to invest in. How do you reconcile these two functions? Do you keep them separate, put them together or do something else? This is a new challenge, and Comport said Gartner would develop research around the topic in the near future.”
Policy Returns to the Forefront of Network Management
It’s becoming essential for network management to align itself with business and application management. This simply hasn’t been the case for the past several years, but as enterprises continue to grow and change, network management can no longer exist on an island:
“Speaking at today’s Symposium session, “Communications and Computing: Everything Converges,” Pultz said that some folks in networking might recall that Gartner published research about policy-based management when it emerged on the scene in 1999. Policy-based management is a systematic approach to address different (and, sometimes conflicting) business needs and priorities. It’s a framework to help networking organizations allocate resources to the infrastructure, and is key to improving agility, Pultz explained.
“So what happened to policy-based management in networking? ‘It didn’t see light of day because bandwidth became cheap,’ said Pultz.
“What’s different about policy-based networking this time? According to Pultz, first, the focus is on newer application models and delivery mechanisms. And second, there is less of a focus on bandwidth management. ‘Policy-driven infrastructure is fundamental to the real-time enterprise, so its time is now,’ said Pultz.”
Risk Management not the Sole Responsibility of IT
Whenever a security breach occurs it’s almost instantly thrown at the feet of the IT folks. Of course, those IT folks know that they could do their jobs as effectively as possible, and security problems will still exist. They also know that breaches often occur due to the actions of someone outside of the IT department. Well, it seems that others are finally starting to realize this:
“I spoke with two risk managers at global financial services firms. They told me that 2006 is the first year the business-unit owners have operational risk management objectives in their compensation and bonus plans. This is huge! It demonstrates the growing trend for accountability outside IT for doing security and risk effectively.
“To be clear, these executives were always tasked with the financial side of risk management, including credit and market risk, but now they have to take proactive steps to ensure their systems are secured appropriately as well…Hang tight, risk professionals. Relief is on the way in the form of a business that cares.”
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