For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

How Efficient Is Your Storage Environment?

The KPIs That Matter Most In Enterprise Storage and How To Measure Them

by Andrew Reichman, October 22, 2009

Building an effective storage environment is a balancing act between performance, reliability, and efficiency. For years, improving storage efficiency took a back seat to the other goals. Now, with infrastructure budgets being cut and data growth continuing . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

A Sample IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard  (41 KB XLS)

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

The Balanced Scorecard is built around four dimensions that have been adjusted for use in information technology: the value perspective, the user orientation perspective, the operational excellence perspective, and the future orientation perspective. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Building The IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard

The Eight Essential Metrics That Infrastructure And Operations Should Be Measuring

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

"You can't manage what you can't measure" is the stated adage, but when it comes to infrastructure and operations (I&O), what to measure is the first challenge. Many firms don't know which metrics to use, or how to collect the information they need . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The State Of PC Power Management: 2009

Helping IT Pros Succeed At PC Power Management By Getting Up To Speed On Adoption, Methods, And Common Barriers

by Doug Washburn, July 28, 2009

As organizations look to reduce the financial costs and environmental impacts of operating IT, PC power management is proving to be an effective tactic. Although 43% are implementing PC power management and another 48% are considering it, current PC power . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Case Study: Aspirus Lowers IT Costs By Consolidating Client Security And Management

Single-Sourcing Client Security And Management Eases Desktop Management

by Natalie Lambert, July 16, 2009

Companies are constantly challenged by the ever-increasing number of tools needed to ensure the security of their PCs. Aspirus, a Wisconsin-based healthcare provider, found that too many best-of-breed tools were being used to secure and manage its PC . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Keep An Eye On All IT Costs

Do You Know Your IT Cost Of Goods Sold?

by Simon Yates, June 17, 2009

Understanding your IT cost of goods sold can lead to a more agile and competitive organization. Cost of goods sold (COGS) includes the variable and fixed costs — for example, materials and labor — directly linked to the product or service. The key to . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Decoding Mainframe Pricing Mechanics And Metrics

by Brad Day, June 10, 2009

Unraveling the complex pricing metrics and mechanics of IBM System z hardware and software requires tapping your most investigative infrastructure, operations, and procurement specialists. The first order of business is to understand the performance metrics . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Case Study: Graybar Electric Builds Virtualization Into The DNA Of Its Infrastructure

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, May 14, 2009

Five years ago, the supply chain management services giant Graybar Electric began to dabble in virtualization technologies. Today, it has a large and successful virtual server and storage environment and has not added a watt to its data center in two . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Data Center Facilities, Q2 2009

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, May 8, 2009

In 2008, Forrester fielded 231 inquiries on data centers from IT end user professionals, with 137 on data center facilities specifically. Since when does IT care about data center facilities? Since more and more organizations are running out of capacity . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

No Capex, No Problem: Eight "Guerrilla" Tactics To Reduce Facilities Costs Without Capital Investment

by Doug Washburn, May 8, 2009

Reducing facilities costs — such as energy, paper, and real estate — is a top priority in 2009 for IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals as organizations look to cut expenses. As investment plans shift to supporting these broader cost . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Best Practices: Aligning Your Infrastructure And Operations Department Around Virtualization

by Galen Schreck, Rachel A. Dines, March 20, 2009

Getting the most out of virtualization requires firms to overcome cultural divides that exist within even the most functional of IT departments. Persuading the business to make the upfront investment in virtualization is no small task, but even companies . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Hollow Out The MOOSE: Reducing Cost With Strategic Rightsourcing

Operationalizing BTaaS And Determining What Infrastructure Services Not To Do Yourself

by James Staten, March 19, 2009

Leading IT shops are leveraging today's recessionary climate to transform their organizations and the portfolio of services they manage and maintain. A new business-technology-as-a-service model, put forth by Forrester in July 2008, established a strategic . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

BI Belt Tightening In A Tough Economic Climate

Practical Advice Applicable To Any Economic Condition

by Boris Evelson, February 20, 2009

As an economic downturn becomes a sobering reality, enterprises look for various ways to increase revenues and reduce costs. While overall IT budgets become targets for cost cutting, business intelligence (BI) applications and infrastructure need not . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Green Data Center Starts With A Rationalized Application Portfolio: A Sprint Case Study

How One IT Ops Group Generated Eco(nomic) Value By Removing Underutilized Apps And The Infrastructure Tied To Them

by Doug Washburn, February 12, 2009

Sprint's end goal was to cut costs, increase capacity, and reduce the carbon footprint of IT infrastructure in the data center — but that's not where they started. Recognizing that the data center and its server, storage, and network assets exist to support . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Green IT, Q1 2009

by Doug Washburn, Onica King, February 10, 2009

Green IT awareness and action are on the rise. In 2008, Forrester received 130 inquiries from IT end user professionals on green IT, the majority of which focused on benchmark data — such as quantifiable benefits and meaningful metrics — and identifying . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Adapt To Changing IT Requirements

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., February 3, 2009

Forrester has argued that a fundamental shift from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT) is occurring. As part of this shift, the metrics upon which IT executives are evaluated will change, and tech vendors need to be prepared for this.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More?

A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency

by Galen Schreck, January 28, 2009

Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few years, but there are big differences in their use of the technology. Most companies are able to reduce server hardware spending, but many don't realize an ongoing reduction in management . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

IT Operations Financial Management Helps The Business Control Its Service Consumption

Case Study: Service Management Financials At Nationwide Mutual Insurance

by Peter O'Neill, January 21, 2009

A new and urgent imperative is emerging in IT operations. As business users' expectations of IT continue to rise, many IT operations groups lack the business maturity to effectively demonstrate the business value of IT investments. Business users are . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

What's After BSM? Understanding The Financials

Enterprises That Reach BSM Maturity Extend Their Projects To Financial Management

by Peter O'Neill, January 6, 2009

Enterprises with mature business service management (BSM) systems are able to measure and report quality of service at the business level; they can also assign sensible, business-centric prioritization to service performance events and other incidents. . . .

For CIOs

US IT Spending Benchmarks For 2008

More Options For CIOs To Find The Best IT Budget Benchmark

by Andrew Bartels, Craig Symons, December 23, 2008

Forrester's annual report on US IT spending benchmarks has been one of our most popular and eagerly awaited documents each year. We first offer CIO-based data and analysis on the whys and hows of IT benchmarking and the impact of cash-outlay-based IT . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

How Much Money Are Your Idle PCs Wasting?

PC Power Management Best Practices And Software Can Save Millions

by Doug Washburn, December 5, 2008

Enterprise PCs are wasting money. Far too many organizations leave economic and environmental value on the table by not reducing PC-related energy costs. Unfortunately, common misconceptions — like alleged power surges when turning on PCs or the presumed . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Role Overview: Capacity Manager

A Balancing Act Of Today's And Tomorrow's Needs

by Evelyn Hubbert, December 1, 2008

Capacity management is a process aimed at controlling the IT infrastructure in such a way that resource shortages are anticipated and corrected before they occur, thus maintaining service-level agreements (SLAs) contracted with the business users. For . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

IT To BT — An Opportunity For Vendors

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 13, 2008

Forrester has argued that a fundamental shift from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT) is occurring. Vendor strategists need to realign their value proposition to take into account the different needs IT executives will develop when . . .

For CIOs

In A Down Economy, Can Green IT Save Your Business Money?

by Alex Cullen, October 24, 2008

The top motivation for pursuing green IT is to reduce costs — and in a down economy, every dollar helps. But CIOs should be warned: Without upfront measurement, you cannot credibly quantify these benefits. To plan for success, CIOs should calculate their . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Calculating Your Relative Cost Of Operations  (102 KB XLS)

by Andrew Reichman, James Staten, October 7, 2008

This document provides a simple methodology for calculating the cost impacts of a new technology investment, process change, or project. Rather than conduct a full TCO analysis that can be prohibitively cumbersome, or short cut your analysis with a basic . . .