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

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

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 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

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

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

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 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 . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

What Does IT Do For The Business?

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing IT

by Robert Whiteley, September 29, 2008

Providing understandable and relevant metrics to business leaders is an integral part of the transformation from traditional IT to service-oriented business technology. However, many IT metrics lack clear relevance to business outcomes and are difficult . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

TCO Is Overrated

Use Relative Cost Of Operations For Most Infrastructure Investment Justifications

by Andrew Reichman, James Staten, August 26, 2008

Total cost of operations (TCO)-based financial analysis is held up as the gold standard for technology investment justification, but most firms don't have the rigor to apply the discipline to their environment. To really implement TCO-based analysis it . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Enabling Business Technology

Five Essential Best Practices For The IT-To-BT Transformation

by Robert Whiteley, August 15, 2008

As technology becomes increasingly integral to firms' offerings, strategy, and organization, the traditional model of IT as an independent and monolithic entity within the larger business is outmoded. Business technology (BT) will replace IT's technology . . .

For CIOs

Five Essential Best Practices For The IT-To-BT Transformation

CIOs Must Prepare IT For Its Future Role As BT Enabler

by Alexander Peters, Ph.D., May 13, 2008

Each wave of technology change challenges IT's management practices. Two forces coming together will frame IT's next set of challenges: ubiquitous computing and business technology (BT). Each will affect the CIO's organization differently, but the end . . .

For CIOs

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing IT

by Craig Symons, April 4, 2008

CIOs frequently ask what IT should measure and report to business executives. The key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. The five metrics that meet the criteria . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Best Metrics For Java Server Performance

by Brad Day, January 24, 2008

While there are many Java server-side performance tools and benchmark tests, only two standards are comprehensive enough to measure all aspects of Java application workload and accurately represent the real workload environment they simulate. The first, . . .

For CIOs

US IT Spending Benchmarks For 2007

Tracking Down IT MOOSE Metrics And Putting Them In The Right Context

by Andrew Bartels, November 13, 2007

Every year, CIOs and their finance people get prepared for this question from their CEOs: "How does our IT spending compare with our competitors?" To help them respond, Forrester annually provides IT spending benchmarks, including our recommended IT spending . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Measuring The Cost Of IT Consolidation

Identifying The Elements That Contribute To Economic Analysis

by Andrew Reichman, November 12, 2007

Consolidation can help to optimize cost structure for IT organizations with limited resources. Technology enablers like virtualization and remote computing eliminate requirements for dedicated physical assets for each application and for physical proximity . . .

For CIOs

IT MOOSE Management — 20 Best Practices

How CIOs Should Measure IT Maintenance And Ongoing Operations

by Andrew Bartels, Phil Murphy, September 20, 2007

How does a CIO judge whether he or she is using IT resources in the most effective and efficient manner? If the CIO is successful, how does he or she demonstrate this to the CEO and senior management? While IT spending benchmarks are commonly referenced, . . .

For CIOs

How To Effectively Assess Internal Clients' Satisfaction With IT

by Brad Bortner, September 13, 2007

IT executives have asked Forrester how best to assess their internal clients' satisfaction with the wide variety of services they provide. An internal customer satisfaction tracking study provides the best insight. However, CIOs must be careful in how . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Contact Center Metrics Redefined

Traditional Metrics May Fall Short In Delivering Needed Information

by Elizabeth Herrell, September 2, 2007

Contact center operations professionals often rely on traditional metrics — such as average speed of answer and call handling times — to determine the effectiveness of their operations. While this information evaluates how well agents are performing, . . .