IT Scorecard: Maintaining a Highly Tuned IT Environment

April, 2003

Maintaining and continually tuning system performance to deliver the highest throughput possible can be a difficult challenge for IT technicians. This is especially true in organizations that have a diverse set of hardware and software platforms connected by intricate and far-flung networks.

Attracting and retaining talented system engineers that can work effectively across a variety of complex platforms is a key element in maintaining a highly tuned environment. Additionally, deploying the right tools to monitor and analyze the infrastructure is an important factor in proactively managing performance issues. Another important factor is developing an effective process to ensure that consistent results are maintained at all times.

To build an effective system performance management discipline, all three factors (people, technology, and process) must be developed from an integrated approach. IT organizations that understand this concept and have implemented a holistic approach to system performance management are capable of providing very effective system throughput and response time. Unfortunately, many IT organizations have not found the required balance between these three elements when it comes to system performance management.

Computer Economics recently asked IT management in midsize to large organizations to rate the effectiveness of their overall system performance management strategy. Survey results indicate that most organizations are doing an adequate job in this area, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. Only 12% of the managers rated their organizations as very effective, while 53% rated their efforts as adequate. On the down side, a very high percentage (35%) of IT managers rated their system performance management strategy as not effective at all. The results of the survey are shown in Figure 1.

How effective is your overall
System Performance Management strategy?

praprilscorecard03 - IT Scorecard: Maintaining a Highly Tuned IT Environment

Figure 1.

 

April 2003