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iAM:QoS
IT Managers have to deliver Business
Services to the customers (for example a web site, e-commerce, e-mail).
Each service has to be available and perform within a defined set of
criteria - often a Service Level Agreement (SLA).
iAM:QoS
monitors the response times of these Business Services, sending alerts
when performance is poor or non-existent, and giving key metrics to ensure
SLA compliance.Why is this
necessary?
Without timely alerts or key measurables
you cannot be sure that you are delivering the level of service required
by your business. Monitoring individual IT components does not give the
complete picture, and in any case the failure of a particular component
may or may not affect a particular Service's performance.
Only by seeing what the users are experiencing can you be sure you
understand how the Services are performing.
How does iAM:QoS do
this?
You cannot achieve this by looking at individual IT elements - servers,
applications, switches and routers etc. Service Levels can only be
measured by seeing what the users see - the time it takes to get a
response from the Service. iAM:QoS does exactly this, by timing the
responses to individual transactions made by users. It does not simulate
transactions but instead, measures non-intrusively, how long each actual
request takes to be completed.
An iAM:QoS detector is plugged into a key point on the company's network
and monitors the traffic passing it, including requests to the Business
Service. By timing the request and the
corresponding response iAM:QoS can tell if response times are within user
defined thresholds. Alerts are sent if thresholds are exceeded, and the
data is also stored for reporting and graphing later.
In addition all network traffic passing the
detector is stored by type (e.g. http:, ftp:, print etc) so that detailed
analysis of the network bandwidth can be carried out if necessary (see
iAM:Networks Traffic Analyser for further details).
What alerting
mechanisms does iAM:QoS use?
You can be alerted in one or more of many different ways at your choice.
Alerting methods include:
- System event messages
- e-mail
- Paging/SMS messages
- Help desk trouble tickets
- Interfaces to Enterprise management
systems (e.g. IBM/Tivoli, HP OpenView)
What Reporting and
Graphing is possible?
iAM:QoS stores data in a central repository.
Using web-based reporting/graphing you can analyse response times, total
network usage or network traffic by type. A drill down feature allows you
to analyse the causes of traffic bottlenecks.
How does iAM:QoS
benefit my business?
In today's IT centric business world,
failure to deliver service can cause financial loss. Losing an e-commerce
site for just 1 hour can have catastrophic effects on business turnover
and confidence. There have been many well-documented examples of this in
the e-business revolution.
By measuring actual user response times
you can easily tell when there are problems and also measure SLA
compliance. By timing responses you will be able to ensure greater
availability and performance of your key business services, and thus
deliver quality service to your business.
What type of
organisations use iAM:QoS?
Any organisation, large or small, where
delivering quality Business Services is important can benefit from iAM:QoS. |
