Glenn’s latest Forrester report, dated 30-Jun-2008:
is available on the Forrester web site. This report is for Forrester clients only. Its distribution is restricted by the terms of Forrester Research client agreements.
Hi everyone,
It’s been far too long since I posted something here. I’ve been busy starting the next chapter in my life. I am proud to announce that as of May 5, 2008, I am a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research!
DISCLAIMER: First, let me make one thing clear … despite my prior position with EMC, I do not have any insider information on what I am about to write below. I am merely observing and analyzing what is obvious to me or to anyone else who has enjoyed long-term, broad market exposure the way I have. Everything below is public knowledge and opinion.
One of the great rumors in the management software business for nearly a decade (maybe longer) is that EMC Corporation and BMC Software would join forces via a “merger.” In almost all cases, what people were actually referring to was an acquisition of BMC by EMC. I steadfastly posit that true mergers are rare and almost all attempts are failures (e.g., Daimler-Chrysler and Bay Networks, both huge disappointments). As the bigger fish, EMC would have taken over BMC, period.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the most fundamental mechanisms of distributed systems. It is so basic and so widespread that it has become nearly invisible. As a service so obscured from view, it may seem inconsequential. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is, in fact, one of the main underpinnings of everything we do so it can wreak havoc when it malfunctions.
We just take it for granted that our DNS is functioning flawlessly behind the scenes, but is it? Many performance and availability issues are misdiagnosed because of our blind faith in DNS. It is without doubt one of technology’s great innovations, but nothing in IT should be trusted so blindly. It turns out many DNS installations are misconfigured.
One aspect of IT management automation that has frustrated me for years is the relative lackluster progress we’ve made in the area of performance. With all the other wonderful innovations we’ve made, I’m confounded that performance remains largely in the dark ages. This need not be. This must not be. We are finally beginning to see welcome changes in both available software solutions and more importantly, attitudes toward performance. If we hope to attain true service management, this must be a priority.
Management tool integration has long been the bane of IT Operations organizations. Getting one tool to communicate with another has always been difficult because there are far too many incompatible data definitions that are used to integrate data from one tool to another. Each vendor has its own data model and various APIs to exchange data. Standards appeared in various forms from such bodies at the DMTF and OASIS as an attempt to address this issue. Despite their clarity and noble ambitions, adoption has proven lackluster.
As many of you now know, I have resigned my marketing position at EMC. I am still a big fan of EMC’s management technology, having played a major role in its evolution and the expansion of EMC’s ITSM market presence. My affinity for Smarts, a company EMC acquired in early 2005, is what compelled me to join EMC a bit later in 2005. Since then, we’ve grown the business significantly, acquiring nLayers and Voyence in the process. The future remains bright for EMC as a credible challenger to the “Big Four” (HP, IBM, CA, BMC) in the management market. Despite all of this wonderful progress, it was time for me to move on. I wish my delightful and brilliant EMC colleagues nothing but the best as they continue to build the future EMC powerhouse.
As many of you have heard by now, EMC acquired Voyence last week. Voyence is a leader in the network compliance, configuration and change management market. I’ve been a long-time fan of Voyence, so I’m delighted to have them in the EMC family now.
I promise this blog will not become a podium for EMC marketing, but occasionally EMC will do something worthy of commentary here. The Voyence acquisition is one of these events. Not only is it an important step for both EMC and Voyence, it is also a notable step in the relentless (and necessary) consolidation in our market.
Every decision we make in IT, indeed every decision we make in life, is based upon accurate information. There are no exceptions to this basic law of nature. Think about examples of decisions big and small, both in and out of the IT domain. None can be made with any confidence unless the right information exists.
This sums up the whole notion of configuration management. It is the process and the system of technologies that ensure the right information exists to make decisions, both automated and manual. For this reason, configuration management is the most important of all the ITIL processes. One can effectively argue that change management is equally important, as the two form the nucleus of every function we perform. If I had to choose one over the other, however, configuration gets the edge.
The FCAPS model has been a big part of network management for well over a decade. For those unfamiliar with FCAPS, the letters stand for Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security, the basic functions envisioned for network management that were then formalized by the ITU in 1997. I can recall FCAPS discussion long before 1997. It became a near-biblical reference in networking circles, as we all struggled to deal with the management of this new bit of complexity. All networking decisions came to include FCAPS in the process.
Times change, and so has the focus on such operational best practices. ITIL is now the model in vogue, so FCAPS has waned in importance. Both are viable perspectives of service management, but ITIL’s broader appeal and widespread development have propelled it over FCAPS.