Improving Incident Response: Building a More Efficient IT Infrastructure
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The document discusses a study by Forrester Research that evaluated the state of IT infrastructure in organizations, focusing on incident response and application performance. It identifies key business objectives such as improving workforce productivity and managing costs, while highlighting challenges such as network and security issues that affect productivity. Recommendations emphasize the need for end-to-end visibility and effective monitoring tools to improve incident management and operational efficiency.
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Improving Incident Response: Building a More Efficient IT Infrastructure
- 1. Improving Incident Response: Building a More Efficient IT Infrastructure Mike Heumann, Senior Director of Marketing Endace division of Emulex Jean-Pierre Garbani, Vice President Principal Analyst Forrester Research
- 3. Improving Incident Response Jean-Pierre Garbani, VP and Principal Analyst February 2014
- 4. Agenda › Study foundation and methodology › Business objectives: cost and service quality › Obstacles to an efficient IT › A better solution › Recommendations © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 4
- 5. Foundation › Forrester conducted an online survey of 158 IT organizations with more than 1,000 employees in North America › The objective was to evaluate the current state of application availability and performance, the consequences of availability and performance issues, and the desires for an ideal service management automation solution. › Survey participants included IT decision-makers across all major industries with the responsibility for network systems and/or application delivery. › Survey respondents were all significantly responsible for developing IT architecture, had self-managed data centers, and at least 50% of their x86-class servers are currently virtualized. The study began in August 2013 and was completed in November 2013. © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 5
- 6. Demographics (1) “Which of the following best describes the industry to which your company belongs?” “Using your best estimate, how many employees work for your firm/organization worldwide?” Manufacturing and materials 19% Education and nonprofits 16% Financial services and insurance 14% Healthcare 9% Other (please specify) 20,000 or more employees 5,000 to 19,999 employees 37% 16% 8% Government 6% Business or consumer services 6% Electronics 1,000 to 4,999 employees 6% Retail 47% 5% Energy, utilities, and waste management 4% Telecommunications services 2% Construction 2% Transportation and logistics 2% Travel and hospitality 1% Consumer product manufacturing 1% Agriculture, food, and beverage 1% © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 6
- 7. Demographics (2) “Which title best describes your position at your organization?” Manager (manage a team of functional practitioners) 30% Director (manage a team of managers and high-level contributors) 25% C-level executive (e.g., CEO, CMO) 21% Project manager (manage ad hoc project teams) Vice president (in charge of one/several large departments) Full-time practitioner (work within a team or as an individual contributor) 12% 8% 4% “Which of the following describes your current role in IT?” IT infrastructure professional (e.g., server, storage, network, data center infrastructure) IT operations professional (e.g., server, storage, network, data center operations) 87% IT security professional 82% Information and knowledge management professional Cloud infrastructure/operations/ architect Solution/application architecture Application development and delivery Software testing and QA © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 90% 72% 67% 62% 59% 54% 7
- 8. Key Findings › Improving workforce productivity and managing costs are key business objectives. IT plays an important role in business workforce productivity and is expected to provide a quality of service in line with business demands while constantly reducing the budget. › Network and security issues are two of the main factors affecting end user productivity. Because it is difficult to receive meaningful alerts and precise information on the localization of performance issues, time is wasted in IT, resources are consumed, and the business bottom line is affected. › Network visibility is a foundational tool to enable remediation. Providing visibility into network traffic lets IT operations pinpoint the location of components at fault in delivering business services. This is seen as an ideal solution to foster better and more effective cooperation between IT operations teams. © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 8
- 9. Key Business Priorities 33% Improve workforce productivity 31% Improve quality of products and/or processes Improve business flexibility and resilience — faster time… 28% Lower the company’s overall operating costs 26% Grow overall company revenue 24% Improve customer satisfaction 24% 17% Comply with government regulations and requirements Streamline business operations and consolidate business … 15% 14% Acquire and retain customers Improve corporate environmental sustainability and social … 13% Grow in emerging markets 13% Improve the company’s ability to innovate 13% 11% Hire, develop, and retain the best employees Acquire and retain talent 9% Drive new market offerings or business practices 9% 8% Re-engineer core business processes 7% Improve/simplify our supply chain Address rising competition for our products and services 4% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 9
- 10. More Efficient Network Technologies Means Productivity Improvements “In regards to the value that IT infrastructure brings to the business, rate the network’s impact on the following business values.” No impact - 1 2 3 4 Significant Impact - 5 Don't know 3% 4% Streamline business operations and consolidate business units 22% 39% 32% 35% 32% 45% 32% 1% 3% Grow overall company revenue 6% 23% 1%3% Lower the firm’s overall operating costs Improve workforce productivity 18% 1% 3% 20% 46% 30% 42% 29% 1% 4% Improve quality of products and/or processes 24% Acquire and retain talent 4% 7% Improve your customer relationships 4% 6% Acquire and retain customers Comply with government regulations and requirements 25% 21% 8% 9% 19% 5% 7% 25% 37% 27% 42% 27% 1% 37% 27% 34% 27% 2% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 10
- 11. Networks Drive Business Expectations “In regards to the value that IT infrastructure brings to the business, rate the network’s impact on the following business values.” (cont.) No impact - 1 2 3 4 Significant Impact - 5 Don't know 4% Drive new market offerings or business practices 6% 22% 40% 27% 3% Improve our ability to innovate as an organization Improve business flexibility and resilience — faster time to market, quicker response to changing business conditions 24% 41% 26% 27% 6% 41% 25% 35% 24% 3% 3% 4% Improve corporate environmental sustainability and social responsibility Move from costs from capital to operating expense categories 8% 3% 5% Expand into new geographic markets 8% 9% 2% 11% Re-engineer core business processes Acquire other companies or divest parts of existing 9% 8% business operations/units 28% 30% 39% 23% 1% 20% 39% 23% 1% 30% 27% 35% 37% 22% 17% 3% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 11
- 12. Hardware And Software Sprawl Increases Complexity Operating System Size In Million Source Lines of Code (SLOC) Cost of Hardware Components As a % of 1991 costs 140 500 450 120 400 100 350 300 80 Windows XP 60 MAC OS X V10.4 200 Windows 2003 40 NT 3.5 20 250 NT 3.1 100 NT 4.0 Windows 2000 19 91 19 92 19 93 19 94 19 95 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 0 Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 150 50 0
- 13. Complexity Exceeds Human Capabilities Source: Forrester Research, Inc. December 2012 “Turn Big Data Inward With IT Analytics”
- 14. Complexity Is A Challenge How challenging is How challenging is your ITinfrastructure It infrastructure complexity ? complexity? A major challenge A challenge A minor challenge Not a challenge 0% © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 14
- 15. Network Impact On Business Initiatives “When thinking specifically about the network and supporting your data center initiatives, which, if any, of the following aspects do you believe will impact your current applications or IT initiatives?" Network security (firewalls, intrusion detection, encryption transport mechanisms, etc.) 58% Network performance (large backplane, high speed links, wire speed, etc.) 53% Network reliability (nonstop forwarding, seamless fail over, redundant links, etc.) 51% Network hardware costs 50% Network virtualization functions (virtual switches, virtual routers, virtual load balancers, etc.) 49% Network management 45% Network convergence (storage, video, voice, other services onto Ethernet) 42% Network operational costs 41% Network scalability 36% Network visibility and forensics 35% Network programmability 31% We don’t believe the network impacts applications or services Don't know 13% 1% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 15
- 16. Business Impact Of Performance Issues “What are the primary impacts of brownouts (poor performance, such as response time, of an application) of your most critical application?” 1 2 3 Loss of business user productivity 34% Important loss of business revenue Client dissatisfaction with the company 28% 8% Loss of time and productivity in the IT department Loss of confidence in the outcome of the business process supported by that application 20% 16% 14% 7% 14% 20% 11% 21% 13% 17% 27% 9% Loss of clients and business due to poor image 3% 8% 3% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 16
- 17. Preventative Actions “For each of the following networking activities please indicate what your organization is currently doing.” Not interested Interested but no plans Planning to implement We have done this, or are currently doing this Expanding/ upgrading implementation Don't know 3% Increase security hardware capabilities 8% 15% 40% 34% 2% Deploy security monitoring tools 10% 15% 44% 28% 1% 2% Deploy monitoring tools 8% 16% 47% 27% 1% 42% 27% 1% 39% 27% 1% 4% Deploy or upgrade management, visibility, and automation tools including management and orchestration tools 9% 17% 3% Streamline and centralize policy management that covers aspects including network, users, application and location 14% 16% 3% Deploy monitoring tools like monitoring aggregation switches 14% 20% 38% 25% 1% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 17
- 18. But Still Not Very Effective “What percentage of your availability and performance problems are you able to satisfactorily diagnose and resolve within 24 hours?" More than 75% 43% Between 51% and 75% 42% Between 26% and 50% 11% Less than 25% Don’t know 3% 1% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 18
- 19. The First Step Is To Improve The Process “In terms of your organization’s availability and performance management, which of the following areas would you say are most in need of improvement?" Improve our incident and problem management process 59% Implement better tools to manage availability and performance of our critical business services 54% Receive meaningful performance and problem alerts before the end users are affected 53% Integrate our tool set to receive better information 49% Implement an end to end performance management solution 48% Improve the cooperation between teams when working on performance or availability issues Don't know 36% 2% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 19
- 20. Where Do We Waste Time (Money) MTTR MTTI MTTK MTTF MTTV Mean time to identify Mean time to know Mean time to fix Mean time to verify © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 20
- 21. The Network Is The Common Denominator Who is using the network? SAP Identity Manager Is authentication server slow? Are business apps slow? What’s the mainframe response? PSFT Siebel Network Load Balancer Firewall Router Switch End User Are transactions failing? Are the web servers OK? Portal Mainframe Database Web Servers Applications Is the Java EE Server slow? And why? What is the data base response? Web Services Databases 3rd Party Applications What is the cloud performance?
- 22. Network Visibility Is Key “Why does your organization require network visibility?" To improve operations and response 56% To identify when a data breach is occurring 55% To monitor application performance 54% To improve our reporting capabilities To analyze traffic patterns and user behavior (e.g., flow data analysis) 51% 48% To meet compliance requirements 46% To improve forensics investigations (e.g., packet capture and analysis, network metadata analysis) 46% To find and track assets (e.g., network discovery) 45% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 22
- 23. The Right Solution “What are the key features of an ideal monitoring/management solution?” 1 2 3 16% Monitoring the whole infrastructure for availability and performance 17% 14% 11% Monitoring the network from an application standpoint 13% Mapping applications to infrastructure components Providing root cause analysis tools 18% 15% 13% 8% 13% Discovering application to infrastructure dependencies 13% Monitoring application servers (such as Java EE and .NET) 13% Integrating business metrics and IT Operational metrics in a single dashboard? 4% 4% Providing deep dive analysis of infrastructure and application components 4% 2% 15% 15% 8% Integrating all monitoring data on a customizable dashboard to foster cooperation 9% 9% 13% 7% 13% 3% 11% 8% Base: 158 US IT professionals who are significantly involved in data center and network infrastructure Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Emulex, November, 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 23
- 24. The Role Of Forensic Capabilities Is Improving Incident Response Through Forensic Capabilities A Priority? Critical Priority High Priority Low Priority Not on our Agenda Don't Know 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Base: 2134 North American and European decision makers Source: Forrester Forrsights Security Survey, Q2 2013 © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 24
- 25. Recommendations › End-to-end visibility into infrastructure and operations is the key to incident management. • Time to Know (MTTK) is where time is wasted; and knowledge starts with the collection of relevant data. • the network is the common denominator that provides an end-to-end view of traffic flow. The ability to collect accurate, time-stamped, and detailed data from the network provides the basis for incident investigation. › Collection and capture of network traffic details is critical. • The major obstacle to accurate data collection is the speed at which information transits on the network. • Collecting detailed and time-aligned data requires a tool that is itself highly performing • The right tool for complex performance or security problem analysis needs to be always on, with the ability to go back in time to the incident origin. › We need the ability to feed the collected data into forensic analysis tools. • An important feature of the end-to-end data collection tool must be the ability to feed data into deep analysis solutions to provide relevant information. © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 25
- 27. Additional information: Contact: [email protected] To download the Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper please click on the link below: http://www.emulex.com/artifacts/335f579a-34cd-4ae1-80c796a55e1c6af2/forrester_ar_improving_incident_response.pdf © 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 27