Addressing the Issue of Infrastructure Sprawl

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ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF INFRASTRUCTURE SPRAWL

June 2009

WHITE PAPER

CONTENTSExecutive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 1

Infrastructure Sprawl - The Ongoing Problem ........................................................................................................ 2

Responding to Industry Upheaval .......................................................................................................................... 3

Tackle the Problem Head-on - But do It in an Orderly Fashion ................................................................................ 4

Be Realistic about the Problem You are Solving ................................................................................................. 4

Leverage the Power and Value of Frameworks and Methodologies .................................................................... 5

Build a Trusted Data Source - A Critical First Step in Addressing Infrastructure Sprawl ....................................... 5

Overcome the Limitations of Current Infrastructure Management Methods and Tools ...................................... 7

Maximize the Value of your Shrinking IT Budget ............................................................................................... 7

Example Architecture Model .................................................................................................................................. 8

Summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 10

About robertkeahey.com ......................................................................................................................................11

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Imagine a scenario where you, the IT director for a major corporation, are called to a board of directors meeting topresent how you ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. A recent inquiry by the Public Company AccountingOversight Board has shown that your company's accounting and auditing procedures may not be sufficient tocreate a complete and accurate inventory of corporate assets. Now it's your turn to show that you have control ofthe IT environment. Are you prepared?

In many cases the answer is "yes". Unfortunately, in far too many situations the answer is "no" or "I'm not sure" -not good responses when you are standing in the board room.

Ensuring that you can give a positive response to the question of asset and inventory accuracy requires that youhave a clear view and direct line of sight to all the elements that make up your IT service delivery capability. In theera of the "glass house" and mainframes this was fairly easy. But in today's mixed modal landscape ofmainframes, distributed systems, virtualization, mobility and cloud computing this is becoming increasinglydifficult - and customers are making it worse by demanding more self-provisioned services.

The first step to taking control of infrastructure sprawl is not simply about "automation". It's about creating astrategy around developing and executing a plan of attack centered around understanding the problems you aresolving and then building the capability to produce end-to-end visibility of your IT environment and identifyingthe critical elements that support your business. Once control of your IT environment has been established, thenyou can reap the benefits of automation.

This white paper is the first in a series that takes a look at the steps to creating a business relevant ITinfrastructure. It focuses on strategy, architecture and design as opposed to products and tools. Those are uniqueto each IT environment, but the framework for successfully taming infrastructure sprawls is common to all.

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INFRASTRUCTURE SPRAWL - THE ONGOING PROBLEM

• The advent of virtualization at all layers of the infrastructure introduces new levels ofcomplexity in developing a complete and accurate infrastructure topology picture

• The hype associated with cloud computing results in mixed IT service delivery models,further exacerbating the problem of disjointed architectures and infrastructure sprawl

• The forecast for accelerated reconstruction of business IT infrastructure will outpace thecapabilities of legacy management systems

• The merger and acquisition frenzy is driving the need for both business and ITrationalization, increasing the demand for tools that can quickly and accurately discoverand correlate complex IT environments

• The time and expense associated with large enterprise product testing and integrationcycles are prohibitive

• IT industry convergence among the large legacy providers in causing fear, uncertainty anddoubt with respect to platform strategies

• IT budgets have shrunk to the point where only large enterprises can afford big legacysolutions, and many of those enterprises are rethinking their purchasing decisions

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RESPONDING TO INDUSTRY UPHEAVALThe Information Technology (IT) industry is undergoing dramatic change. The global economic crisis hassignificantly changed the business landscape, and the trickle-down effect has sent shockwaves through the entirebusiness infrastructure. Chief Information Officers and IT Operations Managers are now faced with unparalleledchallenges:

Maintaining service levels for existing systems while dramatically reducing operational support costsAccelerating the development of new capabilities to provide first-mover advantage - in the midst ofcontinually shifting marketsManaging the requirements of internal business units as they seek more responsive, lower costalternatives for their business systems and applications hosting servicesIntegrating disparate IT infrastructures that result from the frantic pace of mergers and acquisitions -some of which are now mandated by government interventionResponding to never-before-seen levels of compliance reporting as lenders, government agencies,oversight committees and shareholders require more detailed and more frequent visibilitySorting through the hype of the latest technological wave as vendors miraculously "reinvent" themselvesovernight to be the latest and greatest cloud-computing provider

All of these challenges have resulted in a clearly identifiable and disturbing trend - IT infrastructure sprawl hasgotten worse, and is accelerating at an unhealthy pace. The promise of virtualization has yet to be realized. Manyof the advantages of virtualization are apparent - consolidation of applications onto larger, faster hardwareplatforms and increased utilization of existing IT assets. But at the same time, the ability to "spool up" new serverinstances "on demand" has created a wave of virtual server sprawl that is now outpacing the levels associated withphysical servers observed over the last 10 years. The effects of this sprawl can be significant:

Loss of visibility to your infrastructure assets resulting in audit and regulatory non-complianceFinancial and legal exposure due to lack of software license managementIncreased resource requirements as a result of unauthorized or unwarranted server instancesSignificant business impact resulting from ill-defined and poorly understood application deliveryenvironmentsUnwarranted customer dissatisfaction resulting from poor performance of unmanaged, self-provisionedsystemsRapidly growing server "farms" that stretch the limits of legacy tools built on "top down" managementmodels

If left unchecked the effects of uncontrolled physical and virtual infrastructure sprawl can result in significantunplanned costs, decreased service levels and loss of credibility with your customers - both internal and external.Preventing infrastructure sprawl begins with obtaining a clear picture of what you currently have running in yourdata center. Without this understanding it will be impossible to gain control of your environment - which isessential for building a robust and manageable physical and virtual infrastructure.

The time to act is now.

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TACKLE THE PROBLEM HEAD-ON - BUT DO IT IN AN ORDERLY FASHIONElectronic Data Systems, a global information technology outsourcing company, aired a television commercial afew years back that featured an airplane being constructed in mid-flight. The premise of the commercial was thatin today's fast-paced world you don't have the luxury of taking your business "offline" to retool it. You mustredesign, re-engineer and rebuild your operations as you continue to deliver your current products and services tothe customers who are currently paying your bills. This same scenario applies to addressing the problem ofinfrastructure sprawl - you simply cannot hit the pause button on your IT service delivery while you create andexecute a strategy for taking control of your infrastructure. You must implement methods, processes and tools"on the fly" without impacting your current operations and living within business-dictated performance andbudgetary constraints.

In order to ensure success of any project you must identify strategies that support the overall mission of theorganization and tactics that give you ability to achieve incremental goals. Otherwise your efforts to controlinfrastructure sprawl will turn into "project sprawl". A few key areas underpin all the other activities and must begiven careful consideration before you start your journey to a well understood and well managed businessrelevant infrastructure.

BE REALISTIC ABOUT THE PROBLEM YOU ARE SOLVING

Unfortunately for most IT managers, the issues outlined earlier in this white paper are just a few of theoverwhelming number of challenges with which they are faced with on any given day. Dealing with all of theissues at once is an impossible task - you must focus on those that provide the greatest return on investment.Once you choose which problems you are going to tackle, you must ensure that you have a clear understanding ofwhat the expected outcome will be.

Infrastructure sprawl is a big issue with many constantly moving parts. All too often IT managers assume that"automation" will solve their problems, reduce costs and improve service - all at the same time. Solvinginfrastructure sprawl is not just about automation, but rather gaining control of your environment, which thenprovides the starting point for true automation and value added services. As the old saying goes, "if you try toautomate a mess you end up with an automated mess". To gain control of your environment you must choose thestrategy that will address the greatest number of issues and provide the greatest return - here are a few toconsider depending on your environment:

Inventory for compliance management and reporting - if unmanaged growth is currently not yourmost pressing problem, but you need to ensure that you are compliant with government or governancereporting requirements.Licensing management for risk mitigation - if you are experiencing significant physical and virtualresource growth and you need to manage your exposure to potentially improperly licensed software.Policy management for automated infrastructure provisioning - if your business units are driving youto faster provisioning of IT services and you need to control unauthorized infrastructure growth.Business technology traceability - if you are embarking on one or more strategic IT initiatives and youneed to ensure your current and planned IT environment supports (or understand how it impacts) yourcritical business systems.

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LEVERAGE THE POWER AND VALUE OF FRAMEWORKS AND METHODOLOGIES

All too often IT improvements are launched with great fanfare, only to fail miserably. Or they are initiated at agrassroots level and don't realize their full potential because they are not linked to a strategy that will engenderexecutive (and financial) support. In both cases, tying your infrastructure sprawl management initiatives to yourIT service management framework can reap significant rewards.

Many IT organizations have embraced industry-recognized frameworks such as theInformation Technology Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®) framework. ITIL outlines awell-defined service delivery model that provides consistency across all phases of theservice delivery life cycle. The benefit of linking your initiatives to ITIL or similarframeworks is that you can establish visibility to the business value of your effort.Otherwise your initiatives may simply be viewed as just another unnecessaryspending activity by the IT department. ITIL provides a structured approach todeveloping the linkages required to articulate value and obtain stakeholder buy-in.Once the value proposition has been established ITIL provides the robust lifecycle

management required to effectively develop, transition, operate and continuously improve your infrastructuremanagement capability.

ITIL is simply a framework. In order to realize the full potential of your infrastructure management solution youneed to extend ITIL with industry best practices (good practices in ITIL nomenclature). One area that can benefitfrom best practice extension is the correlation of IT infrastructure elements to mission critical business systems.There are several enterprise-level tools on the market today that perform this task very well, but they are usuallypart of a large enterprise management platform. In order to approach this problem in a more cost effective andagile manner, look to methodologies, processes and tools that perform business technology traceability, whichproduces a clear picture of the relevance of your IT infrastructure to your key business objectives. Theselightweight, subscription-based solutions enable a land and expand (aka "go and grow") strategy which gives youthe flexibility to produce incremental, measurable results without potentially large, upfront licensing expenses.

BUILD A TRUSTED DATA SOURCE - A CRITICAL FIRST STEP IN ADDRESSING

INFRASTRUCTURE SPRAWL

In order to make accurate and timely decisions an enterprise must ensurethat the data that represents its business is also accurate and timely. Thisis one of the most difficult obstacles facing enterprises today and willcontinue to worsen with the acceleration of data creation andproliferation. To take control of this problem you must take a disciplinedapproach to creating a trusted data source which represents the "atomic-level" elements of your business.

The trusted data source is the foundation on which all aspects of yourbusiness and IT organization operates. The trusted data source for your ITenvironment enables different business functions within your enterprise:

Visibility - the ability to clearly see all the elements that comprise your IT delivery capability. Thissupports functions such as auditing and compliance which ensure your enterprise meets the ever-increasing compliance requirements imposed by governance boards and government entities. Visibility

"The CMDB is most powerful when it hasa clear understanding of infrastructurecomponents, application dependenciesand service relationships," said RonniColville, vice president and distinguishedanalyst, Gartner, Inc. "Essential to that aresolutions that automatically discover,model and maintain those relationshipsdespite ongoing infrastructure changes.This information can empower ITorganizations to make more timely andaccurate change and configurationdecisions and deliver better service to thebusiness."

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should include all aspects of your IT infrastructure - compute, network, storage, applications, policies andsecurity. Without the complete inventory of your environment you won't be able to create the linkagesand relationships required to clearly understand how your IT assets support your business.Line of Sight - allows you to see the relationships and dependencies between all the elements of yourinfrastructure and develop a clear understanding of which elements support your mission critical businessapplications. Creating a top-to-bottom view of your environment creates the foundation for businesstechnology traceability, which in turn gives you a 3600

view of the relationships between your critical businesssystems and your IT infrastructure. This provides thestarting point for improved asset management anddecision making - resulting in an infrastructure alignedwith your business strategy.Operational Decision Making - provides thesummarized information that supports your businessand operations decisions. Once dependencies andrelationships have been defined you can prioritizeproduct development and investments to improveservice delivery to your customers and internal lines ofbusiness.Business Strategy Development - enables you tomake informed decisions concerning your ability toenter new markets, engage in mergers and acquisitions and develop key alliances. Without the visibility,line of sight, and operational decision making capabilities provided by the trusted data source, thesecritical business decisions will be made with an incomplete or inaccurate view of your service deliverycapability.

In addtion to supporting key business functions, the trusted data source must provide different views of your ITservices model. IT operations will need a much deeper view of the data in order to manage day-to-day servicedelivery of your mission critical applications. However, senior management will normally require a much higherlevel, summarized view of the assets that comprise your service delivery capability.

The key to a successful framework based approach (such as ITIL) to IT service management is the development ofan accurate and well-maintained configuration management data base (CMDB). As many enterprises strive toimprove service delivery through an framework approach, they often fall short due to their inability to create aCMDB that accurately reflects the IT assets that comprise the service delivery infrastructure.

In the information technology environment the atomic data that makes up the trusted data source is usuallyhoused in a CMDB which is part of a "home grown" system or an element of a large enterprise managementframework. Sometimes the data is maintained as a single integrated data source, but more often is comprised ofseveral data bases spread across multiple unconnected systems. In either of these deployment models how doyou ensure that the data that is housed in these sources accurately reflects what is actually running in your datacenters? Addressing this problem is the primary consideration when choosing your infrastructure sprawlmanagement strategy.

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OVERCOME THE LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT METHODS

AND TOOLS

Very few IT environments have the luxury of a single, integrated architectural model. Most data centermanagement systems are built from collection of tools that are loosely connected, providing a somewhat"federated", but often disjointed view of the IT infrastructure. Some of these tools provide a very detailed view oftheir particular domain, but provide limited visibility to other domains - even if they are part of the same vendorsolution. In order to develop a complete picture of your IT infrastructure you must invest in expensive and longprofessional services or internal development projects to solve the disjointed federation problem. Or you cansimply continue to use the multiple systems independently- a phenomenon known as "swivel chair management".Either scenario results in unneeded IT expenditures.

Data center managers who have invested in large, legacy enterprise management systems are faced with anotherproblem. While they often have a more complete and accurate view of their infrastructure, they are burdenedwith high licensing fees and are locked into the development cycles of the legacy provider. The result is fewerbudget dollars for projects that yield higher returns on investment and loss of agility required to respond torapidly changing business demands.

Many IT managers, faced with the improbable task of developing a clear picture of the IT resources under theiroversight simply give up and decide to live with the problem, managing the risk and exposure on a "case-by-case"basis. This is due to the fact that they simply cannot afford - either in time or money - the effort required tocreate a baseline of their environment. Even if they are able to create a point-in-time snapshot, it will almostimmediately be inaccurate as users who were once relegated to "looking into the glass house" can now createtheir own virtual resources without the oversight and control of the IT organization.

In order to overcome the problems of infrastructure sprawl, IT managers must look to new lightweight approachesto understanding and providing services in a mixed physical and virtual world. They must look beyond thedevelopment of more homegrown scripts and spreadsheets or the long and expensive development cyclesassociated with legacy enterprise management systems. The tools they require for the future must at a minimumhave the following characteristics:

Drop and go implementation - preferably via a "virtual appliance" modelSeamless integration with and no disruption to existing systems management toolsData acquisition only through open, industry-standard methods and interfacesOpen, extensible data model to allow the addition of new assets types and export of asset andconfiguration dataIntegrated workflow capability to control the discovery, rediscovery, and management of IT resourcesIntegrated development environment to quickly and easily create value-added capabilitiesScalability and extensibility to support hundreds of thousands of resource instances

MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF YOUR SHRINKING IT BUDGET

Obtaining a clear and accurate picture of your IT environment does not come without a cost. However, that costshould be in line with your overall IT budget and should not disproportionately outweigh costs associated with thedevelopment of mission critical business applications. As IT budgets continue to shrink IT managers are startingto look for ways to reduce their systems management expenditures. This, however is not an easy task:

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Legacy "lock-in" prevents many companies from abandoning their current systems managementcapabilities in favor of newer, more effective solutions. The cost to extricate the current system faroutweighs the savings of the new system.Substantial upfront licensing fees for large, single-vendor enterprise management solutions are simplybeyond the spending capability of all but the very largest of enterprises.Inflexible licensing models result in long-term commitment to single vendor solutions.Open source is an attractive alternative to historical licensing models, but consumers must account forthe full lifecycle (including migration) costs. If not correctly managed these can be significant.Testing and implementation cycles for highly complex systems limit the introduction of new solutionsinto resource constrained environments.High feature/function development costs prohibit the extension of existing tools to meet the demandsassociated with virtual and cloud computing.

To solve the growing problem of Infrastructure sprawl while dealing with the issue of continually shrinkingbudgets, the IT manager must look for solutions that provide the optimum balance of features at a price pointthat does not negatively impact the balance between systems management and mission critical applicationdevelopment. Solutions that satisfy this critical requirement must:

Provide a balanced base system and open source delivery and licensing model. This provides the valueof ongoing supplier enhancement with the creativity realized from community-based innovation.Support subscription-based licensing models to allow expense forecasting and management byenterprises of all sizes.Reduce testing, implementation and configuration to minimize upfront expenditures and accelerate"time to value".Support land and expand strategies within IT environments - start small with no disruption and thenexpand to encompass larger portions of IT infrastructure in an orderly fashion.Allow customization and enhancement through integrated development capabilities - eliminating theneed for expensive professional services resources and long development cycles.

Without these capabilities, most infrastructure discovery and management tools simply will not be an option formost IT managers.

EXAMPLE ARCHITECTURE MODELThe following diagram represents a relationship model for a typical lightweight discovery and correlationenvironment. This architectural model could be represented by a collection of enterprise-level systemsmanagement and discovery tools. For example, the primary functions workflow, discovery, correlation and basicbusiness technology traceability could be provided by tools such as SMARTSTM from EMC. However, fewcompanies (especially small to medium businesses) can afford the level of investment required to implement afull-featured platform such as SMARTS. Other enterprise platforms such as HP OpenViewTM, IBM TivoliTM, CAInfrastructure ManagementTM and BMC AtriumTM offer robust integrated solutions (including CMDBs), but requirecommitment to a single platform strategy that few companies can afford.

For those companies who are seeking solutions for a lightweight approach (or have a basic enterprise systemsmanagement platform in place and want to augment it with lightweight tools), there are many good tools on themarket and selection of the proper tool(s) for your environment will depend on several factors:

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Maturity and level of sophistication of your business strategy and planning processMaturity of your IT infrastructure and IT service management strategyPercentage of IT budget allocated to discovery and complianceDegree to which your organization is prepared for and willing to accept changeAvailability of development/test environment

Lightweight Architecture Model for Environment Discovery and Correlation

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SUMMARYUnless you act swiftly and decisively, infrastructure sprawl will continue to be part of your daily issues review.Many IT managers will choose to deal with the problem by maintaining the status quo with their existing legacysystems management architectures and tools - hoping that the hype of virtualization and cloud computing willwane and give them time to "ride out the storm". Unfortunately, customer demands for new services that requiretimely, agile and cost effective deployment of new IT capabilities will force most IT managers out of their comfortzone.

Tackling infrastructure sprawl is not for the faint of heart, but developing a clear strategy coupled with properplanning and well-managed execution can produce significant improvement in your ability to understand andcontrol your IT services landscape. But don't confuse infrastructure sprawl management with automation or youwill end up applying the wrong approach and tools to the problem. Gain control first, then automate.

In order to address the problem of infrastructure sprawl you must start with a reliable view of your existingenvironment. Unfortunately most tools only give you a partial view, or those that give you a full view areprohibitively expensive to acquire and operate. And even if your enterprise has the financial wherewithal topursue a large scale systems management platform, the time to value is often extremely long, negating theimmediate benefits that could be realized from a shorter deployment cycle. To overcome these issues, look tolightweight tools that offer a good balance between traditional licensing strategies and subscription-basedservices, giving you more flexibility and growth options as your business changes.

The real value of a clear picture of your infrastructure comes from the linkages that can be established to yourmission critical business strategies and supporting systems. But tackling this problem without a robust, yetsimple to use methodology often produces less than optimal results. To ensure success, utilize the structureprovided by industry-recognized frameworks such as ITIL, but leverage the agility and flexibility of methodologiessuch as business technology traceability.

Finally, maintain control of your environment. A baseline will give you tremendous insight into the utilization andbusiness performance of your assets. But as soon as the baseline is complete it will be out of date. Therefore youmust look to methodologies and tools that allow you to continually discover changes. Once these are in place youcan then enjoy the benefits of automation - giving more control to your users and letting them leverage your ITinfrastructure as a true business relevant asset.

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ABOUT ROBERTKEAHEY.COMSuccessfully identifying, analyzing and creating compelling value propositions for emerging technologies thatdrive both top and bottom line value for global enterprises of all sizes is Robert Keahey’s expertise.

Mr. Keahey, who holds an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V3 Foundation certification, bringsto his clients a successful track record of innovation, strategic technology and business planning anddevelopment, superior service delivery and operational know-how complimented by a variety of informationtechnology industry experiences. He has a network into high level executives in the information technologyindustry and has partnered with key players such as Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, EMC and Oracle to develop industryleading capabilities. He also has relationships with numerous venture capital firms and has assisted in theevaluation, development and acceleration of the business plans of several of their portfolio companies.

Contact Robert Keahey via his website at www.robertkeahey.com