Chapter 14

Managing E-Business and Network Systems

Introduction

• Managing e-business systems and their underlying infrastructure is a critical success factor for managers

• In the e-business world, networks are the key ingredient linking, systems, processes, and people– Networks add value and complexity to

information infrastructures

System Operational Disciplines

Managing Batch Systems

• Batch systems processing involves receiving and aggregating incoming transactions and distributing the resulting output data– Regularly scheduled applications– Applications are commonly executed on

centrally located computer facilities• Accounts payable, inventory, ledger

– Applications commonly use computer scheduling because of interjob dependencies

Network Systems Management

• Networks form the basis for many well known and emerging businesses– Amazon, eBay

• Network technology enables and encourages restructuring and re-engineering processes

• Web technology adds new dimensions to a firm’s systems and management processes

Network Management’s Scope

• Network management’s focus is broad and diffuse– Managers are responsible for owned as well as

leased assets– Boundaries are also blurred between data and

voice applications

• Network managers must provide seamless support for customers while tracking and solving problems across the enterprise as well as those involving outside vendors

Managers’ Expectations of Networks

• Growth in networked applications demands increased network management capability

• Users expect networks to be capable, reliable, and cost effective

• Unfulfilled expectations are an important source of difficulty for IT managers; networks can be a prime source of failure

Network Management Disciplines

• Disciplined techniques are critical for network management success– SLAs incorporate customer expectations of

reliability, responsiveness, and availability– Managers must focus on problem, change,

and recovery management– Performance planning and analysis, capacity

planning, and configuration management are also important

The Disciplines of Network Management

Network Service Levels

• Users view networks as a unified entity, so the SLAs must treat applications, computer and network hardware, network links, and user workstations as an integrated whole– SLAs must include measures of availability,

service quantities, and reliability– They must include some measures of

workload

Configuration Management• Configuration management includes a database

containing an accurate record of the network’s physical and logical connections and configurations

• Configuration management’s scope includes– Physical Connectivity– Logical Topology– Bandwidth– Equipment (inventory and specifications)– User Information– Vendor Data

Fault and Change Management

• Fault management is similar in many ways to problem management– Networks can be created with monitoring to

automatically flag failures and attempt to reconfigure

– Faults can arise from hardware, software, or configuration failures

– Troubleshooting these failures requires the skills of network engineers and technicians and access to configuration databases

Recovery Management

• Network managers must plan to recover from local disasters as well as disasters affecting vendors– Redundancy in name (using different carriers

for reliability) may not be redundancy in fact (the carriers use the same physical ROW)

– Managers must remain aware of this problem and explicitly address it when initiating SLAs with telecom vendors

Network Management Systems

• Automated tools that help manage and operate networks– Gather statistics from routers and switches

• SNMP traps

– Exist as hardware embedded in the network to create diagnostic logs

– Monitor network usage and performance

• Vendors offer integrated monitoring and management packages

Performance Management

• Techniques for defining, planning, measuring, analyzing, reporting, and improving on infrastructure performance– Defining performance– Performance planning– Measuring performance– Analyzing measurements– Reporting results– System tuning

Defining Performance

• System performance is the volume of work accomplished per unit of time– CPU throughput, network transmission

bandwidth, number of transactions posted– In e-business applications, system response

time is a critical performance measure for end user satisfaction

– With rapidly improving hardware performance, managers are shifting from increasing HW efficiency to improving end user satisfaction

Performance Planning

• Establishes objectives for human/ computer system throughput– Workload characterization is the cornerstone of

all performance and capacity programs– System performance and associated factors

must be well understood prior to system capacity increases

– System tuning (optimization) can also yield performance increases without capacity expansion

Measuring and Analyzing Performance

• Measuring response time and system throughput under a variety of workloads is critical– Transaction service time– Transaction rates– Average response time

• These measurements are used to judge delivery of SLAs, capacity trends, and tuning results

Network Performance Assessment

• Network managers must monitor performance to exceed SLAs

• As usage and loading changes, network bottlenecks occur– Without some system of monitoring, resolution

of these problems is delayed with user satisfaction declining

– Network availability is a calculation derived from MTBF and MTTR

Availability = (MTBF)/(MTBF + MTTR) X 100

System Tuning

• System tuning or optimization can be used to create performance increases without capital expense– Risks of performance tuning include the risk of

change as discussed earlier– Sometimes limiting access to a resource, while

decreasing capacity, improves throughput– Tuning of complex systems can be very time

consuming and tedious

Capacity Management

• Process by which IT managers plan and control the quantity of system resources needed to satisfy user needs

• The goal is to match available system resources with those needed to meet service levels– Must also anticipate future needs and plan for

increased usage– Must also identify obsolete or underutilized

hardware and services

Capacity Analysis

• Managers must perform a detailed analysis of current system resource requirements– Acts as a benchmark for proposed changes– Needs to identify daily workload peaks as well

as peak loading for weekly and monthly timeframes

– Capacity assessment and monitoring must be a continuous process in rapidly growing e-businesses

Capacity Planning

• Managers must anticipate future need and plan accordingly– Techniques range from simple to complex– Managers must pick the correct metrics to

follow, as technology changes so do needs– Planning must be grounded in fact and logic,

not hunches and guesswork

Additional Planning Factors

1. Changes in the organization’s strategic directions that might modify or increase IT services

2. Business volume changes (either increases or decreases)

3. Organizational changes (always a potential impact on IT resources)

4. Changes in the number of people using IT services

Additional Planning Factors

5. Changing financial conditions within the firm or industry

6. Changes in service-level agreements or service-level objectives that might have a bearing on system performance requirements

7. Portfolio management actions that might impact system throughput, such as the addition of new applications or enhancements to current applications

Additional Planning Factors

8. Testing new applications or making modifications to current applications that require additional system resources

9. Application schedule changes initiated by operations or user managers

10.Schedule alterations for system backup and vital records processing

11.System outage data and job rerun times from the problem management system

Linking Plans to Service Levels

• Periodically the performance and capacity management processes must be reviewed to assess their effectiveness– Did forecasts agree with actual demand?– Did capacity needs match capacity

resources?– Were service levels met?– Were budgets adequate?– Are customers satisfied?

Management Information Reporting

• Reporting is an essential role – it creates transparency to IT operations– The intent of reporting is to

• Improve operations

• Promote organizational learning

• Engage customers in dialog that generates results

– Communication increases trust and confidence between participants

– Reports are essential not only to providers but also customers

The Network Manager

• Network managers need to be skilled generalists– Their duties transcend organizational,

political, cultural, and geographic boundaries– Technology adoption enables and mandates

structural changes– They must be capable tacticians,

understanding where they need to take the firm and how to get there

Summary

• Centralized batch systems and network applications depend critically on network performance and computer resources

• There exists a strong link between system performance and system capacity

• Quality IT business processes must be an overriding consideration in the IT organization