How to fix application performance issues: Organize an IT pow-wow

Wide Area Networking Arsenal Digital Solutions Traditional Backup vs. On-Demand Data Protection Services: Critical Questions for IT Decision-Makers When deciding on a data protection solution, budget limits, service quality, and compliance requirements all weigh on the minds of IT leaders. A single overlooked issue can mean the difference between disaster and continuous operations. In this Webcast, Doug Chandler of IDC will explain how many companies have evaluated their data protection choices in today's market and made a successful transition from in-house backup and recovery operations to service-based solutions. Click here to listen to this webcast today! Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 07/12/07 How to fix application performance issues: Organize an IT pow-wow By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler We continue to receive feedback on our recent series of newsletters about the lengthy Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) of application performance issues. We pointed out that in the vast majority of instances, the network is assumed to be the cause of any degraded application performance, even though it is the cause in only a small minority of instances. One reader wrote to us commenting on the lack of a coordinated approach to troubleshooting application performance issues. He stated that the process used to troubleshoot such issues ends up being a game of "pass the ticket," where a trouble ticket bounces from group to group with everyone adding in "my area looks ok." He says getting everyone in a room together for an hour produces great results. Often a server guy will mention something that causes the database guy to wonder about something else, which leads the application guy to get an idea that solves the problem. He added that if you want to shorten the resolution time, increase the communication. He said that this approach is starting to be so effective at his company that they have designated a certain room as the "war room" that has enough space and network drops so that everyone can sit down with their laptops, use the whiteboard, and avoid their phone. He pointed out that it is not high tech by any means, but that it works. Manage Insider Security Threats Experts say 75% of security threats come from inside your organization. Watch the latest Network World Editorial Perspectives Webcast today, "Security From the Inside," and learn which technologies and processes best protect your intellectual property and assets inside the perimeter. Click Here to View We certainly applaud any attempt to increase the communications between and among the various components of the IT function. In addition, we are sure that this kind of communications will improve the MTTR application degradation issues and are pretty convinced that this solution is the best that the author could do given where he sits in the IT organization. However, this approach looks to us to be a Band-Aid to solving a problem that is being ignored by senior IT management. That being that application delivery is becoming increasingly important to the success of an organization at the same time that the IT organization is increasing stove-piped. In this context stove-piped means that the individual components of IT do not have common goals, terminology, tools and processes. We believe that senior IT management needs to fix the IT organizational model at both a planning and an operational level. We will discuss the operational level of this new model in the next newsletter. Further reading on this topic: Don’t assume application performance problems are always network-related; What makes application management so hard to do? ; NOCs now in charge of application management .   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES: 1. Who's to blame for browser bug? IE or Firefox? 2. Attack of the killer botnets 3. Google Earth captures China's new ballistic-missile sub 4. 6 burning VoIP questions 5. Phishing tool constructs new sites in two seconds 6. The 7 Wonders of the Internet 7. Hello Apple iPhone nano? 8. SF Wi-Fi plan faces key votes 9. Juniper scales down service router 10. The mainframe lives! MOST E-MAILED STORY: 15 great, free security programs

Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure. He can be reached via e-mail. Arsenal Digital Solutions Traditional Backup vs. On-Demand Data Protection Services: Critical Questions for IT Decision-Makers When deciding on a data protection solution, budget limits, service quality, and compliance requirements all weigh on the minds of IT leaders. A single overlooked issue can mean the difference between disaster and continuous operations. In this Webcast, Doug Chandler of IDC will explain how many companies have evaluated their data protection choices in today's market and made a successful transition from in-house backup and recovery operations to service-based solutions. Click here to listen to this webcast today! ARCHIVE Archive of the Wide Area Networking Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007