Relationship between the network and apps development teams not bad but not great

Wide Area Networking This newsletter is sponsored by Riverbed Webcast: WAN Optimization benefits Listen to Network World's Editorial Perspectives Webcast WAN Optimization to learn how to leverage this technology. Find out how to shop for WAN optimization products and how these tools can improve traffic utilization and application performance. Click here for more information. Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 10/04/07 Relationship between the network and apps development teams not bad but not great By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler In recent newsletters we have described some of the dynamics that exist between the network organization and other components of the IT function (see the links below). Today, we’ll look at trends in the relationship between the NOC and the application development team. More information on this topic can be found here. To put this discussion in a broad context, we recently surveyed 288 IT professionals and asked them how they would characterize the current relationship between their company's application development team and the NOC. The good news is that no one indicated that the relationship was highly adversarial. The bad news is that only 4% indicated that it was highly cooperative, and that a quarter of the respondents indicated that the relationship was either slightly or moderately adversarial. We also asked the survey respondents to indicate how the relationship between the two teams has changed over the last six months. Over half of the respondents indicated no change. However, more than 40% indicated that the relationship had become more cooperative. Executive Guide:Virtualization Meets Reality Virtualization is being used to make the most out of everything from applications and servers to desktops and storage. But as companies expand their reliance on the technology, challenges mount. Read this guide authored by a host of Network World editors and review this timely topic. Click Here for More Information We talked to the assistant director of network communications for a medical organization who stated that his organization had the ability to do end-to-end monitoring of the performance of the network. He described the relationship between the application development groups and the network organization as currently being “semi-cooperative” and getting a little bit better over time. He credited the improvement in the relationship to his group's ability to provide the application development team with credible information on application performance. We also talked to a project leader for a company in the transportation industry who said the relationship between his organization and the application group was ‘cordial’. He added that the more information his group brought to the application teams, the more those groups trust the network organization. The project leader highlighted some of the technical difficulties associated with developing the kind of information that is helpful to the application development groups when he noted that although they have acquired tools to help them plan for the deployment of new applications, they are limited in their ability to use these tools because “nobody accurately knows what the inputs to those tools should be.” We would like to hear from you relative to what you have done to improve the relationship between the network organization and the application development team. In particular, we would like to hear about your experiences with tools to model the deployment of new applications. Are these tools helpful or do they require so much information that they are relatively useless? Further reading: The AHA’s IT group benefits from working collaboratively How one network exec persuaded coworkers that the network is not always to blame When apps are slow, net managers are wrong until proven right   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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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. This newsletter is sponsored by Riverbed Webcast: WAN Optimization benefits Listen to Network World's Editorial Perspectives Webcast WAN Optimization to learn how to leverage this technology. Find out how to shop for WAN optimization products and how these tools can improve traffic utilization and application performance. Click here for more information. 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