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BSM to the Rescue

Survey Says: Monitoring and Managing the Cloud is Top Concern

In September, Zenoss released the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey, which took the temperature of over 200 IT professionals about their reasons for using virtualization and the cloud. Some of our results were about as surprising as rain in Seattle: 40.7% of survey respondents said they prefer to deploy servers virtually, 79.3% of them said they are using VMware and the number one goal with regards to using virtual infrastructure was to save money. Many of the results were more intriguing, but the conclusion that most piqued our interest here at Zenoss was that the number two concern about cloud computing, after security, was management/monitoring.

As cloud computing becomes more popular it’s also becoming more complex. In Pete Goldin’s article in BSMdigest last May (“Virtualization Changes Everything”), Olivier Thierry of Zenoss talked a little bit about the tricky new layer that virtualization has created. Virtualization makes many aspects of business easier by automating processes, but it also requires an entirely different set of tools from those used to manage a traditional, physical environment. Most legacy monitoring and management solutions are ill equipped to handle the cloud because they’re static, fragmented and single-tenant. In contrast, newer tools need to be real-time, unified and multi-tenant in order to offer visibility and control of a dynamic cloud infrastructure. All too often these old tools and new tools don’t play nicely together and the task of integrating them has created a need for specialists. As a result, virtualization management today can be a dreadful silo and as it turns out, nobody likes that: 70.7% of the people we surveyed prefer tools that manage all infrastructure rather than point solutions that are specific to virtualization.

There are many ways in which business service management (BSM) can help break up that silo and navigate the often challenging task of deploying a private or public cloud environment. If a business application fails, a common reaction is to reprovision (a.k.a. pile on more resources). But the only way to solve the problem is to find the problem first: figure out why something didn’t perform by using a tool that can keep up with a continuously changing configuration. Network monitoring and systems management providers like Zenoss and others can offer answers to critical questions about servers and dependencies. With the right set of management tools, processes and methods, businesses can be confident that their IT infrastructures are working efficiently.

But what if your organization isn’t ready to virtualize completely? After all, 73.3% of our survey respondents hadn’t made a decision on their virtualization management solution and only 29.3% said they wanted to use virtualization everywhere. Though I can understand their concerns, virtualization is here to stay and cloud computing’s numerous advantages are too compelling to ignore completely. I’d advise those who are hesitant not to wait, but to take things one at a time. Start by virtualizing part of your infrastructure. Integrate the management of your virtualized environment with your physical datacenter, and then with the proper visualization and management tool in place so as to mitigate the risks, continue the journey to a more virtualized IT world.

About Bill Karpovich

Bill Karpovich, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenoss, conceived the company's disruptive business strategy and has successfully guided the company from start-up to a category leader. As an IT management and cloud computing visionary, Bill has been featured on the cover of InformationWeek Magazine and is frequently consulted by the media and industry analysts for his insights on IT management and the broader open source software market.

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BSM to the Rescue

Survey Says: Monitoring and Managing the Cloud is Top Concern

In September, Zenoss released the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey, which took the temperature of over 200 IT professionals about their reasons for using virtualization and the cloud. Some of our results were about as surprising as rain in Seattle: 40.7% of survey respondents said they prefer to deploy servers virtually, 79.3% of them said they are using VMware and the number one goal with regards to using virtual infrastructure was to save money. Many of the results were more intriguing, but the conclusion that most piqued our interest here at Zenoss was that the number two concern about cloud computing, after security, was management/monitoring.

As cloud computing becomes more popular it’s also becoming more complex. In Pete Goldin’s article in BSMdigest last May (“Virtualization Changes Everything”), Olivier Thierry of Zenoss talked a little bit about the tricky new layer that virtualization has created. Virtualization makes many aspects of business easier by automating processes, but it also requires an entirely different set of tools from those used to manage a traditional, physical environment. Most legacy monitoring and management solutions are ill equipped to handle the cloud because they’re static, fragmented and single-tenant. In contrast, newer tools need to be real-time, unified and multi-tenant in order to offer visibility and control of a dynamic cloud infrastructure. All too often these old tools and new tools don’t play nicely together and the task of integrating them has created a need for specialists. As a result, virtualization management today can be a dreadful silo and as it turns out, nobody likes that: 70.7% of the people we surveyed prefer tools that manage all infrastructure rather than point solutions that are specific to virtualization.

There are many ways in which business service management (BSM) can help break up that silo and navigate the often challenging task of deploying a private or public cloud environment. If a business application fails, a common reaction is to reprovision (a.k.a. pile on more resources). But the only way to solve the problem is to find the problem first: figure out why something didn’t perform by using a tool that can keep up with a continuously changing configuration. Network monitoring and systems management providers like Zenoss and others can offer answers to critical questions about servers and dependencies. With the right set of management tools, processes and methods, businesses can be confident that their IT infrastructures are working efficiently.

But what if your organization isn’t ready to virtualize completely? After all, 73.3% of our survey respondents hadn’t made a decision on their virtualization management solution and only 29.3% said they wanted to use virtualization everywhere. Though I can understand their concerns, virtualization is here to stay and cloud computing’s numerous advantages are too compelling to ignore completely. I’d advise those who are hesitant not to wait, but to take things one at a time. Start by virtualizing part of your infrastructure. Integrate the management of your virtualized environment with your physical datacenter, and then with the proper visualization and management tool in place so as to mitigate the risks, continue the journey to a more virtualized IT world.

About Bill Karpovich

Bill Karpovich, CEO and Co-Founder of Zenoss, conceived the company's disruptive business strategy and has successfully guided the company from start-up to a category leader. As an IT management and cloud computing visionary, Bill has been featured on the cover of InformationWeek Magazine and is frequently consulted by the media and industry analysts for his insights on IT management and the broader open source software market.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

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