February 21, 2008 11:18 PM
Posted by: Ryan Shopp
CMDB,
DataCenter,
DCAB,
TidewayThe crew over a Tideway offered up and impressive in-depth product demo last week. It made me realize I haven’t circled back to throw down my top five features for this functional area of the Data Center Automation Blueprint we’ve been working on.
With that said, I was impressed with their comprehensive agent-less discovery vs. the agent centric approach of Symantec (Relicore), HP (Opsware), IBM (Collation), CA (Cendura) or the passive-flow based from EMC (nLayers). I know some of these vendors can do some discovery through an agent-less approach but to get comprehensive feature functionality they will lead you toward deploying their agents.
So on to the top five features…
1) Comprehensive discovery engine that can automate the identification of and it’s communications relationships for any IT resource (e.g., applications, databases, services, systems, storage, network etc)
2) Impressive visibility capabilities including multi-layer topological / dependency mapping illustrations while offering comprehensive reporting options (e.g., graphical summaries down to detailed lists)
3) Reconciliation automation where this solution serves as the “source of truth” for the current state of the IT resources in the data center. At a minimum this should offer the ability to report differences between this and other Data Center Automation solutions. The real deal would have embedded automation/integrations that keep all products synchronized, saving major amounts of time for the system administrators and avoiding an event from occurring when it unfortunately wasn’t being monitored.
4) Accurate fingerprinting (e.g., discovery-to-data model mapping). Making sure the discovery process has the ability to keep up with newer software versions, new vendors etc for all the possible IT resources in the data center.
5) A fast search engine to quickly find an IT resource you are: troubleshooting, need to review prior to putting in a change order to understand potential impact or may be susceptible to a recently announced security threat, etc.
5b) A policy engine, built on the search engine, that enables users to define desired attributes for specific types of IT resources and be notified immediately when something doesn’t match that desired state so it can be remediated.
One other thing I noticed about the Tideway product that was appealing was it’s transparent approach. All communications between their product and each IT resource are visible down to the specific commands that are run. This enable the product to quickly build trust with the user since they can see the specific queries/commands used and their results.
I know their are other desired features so let’s hear them!
Speaking of that, at some point I need to put together the “table stakes” features that any DCAB product should have. You know what I mean – slick dashboard (e.g. iGoogle), RBAC, SDK/API, Grouping, etc, etc, etc.
I’ve also made a few more updates to the wiki summary version of the Data Center Automation Blueprint, come take a look and throw down some feedback.
February 18, 2008 6:20 PM
Posted by: Ryan Shopp
DataCenter,
DCAB
Also, I’ve taken my second pass at updating the wiki page for the Data Center Automation Blueprint, I have the six areas with some of the vendors listed. Next up is to round out each vendor list and also add in the key features/capabilities for each area. Please come leave your comments or even make some edits yourself.
February 14, 2008 9:01 PM
Posted by: Ryan Shopp
DataCenter,
DCABThis is a work in progress as always, but here is a first stab at a round four graphic for the Data Center Automation Blueprint DCAB).
As always comments are welcome but it’s time to migrate to a wiki driven interface for the DCAB to allow others to contribute or add comments specific to this model that won’t get lost between blog postings or require me to link from version to version to version. I will migrate/copy the capabilities and categories from previous blog postings next week.
February 14, 2008 5:46 PM
Posted by: Ryan Shopp
DataCenter,
DCAB,
VirtualizationWell I’m sure everyone who reads this blog has already seen one or all of the Dilbert comics this week poking fun with virtualization. If not the three comics this week are embedded below or you can head over to the Dilbert website.
Meanwhile, I’m planning to make another update to the Data Center Automation Blueprint which brings up an outstanding action item. Instead of republishing the entire graphic again and reference previous posts it may be time for me to move that reference content to a wiki for me (and others) to make updates. What are peoples thoughts/preferences/etc on a good public wiki site. My plan on that wiki page is to create a new graphic and use the previous 6 posts on each functional areas. Also, to consolidate 2 of the functional areas (Availability & Performance) while adding a new area called something like “analytics.” I also want to be able to place a matrix/list on that page of all the functional areas each vendor/product fit as I learn or customers/vendors educate me on where they fit. One place I’m looking at is here on the TechTarget IT Knowledge Exchange in the IT Answers section which has some wiki like capabilities. Thoughts?
Otherwise, please enjoy the comics below…
February 8, 2008 9:23 PM
Posted by: Ryan Shopp
DataCenterOver the past three months since I started the blog I’ve been excited about the amount of public and private feedback from the insights posted. I originally started this blog purely out of my own excitement and passion for Data Center Automation. Simply put, I really enjoy reading, researching and pondering this industry! My single goal has been to provide a forum for the exchange of thoughts, ideas and news related to Data Center Automation.
Over time, I’ve been getting more and more requests asking about my motivation and upon explaining they ask about my openness to consulting opportunities. Based on that I’ve decided to post this entry and explain where I’m currently at.
First and foremost – yes, I’m open to briefings, or even better consulting opportunities.
When you review my background you will notice a company I’ve been running marketing and business development activities for over the last six months as a consultant. Meanwhile, I was working on some of my own software projects with the rest of my time. Based on these requests, I’ve decided to make some adjustments to my plan and look at consulting full-time. I’m still working on coming up with some “packaged offerings” so for now all I can say is I’m open to consulting in the following areas of expertise specific to Data Center / IT Infrastructure Management:
-
For Vendors: Market Strategy, Product Marketing, Alliance/Partner Development
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For Enterprises: Market Awareness, Product Evaluation, Process Assessment
If your interested please check the “about” page for more details.
Sorry for the infomercial, but I felt if I simply posted this information in the “about” section without posting an entry previous readers would never see it.
Thanks and have a great weekend,
Ryan
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