Advising on the commercial impact of technology and
    market changes in telecoms, software and IT services

Infrastructure

The typical data centre comprises hundreds or even thousands of independent and highly complex assets, including servers, storage, operating systems, data bases, file systems, management tools, networks and business applications. With applications spanning multiple domains (platforms, OSs, arrays, networks), the complexity of the IT environment continues to grow. The root cause of this complexity is the build-to-order mind-set in most IT organisations (ITOs) resulting in application and domain silos, each with specific configured hardware and a jumble of often-incompatible assets. Typically each is configured to meet applications peak demand, which is rarely attained, leaving vast amounts of expensive capacity unused across the infrastructure at any time. Build-to-order approaches must evolve into a more common approach utilising standard components and common process for both IT and business. ITOs must leverage industry trends and configure a portfolio of alternatives based on business consumption, application requirements, timeliness and cost.

Ovum's infrastructure research provides the insight that allows organisations to transform their infrastructure organisation through the utilisation of pragmatic virtualisation solutions, consistent IT process and automation, effective service level management and measurement, and the creation of a multidisciplinary support organisation all addressing the next generation infrastructure. The end result is an IT environment that is more responsive to business's evolving needs in a leveraged and cost effective manner.

Infrastructure Transformation Journey

Organisations are beginning to realise that robust and flexible infrastructures drive business efficiencies and innovation. However, ongoing cost constraints force a phased approach to any infrastructure transformation effort. The components must be manageable, cost effective and minimally disruptive to ongoing business operations. Infrastructure consolidations/rationalisation (fewer facilities/fewer different types of assets, e.g., one proprietary UNIX with Linux the rationalisation point) remains a constant for most ITOs with a dynamically provisioned virtualized infrastructure the end goal. The breaking of the physical and logical relationship with an abstraction layer will eventually allow organisations to tap computing, storage, networking resources, and applications when they need them.

Areas of Coverage Include:

Servers - blades, grids, legacy	Virtualization	Infrastructure and Application Management
Server and Storage Management	High Availability and Replication	On Demand (adaptive) Data Centres
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery	IT process optimisation	Legacy Transformations

Help with your key decision making

Advice for user organisations:

Understanding the benefit of different types of integration product is one thing: Knowing which solutions work best in certain situations is an entirely different matter. We meet this precise problem head on, giving subscribers clear analysis and guidance on the relative merits of different products and solutions, together with though-leading commentary on the way the market is evolving.

Advice for software vendors:

We help vendors understand their competitive position in what has become an extremely fast-changing market. This research balances the desires and objectives of software vendors with the often stark reality of what organisations are looking to achieve, acting as a valuable and vital independent voice.

Your next move...

To find out more about Software@Ovum or to enquire about how our flexible tailored options can meet your needs, please telephone, fax or email your Ovum Account Manager.