| There are a number of assumptions IT managers can | | | | even a large team of IT professionals can handle. |
| make that end up cutting the profit margins of the | | | | When each of these separate applications uses |
| businesses they work for considerably. In fact, some | | | | internal event-based monitoring, far more information is |
| estimates suggest that many businesses are losing up | | | | generated than the ordinary person can correlate. And |
| to 10% every year on problems caused by application | | | | to make it worse, the monitoring tools for each provide |
| performance degradation or failure. | | | | their own consoles. Trying to correlate information |
| Where are these losses coming from? IT is often one | | | | from such diverse information sources as Oracle |
| of the hardest working departments in a business. The | | | | databases, an ERP system like SAP, an ESM like |
| losses are not the result of laziness, nor can they | | | | IBM's Tivoli, HP OpenView or CA Unicenter, a network |
| usually be charged to the equipment. The problem | | | | communications platform such as TIBCO, operating |
| may reside in the assumptions that have developed | | | | systems including UNIX, Windows, Linux and various |
| over the years. | | | | mainframe operating systems, assorted web servers, |
| Assumption #1: That New Equipment Will Fix the | | | | etc. and going from console to console just takes too |
| Problem | | | | long. |
| So much of today's IT enterprise has gone virtual, that | | | | This means that generally, IT receives its first notice |
| replacing equipment is rarely the issue. And adding | | | | that something isn't functioning correctly when calls |
| more servers and other structures, actually add to the | | | | start coming in to the service desk. The scenario isn't a |
| complexity of the problem. For each new component, | | | | pleasant one for the business' finances. At this point |
| there is one more dependency where errors can | | | | users are impacted and business processes are |
| occur. | | | | disrupted. Employee costs go up as the company's |
| Assumption #2: That only monitoring JMS Queues | | | | service desk becomes backlogged and delay times |
| provides Adequate Visibility into WebSphere MQ | | | | for problem resolution increase. Money is lost as IT |
| The problem with this assumption is the fact that many | | | | staff struggle to discover the root cause of the |
| environments use complex WebSphere MQ topology, | | | | problem in the maze of reports. |
| and monitoring JMS queues only support simple | | | | This is one situation where computer intelligence |
| topologies of a single "hop". While native monitoring of | | | | trumps the human. Application performance |
| WebSphere MQ enables monitoring or transactions, | | | | management software takes all those reports and |
| hops and executions that span one or more MQ | | | | organizes the information so it is useful. First, every |
| servers. | | | | transaction, no matter where it is generated within the |
| All may be well at the entrance and exit of | | | | IT environment is collected in one location. Then a |
| WebSphere MQ; however, messages may be stuck | | | | complex event processing (CEP) engine correlates the |
| at a deeper level and as a result applications are | | | | information in real time. Every single transaction that |
| impacted. | | | | flows through WebSphere MQ, or any other |
| It is also important to not only monitor queues and | | | | application, can be traced from beginning to end and |
| messages within WebSphere MQ but to also monitor | | | | back again. This end-to-end visibility makes it easy to |
| WebSphere MQ transactions. | | | | identify exactly where a problem has occurred And |
| Assumption #3: That a Computer Cannot Compete | | | | begin to resolve it before users and business |
| with Human Intelligence | | | | processes are disrupted. |
| Today's IT infrastructure is incredibly complex. There | | | | But more than this the CEP engine makes it possible |
| are generally commercial software applications, | | | | for IT staff to identify emerging problems and resolve |
| web-based applications, applications running on CICS | | | | them before the impact the end user. This means that |
| on the mainframe,.NET framework Windows | | | | a bank teller doesn't have to stand there apologizing |
| applications and Java web applications running on | | | | for the sluggish computer. The application performance |
| Application Servers. All these elements are often | | | | monitoring application had already warned IT that a |
| interconnected using WebSphere MQ. | | | | bottleneck was developing and exactly what was |
| The amount of information generated is far more than | | | | causing the problem. |