IT problems usually need to be handled by the network engineer or Systems Engineer. These people are the craftsman of the IT trade. However, the solutions no matter how robust should be run through the Architect. Every IT department should have at least one person who sees and implements the big picture. This big picture is knowing the overall business goals and the limits of technology, but also the external governance and regulatory issues too.
The CIO sets the vision for the big picture. The Architect executes. In our business, while all the roles are valuable and important , the role of the Architect is critical to ensure that business goals and objectives are being met in a highly effective, efficient, and cost sensitive manner. These are the folks creating the next generation IT infrastructure. The CIO and the Purchasing person are just rubber stamping it… ah, I mean Approving it as Service Desk Request. In my previous Blogs, I talked about IT shops having a hodge-podge set of tools. The goal of the Architect is to take what they already have and make it work or blueprint a plan to make it work better.
The Architect can filter the tech speak to business speak. They are able to translate the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the business services and identify what is important to the IT goals and objectives. They are in alignment with the CIO vision. They tend ask the questions;
-
Where is performance effected the most and Why?
- Is computing capacity enough to handle the current and growth situations?
- Is there effectual support for the end user?
- What is impacting SLAs and why?
- Does the solution offer synergies and solutions to each business segment or LOB (Line of Business)?
They look to our diagnostic and analytical products like OpManager, Applications Manager, Netflow Analyzer, Eventlog Analyzer, Firewall Analyzer and IT360. Sure, they want to know the day to day of what’s up and down and the response times, but they look at these metrics as to the relationship of the business goals. They are interested in the trend reporting and the inter-dependencies among IT infrastructure components. They have this 6th sense, this spatial reasoning ability to provide Foresight into the IT organization. The Architect may not have a say in the staff hiring, but they are certainly aware of the utilization of staff. Where and why it’s performing…or more importantly why it’s not performing. They are just giving the CIO ammo to fight the good fight for staffing.
One of these Architects who turned consultant is Sean Freeman, CEA. He admits he drank the ManageEngine Coolaid a few years ago…and liked it. He has 20 years experience as an implementor of IT infrastructure at a government contractor and mid / large enterprises. At our past ManageEngine Users Conference, I caught up to him and miked him up.
http://www.manageengine.com/products/eventlog/testimonials.html
One of his first stories is he would schedule a meeting with himself every Tuesday AM. He would pour through the ManageEngine reports from the last week and look for trends. Look at trending vs. real-time stats. How long has an issue been degrading? How long to close tickets? Human error is still the largest contributor to IT problems. He stressed the importance to have a strong change management mechanism. ManageEngine Device Expert helps automate the device configuration changes, but also keep the human intervention in check. Then with Eventlog Analyzer, he was able to find the moment in time to isolate the issue.
Weeks later, I interviewed him again. Beyond the proactive alerting and troubleshooting perspective, he said security was a constant concern. Who is hitting us? How much of a target are we? What’s the Risk Exposure?
Part of the architecting process was setting up Service Desk type of services and workflows. He defines how to deal with Change Requests. Who is supposed to be aware of the situation, who is to approve, test and deploy.
Finally, he said it is a matter of taking control of your environment, being accountable and being able to report back to the business units. Excelling at the operational level empowers the strategic level of IT. Full circle.
Eric Wegner
Business Development Manager
eric.wegner@zohocorp.com
732-801-9083
