IT managers sound off on today's challenges

Network/Systems Management This newsletter is sponsored by Microsoft E-Mail Security: All facts, no PR Download this exclusive Gartner Magic Quadrant report now and get an in-depth look at 18 enterprise e-mail security vendors and their offerings. Discover whose products are going to get more popular and whose popularity will decline, which companies are leading the pack and which are ripe for acquisition. Network World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 05/28/07 IT managers sound off on today's challenges By Denise Dubie Application infrastructure management continues to challenge a majority of IT executives who said in a recent survey that they see losses in potential revenue and labor costs when systems are down and application performance degrades. In fact, about one-third of 300 senior IT professionals at Fortune 1000 companies said each hour of application downtime can cost the company more than $300,000. The survey, conducted in March by infrastructure automation vendor mValent, also found that troubleshooting configuration errors on application servers, middleware and databases required more than one working day for more than one-third of survey respondents. "Bases on these survey results and current average IT salaries … each single troubleshooting incident costs more than $1,250 in direct labor costs alone," the report reads. Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management Your business is only as good as your network, and your network is only as good as your application performance. Network World's Executive Guide shares tips, case studies and expert advice on how you can take advantage of new technologies to stay ahead of performance problems. Click here to download Considering the cost of labor, it's also interesting that the survey revealed that many of the companies surveyed employ more than 11 people to manage configuration changes to core application infrastructure assets including application servers, Web servers, middleware, databases and operating systems. Survey respondents identified installation and configuration of application infrastructure assets as "major time sinks" for their IT teams, estimating it can take more than four working days to install and configure a complete application stack. As a result, more then 60% of respondents said they are considering an investment in automated configuration, change and release management tools in 2007. An overwhelming majority -- 92% -- said that ensuring high availability for applications and business services was also a top priority in 2007 and nearly 80% have IT audit and compliance projects on their IT project road maps this year. Three-fourths of the respondents said they plan to migration software this year and 77% intend to institute management processes to improve IT service delivery to the business, the report says. Other key projects on the agenda for 2007 include ensuring IT compliance with external and internal regulatory requirements for 85% of respondents, demonstrating IT/business strategy alignment and improving IT staff productivity for 81% of IT executives surveyed.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES: 1. FAA aims to make business flights easier 2. Switches of the future 3. Michigan man fined for using free Wi-Fi 4. Google builds own servers for efficiency 5. Cisco routers cause major outage in Japan 6. Linux users say 'Sue me first, Microsoft' 7. 'American Idol' is popular, says Google's 'Hot Trends' 8. Amero school-scandal case raises questions 9. Microsoft further opens up identity platform 10. Don't sniff at used network gear MOST DOWNLOADED PODCAST: Why are we still getting spam?

Contact the author: Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise. This newsletter is sponsored by Microsoft E-Mail Security: All facts, no PR Download this exclusive Gartner Magic Quadrant report now and get an in-depth look at 18 enterprise e-mail security vendors and their offerings. Discover whose products are going to get more popular and whose popularity will decline, which companies are leading the pack and which are ripe for acquisition. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network/Systems Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007