critical application

Today, hybrid cloud is increasingly the norm, and enterprises are challenged with ways to have visibility, manage and make use of all this data – both on-premises and in the cloud. While much attention has been given to primary data affecting mission-critical workloads, data for secondary workloads – backup, test/dev, disaster recovery, and archiving to name a few – have become siloed the same way application data has, leading to multiple point solutions to manage an increasing amount of data. This white paper looks at the evolution of these challenges and offers practical advice on ways to store, manage and move secondary data in hybrid cloud architectures while extracting the hidden value it can provide. Download to learn more.

Over the last several years, manufacturers have embraced cloud applications. However, some manufacturers remain reluctant to migrate ERP systems and other business-critical applications to the cloud. Read on to discover four areas where manufacturers can benefit from a more complete understanding of how and why Epicor Cloud ERP offers unique advantages compared to on-premises deployment, including: • Increased data security • Greater financial visibility and control • Better long-term reliability • Easier access to cutting-edge tech innovation Moving an ERP environment to the cloud enables IT leaders to free up the resources they need to partner with the business and to focus on more strategic technology initiatives. Download the white paper to learn more.

If your organization's servers run applications that are critical to your business, chances are that you'd benefit from an application delivery solution. Today's Web applications can be delivered to users anywhere in the world and the devices used to access Web applications have become quite diverse.

Aligning IT and business perspectives requires the ability to create links between configuration information in the CMDB and the business service as experienced by the user. Service Dependency Mapping (SDM) products automate the process of creating and maintaining these links.

Generally, CMDBs populated by discovery tools alone simply aren't usable. They fail because they contain massive amounts of irrelevant information. You avoid this pitfall by correctly populating your CMDB in four simple steps.

Because business success is tightly fused with technology, IT costs are rising, and this trend is expected to continue. As a result, businesses are demanding that IT be more than a static resource. IT is expected to deliver business results with a measurable contribution to the organization's bottom line.

ITIL provides a framework of customizable best practice initiatives that help organizations consistently deliver high-quality IT services. Effective ITIL implementation adds value to the IT infrastructure and improves business and service delivery.

Composite applications can provide multiple benefits, such as business agility, better utilization of business software assets through code reuse, development efficiencies, and cost optimization. Once companies are skilled at deploying them, many find that they roll out new applications and integrations faster, while maximizing the value of "tried and true" software components.

Application management requires visibility from multiple vantage points within the IT enterprise, combined with a centralized information store that pulls the technology pieces of the application puzzle into a coherent whole.

To meet the challenges of intense competition and increasing customer demands, companies must tightly align their IT service management with business issues and priorities. This paper outlines the maturity steps involved in the progression towards proactive Business Service Management (BSM) and explains how ASG's metaCMDB helps secure its seamless adoption.

Application Portfolio Optimization (APO) provides executives with tools and information to assess the quality and condition of application assets as well as a means for understanding the impact of proposed application changes.

Improved business productivity often requires more efficient IT and more efficient IT cannot be achieved without a better understanding of the way business services are run and delivered. Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) have emerged as a central component for Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and business service management (BSM).

As IT evolves towards a more business-aligned position, it must seek out new ways of working that support more effective operations, service creation, and service delivery. These include technologies, processes, and a culture that supports higher levels of accountability, as well as more dynamic responsiveness to business needs.

End-user expectations and high levels of performance against Service Level Agreements (SLAs) must be achieved or organizations risk the loss of business. This paper details key capabilities needed for successful end-user monitoring and provides critical considerations for delivering a successful end-user experience.

Targeted at IT executives responsible for both the financial and ultimate project oversight of an enterprise CMDB initiative, this white paper sets expectations for ROI calculations for CMDB initiatives, provides basic ROI best practices, and gives readers sufficient insight to move forward with their CMDB project.

Virtualization is now mainstream. Enterprises continue to heavily invest in virtualization projects and while short term hardware and cost saving benefits are being achieved, few enterprises achieve anywhere close to the full potential of virtualization as they struggle with new problems like assuring performance and availability, preventing VM sprawl, and maximizing resource utilization

Business Service Management (BSM) is of growing importance in the IT world. By managing IT systems according to the business services they support - like order entry, online sales, shipping, or customer service - IT is able to deliver on real business goals like providing competitive advantage, improving customer satisfaction, driving revenue growth, and increasing shareholder value.

Configuration Management is at the heart of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) and forms the foundation for Business Service Management (BSM). In fact, it is safe to say that neither the ITIL IT Service Management (ITSM) processes nor the BSM functions that leverage ITSM can be efficiently carried out without accurate configuration and dependency information.

Effective workload automation that provides complete management level visibility into real-time events impacting the delivery of IT services is needed by the data center more than ever before. The traditional job scheduling approach, with an uncoordinated set of tools that often requires reactive manual intervention to minimize service disruptions, is failing more than ever due to todays complex world of IT with its multiple platforms, applications and virtualized resources.

Virtualization continues to grow at 20 percent or more per year, but it is not expected to overtake existing physical architectures at least through 2010. This white paper examines the unique challenges of virtualization and offers tips for its successful management alongside IT's physical deployments.

A recent survey of CIOs found that over 75% want to develop an overall information strategy in the next three years, yet over 85% are not close to implementing an enterprise-wide content management strategy. Meanwhile, data runs rampant, slows systems, and impacts performance. Hard-copy documents multiply, become damaged, or simply disappear.

There are success stories of businesses that have implemented Business Service Management (BSM) with well-documented, bottom-line results. What do these organizations know that their discouraged counterparts don't?

Configuration Management is at the heart of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and forms the foundation for Business Service Management (BSM). In fact, it is safe to say that neither the ITIL IT Service Management (ITSM) processes nor the BSM functions that leverage ITSM can be efficiently carried out without accurate configuration and dependency information.

Application modernization is a powerful method for extending the life and improving the business value of a company's critical application assets. It provides an attractive and cost effective alternative to application development, enabling companies to defer investment in replacement initiatives without compromising business support.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are rapidly moving beyond the realms of academia and speculative fiction to enter the commercial mainstream, with innovative products that utilize AI transforming how we access and leverage information. AI is also becoming strategically important to national defense and in securing our critical financial, energy, intelligence, and communications infrastructures against state-sponsored cyberattacks. According to an October 2016 report issued by the federal government’s National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology (NSTCC), “AI has important applications in cybersecurity, and is expected to play an increasing role for both defensive and offensive cyber measures.” Based on this projection, the NSTCC has issued a National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan to guide federally-funded research and development. The era of AI has most definitely arrived, but many still don’t understand the basics of this im