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A smart organization's guide to VM sprawl management

VM sprawl plagues the virtualized environments of many organizations. The key to overcoming it is incorporating automation and orchestration in your sprawl management plan. Continue Reading

Network change and configuration management primer

With network change and configuration management (NCCM), enterprises aim to standardize the way they implement network change without disturbing existing systems. That often means using NCCM tools to map and archive the entire network and its components. Continue Reading

ITIL guide: Best practices, implementation and training

This Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guide has all you need to know about ITIL best practices, implementation, certification, training and tools. Learn about the ITIL framework and IT change management from our compilation of resources in this guide. Continue Reading

Forgo outages with application dependency mapping

Create a detailed map of application dependencies from the CMDB and cloud resources and help prevent unexpected outages. Continue Reading

Configuration management processes take down GRC challenges

Configuration management processes speed deployments, but tools that know effective licenses and data storage details aid in another area that businesses are keen to get right. Continue Reading

What CMDB benefits can we expect beyond a network management system?

An NMS provides real-time feedback about operations and performance. A CMDB maintains relationships between components of an environment. Should we have both? Continue Reading

To prevent VM sprawl, put data first and tools second

The creation of too many VMs and the continued existence of unused VMs plague modern IT infrastructure. This three-part guide looks at the ongoing battle against virtual machine sprawl, with a focus on strategies and tools for tracking VM lifecycles. Servers can be virtualized so easily, a reality that is both a blessing and a curse. Unneeded VMs waste an organization’s resources and can create licensing complications. To combat these inefficiencies, IT teams should put specific controls in place and adopt strategies that prevent VM sprawl. This guide emphasizes the importance of business policies that require users to justify the need for and duration of a VM. Without reasonable controls in place, VMs will proliferate and, over time, diminish the effectiveness of a virtualized infrastructure.

While many organizations have adopted sound practices for deploying virtual machines, they have not succeeded in effectively managing these virtualized environments. As a result, they are confronting server sprawl and losing the full benefit of their virtualization investments. Products exist to address this issue; some are from major virtualization vendors and others from third-party vendors. Combined with firm policies, these products can assist admins in managing VM sprawl, if not stopping it altogether.

Use SAP SolMan to address performance comprehensively

SAP Solution Manager's monitoring tools are only one way companies can use SolMan to improve system performance, writes expert Chris Kernaghan. Continue Reading

DCIM's advantages for flexible data center planning

DCIM software has evolved from building information modeling (BIM) systems into a broader category of data center management. Continue Reading