Frameworks: Back From the Dead or Evolutionary Success Story?

Presented by Rich Ptak

Managing Partner

Ptak, Noel & Associates LLC

rlptak@ptaknoelassociates.com

www.ptaknoelassociates.com

Abstract

There exists a rising drumbeat of support for integrated

management solutions, resulting from increase in data

center complexity. Complexity, along with maturing and

new technology, changed the landscape to make

operations managers less leery of frameworks or solution

platforms. Should IT managers and admins give them a

second look? Or do they remain a good choice only for

the few? Find out in this session.

What I Assume You Know

• IT management frameworks are the topic

• Frameworks = Platforms (I’ll use the term interchangeably)

• This is not a technical feature/function review or comparison

• Technology marketing is different from the technology

• Why frameworks are necessary, but difficult

• What we have learned from the past

• What capabilities are behind the current marketing

• Your trade-off decisions

When I’m Done, You’ll Know

Why Are They News Now?

New possibilities, new challenges

• The world changed

• New technology

• New pressures

• New IT role

• Technology/knowledge

What’s In It For Me?

• IT Exec marketing message• Higher productivity

• Align with business

• Lower costs

But haven’t I heard this before?

• Technical marketing message• Set of modular management products work

individually or use common framework to act and work together more efficiently

• To protect your investment they are built to open standards with published API’s that allow them to integrate and work with all your existing solutions

• They are or will be automated, policy-driven and service-oriented

They don’t talk as much about this!

What’s In It For Me?

Integration Is Difficult Because…

• There are many different management functions requiring different types and subsets of data

• There are many different software suppliers

• Point-to-point integration has been hard to change

• Enterprises do similar things in different ways

• Technologists tend to ignore people and process

Are Current Frameworks A Retread?

• Yes, because…

…the basic idea is the same!

• No, because…

…what has been learned from past

implementations, and the new technologies

that have emerged!

A Little History

• Where did they come from?

• Development environment

• User confusion over ‘WIIFM’

• Vendors built ‘application models’

• A need and market niche revealed

What was the result? Limited success that was not worth the upfront investment

• What happened?

• Too confusing

• Too expensive

• Too cumbersome

• State of the technology

• Lack of experience/knowledge

A Little History

What We Have Learned From Past

• Frameworks have multiple functions

• Mustn’t ignore people, process and data

• Must deliver benefits during adoption period

• Enterprises will always have silos and

multiple suppliers… (we have only partially

learned this one!)

How have these lessons been applied?Look at the capabilities behind the current marketing

Platform? Framework? What’s It Do?

Discussing three distinct deliverable functions:

1. Development framework for building applications.

2. A set of shared or common services and functions to make it more compact, efficient and adaptable

3. Integration (capability) so that everything works in harmony!

When they talk, they may mean 1, 2 or all 3 of theseAnd they aren’t always clear on which it is!

Three levels of implementation :

1. The individual silo (applications, networks, systems, etc.)

2. For families of products from a vendor • Within the family• With third parties

3. The Unified Management Framework

Only the first two are REALLY real, today

Platform? Framework? What’s It Do?

Real-World Examples

• Big 4: Have multiple frameworks based on technology silos used to tightly integrate their products w/i the silo but with integration hooks and access points e.g., for their network, application and server products (Where do these come from? Think about the products from acquired companies)

• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: If your priority pain point involves network management -- you want to query your vendor about the framework that underlies their network solution suite.

• Open source: From emerging vendors solutions tend to be siloed since they aren’t built on legacy solutions, e.g., development platforms like Rails, MontaVista, etc. but vendors like BEA, NoKia, RedHat, etc. may have multiple frameworks.

• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: What are you looking for and what are your problem solution priorities -- how do these match the ‘design concept’ or focus of the platform that is at the heart of the vendor you are speaking with, if they started life as an application manager -- and your problem focus is network management -- you will want more information.

Real-World Examples

• BIG 4: All have some level of family framework that will allow them to pull their total offering together -- no one has a completely Unified Management Framework.

• What you need to know: Know the context of your problem and the priorities -- if you are interested in a full management suite -- it’s worth understanding how they are pulling together the existing platforms, as well as their plans moving forward.

But it isn’t necessarily all their fault!

Real-World Examples

The Dirty, Little Secret….

• The vision is the SAME!

• The final goal is the same, i.e., A UNIFIED MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK!

• The approach, architecture and integration standards are fundamentally the same

• What is different are:

• Product starting points

• Delivery timeframes

And, THAT’s important to YOU!

1. Leverage existing investment

2. Allow for dynamic discovery and adaptation to change

3. Foster coordination across teams

4. Facilitate collaboration and communication

5. Provide data that is: accessible, shared, synchronize and consolidated

All frameworks should:

THE QUESTION IS: does it have these things for the specific products and features you need now? Will they exist in time for the next set of capabilities you need?

Examples Of Different Timelines

• Retail

• After SLM want to provide access to configuration

history data

• Then, get more, better control of change requests

• Telecom

• After network management, will add customer

service views

• Then, add device change management

There’s one more…..

One More Example…

• Online services

• After change control and configuration

history views

• Then add service level monitoring

They all end up in the same place but take different paths

To Understand The Trade-Off Decisions, You Must Know…

• What do you want to do today?

• understand the business problems, priorities and

pain points

• understand which existing solutions MUST be

leveraged

• How soon do you need to see those results?

• understand how much pre-canned solution you

need today, vs helping the vendor create the

next solution

BUT, that’s not all….

• What can you afford?

• Current budget vs. potential cuts

• People need training

• What do you want to do next?

• determine if the vendor will be ready in

time

To Understand The Trade-Off Decisions, You Must Know……

• How many different platforms can you live with? • Depends on how large you are

• Depends on silo politics

• Depends on vendor capabilities

To Understand The Trade-Off Decisions, You Must Know…

Summary

• Know and follow the business

• Frameworks are necessary for everyone, but

not everyone’s frameworks needs are the same

• There is no such thing as a ‘fully integrated

solution’

• Understand what you need and when you need

it, then partner with a vendor that has the

same timeline for delivering capabilities

• Consider on-going support, growth, expansion

Questions?

Ask the Expert time on the show floor: Thursday,

October 23 4:30 – 5:30PM

rlptak@ptaknoelassociates.com