Xangati

Even CIOs Think Xangati’s Cool

David Messina, VP Marketing and Product Management, Xangati

As a Gartner Cool Vendor for 2009, Xangati was presented with a rare opportunity at Symposium/ITxpo last week – direct access to a multitude of C-level executives.  For an emerging company like ours, face time of this nature is invaluable – especially in the context of seeing how our message plays at the upper echelons of IT. Turns out that the response was even better than I could have imagined and this is a statement coming from a staunch optimist. My somewhat guarded expectations were based upon the fact that management software often remains an afterthought in IT and is rarely something that shows up in surveys as top of mind for CIOs.

However, after hundreds of conversations it is clear that a shift has indeed occurred – perhaps it’s because these economic times have hit IT staffs hard and being asked to do more with less just doesn’t cut it, particularly when the management tools they have are long-in-the-tooth. What bubbles up at the CIO-level is that archaic management solutions leave them exposed to a number applications in their portfolio that are notoriously slow. And, having their business peers unhappy with a significant loss in productivity due to poor performing applications is not an acceptable steady state. 

What intrigued CIOs about Xangati was the statement that we could present anything and everything on their infrastructure live without agents or probes. There was strong alignment with our assertion that to catch intermittent performance issues, their people must have the ability to see the problems as they unfold, which cannot be done with sparse data gathering based upon infrequent polling intervals. The CIOs were also acutely aware of the fact that the concept of re-creating a problem is just not feasible anymore given the dynamic nature of virtualized, anywhere enterprises. 

The other part of being cool is the fact that no agents or probes are required to enjoy the benefits that Xangati brings. There were many “sounds too good to be true” conversations related to this concept and in response we found ourselves providing endless advertorials on the power of NetFlow. It remains amazing to me how under-marketed that technology is by the router and switch vendors. After all, CIOs think of those guys as “just the pipes” and why on earth wouldn’t they want to highlight that, essentially for free, their solutions provide a cornerstone for next generation management models?

So, in the end, we have a lot of follow-up to do in terms of sitting down with the CIOs we met and their teams to show them how we can make their incident management/problem resolution processes far more efficient.  We’re more than cool with that…

Webinar: Getting Visibility Into Applications and Subscribers' Activity on Your Network

Steve Rodgers, Marketing Communications Manager, Xangati

Join us for a Webinar on Tuesday, November 17

Speakers:
Zeb Elliott, Buggs Island Telephone
Brian James, Xangati

As an Internet/Broadband service provider your subscribers are using more bandwidth every day. With total Internet traffic growing at over 60% a year – you need to keep your subscribers satisfied while keeping bandwidth and support costs under control.

Join NeoNova and Xangati on Tuesday, November 17th at 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST to learn how Buggs Island Telephone lowers costs, increases revenue and boosts return on its network assets with NovaMonitor, powered by Xangati. 

Learn how Buggs Island uses NovaMonitor to:

• Reduce support costs by eliminating unnecessary truck rolls
• Reduce support calls with proactive notifications and subscriber visibility
• Create opportunities for add on service revenues
• Save thousands on bandwidth costs by eliminating abuse (spambots, etc.)
• Get visibility into what applications are being used by each subscriber

Title:  Getting Visibility Into Applications and Subscriber's Activity on Your Network
Date:  Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Time:  11:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM CST / 2:00 PM EST
Duration:  1 hour

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now.

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Bringing to Light the Top Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid: 5 of 5

 
Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, The Yankee Group

Today marks the final installment of the “Virtualization Pitfalls” series – I hope you have all enjoyed it. The final pitfall addressed in my Webinar last week covers possibly the most important component of all – the end user.

Pitfall 5: Ignoring the end user experience

No matter how big the cost savings is for a VM deployment, it can all be for naught if the end-user experience with their applications suffers. If users are no longer able to do their jobs effectively because of adverse performance, the company will suffer through less productive, unhappy users. This is a state that organizations would not be willing to tolerate even with all the great cost savings benefits of virtualization. However, given all of the changes taking place and the common pitfalls outlined in this series, how can an IT department be assured that everything will function correctly all of the time? The fact is that the current bottom up management tools (defined as solutions looking at the health of individual elements) are not designed to provide the level of end-user experience that is measured across physical and virtual domains.
 
IT organizations need have a way to measure and monitor the end-user experience from the top down (Exhibit 9) to fix problems as fast as possible when problems arise. The ability to record problems as they arise can also be a huge boost as the virtualization team will have real time information to isolate the problem.

Top down management in a next generation framework (often described as management 2.0) is critical to have a successful VM deployment, with a fast ROI and while still maintaining satisfied users. 

With that, we conclude our blog series to address the top challenges faced when moving to virtualization environment. Later in the week, we will post a link to access a single document that contains content from the entire series (and then some!) and can be forwarded along to your friends and co-workers. And remember, you can follow @XangatiPress and @zkerravala on Twitter to participate in more enlightening market and industry discussion. We’re looking forward to the continued dialog.

Bringing to Light the Top Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid: 4 of 5

Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, The Yankee Group

We’re almost there – only two more pitfalls to explore.

Pitfall 4: Losing track of virtual IP storage

The ability to move a virtual workload creates a tremendous amount of flexibility for organizations. VM mobility allows IT departments to move a workload, in real time, in the event of a disaster, for maintenance purposes or for performance purposes. However, when the workload moves, network configurations and storage must move with the virtual workload. Moving the network configuration parameters can be difficult but there are emerging “unified computing” systems that can help with synchronization of network settings – still leaving the problematic issue of moving storage in real-time. 

Exhibit 8 shows how complex storage can be in the data center, much less adding the difficulty of mapping VMs to storage. When a VM is moved away from the storage, performance can suffer or the application can break.

One way to solve this problem is to simply replicate the storage to every location that may need it. However, the cost of this alone could erode the savings in the consolidation of servers. Additionally, managing this amount of storage can lead to data integrity problems if the storage is not replicated properly. This is an area that could cause the organization significant problems if the proper visibility tools are not put in place, particularly given how difficult it is to manage storage if there is no knowledge of its location.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final installment of our “Virtualization Pitfalls” series. And remember to follow @XangatiPress and @zkerravala on Twitter to catch all five related topics and participate in the surrounding discussion.

Bringing to Light the Top Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid: 3 of 5

Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, The Yankee Group

Today, is the third installment of our series that highlights “Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid.” Pitfall #3 focuses on the challenges associated with the use of vSwitches when rolling out a virtualization solution.

Pitfall 3: Creating a visibility blind spot with vSwitches

A vSwitch, or virtual switch, is a software-based network switch that connects virtual servers. The need for the vSwitch is in essence a proof point of Pitfall #1—that VMs will not optimize themselves as more are layered onto the virtual environment. In fact, the vSwitch has been thought of by many as a panacea to performance problems in the virtual domain by adding “network capacity” within a physical server, which allows virtual servers to communicate directly – unimpeded by the physical realm.

The vSwitch may be a virtual switch, but it is a network switch and should necessitate the same level of expertise and management that one has come to expect with a physical switch. This means that the network configuration parameters, policies and other settings on the vSwitch need to be consistent with that of the physical switching environment (Exhibit 7). And therefore, close controls need to be in place to ensure that this consistency has been maintained before any significant communication occurs between virtual servers hosted within the same hypervisor. Otherwise, there can be an incredible variability in performance that would be difficult to unearth in a production state.

Compounding the complexity is that, in the default state, there is a visibility “blind spot” when it comes to presenting details about the application activity traversing a vSwitch. That is why it is essential to look at NetFlow as the technology that removes the blind spot – by feeding a management product key information about application activity in a fashion that requires no agents or probes. One has to study the market carefully to make sure that the version of vSwitch you deploy supports NetFlow. For example, there are some versions of VMware that support NetFlow in their vSwitches but not all. Cisco also has a vSwitch solution which is marketed as the Nexus 1000V.

Stay tuned on Monday for Pitfall #4. And, be sure to follow @XangatiPress and @zkerravala on Twitter to catch all five critical considerations and the surrounding discussion.

Bringing to Light the Top Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid: 2 of 5

Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, The Yankee Group

If you missed it yesterday, following the Webinar Xangati and I conducted last week: “Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid,” we kicked off a daily blog series to highlight the major themes discussed during the session. At the close of the series, we’ll be packaging up the full dialog (and more!) into a single document that can be easily shared with others as a tutorial of sorts to aide others in rolling out successful virtualization implementations. So, with that, let’s continue on with Pitfall #2…

Pitfall 2: Turning a blind eye to the interaction between virtual and physical realms
Managing across both the physical and virtual domains is very difficult. A virtual workload could exist on one server at one moment and then not be there the next. The VM may have been used to test something and then shut down or may have migrated to another server making it very difficult to understand which virtual workloads are running on which physical servers. 

This type of complexity is just one example why in a recent survey of data center managers, 85% of the respondents did not feel that the legacy products used to manage the physical environment would be sufficient in a virtual environment.

Legacy management software is anchored on static maps and triggers alarms on events such as devices going down and then coming back up. Management of virtual environments requires a deeper understanding of the interplay between several domains both physical and virtual. And, going back to the survey results, it is clear that multiple un-related management products are being invoked to facilitate “human correlation” when problems need to be identified and resolved. This can lead to finger pointing between the IT silos and longer than necessary troubleshooting time.


A management system capable of spanning both physical and virtual domains (Exhibit 6) is a necessity to create the level of visibility needed to fully manage a virtual environment. This will help administrators isolate problems and minimize mean time to repair.

Stay tuned for Pitfall #3 and be sure to follow Xangati and @zerravala on Twitter to catch all five pitfalls and the surrounding discussion.

Bringing to Light the Top Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid

Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, The Yankee Group

As has become standard with Xangati procedure, today we start a daily series of blog entries to recap the issues that were addressed in the Webinar we conducted together last week: 
“Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid.”  We are delivering each pitfall as a separate blog topic to provide the critical context that we hope will help companies avoid mistakes that have proven to have a dramatic impact on the effective rollout of virtualization projects. The pitfalls come straight from the hands-on experiences of real customers and present a clear path of “what not to do” for smoother and faster implementations.

At the close of this blog series, we will post a new white paper that expands on the topic further; and can be downloaded and shared with peers across your IT organization. So with that, let’s get started.

Pitfall #1: Assuming application resources will optimize themselves

The driving concept behind server virtualization is simple – take a bunch of applications running on poorly utilized servers and stack them on a single server running multiple VMs. The process is intended to improve overall utilization, cut down the number of physical servers, save a bucket of money and everything just magically works. In theory, or even in lab environments, this might be the case; however, the reality is that “letting it ride” and assuming the resources will self-optimize is a risky proposition. Applications may still perform poorly and negate any ROI that has been gained up to that point. Exhibit 5 (below) shows that managing virtual environments requires a continuous view into what resources are being used, the impact that has on application performance, as well as the end-user experience. When a change is made to one of these three areas, it impacts the other two and needs to be accounted for and measured.

IT managers require visibility into all resources being utilized to understand where problems can occur and then be able to pinpoint areas that could cause end-user or application performance failure. Since virtualized environments can be a like a “black box” to IT domains that have as stake in the activity of the data center, bottom up visibility of how individual elements are working is not sufficient. IT must cultivate an understanding of how all of these elements interact with one another – because it is the breakdown within these interactions that leads to performance problems that “fall between the cracks” and can’t be resolved. Without this level of visibility, companies will find it extremely difficult to maximize resource utilization and run virtual workloads in large-scale. 

Stay tuned for Pitfall #2 and it's answer...and don’t forget to follow @XangatiPress and @zkerravala on Twitter to make sure you see all five updates and can become a part of the dialog. We’re looking forward to it!

Webinar: Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid with Zeus Kerravala of The Yankee Group

Steve Rodgers, Marketing Communications Manager, Xangati

WEBINAR: 
Five Virtualization Pitfalls to Avoid with Zeus Kerravala of The Yankee Group
DATE: 
October 15, 2009
TIME: 
10:00 am PDT • 12:00 pm CDT • 1:00 pm EDT

Join Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of enterprise research at The Yankee Group, as he shines the light on five virtualization pitfalls research has shown to have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of virtualization implementations. The list of five pitfalls comes from The Yankee Group’s clients’ hands-on experiences in finding out “what not to do.” And by enumerating these five pitfalls, a blueprint is created of how to effectively plan for and address each one of these issues—which in turn will lead to smoother and faster virtualization projects.

What you will learn from this Webinar:
•    Details on five common virtualization pitfalls

o    Assuming application resources will optimize themselves
o    Turning a blind eye to the interaction between virtual and physical realms
o    Creating a visibility blind spot with vSwitches
o    Losing track of virtual IP storage
o    Ignoring the end user experience

•    Recommendations of how to proactively address these five challenges
•    Examples of management solutions that can address these issues scaleably and cost-effectively

REGISTER NOW

Plus, each attendee will receive a new white paper that expands on this same topic and can be shared with your peers across your IT organization.

A Technology Partnership Rooted in Collaboration

David Messina, VP Marketing and Product Management, Xangati

Much like BMC’s announcement with McAfee yesterday, today’s Xangati announcement signals yet another bridge built within the enterprise – but this time between the service desk and the end-user themselves. By bringing these unlikely collaborators together and eliminating the visibility gaps inherent when network performance issues arise, enterprise organizations can not only resolve technology issues more quickly but significantly increase productivity of both parties and reduce IT costs through greater efficiency.

The technology alliance forged with BMC Software, along with general availability of the new Xangati Virtual Trouble Ticket (VTT) for BMC Remedy Service Desk integration, now offers mutual enterprise customers a more real-time and collaborative understanding of end-user performance issues for instant problem identification and resolution.

BMC Remedy is unrivaled in providing incident management solutions for the service desk function and the seamless integration of our solution helps solidify that position by keeping customers in the driver’s seat – even while the applications and infrastructure they support are rapidly changing with the advent of virtualization and cloud computing. Instead of taking copious written notes on what an end-user speculates is the reason for an application or network performance issue, a service desk representative can now simply launch a link within the BMC Remedy solution that includes a visual “note” of the end-user’s experience.

By bringing IT more in tune with the end-user through a single, integrated solution, we are removing the guess-work involved in resolving performance problems and better serving the needs of the business overall. We look forward to seeing our joint customers benefit greatly from Xangati’s enhanced offering with BMC. Watch the video demo and tell us what you think.

Cloud Computing & Virtualization Brings Renewed Interest in Application Management

Alan Robin, CEO, Xangati

The recent activity in the network management sector (CA acquiring NetQoS for $200M and the SolarWinds IPO earlier in the year) has us incredibly energized for the months ahead. Xangati congratulates both Austin-based companies and wishes them well during this exciting time in the industry.

Across-the-board, M&A activity has certainly heated up and it is now nearly impossible to find a single deal unrelated to virtualization or cloud computing. However, the most encouraging aspect of this movement is that a growing portion of the activity is focused on managing virtualization and cloud computing environments versus building them. The CA/NetQoS acquisition, for example, underscores network management increasingly becoming about application performance management – across physical, virtual and cloud environments. FINALLY we are seeing application management as a first-line consideration versus an afterthought!

Xangati is ahead-of-the-curve both technically and in being first-to-market with innovative 2.0 frameworks that are proven to work now by putting the end-user first. By providing the end-user with real-time insight into their application activity and response time on the network or to their specific virtualized and/or cloud applications, we are able to deliver the most comprehensive understanding of an end-users experience. That, in turn, enables IT to get right to the heart of the performance issue and make a faster and more direct route to problem ownership and resolution – whether that be with the enterprise help desk, telecommunications provider and/or cloud provider. Xangati’s solution reflects the understanding that existing application management headaches are compounded with the complex and dynamic environment of the virtualized and cloud computing world; and, fast resolution to performance issues can only be achieved with the end-user in the equation. The other 1.0 application management solutions on the market today do not operate with such an understanding.

What will the coming year bring for application management – even more M&A activity, an increase in IPO filings or a select few startups rising to the top to challenge the incumbents? Only time will tell; but, what we do know is Xangati is here to stay and we look forward to closing out what has proven to be a great year for us and our peers.

4 Days of Standing on My Feet, Yet Still Energized: Perspectives on VMworld

Having been in this business for what is now deemed a long time, it is generally hard to get jazzed about going to a tradeshow. Maybe that has to do with being cornered way too many times by folks just looking to “kick tires” and come away with as much free schwag as possible. Despite that, I was actually looking forward to our participation in the VMworld New Innovator’s Pavilion. Part of my adrenaline came from the fact that, in this economy, I was able to convince my boss that spending precious marketing dollars to go to an event like this was essential. The balance of my excitement was in knowing that VMworld was an important entrée for Xangati into an exciting new market—enterprise virtualization and cloud computing.

I was looking forward to conversations with folks who were actually there to learn and had to report back on those learnings. And, I have to say that I am completely shocked by how productive every conversation I had there was. People were truly there to do and discuss business and were looking for answers to tough questions. And, when the four days were all said and done, the Xangati team was as energized as it was the first night—despite having told our story and demoed our new solution hundreds of times. Our recent product addition—the AppMonitor for Virtualization Management—proved to fundamentally strike a chord in terms of helping IT with the challenges of end-user application performance and the energy of realizing as much was infectious.

Probably the most unexpected realization for me was the incredibly fruitful conversations had with traditional management vendors, offering more classic application performance management solutions. There is a growing acknowledgment that understanding applications from the network perspective is a necessary and important complement to solutions that look at things from the application transaction level. It appears that the reality has set in that basic virtualization (if there is such a thing), virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and cloud computing all add layers of complexity that ultimately require new ways to look at new problems.

Adding to the storyline was hearing directly from VM administrators in bulk that manageability is important. It sounds obvious, but the reality is that management is almost always an afterthought. To scale virtualization projects beyond where things are today and to lay the foundations for VDI, management solutions will have to take a clear and present role. Xangati is looking forward to working with customers to make sure that this is the case.