Doug Roberts

Author Archives: Doug Roberts

IDG Contributor Network: Are you seeing what I’m seeing?

Enterprises are investing in their networks at an accelerating rate. As legacy IT on-premises infrastructure gives way to hybrid cloud and virtualized environments, and an escalating data tsunami drives data center expansions, increasing investments of time and money are raising the stakes ever higher. Unfortunately, end users’ expectations for service are growing as well, piling additional demands onto network operators and engineers who are already wrestling with network migration challenges.Yet despite the fact that the enterprise networking environment is rapidly changing, IT support teams are still using the same network performance metrics to monitor their networks and evaluate whether or not service delivery is up to par. The problem is that they’re using a one-dimensional tool to measure a subjective experience that tool was not designed to even understand, much less aid in troubleshooting.  It’s kind of like trying to tighten a screw with a hammer.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Are you seeing what I’m seeing?

Enterprises are investing in their networks at an accelerating rate. As legacy IT on-premises infrastructure gives way to hybrid cloud and virtualized environments, and an escalating data tsunami drives data center expansions, increasing investments of time and money are raising the stakes ever higher. Unfortunately, end users’ expectations for service are growing as well, piling additional demands onto network operators and engineers who are already wrestling with network migration challenges.Yet despite the fact that the enterprise networking environment is rapidly changing, IT support teams are still using the same network performance metrics to monitor their networks and evaluate whether or not service delivery is up to par. The problem is that they’re using a one-dimensional tool to measure a subjective experience that tool was not designed to even understand, much less aid in troubleshooting.  It’s kind of like trying to tighten a screw with a hammer.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The state of the network is murky

Hybrid IT networking has come a long way in the past decade, as enterprises have gradually come to embrace and trust cloud computing. Yet, despite the growing popularity of both private and public clouds, many enterprise IT teams are still struggling with how to handle the resulting migration challenges.Originally envisioned as simply a way to reduce costs, migration to the cloud has escalated in large part due to a drive for greater agility and flexibility. In fact, according to a recent State of the Network global survey of more than 600 IT professionals, the top two reasons enterprises are moving to the cloud are to increase IT scalability and agility, and to improve service availability and reliability. The need to lower costs was ranked number four, tied with the desire to deliver new services faster.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The state of the network is murky

Hybrid IT networking has come a long way in the past decade, as enterprises have gradually come to embrace and trust cloud computing. Yet, despite the growing popularity of both private and public clouds, many enterprise IT teams are still struggling with how to handle the resulting migration challenges.Originally envisioned as simply a way to reduce costs, migration to the cloud has escalated in large part due to a drive for greater agility and flexibility. In fact, according to a recent State of the Network global survey of more than 600 IT professionals, the top two reasons enterprises are moving to the cloud are to increase IT scalability and agility, and to improve service availability and reliability. The need to lower costs was ranked number four, tied with the desire to deliver new services faster.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is the IT help desk model broken?

There’s no doubt about it – today’s workers have fully embraced the trend toward remote working. In fact, according to last year’s Gallup “State of the American Workplace” survey, roughly 43 percent of employees report they have worked remotely.  It would seem that the genie is out of the bottle, and it’s not likely to go back in without a fight.This mass migration off premises changes the dynamic between users and IT help desk teams. An operator can no longer run down the hall to ask a user “Can you show me what the problem is with your computer?” More importantly, without having total visibility in the cloud, the operator may be completely unable to ‘see’ any problems that users are experiencing as they work remotely.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: IT teams are drowning in data – throw them a lifeline

Today’s businesses thrive on Big Data insights — from sales reports and customer demographics, to business expenses and trend analysis. This explosion of data is multiplied by escalating social media, rich multimedia files and the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s no wonder that the growth of network data traffic continues to defy expectations, and IT support teams are struggling to keep up.But beyond simply being awash in the sheer volume of data traffic, a more complex challenge for enterprise IT is how to make the best use of network performance metadata to streamline workflows, enhance productivity and meet service level expectations, while optimizing the user experience. All too often, IT support teams are drowning in a sea of data, treading water without direction while the end user waits for resolution of their issue.To read this article in full, please click here