CCSS Publishes Availability Monitoring White Paper to Help IT Managers Build a Path to Profit
Released on = May 29, 2007, 8:02 am
Press Release Author = CCSS
Industry = Computers
Press Release Summary = May 24, 2007 - CCSS, announces today the publication of a new white paper surrounding the subject of availability for IBM System i (iSeries) Managers. The Document offers a professional perspective on the hotly debated availability issue, what it means to key groups in small and large organisations and provides a practical guide to resolving costly incidence of unplanned downtime.
Press Release Body = Paul Ratchford, Product Manager for CCSS, explains why this issue is so strongly felt in the iSeries community, "Although the iSeries platform itself is known for its stability, a lack of availability is a problem that can affect any organisation to varying degrees. Those degrees are measurable and can be pinpointed to a dollar figure which can be quite alarming. The onus is on system managers to tackle the issue in such a way that, short of the most extreme and unforeseen circumstances, there is no likelihood of unplanned downtime. In speaking to customers and users alike, we can see a majority trend moving increasingly towards a zero tolerance status as far as unplanned downtime is concerned."
CCSS has always maintained a view that effective systems management underpins all forms of availability assurance. The latest incarnation of their QSystem Monitor solution (V12) exemplifies the concept by giving managers unrestricted monitoring views and capabilities at the component level to ensure the availability of the system itself is reinforced by monitoring the individual availability of any given object, job, and communication element. By publishing the white paper, CCSS believes iSeries managers can achieve greater clarity on the availability issue and a benefit from a roadmap of considerations when choosing an appropriate solution for their system or network needs.
The white paper outlines the issue by defining what the term 'lack of availability' means for each group of an organisation and gives details of factors that contribute to the overall cost of downtime for accurate calculations. A case study looks at the immediate financial impact of an unplanned downtime event for a large retailer and discusses the consequences of unchecked availability in other industries such as financial and FM organisations.
With a broad audience in mind, the white paper covers the concept of high availability of both the software and hardware (Global Mirroring) variety and seeks to educate the reader on the common goals of availability and how these can be achieved beyond a system level - especially useful for smaller organisations and larger shops with existing HA (High Availability) solutions. Examples of common problems that present a threat to availability are given together with an availability checklist to help managers identify any potential areas of vulnerability that could result in users being unable to access applications, disruption to the escalation of important messages via paging devices or a break in auditable data in a failover situation.
The white paper shows managers it is possible to eliminate the associated financial loss of unplanned downtime and even provide quantifiable answers to questions such as 'how available was our system today?' via easily understood and universally unchallenged reports for management, colleagues, internal and external customer groups.
The full downloadable version of the free White Paper is available today exclusively on the CCSS Web Site: www.ccssltd.com
About CCSS CCSS develops, supports and markets IBM System i performance monitoring and reporting, message management and remote management solutions. An Advanced IBM Business Partner, CCSS develops powerful solutions to support some of the world's most demanding System i environments across many industries including insurance, banking, pharmaceutical and manufacturing. All CCSS solutions are IBM ServerProven and qualify for IBM's ServerProven rebate program.
Existing customers that rely on CCSS's feature-rich solutions include leading organisations such as Volvo, Mattel, Newell-Rubbermaid, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Siemens Medical, RWE npower and Waterstone's.
CCSS is headquartered in Gillingham, Kent, UK with key regional headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Bonn, Germany and Makati City, Philippines together with a global agent network spanning Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands and Sweden.