The problem
The main objective of a monitoring solution is to collect data on a large perimeter, to correlate, to alert appropriately, to analyze and to produce information for the purpose of steering the information system or communicating to a fairly large audience, ranging from technical experts to the company's decision makers.
Historically, different monitoring technologies have been implemented, depending on the needs of the network, system and application teams, resulting in multiple silos that are incapable of communicating with each other, and of monitoring the availability and performance of IT services consumed by users. In response, some architectures add a hypervisor layer, responsible for this unification, which is often costly and adds complexity to the whole.
Finally, let's not forget that in order to achieve its full potential, a monitoring solution must be integrated with the other software components used to produce IT services: ticket management, information system knowledge repository (CMDB, Configuration Management Data Base), centralized analytical reporting.
What about the supply side? There are many niche players, sometimes with very different collection and analysis methods. It is therefore sometimes difficult to find one's way between open source and commercial offerings, Application Performance Management, SIEM systems, and application scenario execution.
The methodology
In order to optimize the chances of success of a supervision redesign project, and to minimize the costs, it is strongly advised to formalize a supervision roadmap, based on the following elements
A thorough audit processes, the tools used and the teams in charge of their configuration and use.
This audit establishes an analysis of the existing software components: number, functional objectives, actual use, state of configuration, advantages and difficulties encountered by the users in charge of their configuration and use, actual costs of use and maintenance of this software, quality of support, state of maintenance contracts, position of their publisher on its market, capacity to integrate, etc.
The formalization of the stretch targetThe target is described in terms of date, architecture, and organization. The target is described in terms of date, architecture and organization. The ITIL best practice repository plays an important role in formalizing the target in terms of processes. It is crucial to determine the key indicators produced by the supervision. Finally, this target must take into account the strategy for the evolution of the information system: on premise, private cloud, public cloud? outsourcing, co-management, complete internalisation?
The teams in charge of the availability, performance and transformation of the information system must be placed at the heart of the project, both on the Devdevelopment than on the side of the OpThe Commission has decided to launch a study on the operational/production aspects of the project.
In our next article, we will see how, through a concrete case, to choose the right monitoring tool or tools.
