Yankee Group Research Highlights Need for Radical Change in Infrastructure Management

Business Wire, Sept 18, 2007

Research Confirms Value of Top-Down Approach to Managing IT Assets

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Xangati, the provider of the industry's first rapid problem identification (RPI) appliances, announced today the availability of a newly published Yankee Group research paper titled, "Top-Down Management: The Best Way to Manage IT Assets as Business Assets." The paper focuses on how the emergence of new applications such as enterprise mobility, Voice over IP, virtualization and convergence have changed and complicated the operational challenges for the IT organization.

"IT organizations are being asked to deliver more applications to more locations while controlling operational expenses," said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president at Yankee Group. "Because of this increasing complexity, IT needs to radically change the way it manages the infrastructure to better service the end user."

According to the Yankee Group, the current bottom-up management approach puts IT organizations in a reactive rather than proactive mode. This is due to the fact that these solutions are optimized for siloed infrastructures, when the reality is in today's IT environments there is a complex web of interactions that cut across the silos. A top-down management model that puts endpoints and applications at the center of focus will enable IT to be much more effective in their role of supporting networks and applications.

Following are some of the key findings cited in the research paper:

* 90 percent of the time spent troubleshooting is on problem identification.

* 75 percent of the time, end users notice IT issues before the IT department does.

* Enterprises are requiring networks to be more "on-demand," available anytime, anywhere.

* There is a 14 percent employee productivity loss annually due to poor application performance and availability.

* 70 percent of network managers deem improving application performance their number-one issue.

* Innovation in the infrastructure management sector has not kept pace with other technology advances. Existing network and systems management (NSM) approaches look at the world from the bottom up and are not sufficient to effectively manage new, complex networks.

Also included in the paper are recommendations for helping companies adopt top-down management strategies.

"The top-down approach to infrastructure management, of which Xangati provides a good example, leads us closer to the holy grail of management - an organization in which IT is the first to respond to problems, not end users," said Kerravala.

"Yankee Group's recognition of the importance of the kind of top-down management framework Xangati offers is exciting," said David Messina, vice president of marketing at Xangati. "The report validates Xangati's view that understanding the application experience of endpoints is essential to delivering the rapid problem identification of issues affecting application and network performance."

To download a free copy of " Top-Down Management: The Best Way to Manage IT Assets as Business Assets," visit: http://www.xangati.com/html/top_down_management.php?flag=6

About Xangati

Xangati's rapid problem identification technology enables IT organizations to be the first to respond to application and network performance problems and ensures high productivity across the enterprise. The privately held company is headquartered in Cupertino, California. For more information, visit the company website at www.xangati.com.