Most IT departments have little time to sit down and develop strategies on optimizing production environments and delivering support services. While they’d like to implement the recommendations within reference architectures, day-to-day obligations prevent them from doing so. Tech companies aren’t standing idle in the face of this issue. In fact, some have developed reference architecture solutions (RAS) which empower IT to align their day-to-day operations with business-level objectives.
Like anything, not all reference architecture solutions are the same. Here are three features you should look for in these technologies:
“The average organization uses 730 cloud apps.”
A Hybrid IT Monitoring Platform
Between the pace at which technology changes and the number of systems enterprises have to manage – according to Netskope, the average organization uses 730 cloud apps – most IT departments lack strategic oversight of their infrastructure.
When assessing RAS options, find one that delivers a hybrid IT monitoring platform. This feature enables senior administrators to do everything from setting static thresholds for server workloads to managing role-based access controls. The platform provides a comprehensive overview of all active solutions, whether they be in the public cloud or an on-premises environment.
IT Operations Analytics
This reference architecture feature can actually sit within the hybrid IT monitoring platform. With IT operations analytics, admins can:
- Notice anomalous network traffic usage and take relevant actions.
- Map resource dependencies for applications (servers, networks, storage, etc.)
- Discover users across the enterprise and register their behaviors.
- Assess encryption strength and certificate expiration.
While the hybrid IT monitoring platform provides vision, the data analysis capabilities allow administrators to conduct detailed reports on system behaviors, revealing which changes need to occur in order to meet improvements.
SQL Workload Containerization
Some SQL databases can run up to around $3,000 per core. SQL workload containerization consolidates the servers running SQL workloads, possibly reducing your SQL database licensing costs by between 25 percent to 60 percent.
Why include SQL workload containerization in an RAS? For one thing, containers can save your enterprise much-needed memory, CPU and storage resources because they don’t introduce the demands imposed by virtual machines. In practice, the technology supports extensive server consolidation, reducing the amount of hardware you need to support.
Second, they’re quite portable, so you can move containers hosting relational database applications from one environment to another with minimal disruption.
Also, seek out an RAS that uses SQL workload containerization to promote fault protection. This is your enterprise information we’re talking about, so it’s advisable to use a solution that makes a point to protect your data.
Of course, there are other features to look for in an RAS solution. Come back soon to the Paramount Software Solutions blog for more information as to what RAS must include.
