Content Country-Formatnewsletter-Format Article for Newsletter

You Are Here: Home Page -> Formatnewsletter -> Format Article for Newsletter

Newsletter Article

Here is Why Linux & Windows Server Management Is Necessary formatted for a newsletter with 65 characters per line.

Return to Why Linux & Windows Server Management Is Necessary

Why Linux & Windows Server Management Is Necessary

by mdofpc

The go-go 90s are history, and now that the partys over,
corporations the world over are nursing a king-sized post-bubble
hangover. From the factory floor to the data center, businesses
large and small are looking to reduce costs by wringing maximum
efficiency out of scarce resources. In short, everyones looking
to do more with less.

This trend is especially true in IT. Todays computing
infrastructure is absolutely critical to a modern organization.
From email to file servers to ERP systems, the health of a
business is dependent on the health of its IT infrastructure. In
spite of ITs growing importance, budget constraints are forcing
CIOs to manage increasingly complex hardware and software
infrastructures without increasing the ranks of system
administration personnel. In fact, many organizations are
experiencing staffing reductions, making this task even more
daunting for those left behind.

Navigating todays tough business environment means effectively
managing the existing mission critical infrastructure without
increasing costs or administrative resources. One of the ways to
accomplish this is by leveraging server management to increase
the level of automation for routine but necessary tasks. Let's
take a look at what server management entails, as well as the
various types of server management tools available today and what
they can do to make life easier for today's harried CIO or IT
manager.

Why Server Management?

Make no mistake: Server management is absolutely necessary.
Server OSes must be patched, applications must be upgraded, new
applications must be installed, and server configurations must be
frequently audited to ensure that corporate policies and
guidelines are being followed. The difference lies in the level
of automation: performing these vital tasks manually takes time
and puts a strain on scarce resources.

The key to doing more with less means using server management
tools that automate many of the tasks currently performed
manually.

Corey Ferengul, vice president and principal analyst of
Operations Strategies at the META Group, says there are numerous
tools available for server management. These tools perform tasks
such as server provisioning, configuration auditing, patch
deployment, inventory, execution of administrative tasks, and
monitoring of server log files, says Ferengul. Successful server
management automates many of these tasks so they run behind the
scenes.

Have Tools, Will Automate

As the recent flurry of damaging, selfreplicating worms
demonstrated, OS patching to repair vulnerabilities is a critical
server management task. But, manually managing the constant
stream of security patches and updates quickly becomes a
Sisyphean task: You need to promptly apply patches, yet you also
must test them to ensure that they don't interfere with the
computing environment. And just when the madness stops, another
virus or worm attack begins the cycle anew.

Enter server management: There are server management tools
available that take some of the drudgery out of patch/update
application by automating this process. These tools enable
administrators to instantly apply a patch or update to multiple
servers from a central location. Tools are in the works that
maintain details on server configuration and automatically
download, test, and install OS and application patches when
needed.

Another task that server management can automate is preparing
newly acquired servers for service. In a 2003 Yankee Group study,
the Yankee Group's Jamie Gruener, senior analyst for Enterprise
Computing and Networking, points out that 76% of system
administrators install server OSes and applications in other
words, perform server provisioning manually.

According to the study, some of the tasks that must be performed
when provisioning a server include OS installation, network
identification configuration, application installation and
configuration, storage capacity provisioning, configuration of
user and application-centric policies, and testing and
establishment of backup procedures. Server management tools that
ease this burden by providing server-provisioning automation are
compelling and can save both time and money.

Inventory and asset management is another necessary task that's
amenable to automation. Most organizations have policies that
govern the proper configuration of hardware assets, including
application and licensing requirements. Tools that maintain
configuration information and automatically audit systems for
compliance can add tremendous value.

So Whats Out There Now?

The aforementioned 2003 Yankee Group study defines four broad,
feature-based categories for server provisioning tools:
policy-based server management; provisioning, inventory, and
asset management; change and configuration management; and image
management. CIOs looking to purchase server management tools
should assess their needs and apply this feature-based
methodology when evaluating tools.

Image management tools manage OS and application images used for
rapid deployment of corporate-approved configurations across
multiple servers. Change and configuration management tools focus
on the deployment and administration of application and OS
software updates and patches. Inventory and asset management
tools are used for auditing server assets and ensuring that
production configurations are in tune with standard, policy-based
images. Finally, policy-based server management and provisioning
tools combine elements of all the aforementioned tools into one.
(For specifics on some of the tools available, see "Server
Management Tools".)

The Holy Grail

The Holy Grail of server management is the automated,
behind-the-scenes distribution of computing resources where
needed. This is currently getting quite a bit of press in the
marketplace and is known by various names, including utility
computing and computing on demand.

The underlying vision is that of a server management application
that constantly monitors computing resources, such as processor
power, memory, and bandwidth, and instantly optimizes the
deployment of those resources based on demand. In the ideal world
of utility computing, idle infrastructure capacity is minimal
because resources are constantly being deployed where they are
needed the most.

In this vision, a server farm is transformed from a collection
of discrete, isolated devices into a common, readily available
pool of computing power.

While this vision is not yet market reality, companies such as
IBM, HP, and Sun are busy developing applications to implement
it. IBM has been especially active in the promotion of "autonomic
computing": IT infrastructure that is able to monitor, configure,
heal, and regulate itself without manual intervention. As server
management evolves, this is a trend that IT administrators and
CIOs should keep in their sights.

The Future

As server management tools evolve, the level of automation they
provide will continue to increase. Ferengul, for example, says
server management tools will soon provide more integration
between server monitoring and administration. In this scenario,
Ferengul says, monitoring tools trigger automated actions from
provisioning or configuration change tools. The Yankee Group's
Gruener foresees server management tools that measure resource
allocation and use so that computing power use can be charged for
by IT departments.

This article is distributed by Server Buddies <a
href="http://www.serverbuddies.com">Server Management and
Monitoring by Server Buddies</a>

Syndicated by Top Gazebos - www.topgazebos.net

Quick Content Search:
Content Country

Welcome Guest

Author Country

Publisher Country

Essentials