NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DENNIS DROGSETH ON NETWORK/SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 08/23/04 Today's focus: Is quality of experience beyond SLAs?
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Go beyond SLA basics to quality of experience * Links related to Network/Systems Management * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Fidelia Newer architecture overcomes legacy problems. Engineers needed to engineer your IT Management System? Half. Management systems needed for that IT management report? One. Value of getting your reports when you need them? Priceless!! Read how this new product uses a superior architecture to overcome limitations of legacy Network Management systems. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=73087 _______________________________________________________________ A New Network World Technology Tour Event - VoIP : The New Age Begins VoIP: It's here. No longer the future of telephony, it's the new business reality. And the key question now is "how." The answers are at this new Technology Tour Event coming to Houston 9/21, Chicago 9/21, Palo Alto 9/23 and Philadelphia on 9/29. Click, qualify and attend FREE! http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=72896 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Is quality of experience beyond SLAs? By Dennis Drogseth In this column I am going to press the point that quality of experience sets all traditional notions of service-level agreements on their heels. Now - not later - is the time to make the mental leap. QoE represents a fundamental shift in how SLAs can be defined. Taken at face value, QoE is exactly what it sounds like - the quality of experience. "Experience" is defined in my Oxford American Dictionary as "an actual observation of facts and events," and, as a verb, "to observe, to share, to actually be affected by - a feeling." What's interesting from these definitions is that the word itself combines two very different dimensions. One is a more empirical sense of observed reality, while the other includes sensation and imagination - it is about feeling. Both definitions play in QoE - which reflects a very different agenda than traditional SLAs. Rather than simply building from what's measurable up to the customer or end user, QoE would suggest starting with the end user, honoring the objective and subjective merits of his or her experience and trying to approximate them in metrics that can be validated in terms of technical performance and customer behavior. You already may be thinking that this approach is an unhealthy combination of masochism and naivet�, but I would argue just the opposite - it is the shortest path to comfort and mental health for you and your customers. Business productivity, customer loyalty, and business partnerships depend on QoE in all its dimensions. No one will stick with a provider that gets gold stars for SLAs but still leaves them experientially discontent - especially if other options present themselves. By trying to force you and your customers to live in a simulated universe in which only technical metrics apply, it is you who are being na�ve. Sure, you will need to "manage" expectations and set some technical boundaries, but your ability to do this successfully is greatly enhanced once you approach the problem in terms of multi-dimensional experience rather than introverted technical specifications. A few pointers and observations: * Listen to your customers. While the old-fashioned help desk ��approach is often reactive and cumbersome, it can also provide ��useful background on customer perceptions and requirements. A ��strong, proactive service initiative will also help to promote ��dialog and interaction. * Recognize that while availability and performance remain prime ��factors, there are other dimensions to QoE - such as ��consistency, cost to the customer, security, flexibility (e.g., ��mobility of a service, or customer choice of service), and ��variety (number of available and customer-relevant services). ��This is not a finite list - because the dimensions of experience ��are not finite. * Look at options for testing responsiveness. Since degraded ��service has proven to be more of a customer turnoff than ��intermittent spurts of lack of availability, performance and QoE ��are probably the two most closely linked metrics. Until fairly ��recently, synthetic transaction analyses were the top choice for ��QoE validation, and they do still play a role. Synthetic ��transactions provide IT with a self-contained context for ��control. You can set the time and frequency and define SLAs ��accordingly - and of course synthetic transactions are superior ��for testing availability. New technologies - including slimmer, more efficient agent technology, more advanced server-based transaction analysis, and significant advances in techniques for packet analysis - are making observed transactional baselining more possible. Unlike synthetic transactions, observed baselining can inform you, on a dynamic basis, of actual customer behavior and customer disaffection - for example, when transactions are aborted due to impatience. Some techniques are now highly scalable in capturing individual user behaviors as well as infrastructure performance in large, geographically dispersed environments. These are just a few points. I invite your comments and opinions as well, and welcome intelligent disagreement and notes of support. Oh, and to answer the question posed in the headline: in my opinion, the glorious and troublesome fact is that QoE is indeed beyond SLAs, which can only, at best, approximate it - and that's because experience, itself, is more sprawling than the Internet, and more complex than all the data centers in the world. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS End-user SLAs: Guaranteeing 'real' service levels Network World Outsourcing Newsletter, 07/30/03 http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/asp/2003/0728out1.html Why quality of experience is important � http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2002/01502703.html IOS changes could alter face of Cisco routers Network World, 08/23/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/082304cisco.html?nl2 CA looks to reduce 'integration tax' Network World, 08/23/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/082304ca.html?nl2 _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Dennis Drogseth Dennis Drogseth is a vice president with Enterprise Management Associates <http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/>, a leading analyst, market research and IT consulting firm based in Boulder, Colorado, focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Dennis has extensive experience in service level management and network management platforms and products. He is actively researching trends in management software and changing IT roles internationally. His 22-plus years of experience in high-tech includes positions at IBM and Cabletron. He is widely quoted in the press and is a speaker at many industry events. He can be reached via e-mail <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Fidelia Newer architecture overcomes legacy problems. Engineers needed to engineer your IT Management System? Half. Management systems needed for that IT management report? One. Value of getting your reports when you need them? Priceless!! Read how this new product uses a superior architecture to overcome limitations of legacy Network Management systems. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=73086 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Network/Systems Management newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/index.html _______________________________________________________________ Enable New Technologies While Leveraging Existing Security As the mobile workforce expands there has been an increased need to deliver secure connectivity to these users across multiple network types in order to keep the workforce productive and the company competitive. Learn how. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=72897 _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE WONDERING IF YOUR PAY IS UP TO SNUFF? Check out Network World's 2004 Salary Calculator to see if you're getting paid what you're worth. 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