Gartner Says an IT Infrastructure Needs to be Transformed into a Real-Time Infrastructure to Meet Business Requirements
Gartner Analysts Discuss the Next Generation of IT Infrastructure at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., October 20, 2004 — IT infrastructure is the keystone that makes modern business possible, however, today IT infrastructure reacts too slowly to business requirements, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts said companies should build a strategic plan to create a real-time infrastructure (RTI) to meet business priorities.
"IT infrastructure today is broken; it's simply too expensive, complex, unreliable, inflexible and time-consuming to change," said Tom Bittman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "If IT is going to focus on issues more closely aligned with the business, then the infrastructure needs to change dramatically."
Gartner analysts provided a strategic look at RTI at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which is taking place here, October 18 through October 22. Today, IT is seen as a cost center, but in a RTI IT is a key enabler of business growth. With a RTI, business policies drive dynamic and automatic optimization of the IT infrastructure to achieve desired service levels in the face of dynamically changing demand.
RTI has three value propositions, expressed as business goals: reduced costs — achieved by better and more efficient resource usage and by reduced system-management (labor) costs; improved service levels — achieved by dynamic adjustments or tuning of IT services; and increased agility — achieved by rapid provisioning of new services or resources and scaling of established services.
"A real-time infrastructure is an IT infrastructure shared across customers, business units or applications where business policies and service-level agreements drive dynamic and automatic optimization of the IT infrastructure, thus reducing costs while increasing agility and quality of service," Mr. Bittman said. "Sharing of peaks and valleys in capacity drives higher utilization rates and reduces hardware and associated maintenance costs."
Inherent to RTI is management at the higher IT service level, with resource management performed automatically, which will reduce IT management labor costs and complexity. For this to occur, resource suppliers need to design systems that can be self-managed and self-configured. The agility of IT will improve because resources can be easily, and quickly, reallocated and re-purposed to meet changing business requirements.
"RTI will contain many technologies and suppliers that will manage and control various components of the infrastructure," Mr. Bittman said. "Because RTI involves active, automated management, any supplier that offers resource configuration management functionality as the potential to participate in an RTI solution."
About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with an insightful look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. For more information about Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004, please visit www.gartner.com/symposium or call 1-800-778-1997.
About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) is the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. Gartner serves more than 10,000 clients, including chief information officers and other senior IT executives in corporations and government agencies, as well as technology companies and the investment community. The Company focuses on delivering objective, in-depth analysis and actionable advice to enable clients to make more informed business and technology decisions. The Company's businesses consist of Gartner Intelligence, research and events for IT professionals; Gartner Executive Programs, membership programs and peer networking services; and Gartner Consulting, customized engagements with a specific emphasis on outsourcing and IT management. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and has more than 3,500 associates, including approximately 1,000 research analysts and consultants, in more than 75 locations worldwide For more information,
visit www.gartner.com.
