Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

In this enterprise cost containment series, we’ve tackled a range of topics from cloud to professional services and more. Now, I want to dive into the topic you may have expected us to cover from the start: monitoring. After all, at SolarWinds, we create monitoring software. The goal of this post is not to present or sell software, though. It’s our intention to help you have conversations with management and stakeholders—no matter the monitoring you use.

Welcome back to our five-part series in which we discuss a top habit for DBAs to increase business functionality. In part one of this series, we discussed the importance of a capability maturity model (CMM) and more specifically Level 1 of the information management maturity model (IMMM) and how the framework can provide a step-by-step process for DBAs to follow while also allowing businesses to gain skills along the way.

Data provides an essential basis for reports and analytics, with the databases storing the data now driving and informing most custom and line-of-business applications. Thus, anything organizations can do to speed up troubleshooting for database problems is pure gold. In fact, time saved on troubleshooting turns into time organizations can invest in being more productive and profitable.

Indexes play a critical role in SQL Server query performance. SQL Sentry Fragmentation Manager helps you make intelligent decisions about index management based on the table and index information collected. In this blog post, I’m going to discuss index fragmentation, several ways you can identify it, and why a more granular approach to index maintenance can save time and allow you to focus on other tasks during maintenance windows.

After 2020, there are only two types of businesses: those who have retained customers or grown, and those who lost customers to more nimble competitors. There are many reasons. The transition away from traditional retail, shifting customer expectations, and internal operations challenges due to increasing complexity all play their parts. However, the main reason is simple. 2020 affirmed that there’s no such thing as a non-digital business.

As the famed psychologist Abraham Maslow once said, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Because IT management systems make it simple and easy to create alerts for all kinds of events and conditions, the temptation may be to create alerts for all of them. This can be problematic for a variety of reasons, though two stand out in particular.

The experienced IT professional is no stranger to the term “automation.” However, many don’t fully grasp the potential this word presents to IT processes, including the fast-growing realm of intelligent automation. But before you start looking to automation to help rein in costs, it’s important to develop an automation strategy that best fits the needs of your organization. This article explores the three key areas in which to start when building your automation framework.

Organizations of all sizes invest in IT monitoring and analysis tools. But just because a computer knows what’s wrong doesn’t mean it can communicate those details effectively to IT teams. There is both art and science behind communication, which is why IT teams heavily rely upon data visualization. As organizations scale, so too does the importance of data visualization. Similarly, automating data analysis becomes increasingly useful with scale.

With Memorial Day right around the corner, customers are preparing their carts for a weekend of online sales and shopping. Unfortunately, the increase in online traffic for holiday sales is ripe with potential for issues. Similar to the glitches and crashes we see during holiday weekends such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the potential of website issues may increase with online traffic during Memorial Day weekend sales. Luckily, there are ways IT pros can prepare for a surge.