Start now to be ready

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It's not too early to begin your transition/transformation to an e-business on demand. You need a strategy to get you from where you are now to where you need to be to reap the benefits of an on demand e-business. Start with learning about the advanced technologies and, as you do, begin to create your strategy. Review the quick introductions to grid and autonomic computing in this chapter. Pursue the additional references to learn more. Then think about applying the elements of the autonomic control loop to your strategic planning.

Monitor: The first step is to learn as much as you can about your current workloads. Implement workload monitors so you can better understand workload characteristics and patterns. Application measurements you want to monitor include CPU utilization, response time patterns, and workload peaks and valleys. Tivoli® offers the complete IBM solution for managing the extended WebSphere environment. For precise viewing of performance metrics, users can start with the Tivoli Performance Viewer, a complimentary tool shipped with WebSphere Application Server. For ongoing production monitoring, Tivoli offers the following tools: IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Web Infrastructure (ITMfWI) provides best-practice monitoring of the key elements of WebSphere Application Server, and IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Transaction Performance (ITMfTP) provides a unique perspective of monitoring, that of the end-user.

Analyze: The second step is to analyze your workload measurements. Examine when your peaks occur. Consider what new application could be implemented to use resources available during nonpeaks. For additional information, you can refer to the two HVWS white papers related to performance: Managing Web Site Performance and Design Pages for Performance.

Plan: The third step is to plan your strategy to move toward on demand processing. Which new application(s) will you implement? On which servers? Do service level agreements need to be modified and/or created? For additional information, you can refer to the two HVWS white papers related to capacity planning: Planning for Growth and High-Volume Web Site Performance Simulator for WebSphere.

Execute: Finally, you can establish the foundation for your plans. Your IT infrastructure will need to evolve to on demand processing. You can start now making the changes necessary to facilitate your transition:

• Start by installing the monitoring software required for real-time monitoring.

• Review the levels of your software components and upgrade those needed to support your future plans. Consider software based on open standards, such as WebSphere, to facilitate integration.

Take your time creating a methodical approach and you will be ready when appropriate on demand products become available.

IBM has a number of new offerings to help you get ready and get started. To get ready, IBM offers a one and a half day e-business on demand assessment that will help you set the vision, attributes and metrics needed for your e-business on demand transformation. To get started, the IBM Server Allocation for WebSphere Application Server offering described in this chapter is available to a limited number of customers. Contact your local IBM sales representative for more information.

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