Stories & ScenariosWondering why you need Reliance? These application delivery scenarios should make it perfectly clear. Picture this...Click below to read about the kinds of issues Reliance can help you avoid:
Online Consumer Application CrashesNew Promotional Campaign Causes Long Wait Times, Frustrates Thousands of Would-Be CustomersToday a popular web-based shopping service refused to perform, suspending thousands of transactions in process and resulting in a reported loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The site had just launched a very successful promotional campaign and was unprepared for the surge in traffic. Technologists point to a lack of adequate computing capacity as the reason for the failure. VP of Marketing John Doe indicated his frustration: "It's very disappointing to see the success we had in generating customer activity ruined because we didn't have the foresight to have more servers." "The most frustrating thing about it is that this could have been prevented by having a more flexible, dynamic infrastructure in place, which could have adjusted immediately," says Julie Doe, VP of Application Delivery. "In this day and age, when you go online to execute a transaction you just expect the application to perform. Application delivery systems can't afford to be handicapped by static physical and virtual infrastructures that can't flex to meet changes in demand." Users of the online service indicate they'll be hesitant to visit the site again. The hosting facility that supports the service could not be reached for comment. Web Hosting Company Declares BankruptcyInability to fund support for multiple applications citedWebApps-R-Us announced this week that they are going out of business. The web hosting company, who has provided support for many popular consumer applications over the years, says the high cost of optimizing around a growing number of different applications became too high a hurdle to surmount. "If we were merely hosting a handful of applications, that would be one thing," says Jeremy Doe, CEO of WebApps-R-Us. "But with customers using an ever-increasing number of applications – and expecting us to provide instantaneous responsiveness for each – well, we just weren't able to compete with bigger facilities who have installed more agile, flexible infrastructures." WebApps-R-Us CTO Jennifer Doe explains a potential solution that could have saved the business: "We ought to have anticipated this problem earlier and implemented a solution for application-aware infrastructure provisioning. This would have allowed us to deliver capacity on demand for our large portfolio of applications, ensuring the capacity was always there when needed." Ultimately the company could then have offered service level agreements to end customers based on application responsiveness guarantees, allowing them to compete more effectively. "But it's too late now," Doe laments. CRM System Unreliable at Peak TimesLow Responsiveness at Month-End Cycles Causes Reporting Holdups, System FreezesCustomers of a well-known customer relationship management (CRM) package today reported ongoing issues with responsiveness, particularly at critical periods. Specific outcomes discussed included delays in report generation for month-end analysis and system freezes when performing data-intensive functions. "It's frankly not all that surprising," comments Jane Doe, software systems analyst at ABC Research. "Many of these systems were designed for a more traditional high overhead static infrastructure where they had banks of servers dedicated to them. In today's environment, organizations need to minimize their server footprint and cannot afford to permanently dedicate capacity which is only needed at month end. Today's virtualized environments can enable this level of flexibility to be achieved. To function properly in such an environment, applications must be coupled with delivery management tools that drive resource provisioning automatically based on application performance metrics." "We understand the concerns of our customers and are taking appropriate actions," promised Jack Doe, CTO at CRM Corp. "We plan to integrate our product with service-based application delivery management software tools that will ensure our market-leading CRM package continues to lead the field in responsiveness and performance." Billing Delays Linked to Capacity ShortageInadequate Computing Capacity Means Billing Cycle StoppagesThousands of customers for XYZ Corporation failed to receive bills from the energy giant, who today revealed that their internal capacity for processing had been grossly underestimated. "We simply ran out of computing power," admits Jason Doe, VP of Information Technology at XYZ. "Our infrastructure couldn't support the requests made by the system at this peak period. We've been trying to minimize our server footprint and power consumption. But how do you do this and still maintain adequate capacity to respond to the once/monthly bill processing cycle?" Doe goes on to observe that the company has 3 choices: Invest in millions of dollars worth of new computing hardware, outsource processing to an application service, or install a low-cost, high-efficiency technology for service-based application delivery. This latter option involves a technology deployment to integrate with existing virtualization and system management tools to optimize application performance while minimizing power/cooling expenses and server footprint. "In my opinion, we need a tool that automates both the identification of the problem and the action taken," says Doe. "This action needs to be based on how the application is performing, not just on static hardware requirements, so that the right action is taken at the right time." Lack of Agile Application Delivery Increases Credit Processing TimeFinancial Services credit processing lags due to power and space constraintsCustomers of 123 Credit, Inc. sought alternative vendors this week when the financial services giant was unable to process credit applications in a timely fashion. "There are plenty of other providers out there – I'm not waiting around for these guys," said a frustrated Jill Doe, former customer of 123 Credit. "it's ridiculous they can't offer better service than this." "We realize we need to be able to set higher standards of service, and we ask customers to bear with us as we implement a new service-based application delivery solution," says Joe Doe, CEO at 123 Credit. "This new application-aware system will let us base performance guarantees on application metrics like response times, so our customers can be assured of the high quality experience they require." New Travel Booking Site Experiences Record Traffic – and Record DelaysHosting infrastructure not sufficient to support heavy influx of visitorsLess than a month after launching its new travel booking service, which experienced record traffic in its first week of launch, PDQ Inc. had to suspend its service while the company struggles to support the heavy load requirements with its existing hosting solution. "It's a good problem to have, that's true – but it's still a problem," says Jen Doe, VP of Consumer Services at PDQ. "Clearly our current server farm isn't adequate to support the requirements of our customers – we need a solution that will ensure our customers get the responsiveness they need wherever they need it. Sometimes the load is heaviest on our booking engine, other times on our price comparison engine – it's nearly impossible to predict which part of the system will be experiencing the heaviest load at any moment. We need something that adapts to the changing demands of our customers." Doe adds that "customers shouldn't have to wait for a low-traffic time to submit requests, just to make sure the system responds quickly, no matter what capability they are accessing.' IT executives at PDQ hint at plans to implement a service-based application delivery technology to automatically manage infrastructure provisioning, so that performance guarantees and customer expectations can be consistently met regardless of load. Virtualization Implementation Doing More Harm Than Good?IT executives question value of VMs without flexible, intelligent technologies to drive provisioningA recent survey conducted by A2Z Research reveals that a majority of IT executives are unsatisfied with their virtualization implementations. "I understand the potential value, and have been hopeful that we'd start seeing results this year," says Jack Doe, CIO at Corp. "But the increased complexity with managing the virtual environments has outweighed any value we've received from the enabled consolidation, and meanwhile there is no intelligent provisioning built into the system." "It feels like the solution is only 90% there – we're missing that all-important 10% that turns technology promise into hard value," adds Doe. Lead analysts at A2Z, who performed the research study, point to lack of intelligent automation and automated provisioning technologies that can integrate with existing virtualization implementations to enhance value. Most tools instead seek to replace existing systems, which poses new and considerable problems without clearly addressing the issues at hand. "Customers don't want to rip and replace – they just want to bring their current implementation over the line where they start seeing value," says analyst Jim Doe of A2Z Research. |
Service GovernanceFind out more about the technology analysts are calling "Brains of the Cloud" Getting Started with RelianceUnderstanding Cloud |
