Recently, we published a blog post series here on Mastering ITOM which consisted of four posts to help you with your data center modernization projects: Recognizing the Signs, Things to Consider, Goals & Objectives, and Realizing the Benefits. We left off with the question, “How can my organization benefit from a modernization project?” and we want to show you a real live example of how one of our customers was able to benefit from a modernization project. Today, we will outline some issues Ocean Spray was experiencing across their manufacturing locations and draw out some objectives from this customer case study.
The Environment
Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative formed in 1930 and leading producer of canned and bottled juice drinks in North America. Today, the co-op consists of 650 cranberry growers and 10 0 Florida grapefruit growers, with gross sales of roughly $2.05 billion in fiscal 2010. Headquartered in Lakeville-Middleboro, Massachusetts, USA, Ocean Spray also has fruit receiving stations, processing and bottling plants throughout the United States and Canada and employs over 2,000 people worldwide.
The Issues
Nine separate and unique manufacturing locations presented a highly distributed and complex infrastructure that internal IT Operations teams had to support around the clock. ITOM managers were challenged to contain costs, optimize the workforce and align with IT business services, but system complexities led them to be reactive and dependent on third party support.
The Objectives
Stay tuned on for the second part of this customer case study: The Solutions.
There is no way around the fact that technology is always changing and improving, necessitating a modernization project for your data center at some point in its lifetime. Quell fears of the unknown by coming up with measurable goals and objectives for your project and holding project partners accountable for them as the project progresses. Here are a few goals we would recommend as a starting point for any modernization project:
The key to successful IT operations is to aim high and find a vendor that not only delivers what you need today, but also understands where you will be tomorrow. Next we’ll talk about the final piece of the modernization puzzle: realizing the benefits you’ve set out to achieve.
While the month of February is right in the heart of the winter season, a particularly harsh winter for most of the United States this year, it’s also the month in which we take time to celebrate the ones who we truly cherish in our lives. We celebrate the sacrifices they make for us on a daily basis. The way they put our needs ahead of their own and how they are always there for us when we are in our most desperate times and need a helping hand. That’s right; we’re talking about the IT managers in your life. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself where you’d be without these special people? The ones who make all your problems go away and let you know that everything will be alright.
So we ask that this Valentine’s Day you take the time to appreciate the ones who have shown you care and consideration throughout the year. However, if you really want to make an impression, forget about the candy and flowers, show them the love by giving them what every IT manager truly wants; an updated and fully automated data center.
Automation allows IT to proactively manage operations through alerts and notifications; not human operators tied to consoles; thus freeing them up for more critical projects (can a box of chocolates or dozen roses say that?). Automation also includes other numerous benefits such as:
While gifts and cards are nice, nothing expresses true affection like a well architec ted data center with a web interface for remote access or a single enterprise-class automation solution to reduce the risk and costs associated with managing and maintaining multiple products and tools.
For this one day at least, tell them how you really feel. Tell them that they are the best and that outdated legacy systems are not. If anyone really deserves your appreciation this Valentine’s Day, it’s the person who will restore your system after it crashes from that way too cute eCard you just clicked on in your inbox.
Similar to vintage car enthusiasts, Data Center managers are continuously spending to maintain and restore legacy products. Vintage cars are cool, and while spending to maintain them is pricy, age tends to increase their value. When it comes to your data center, this is not the case. These aged products often lack in performance and functionality, making it is difficult to justify ongoing investments. Spending to keep vintage tools and technology in the Data Center just doesn't make cents!
Outdated products that have either not evolved with technological trends or do not support modern business requirements (such as Service-Oriented Architecture and Real-time Infrastructure) not only impair IT Operations responsiveness, but they also compromise investments into to new applications and business initiatives that help create a competitive advantage. If your data center tools are suffering from old age and reduced effectiveness, it may be time to consider a modernization project.
Leading industry analysts define IT Modernization as, “Specific best practices and strategies for moving toward a more modern application and infrastructure environment,” and while we agree with this, we’d like to add to it. At ORSYP, we believe that IT Modernization is the opportunity to reduce costs, standardize skills, maintain quality service, and reduce risks.
Keeping vintage technology in your data center is not nearly as cool as keeping a vintage car in your garage. Stay tuned for our Modernization series, we’ll cover the things to consider, best practices and benefits you can achieve by undertaking this project in your data center.
Every month, ORSYP pushes out a newsletter updating our community on what we’ve been up to and we’d like to share it with you. We are going to begin publishing our monthly newsletter here on Mastering ITOM to keep you in the loop of what’s been going on and what is planned for the future.
Have You Visited Our User Forum Lately? The ORSYP User Forum continues with its steady group of members, now over 1,300 members from more than 400 companies worldwide. Visitors can access solutions, workarounds or best practices for more than 1,000 topics. Check out the Forum here.
What We've Been Up To
Last week, ORSYP hosted an event at the Source in Washington, DC for the largest user group of HP products, Vivit. We had some interesting and educational conversations, and look forward to the opportunities meeting these individuals will bring. We hope to have more of these types of events throughout the U.S. so stay tuned!
Upcoming Events At the end of February, ORSYP will be participating in the IBM Pulse show as a Silver Sponsor in Las Vegas. We will be presenting a "Lean 6-Sigma Approach", showing how cloud providers and users need improved management techniques to maximize their ROI. Please let us know if you plan on attending the show. We would love to see you there!
As always, we look forward to and welcome your comments and feedback. Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages, or email us at info_usa@orsyp.com.
Customer Case Study, Part 2: Modernizing Job Scheduling, IT Infrastructure and Workflow
The Solution
John Goodfellow is the Senior Manager of Systems & Operations at Ocean Spray who spearheaded this modernization initiative. In Phase 1 of this project, after evaluating several products, Ocean Spray selected ORSYP Dollar Universe to replace its existing legacy solution. Key attributes of the product which influenced this decision include:
According to Goodfellow, "no one looked at Job Scheduling as a platform for automation". With much of Goodfellow's staff tied to consoles, he evaluated any core infrastructure product and business process to identify process improvement and automation opportunities. In Phase 2 of this project, the company discovered that ORSYP Dollar Universe is more than just a job scheduler; it is also a platform to deliver end-to-end automation. Goodfellow and his team were able to improve the following key processes within only one month:
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