<\/span>COVID-19 is Stressing the IT System Just Like the\u00a0Healthcare System<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n![\"COVID-19](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-19-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>The recent\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0outbreak is stressing healthcare systems worldwide. Most countries are looking to \u201cflatten the curve\u201d of new cases in order to allow the sick to be treated without swamping hospitals. There is talk that if hundreds of new patients arrive at a hospital where there are only dozens of isolation wards,\u00a0the hospitals would become triage wards<\/a>\u00a0and extraordinary decisions made about who would be treated and who would not, depending on the severity of their infection and chances of survival.<\/p>\n![\"covid-19-mask-banner\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-19-mask-banner-300x200.jpg\")
The IT system in many organizations is being stressed in the same way. While work from home\u00a0(WFH)\u00a0as an option has been common for over a decade,\u00a0what is uncommon now is the number of people who are working from home<\/a>. While IT managers have been prepared to cater to a small percentage (typically 10%) of employees working from home, most are not prepared to handle a situation where almost all employees work from home, for weeks or months at a time. Therefore, IT operations in most organizations are being stressed in much the same way the healthcare system has been.<\/p>\nIn this blog, we will focus on what IT teams need to do to support employees working from home.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n<\/span>Monitoring: The Focus of the Second Phase of Work from Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n<\/span>Seven Areas\u00a0Your Remote Monitoring Strategy\u00a0Must Focus on to\u00a0Support Work From Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nYour remote monitoring strategy must focus on these areas:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"availability\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/availability.png\")
<\/td>\nAvailability monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks need to be in place 24×7\u00a0at different levels. These checks should be configured to alert you if your key network devices and servers are down at any time. You also need service level checks \u2013 e.g., a complete check of the Citrix delivery chain to make sure that when a user\u00a0connects,\u00a0they are able to login and do their work. The results of these simulations can be in the form of reports that you can present to your management.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"stopwatch\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/stopwatch.png\")
<\/td>\nPerformance\u00a0monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks\u00a0can also be used to report on the performance of your key IT services \u2013 e.g., how long did Citrix logon take yesterday? At the same time, synthetic monitoring does not replace the need to monitor real users.\u00a0So,\u00a0you will need to put real experience monitoring in place. Real user monitors for web applications are often based on\u00a0Javascript\u00a0injection, while real user monitoring for other IT services rely on application APIs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"availability\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/gauge.png\")
<\/td>\nMonitoring resource usage:\u00a0<\/strong>Monitoring resource usage levels can often give you proactive problem indicators. When CPU usage on a server peaks or there is a trend towards increased memory usage on a server, it is often an indicator that you may need to add capacity down the line. With an unforeseen number of employees working from home, demand on network bandwidth will also be higher. Track the usage of your network bandwidth and determine if you need a capacity upgrade.Before you present the case for a capacity increase, check who the top consumers are. Is this an application running on a server that is required for your business \u2013 or is it a non-core application that is not needed? In the latter case, disabling this application can save your resources to support additional workload. Likewise, at the network level, use tools that support NetFlow to see who your top consumers of bandwidth are. Track and shutdown any unusual activity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"availability\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/license.png\")
<\/td>\nMonitoring\u00a0license usage levels:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Almost no one has planned for 100% of employees working from home. Track your license usage levels across your infrastructure and determine areas where you may need additional licenses.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"availability\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/binocular.png\")
<\/td>\nMonitoring\u00a0external\u00a0services\u00a0you rely on:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Many IT services these days rely on external service providers. Your CRM system may be a SaaS service. You may be using Microsoft 365 as your communication and collaboration tool.\u00a0These are also times when these service providers are seeing unusually high demand for their services.\u00a0Make sure you have an eye on the performance of these services. Any slowness or downtime of these services will lead to user complaints of performance.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"availability\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/policeman.png\")
<\/td>\nTracking user activities for compliance:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In some vertical domains, you may be asked to report on employee productivity and\u00a0their\u00a0activities.\u00a0You may have to get reports on when employees sign in to work and when they sign out, how long are they\u00a0actually active\u00a0during the day, etc. Human resource departments may use this information for\u00a0identifying workers who may not meet the minimum productivity criteria while working from home. Another compliance requirement is tracking the applications a user accessed, when, and for how long. If you are likely to be asked for compliance reports, make sure you have the tools that can enable you to get the reports necessary automatically.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n![\"magnifying-glass\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/binocular-2.png\")
<\/td>\nDiagnostics and Automation to respond to issues:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>You will no doubt encounter times when users complain about performance issues when working from home. Having the right monitoring insights in place is important for you to be able to respond quickly to problems. Bear in mind that if a problem happens in your core infrastructure supporting remote employees, a number (or all) of your employees will be impacted. Hence, have as much coverage with monitoring as possible. Ideally, you want to be proactively alerted to\u00a0problems\u00a0so you have the time to diagnose and correct them. Automated diagnosis and correction capabilities, if available, can greatly assist you to resolve issues quickly. At the same time, when an employee complains of performance issues, the problem might be in their environment \u2013 the desktop\/laptop, their local network at home, or the ISP through which they are connecting. Make sure you\u00a0have the ability to\u00a0quickly demarcate whether the problem is in your corporate infrastructure or in the\u00a0employee\u2019s home network.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
![\"COVID-19](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-19.jpg\")
<\/a>The recent\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0outbreak is stressing healthcare systems worldwide. Most countries are looking to \u201cflatten the curve\u201d of new cases in order to allow the sick to be treated without swamping hospitals. There is talk that if hundreds of new patients arrive at a hospital where there are only dozens of isolation wards,\u00a0the hospitals would become triage wards<\/a>\u00a0and extraordinary decisions made about who would be treated and who would not, depending on the severity of their infection and chances of survival.<\/p>\nIn this blog, we will focus on what IT teams need to do to support employees working from home.<\/p>\nThe IT system in many organizations is being stressed in the same way. While work from home\u00a0(WFH)\u00a0as an option has been common for over a decade,\u00a0what is uncommon now is the number of people who are working from home<\/a>. While IT managers have been prepared to cater to a small percentage (typically 10%) of employees working from home, most are not prepared to handle a situation where almost all employees work from home, for weeks or months at a time. Therefore, IT operations in most organizations are being stressed in much the same way the healthcare system has been.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Monitoring: The Focus of the Second Phase of Work from Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n<\/span>Seven Areas\u00a0Your Remote Monitoring Strategy\u00a0Must Focus on to\u00a0Support Work From Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nYour remote monitoring strategy must focus on these areas:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/td>\n Availability monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks need to be in place 24×7\u00a0at different levels. These checks should be configured to alert you if your key network devices and servers are down at any time. You also need service level checks \u2013 e.g., a complete check of the Citrix delivery chain to make sure that when a user\u00a0connects,\u00a0they are able to login and do their work. The results of these simulations can be in the form of reports that you can present to your management.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Performance\u00a0monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks\u00a0can also be used to report on the performance of your key IT services \u2013 e.g., how long did Citrix logon take yesterday? At the same time, synthetic monitoring does not replace the need to monitor real users.\u00a0So,\u00a0you will need to put real experience monitoring in place. Real user monitors for web applications are often based on\u00a0Javascript\u00a0injection, while real user monitoring for other IT services rely on application APIs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring resource usage:\u00a0<\/strong>Monitoring resource usage levels can often give you proactive problem indicators. When CPU usage on a server peaks or there is a trend towards increased memory usage on a server, it is often an indicator that you may need to add capacity down the line. With an unforeseen number of employees working from home, demand on network bandwidth will also be higher. Track the usage of your network bandwidth and determine if you need a capacity upgrade.Before you present the case for a capacity increase, check who the top consumers are. Is this an application running on a server that is required for your business \u2013 or is it a non-core application that is not needed? In the latter case, disabling this application can save your resources to support additional workload. Likewise, at the network level, use tools that support NetFlow to see who your top consumers of bandwidth are. Track and shutdown any unusual activity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring\u00a0license usage levels:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Almost no one has planned for 100% of employees working from home. Track your license usage levels across your infrastructure and determine areas where you may need additional licenses.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring\u00a0external\u00a0services\u00a0you rely on:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Many IT services these days rely on external service providers. Your CRM system may be a SaaS service. You may be using Microsoft 365 as your communication and collaboration tool.\u00a0These are also times when these service providers are seeing unusually high demand for their services.\u00a0Make sure you have an eye on the performance of these services. Any slowness or downtime of these services will lead to user complaints of performance.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Tracking user activities for compliance:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In some vertical domains, you may be asked to report on employee productivity and\u00a0their\u00a0activities.\u00a0You may have to get reports on when employees sign in to work and when they sign out, how long are they\u00a0actually active\u00a0during the day, etc. Human resource departments may use this information for\u00a0identifying workers who may not meet the minimum productivity criteria while working from home. Another compliance requirement is tracking the applications a user accessed, when, and for how long. If you are likely to be asked for compliance reports, make sure you have the tools that can enable you to get the reports necessary automatically.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Diagnostics and Automation to respond to issues:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>You will no doubt encounter times when users complain about performance issues when working from home. Having the right monitoring insights in place is important for you to be able to respond quickly to problems. Bear in mind that if a problem happens in your core infrastructure supporting remote employees, a number (or all) of your employees will be impacted. Hence, have as much coverage with monitoring as possible. Ideally, you want to be proactively alerted to\u00a0problems\u00a0so you have the time to diagnose and correct them. Automated diagnosis and correction capabilities, if available, can greatly assist you to resolve issues quickly. At the same time, when an employee complains of performance issues, the problem might be in their environment \u2013 the desktop\/laptop, their local network at home, or the ISP through which they are connecting. Make sure you\u00a0have the ability to\u00a0quickly demarcate whether the problem is in your corporate infrastructure or in the\u00a0employee\u2019s home network.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
![\"COVID-19](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-19-transformation.jpg\")
<\/a>Rapid expansion or implementation of digital workspace technologies (Citrix, VPN, VDI, etc.)\u00a0has\u00a0ensued\u00a0to support employees working from home.\u00a0Unfortunately, it looks\u00a0like this norm\u00a0is likely to\u00a0continue for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<\/span>Seven Areas\u00a0Your Remote Monitoring Strategy\u00a0Must Focus on to\u00a0Support Work From Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nYour remote monitoring strategy must focus on these areas:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/td>\n Availability monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks need to be in place 24×7\u00a0at different levels. These checks should be configured to alert you if your key network devices and servers are down at any time. You also need service level checks \u2013 e.g., a complete check of the Citrix delivery chain to make sure that when a user\u00a0connects,\u00a0they are able to login and do their work. The results of these simulations can be in the form of reports that you can present to your management.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Performance\u00a0monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks\u00a0can also be used to report on the performance of your key IT services \u2013 e.g., how long did Citrix logon take yesterday? At the same time, synthetic monitoring does not replace the need to monitor real users.\u00a0So,\u00a0you will need to put real experience monitoring in place. Real user monitors for web applications are often based on\u00a0Javascript\u00a0injection, while real user monitoring for other IT services rely on application APIs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring resource usage:\u00a0<\/strong>Monitoring resource usage levels can often give you proactive problem indicators. When CPU usage on a server peaks or there is a trend towards increased memory usage on a server, it is often an indicator that you may need to add capacity down the line. With an unforeseen number of employees working from home, demand on network bandwidth will also be higher. Track the usage of your network bandwidth and determine if you need a capacity upgrade.Before you present the case for a capacity increase, check who the top consumers are. Is this an application running on a server that is required for your business \u2013 or is it a non-core application that is not needed? In the latter case, disabling this application can save your resources to support additional workload. Likewise, at the network level, use tools that support NetFlow to see who your top consumers of bandwidth are. Track and shutdown any unusual activity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring\u00a0license usage levels:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Almost no one has planned for 100% of employees working from home. Track your license usage levels across your infrastructure and determine areas where you may need additional licenses.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Monitoring\u00a0external\u00a0services\u00a0you rely on:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Many IT services these days rely on external service providers. Your CRM system may be a SaaS service. You may be using Microsoft 365 as your communication and collaboration tool.\u00a0These are also times when these service providers are seeing unusually high demand for their services.\u00a0Make sure you have an eye on the performance of these services. Any slowness or downtime of these services will lead to user complaints of performance.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Tracking user activities for compliance:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In some vertical domains, you may be asked to report on employee productivity and\u00a0their\u00a0activities.\u00a0You may have to get reports on when employees sign in to work and when they sign out, how long are they\u00a0actually active\u00a0during the day, etc. Human resource departments may use this information for\u00a0identifying workers who may not meet the minimum productivity criteria while working from home. Another compliance requirement is tracking the applications a user accessed, when, and for how long. If you are likely to be asked for compliance reports, make sure you have the tools that can enable you to get the reports necessary automatically.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/td>\n Diagnostics and Automation to respond to issues:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>You will no doubt encounter times when users complain about performance issues when working from home. Having the right monitoring insights in place is important for you to be able to respond quickly to problems. Bear in mind that if a problem happens in your core infrastructure supporting remote employees, a number (or all) of your employees will be impacted. Hence, have as much coverage with monitoring as possible. Ideally, you want to be proactively alerted to\u00a0problems\u00a0so you have the time to diagnose and correct them. Automated diagnosis and correction capabilities, if available, can greatly assist you to resolve issues quickly. At the same time, when an employee complains of performance issues, the problem might be in their environment \u2013 the desktop\/laptop, their local network at home, or the ISP through which they are connecting. Make sure you\u00a0have the ability to\u00a0quickly demarcate whether the problem is in your corporate infrastructure or in the\u00a0employee\u2019s home network.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
| <\/td>\n | Availability monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks need to be in place 24×7\u00a0at different levels. These checks should be configured to alert you if your key network devices and servers are down at any time. You also need service level checks \u2013 e.g., a complete check of the Citrix delivery chain to make sure that when a user\u00a0connects,\u00a0they are able to login and do their work. The results of these simulations can be in the form of reports that you can present to your management.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/td>\n| Performance\u00a0monitoring<\/strong>: Synthetic checks\u00a0can also be used to report on the performance of your key IT services \u2013 e.g., how long did Citrix logon take yesterday? At the same time, synthetic monitoring does not replace the need to monitor real users.\u00a0So,\u00a0you will need to put real experience monitoring in place. Real user monitors for web applications are often based on\u00a0Javascript\u00a0injection, while real user monitoring for other IT services rely on application APIs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\nMonitoring resource usage:\u00a0<\/strong>Monitoring resource usage levels can often give you proactive problem indicators. When CPU usage on a server peaks or there is a trend towards increased memory usage on a server, it is often an indicator that you may need to add capacity down the line. With an unforeseen number of employees working from home, demand on network bandwidth will also be higher. Track the usage of your network bandwidth and determine if you need a capacity upgrade.Before you present the case for a capacity increase, check who the top consumers are. Is this an application running on a server that is required for your business \u2013 or is it a non-core application that is not needed? In the latter case, disabling this application can save your resources to support additional workload. Likewise, at the network level, use tools that support NetFlow to see who your top consumers of bandwidth are. Track and shutdown any unusual activity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\nMonitoring\u00a0license usage levels:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Almost no one has planned for 100% of employees working from home. Track your license usage levels across your infrastructure and determine areas where you may need additional licenses.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\nMonitoring\u00a0external\u00a0services\u00a0you rely on:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Many IT services these days rely on external service providers. Your CRM system may be a SaaS service. You may be using Microsoft 365 as your communication and collaboration tool.\u00a0These are also times when these service providers are seeing unusually high demand for their services.\u00a0Make sure you have an eye on the performance of these services. Any slowness or downtime of these services will lead to user complaints of performance.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\nTracking user activities for compliance:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In some vertical domains, you may be asked to report on employee productivity and\u00a0their\u00a0activities.\u00a0You may have to get reports on when employees sign in to work and when they sign out, how long are they\u00a0actually active\u00a0during the day, etc. Human resource departments may use this information for\u00a0identifying workers who may not meet the minimum productivity criteria while working from home. Another compliance requirement is tracking the applications a user accessed, when, and for how long. If you are likely to be asked for compliance reports, make sure you have the tools that can enable you to get the reports necessary automatically.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\nDiagnostics and Automation to respond to issues:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>You will no doubt encounter times when users complain about performance issues when working from home. Having the right monitoring insights in place is important for you to be able to respond quickly to problems. Bear in mind that if a problem happens in your core infrastructure supporting remote employees, a number (or all) of your employees will be impacted. Hence, have as much coverage with monitoring as possible. Ideally, you want to be proactively alerted to\u00a0problems\u00a0so you have the time to diagnose and correct them. Automated diagnosis and correction capabilities, if available, can greatly assist you to resolve issues quickly. At the same time, when an employee complains of performance issues, the problem might be in their environment \u2013 the desktop\/laptop, their local network at home, or the ISP through which they are connecting. Make sure you\u00a0have the ability to\u00a0quickly demarcate whether the problem is in your corporate infrastructure or in the\u00a0employee\u2019s home network.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | |
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eginnovations.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/covid-19-mask-banner-bottom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"