It’s all about the end user!!!  No matter how much CPU, Memory or IOPS you give them, User Experience is king!!! I have spent 20+ years in the IT industry monitoring, testing and diagnosing servers, storage and applications for performance. As a hacker-programmer in many languages I have seen some very bad code bring the best of systems to a grinding halt. As an architect/engineer of server, networks and storage solutions I have seen the simplest mistakes bring a well-designed infrastructure to an unusable state.

In this blog post I have broken down my finding into 3 main categories as they relate to the User Experience. First is User Perception, the second is Company IT Perception and then the bottom line.

User Perception:

  1. I have a new system and I don’t know how to use it!
  2. It seems slow.
  3. Where are my applications?
  4. I have to do 5 clicks to get to my data now?
  5. Why do I have multiple logins?

Company IT Perception:

  1. We did our research – servers, storage, network
  2. We engaged external “Expert” partners
  3. We designed a good solution!!!

Bottom Line:

  1. It’s all about the end users
    • If the end user is not happy then no one is happy
  2. As a general rule of thumb people don’t like change.
    • My old system did this and now it is not there!
    • I know XX Server or Storage Vendor so I’m not going to like the new one.
  3. Simplicity = Uptime
    • KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid
    • Simplicity will decrease the number of things that can break
  4. Cheaper is NOT Better. (Vendor Selection)
    • How to select a vendor of a commodity product.
  5. Executives of the company should not care about the infrastructure
    • As long as the users and business needs are met.
  6. Politics have no place in technology or vendor selection.
  7. 80% of virtualization solutions implemented in the past 5 years have failed to meet timelines, budget and user requirements.

I’m going to expand on these topics with more details in future blog posting. Stay tune for more information.

Please Note:

  1. This is NOT a discussion of what hypervisor or broker is better.
  2. This is NOT a discussion of what Server, Storage or Network vendor is better
  3. This is BLOG is about user experience and how we as IT experts can better serve our end users and our companies for better solutions.

Email: Chris.Walker@liquidwarelabs.com
Twitter:  vCWalker128