Editor’s Note: Ryan Fay shared his thoughts with us on his journey using vRealize Operations and related VMware software. He talked about some of these today during a panel at VMworld.
By Ryan Fay, CIO at ACI Specialty Benefits
Tell us about your organization and how you are using VMware software, focusing on vRealize Operations and Log Insight.
ACI Specialty Benefits provides Employee Assistance Programs, Workplace Wellness, Concierge and Student Assistance to customers worldwide. ACI is known for anticipating needs, exceeding expectations and providing customers with an unparalleled professional partnership.
ACI has a passion for helping people and businesses thrive. Implementing VMware with vRealize software has improved ACI’s ability to efficiently manage Technology and DevOps’ reduction in downtime of tier one applications and overall reduction in technology costs. Additionally it has helped reclaim capacity through its outstanding optimization functions and increased productivity from reduced manual efforts and fewer technology infrastructure incidents. Lastly a huge reduction in time spent reviewing logs has increased ACI’s focus on providing stellar EAP services to our clients and business partnerships.
Prior to using VMware management software, what were your IT challenges?
One of the biggest challenges for ACI’s technology teams has been visibility. Data is everywhere geographically and literally since ACI monitors, tracks and proactively identifies substantial amounts of wearable data. It’s often difficult for technology teams to know steadily where all data is at all times (which data center, what country) with our intensive load balancing and HA data is continuously moving and growing. These factors complicate fully controlling and identifying useful data, let alone pinpointing high risk data to secure and store properly. Lack of visibility not only slows down efficiency, but also lowers ROI and spikes TCO. Further complicating visibility is ACI’s need for international compliance. ACI must properly classify, data and information to follow compliance regulations and practices depending on where that data is geographically stored. Implementing VMware with vRealize has allowed ACI to ensure that our technology teams are capable and confident in regulating all of our security measures that we have in place. VMware with vRealize allows my staff to protect ACI and properly manage service health, capacity, and IT policies of the enterprise infrastructure worldwide. Additionally, VMware with vRealize provides better preparations for storage and network virtualization with better management tools than our organization was previously using with traditional monitoring tools and IT solutions.
How did VMware management software help you ease your challenges?
VMware with vRealize allows ACI’s technology security analyst and data scientist teams to validate scalability and organization expectations. One of the biggest areas of improvement is from ACI’s technology investment team. Now ACI can analytically validate future technology investments, current and future needs and overall system health. Using VMware with vRealize my staff can verify systems statistics while instantly confirming current and future systems are correctly-sized and their measurable impact. In addition, since ACI is growing at a massive rate, it’s crucial for ACI to scale at a moment’s notice to address emerging threats or to decrease investments in lower priority activities.
In the last few years, virtualization with cloud initiative has clarified and help realize a reduction in G&A expenses. With recent publicity around security incidents, ACI is more conscientious than ever in validating technology and security operational capabilities in place to protect ACI’s on-premise and data center operations. Not only must security be scalable and cost effective, security resources must be increased or decreased at a moment’s notice through a ‘virtual dial’ that is always being adjusted to achieve perfect harmony.
The biggest challenge VMware with vRealize has solved for ACI has been unified communication. Communication of security value vs. the spend. Next by ACI’s technology teams implementing VMware with vRealize, I can provide key performance indicators (like the rest of the C-Suite business leaders), and increase (or decrease) spending according to business risk.
ACI has seen amazing success when resources utilized to run security operations can be re-deployed at a moment’s notice based on risks, threats, and policy decisions that take place between budgeting cycles. The re-deployment is easily documented and visualized to show the outcome of the adjustments of ACI’s security resources and current needs. Using VMware with vRealize has allowed ACI to effectively and efficiently manage such operations in the most cost-effective way possible. A side effect has been increased levels of ROI and lower TCO.
What “Best Practices” would you like to share with the Audience?
A large part of the mission for ACI’s technology teams has been focused around automation and improve business processes enterprise-wide (Internationally). ACI’s technology teams have been able to fully automate and not only improve business process, but create and maintain new P&Ps around emerging technology to better encapsulate collaboration and transparency. ACI is now able to effectively allocate, forecast, and categorize specific process improvement efforts, while continually delivering more effective and efficient bottom line numbers and increase technology scope and system performance. VMware with vRealize has allowed ACI’s technology teams to evolved and matured over time to deliver innovative and revolutionary products world-wide.
ACIs “Best Practices” evolve around:
- Documentation and technology strategic planning process, including, at a minimum, the responsibilities and accountability for technology resources across the organization; and the method by which the organization defines program information needs and develops strategies, systems, and capabilities to meet those needs.
- Document process to integrate technology management operations and decisions with organizational planning, budget, financial management, human resources management, and program decisions.
- Require that information security management processes are fully integrated with strategic and operational planning processes.
- Institute a process to account for all technology-related expenses and results.
- Prepare an enterprise-wide strategic information resources management plan.
- Plan and forecast technology activities that can be used in conjunction with ACI’s missions and operation goals. (significantly deviated from cost, performance, or schedule goals established for the program).
- Deliver a documented process to develop technology goals in support with ACI’s business needs; while measure progress against objectives, and assigning roles and responsibilities to effectively achieving aforementioned objectives.
- Establish goals that, at a minimum, address how technology contributes to program productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and service delivery to ACI’s International clients.
- Establish consistent performance measures to monitor actual-versus-expected performance.
- Deliver quarterly report, outlining budget cost vs. usage today with inclusive utilization.
- Mostly importantly align technology and business-wide goals and needs to become a strategic business partner.
