Research Brief

Sustainable Infrastructures: A Framework for Software

Support Services
Abstract: This Research Brief focuses on trends that are driving the market for high-availability
service offerings, a framework that defines effective software support services and
recommendations for software publishers and their service organization.
By Bob Igou

Key Business Issues

What steps do emerging professional services need to take to be successful?
What are the business models, resource requirements, and go-to-market strategies and
investments required to take advantage of these opportunities?

Recommendations
■ Service providers need to address the needs that midmarket organizations have for
high-availability solutions and services that scale down to the size of their application
infrastructure and affordability level.
■ Service providers need to acknowledge the concept of services interoperability and
apply it to high-availability and mission-critical service offerings.
■ Software vendors need to consider the framework for software support services so that
the product and service combination results in the best possible customer experience.

Causes of Downtime for the IT Infrastructure

Hardware failures account for one quarter of all unplanned down time, software for about another quarter, and the network for slightly
more than one fifth of unplanned down time. Human error was reported as the cause for just over 15 percent of all unplanned down time.
Environmental factors, such as natural disasters, account for the remaining 14 percent.

Publication Date: May 10, 2001

2 Sustainable Infrastructures: A Framework for Software Support Services

Introduction
There is increasing demand for high-availability and mission-critical service
offerings in order to support IT infrastructure. This Research Brief focuses on
trends that are driving this market, a framework that defines effective
software support services and recommendations for service providers. These
recommendations apply to all organizations in the software product
company, not just the service organization.

Business Trends
Demand Drivers for High-Availability Services
Gartner Dataquest research reveals that a number of factors are driving the
demand for high-availability and mission-critical services. First, e-business
initiatives have created an unbounded, nonstop business, and by exposing
critical business processes on the Internet the need for high-availability
application environments has increased. For some companies, the Internet-
based solution is the business, and without it there is no business. The
definition of mission-critical is simplified to include anything that can block
the ability to do business. Gartner Dataquest research shows that IT decision-
makers are classifying more applications as mission-critical than in previous
years. This year, more respondents considered the top four systems to be
mission-critical than in last year's survey. Comparing surveys across the two
years, more than half of the systems have closed the gap between having it
operational and considering it mission-critical. Also, the importance of high
availability increases in direct correlation with completion of e-business
initiatives.

Packaged software applications, such as customer relationship management

software, have enabled smaller organizations to operate a complex
application environment that was previously within the reach of only large
organizations with extensive application development staffs. High-
availability services are paralleling the evolution from the mainframe
computer to smaller distributed computing environments. Although the cost
of computer hardware fell, the cost of services associated with its support did
not fall proportionally, and product margins were squeezed. As more
powerful application environments reach the midmarket organizations, the
expense of high-availability services must be scaled down to meet the buying
capabilities of this market.

New Entrants in the High-Availability Market

Surveys of IT decision makers that identify the components of a mission-
critical environment indicate that the list of components has expanded to
include the entire infrastructure stack. Previously, the infrastructure stack
was defined as the hardware, software (server-side and desktop) and
network layers. Storage devices, operations monitoring and management
systems, and telecommunications systems are the latest entrants, along with
the Linux operating system, which was not previously seen in the mission-
critical arena.

©2001 Gartner, Inc. May 10, 2001

 3

Gartner Dataquest Perspective

System Interoperability: Services is the New Frontier
Software interoperability has long been a major source of problems for the IT
community. Major effort in software development is devoted to minimizing
interoperability problems within the realm of individual product vendors.
New cross-vendor partnerships, for example the Sun, Oracle, Veritas
partnership last year, have introduced the concept of integrated product
design and support for a "stack" of software and hardware products.
However, solution-focused efforts like these are barely keeping pace with the
complexity of today's Internet-enabled software environments. The majority
of companies surveyed recently experienced one software-related failure
each month in mission-critical systems. With this software complexity comes
support complexity and the conflict of "Whose problem is it, anyway?" This
has popularized the most common service provider relationship of having
one point of contact able to mediate with all the service providers in the
picture. Just as customers once demanded guaranteed software
interoperability, the stage is set for demanding support interoperability —
the ability to fluidly and transparently move across vendors to resolve a
problem in a multivendor, mission-critical environment.

Framework for Software Support Services

Because software system failures account for one quarter of down time, what
would software support services need to look like to significantly reduce this
impact? The answer lies not in one specific technology or practice, but in a
framework that encompasses all the possible paths taken by the users of
software. The framework that represents all possible paths includes the
following:

■ Solutions approach — The beginning thoughts about software must view

the total solution that it provides the user and must encompass all
components of the environment that delivers it. This eliminates specific
needs for support.
■ Well-engineered products — Beyond the design of the software, the
vendor must ensure the quality, reliability and interoperability of the
software across a reasonable matrix of environment variables. This
eliminates another cause for support services.
■ Automatic product update — In a software publishing model, the
product needs to automatically update itself efficiently, effectively and as
needed with appropriate user consent. With this update, another time-
consuming and highly frequent support demand is eliminated. Virus
scanning software has the lead in this arena.
■ Just-in-time context-specific training — The software product needs to be
packaged with desktop capability to provide the user with just-in-time
training relative to the context of use and the users skill level. This
reduces the need for "how to" support.

©2001 Gartner, Inc. May 10, 2001

4 Sustainable Infrastructures: A Framework for Software Support Services

■ Automated diagnosis — When a problem occurs with software, the first

line of support should be automated diagnosis by matching the
symptoms with known bugs and resolving them through network-based
patch delivery.
■ Single-click support engagement — Engaging the appropriate support
resource needs to be invoked in a consistent, convenient and readily
obvious manner, such as icons for support or hardware buttons on the
keyboard.
■ Highly complete knowledge base — Internet-accessible knowledge bases
for finding solutions need to cover all previously discovered problems.
Problems previously reported but not captured represent lost cost
savings for the vendor and decreased productivity for the software user.
■ Problem-resolving help desk staff — Once the software problem requires
human interaction, it demands staffs that have product expertise,
customer interaction skills and the skills to isolate the cause of a problem
and provide a solution.
The avenues to create high availability in the software environment
encompass all aspects of this framework to achieve product robustness
through elimination of problems in the design, deployment and use of the
product and rapid resolution of problems.

This research is part of a broader article consisting of a number of

contemporaneously produced pieces. See ITSV-WW-DP-0045 for an overview
of the article and links to related pieces.

For More Information. . .

In the United States: +1-203-316-1111
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa: +44-1784-488819
In Asia/Pacific: +61-7-3405-2582
In Japan: +81-3-3481-3670
Gartner Interactive http://www.gartner.com
Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained
herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy,
completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the
information contained herein or for interpretation thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these
materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.
©2001 Gartner, Inc. All rights reserved. 97844