Heterogeneous Systems
One of the major complications of an effective Chargeback or Showback process is the handling of
heterogeneous systems within the data formation process. As long as the processing remains on a
single system for a single user, the process is simple. Introducing different systems and/or platforms
along with inter/intra resource sharing requires a more complex measurement system.
RG Solutions® uses a metering methodology for all its processing and eliminates the issues
associated with heterogeneous systems. The processing understands metered usage and converts
the native measures into relevant business metrics. The resulting information can be used for
consolidation, comparison, forecasting, Chargeback, Showback, or any other business requirement
that requires a common measure among heterogeneous systems.
Metering Methodology
One of the biggest problems of sharing resources in an IT group is that most of the systems are of
differing power or architecture. In some cases, a single application may be moved around to different
Virtual Machines (of differing power). Generally speaking, a single processor second is not generally
the same as another second on a different system.
The metering methodology provides the ability to measure the system(s) processing using a
standard rating. The standard rating is based on a “least common unit” concept for its calculation, and
allows for the comparison, forecasting, and costing of a system in terms that will be consistent over
time. The metering methodology is used throughout the product and extends down to the workload or
process level.
Processing Collections
The RG Solutions® processing includes ‘Collections’ of directed processing that is used for a
particular platform or type of processing. The information in the collections will form both native and
business centric data needed for business requirements.
For each of the platforms, an agent program is available that can collect the native performance
information from a physical system. The available agents include both proprietary and open
systems. Also included in the collections is processing that is specific to a major application (such as
SQL Server, Exchange, etc.). For some applications that provide operational information, it is possible
for the user to create their own custom collection of information by using the Companion Data
interface.
Software Oriented Architecture
The RG Solutions® platform is based on a Software Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework. SOA
relies heavily on the ability of the overall processing to use shared resources. One of the major
shortcomings of other products is the inability to define shared resource usage in a manner other
than with a simplistic allocation technique.
RG Solutions® understands the relationships of shared resources and uses manifests for
determining activity based allocations. Manifests define sharing requirements and will vary based on
time-of-day, day-of-week, etc. The platform processing dynamically updates the manifests as the
processing requirements change.
