Getting to the Root Cause of IT Endpoint Downtime
With more than 4,500 employees spread across the globe, the UK-based investment management company was challenged to support dispersed user groups that depended on highly performing technology to satisfy clients.
Here’s how Lakeside Software’s Digital Experience Cloud, powered by SysTrack, enabled the firm to expand its visibility, achieve a successful VDI rollout, adopt a proactive IT approach, and consistently deliver a quality end-user experience.
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With World Productivity Day fast approaching on June 20, we want to recognize the importance of creating an environment that supports workplace productivity.
If you Google “Top Productivity Killers,” you’ll get a series of expected answers: cell phones, internet browsing, conversations with colleagues, etc. But what’s notably missing are the digital disruptions that impact an employee’s ability to do their job.
In May, we conducted a weekly LinkedIn poll not necessarily to challenge Google’s findings but for us to better understand employee productivity in the
In today’s always-on business environment, downtime can be a major roadblock. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, endpoint downtime can disrupt productivity, lead to revenue loss, and result in frustrated users. Understanding the root causes of such downtime is crucial for preventing and addressing these disruptions effectively.
IT endpoint downtime refers to the period when a computer, server, or any other device connected to a network is unavailable or not functioning correctly. This downtime can be caused by a variety of factors, including hardware failures, software issues, human error, and even external factors such as power outages or natural disasters. On average, this downtime can cause employees to lose almost an hour per week. For organizations with thousands of employees, the impact adds up quickly. To mitigate the impact of IT endpoint downtime, it's essential to perform a thorough root cause analysis (RCA) when an endpoint experiences an IT problem.
RCA is a systematic process for identifying the underlying issues that lead to problems, such as endpoint downtime. It goes beyond addressing the immediate symptoms and aims to eliminate the root causes to prevent future occurrences.
However, for many IT teams, effective RCA has become increasingly difficult to achieve. RCA solutions traditionally monitor endpoints only when they’re on the enterprise network. With business technology more mobile and distributed than ever – employees switching between personal and company-owned devices and between home and corporate networks — traditional RCA falls short. Add to that the multitude of cloud-based platforms people use to do their jobs, the level of visibility needed for effective RCA becomes out of reach for many organizations.
It's clear, then, why traditional RCA approaches fail to meet the needs of the modern, digital workplace on several fronts. For one thing, traditional solutions can collect endpoint data only when that endpoint is inside the corporate network. In a world of widespread remote and hybrid work, that makes traditional RCA all but useless. Additionally, many RCA solutions monitor only a limited amount of endpoint data — not enough to give IT a complete view of issues that arise in the context of complex environments filled with third-party services. Finally, few RCA solutions can automate workflows or self-heal at the scale necessary for large digital enterprises.
For truly effective RCA in a modern IT environment, there are a few advanced capabilities organizations should look for.
Robust Endpoint Data Collection: The more endpoint data a solution collects, the better IT can understand an issue — not just in terms of how that particular endpoint is performing, but also in regards to application performance, network connectivity, resource usage, and much more. While most RCA solutions collect a decent amount of endpoint device data, many do not have enough telemetry to fully contextualize more complex issues or to analyze how those issues relate to third-party solutions or services.
Monitoring Outside the Enterprise Network: Today’s mobile workforce needs RCA that continues to collect endpoint data without interruption when end users work outside the corporate network. So much of modern business exists outside the office, so effective RCA must as well.
Rich Real-Time and Historical Data: To fully understand the root cause of an issue, IT needs to have both real-time and historical data at its fingertips. Comparing both helps IT understand the full context of an issue so it can be resolved quickly as well as prevented from happening ever again.
Intelligent, Automated Workflows: A large enterprise IT environment creates far too many alerts for any IT team to follow up on manually. A modernized RCA solution should have intelligent sensors that can trigger automatic workflows that resolve issues and mass-heal when necessary. That way, IT staff deals only with the most complex or critical issues.
With these advanced capabilities, IT teams can finally have complete visibility to the root cause that caused disruptions and downtime. No more asking the employee to try to replicate the issue; instead, the help desk can go back to the moment an issue occurred and identify exactly what went wrong.
RCA is continuing to evolve to incorporate today’s sophisticated AI technologies, with significant potential to transform and enhance even the most modern RCA methods. Now, AI can provide advanced analytical capabilities, automate routine tasks, predict potential issues, and improve incident response.
Taking an AI-based approach to incident resolution can enable a proactive IT strategy that drives service desk efficiency and a better digital employee experience. This modern perspective on root cause investigation is a better fit to the needs of complex IT environments because it leverages deep telemetry data collection and powerful diagnostics to resolve estate-wide issues.
IT endpoint downtime can be a significant challenge, but through systematic, AI-enabled RCA, IT teams can reduce its impact. By understanding the underlying issues, IT can implement effective solutions that not only address the immediate problem but also prevent similar occurrences in the future. In the ever-evolving world of technology, continuous improvement and proactive measures are key to maintaining the reliability of any IT infrastructure.
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