Froscon 2010 Smart ITSM

synetics GmbH, 21.08.2010

do you do it?

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Contents

• synetics

• i-doit

• ITIL/ITSM

• Smart ITSM

• [sic]

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• Founded in 1996 by Markus Wolff and Joachim Winkler.• IT company providing high quality advice.• Focus: Infrastructures • References: Nokia Europe, ThyssenKrupp, Pepsi-Cola,

ver.di, UniCredit, Postbank Systems, T-Systems…

• Number of employees, as of 2010: 18 permanent employees• Number of developers, as of 2010: 5 permanent employees

The Company

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i-doit – How it all began ...

• The development of i-doit started in 2004 as part of a customer project.

• The customer found existing solutions on the market to be:

- too complex- not able to be deployed at short notice- too expensive- not adaptable to their own specific needs

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i-doit – the Open Source CMDB! (Configuration Management Database)

A CMDB is......

• A database which is used to access and manage configuration items.

• All IT equipment in the context of IT management can be described in terms of Configuration Item (CI).

• In this context, Configuration is understood to mean the existence and mutual dependencies of managed objects.

• A CMDB serves more than just as a pure inventory. The aim is to support all modules of the Service Support and Service Delivery with reference to configuration items (CIs).

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CMDB - Why?

• Many companies use different databases simultaneously for problem-, change-, asset- and process data. Often relevant data about a CI are (inconveniently) scattered across and/or difficult to access from different databases, endless Excel lists etc.

• This is where the concept of a CMDB is applied. The goal is:

To consolidate all information from different data sources in a central location, allowing easier and transparent access to this data

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i-doit – how to document your it …

• With i-doit, both the capture and technical documentation of all deployed IT components takes place in the foreground.

• The level of detail is at the discretion of the user, ranging from a simple registration of the relevant manufacturer and model information to an exact representation of the underlying infrastructure.

• This applies equally to the association of data flows, storage and networks as to the management and allocation of software and licenses.

• i-doit allows the detection and assignment of contract and operating data for the documented objects.

• Whether it's the service contract including contacts and expiry date, emergency planning for components and systems, electronic manuals or configuration data.

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• All documents in i-doit are subject to version management, so that changes and adaptations remain comprehensible.

• A reporting function with adjustable thresholds enable automatic reminders via email.

• Besides the direct dependencies that result from the connection data or the mapping of software systems, manual dependencies that arise indirectly from the IT business processes can also be documented.

• The i-doit workflow module allows the creation, assignment and tracking of orders and checklists

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On the subject of: ITSM

IT service management (ITSM) designates the sum total of measures and methods that are necessary to achieve the best possible support of the IT organisation in order to accomplish the business process (BP). By this means it is possible to continually improve the efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness of the IT organization.

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ITSM, ITIL & Co.

GITIMM ITIL ITSMF ISO20000ITILv3 Smart ITSM

1980 1990 2000 2010

itSMF

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ITIL - IT Infrastructure Library

• Developed over the 80 years of the "Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency" (CCTA), a government agency in Britain.

• As version 1 between 1989 and 1998 a total of 34 different documents were published.

• In 2000, the version 2 publication was released.

• On 1 June 2007 the current Version 3 (also called ITIL V3) was published.

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ITIL V3The contents of the ITIL V3 are described in several books under the various topics concerning the life cycle of services.

These books are referred to as Best Practices or Good Practices.

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ITSMF - IT Service Management Forum

"The world's only independent and internationally recognised IT Service Management organization....."

The ITSMF drives the development of the ITIL operation to be responsive to the constantly changing demands of IT.

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Why ITSM?

Capacity planning, but how?!

– What is the electricity load that is present on the respective circuits of the data centres?

– What is the heat generated by the server load, how much cooling capacity remains in the air conditioning system?

– How much space do I have in my server rack?– How many switch ports are still available?

When does the lack of data hinder the smooth running of my

IT system?

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What happens in the event of a technical failure?

- The costs of technical malfunction are often underestimated by companies!

- If the entire company is at a standstill due to an IT failure, action must be taken quickly!

- It causes external damage with customers and partners!

The idea of making the ITSM IT operation more efficient and quicker to respond in case of failure is

now possible to be put into practice at many companies.

Taking proactive action is always better than being at the mercy of uncontrolled delivery of IT processes!

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Tools?

integrated framework

vs.

specialized individual solutions

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Comparison Framework vs. Individual Solution

Framework• Pro

– Holistic approach– Close integration of

individual processes/data– Broad spectrum of functions– Modular, scalable

• Cons– High setup and

operational complexity – Price / performance ratio

often unfavourable

Individual Solutions• Pro

– High specialisation, sophisticated quality

– Often available as open source

– Scalable

• Cons– Isolated processes/data

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Examples from the open source area

• Nagios/Icinga : Outstanding in the field of network monitoring. If you want a mature and stable monitoring system for your infrastructure, do not overlook this solution!

• OTRS/RT: Comprehensive Trouble Ticketing Systems do not need to hide behind commercial solutions!

• Syslog: A centralised "log book" for all systems with

interfaces into the Unix/Linux world as well as offering Windows compatibility.

• OCS: Asset tool for automated inventory.

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Individual solutions and then ? The use of multiple point solutions creates a problem:

• No overall perspective onto IT!

• Data must be entered multiple times in each system and maintained for changes!

• There is no ability to centrally maintain data!

• All solutions operate separately from each other!

• Inconsistencies in the dataset are inevitable!

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Knowledge = Smart ITSM

• For the successful implementation of ITSM it is necessary to produce a central instance of a connection between the various systems used.

• Here, a "smart" response to this disadvantage of the individual solutions can open a wide field of application.

• In particular, enterprises which previously found the integrated solutions available to be too cumbersome and expensive can benefit here.

• Well over half of all German companies with more than 100 employees have no solutions or the solutions they do have are not integrated.

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Outlook - What happens next [sic]

• The ITSM Smart Converter [sic] should form a part of this answer. But let's start at the top:

• What is 'Smart ITSM'?– IT Service Management with the help of Open Source

components– i doit as a central data repository– Established tools from the Open Source world for system and

service management– A platform that combines the individual components into a

holistic solution

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Approach

• Processes exchange configuration data with each other

• Different processes produce different data

• Converter stores data and redistributes it

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How it works

• The converter takes up data from a process A• The converter transforms the data so that it is readable by

a process B• If there is missing data, data is tried to be derived from a

set of rules- Rules in the form of policies- Policies can request further data from process A or provide in

the form of default values

i do it!