Creating Added Value for the IT Service Management Practice. How ConsoleWorks Creates Value for ITSM Best Practices

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1 Creating Added Value for the IT Service Practice Many of the best practices documented within ITSM provide guidance on how to perform IT functions in a consistent and reliable manner. It calls for a seamless mesh between people involved, the underlying processes in place and the technology that enables the two. However, these ITSM best practices make no assumptions regarding possible uses of technology that can automate and optimize many of these activities. When this can be done, it becomes a value-added ITSM practice which is where ConsoleWorks helps with the use of technology and the data generated by it to turn it into information, and then deliver the information in a way that turns it into knowledge. How ConsoleWorks Creates Value for ITSM Best Practices ConsoleWorks plays an important role in the ongoing support, operation, maintenance and management of the foundation of the IT infrastructure. IT Foundation (ITFM) improves Service by automating and optimizing specific sub-processes that commonly exist in all organizations; IT foundation processes directly impact reliability, availability, security, compliance and the cost of operations. These sub-processes either directly relate to the best practices guidance known as ITSM (IT Service ) or indirectly contribute to the stated goals of ITSM best practices. ConsoleWorks automates and optimizes the ITSM best practice into a far leaner and more comprehensive process in areas where there are disparate tools (or no tools) and manual processes, as represented in the graphic below. The result is a considerable improvement in key performance measures such as elapsed time, touch time, cost and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). Disparate Tools require specialized knowledge Traditional IT approach showing management gaps and inherent inefficiencies caused by the use of disparate tools across the environment.

2 ConsoleWorks, using IT foundation management functionality, offers these value-added ITSM practices through an integrated software environment that includes a knowledge base used for event detection, prioritization and diagnosis to form a robust end-to-end, closed loop remediation practice. With ConsoleWorks, the tools of the trade that normally exist as many independent tools, as show above, are consolidated into a seamlessly integrated software application as depicted in the diagram below. ConsoleWorks fills the Gap ConsoleWorks provides an integrated environment and additional capabilities to improve key aspects of IT Service. The scope of ConsoleWorks centers on providing knowledge about events that can be automatically detected by technology, for remediation actions and for root cause analysis. For inbound help desk requests, the normal ITSM best practices are improved with ConsoleWorks for diagnosis, root cause analysis and closed loop remediation. ConsoleWorks controls elements of the extended data center in a unique way, enabling a new approach with new technology. Because of this, ConsoleWorks is able to maintain a secure, constant, persistent contact with all components of the data center everywhere from anywhere, independent of the presence of an operating system and without bandwidth constraints. By delivering agentless management technology that begins managing devices as soon as power and a network cable are installed, it allows ConsoleWorks to detect that a component is in trouble before it goes down. Along with the complete Event Lifecycle, it enables an immediate path to remediation to anywhere from everywhere. The result is a greater time between failures, quicker remediation of failures, and a more efficient use of personnel all of which result in a quick return on the investment. ConsoleWorks Impact on ITSM Best Practices ITSM Best Practice Service Design Service Level Risk Information Security Compliance ConsoleWorks Added-Value to ITSM Best Practice On change event detection (real-time, milliseconds notification) Correlation across applications and infrastructure Role based access and control over serial interfaces, consoles and command line interfaces Logging of actions for matter-of-record verification Role-based systems management over privileged serial interfaces Maintains security in all modes production, test, standby, maintenance, no OS, etc.

3 Service Transition Configuration Change Knowledge Service Operation Event Incident Problem Detects compliance-related events Produces compliance reports Manages multiple (up to 40) like-device configuration changes with a single action Manages multiple (up to 40) like-device configuration changes with a single action including patches and upgrades Creates a living history of events and actions across the IT infrastructure Records past remediation actions to events Adaptive event management to update events and event patterns with respect to priority, description, recommendation actions and automated actions Captures broadest range of hardware/software generated events across the IT infrastructure Captures event on change, in real-time (milliseconds) Captures events in all modes production, test, standby, maintenance, no OS, etc. Faster, and more comprehensive, event detection (milliseconds) Intelligent Event Modules automatically prioritize events and relate vendor definitions/recommended actions to each One-click on event console or command line interface open Secure, remote monitoring and closed loop remediation Correlation across IT infrastructure for root cause analysis and cascading-effect identification Geographically independent secure, collaborative environment Role-based access and control over serial interfaces and Access Continuous Service Improvement Service Level Detect events across infrastructure in real-time Pattern definition of events that threaten SLA, automated actions and alerts Continual Service Adapt event definitions, event patterns, and actions on an ongoing basis to embed Improvement lessons learned ConsoleWorks Value to ITSM Practices Incident : ConsoleWorks detects a broader range of events in true real-time (milliseconds) directly from the IT infrastructure and automatically prioritizes them based on vendor documentation and userdeveloped prioritization rules. Events are further presented with descriptive context and often suggested remediation actions. Finally, remediation is simplified by automatically opening the appropriate console or command line interface with a single mouse-click on the associated event. The improvement to the MTTR cycle can range from minutes to hours or even days depending on the nature of the event and the information required for diagnosis. Security : ITSM security best practices are supported for the IT group (system admins, for example), applying role-based access and control to the service interfaces (privileged interfaces, baseboard management controllers, serial interfaces, operating system consoles etc.). ITSM best practices are being directly applied to the IT staff (including contractors and service techs) where they primarily focus on others. Yet, the security within IT represents a far greater vulnerability, and where security best practices need to be applied. Configuration, Change, and Release : Role-based access and security is needed to properly manage configuration and change management processes, just as a definitive record is needed of changes that have been made. ConsoleWorks provides both of these elements, as well as the ability to perform

4 configuration, maintenance, patching and other activities on as many as 40-like devices through a single usergenerated action. Service Level (SLAs): The ability to consume and correlate events from across the IT infrastructure is another key point. This provides a powerful means to manage against Service Level Agreements which is how ConsoleWorks is being used by a leading financial institution for one of their EFT services. ConsoleWorks provides the means to proactively detect and remediate threats to SLAs. Continuous Improvement, Embedded Domain Knowledge: ConsoleWorks provides the ability to develop custom event-patterns, set priorities, and capture remediation actions taken as a living history. ConsoleWorks also enables collaborative, team interactions that enable the IT organization to tap its family of knowledge workers as needed through this knowledge base, regardless of geographical location. Integration with Service Desk Applications: ConsoleWorks supports bi-directional information sharing to other applications. For example, ConsoleWorks can send events to other applications just as it can consume and process evens from other systems. Rapid updates to Service Desks are especially important in order to properly meet Service Level Agreements. For example, if a service desk application is considered the master reporting system for infrastructure practices such as Incident, Problem Resolution and Change : then ConsoleWorks can send the supporting event detection prioritization, diagnosis and remediation to the service desk application. If the service desk is primarily used to assign tickets, ConsoleWorks can consume tickets and post remediation when a ticket is completed. In summary ConsoleWorks can: Post events to the service desk application Consume and process events from the service desk application Take tickets from the service desk application and update tickets when complete Post entire Incident, Problem Resolutions, etc. datasets to the service desk application. New Insight with ConsoleWorks A major consideration with respect to service desk strategy is the fact that many highly technical incidents never see the light of day in the service desk application. In the real world of work, incidents (issues, problems) are spotted by system administrators, operators, contractors or even service technicians and dealt with appropriately before they can produce an effect that would trigger a service desk request. Sometimes it is followed by manually updating the service desk application but often it is not even when policies or procedures require this to be done. With ConsoleWorks, this information can be pushed up to the service desk application, giving IT management new visibility into what is really happening on the front lines. IT Foundation with ConsoleWorks

5 ConsoleWorks controls elements of the extended data center in a unique way, enabling a new approach with new technology. Because of this, ConsoleWorks is able to maintain a secure, constant, persistent contact with all components of the data center everywhere from anywhere, independent of the presence of an operating system and without bandwidth constraints. By delivering agentless management technology that begins managing devices as soon as power and a network cable are installed, it allows ConsoleWorks to detect that a component is in trouble before it goes down. It enables an immediate path to remediation to anywhere from everywhere. The result is a greater time between failures, quicker remediation of failures, and a more efficient use of personnel all of which result in a quick return on the investment. About TDi Technologies TDi Technologies is the leader in IT Foundation, delivering solutions to a global customer base with key verticals including Utilities, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Healthcare and Government. The company s solutions, ConsoleWorks, provides a single pane of glass enabling customers to reduce operating costs, meet compliance requirements, secure the IT infrastructure and improve overall IT service delivery.