The development of technology continues at a breathtaking pace. The
intensity of competition in the e-business world dictates that no
enterprise that values its future dares to ignore the enhanced
techniques. Not all enterprises will wish to be a leader in
exploiting new technologies, but neither will they wish to be too
far behind in adopting new methods in case they miss out on
opportunities that their competitors take advantage of.
E-business requires that enterprises adopt a different business
model that is global, innovative, and fast changing. The advances
in technology, including IT, telecommunications, wireless mobility,
and connectivity, mean the ways in which we share information has
changed. Information can be shared with colleagues, suppliers,
customers, and partners so much more easily, resulting in an
improvement in business efficiency.
Business and technology have become inextricably linked through
e-business so that any issue with an organisation's technology has
become a business issue. Technology has become so much more
complex. It is continuously evolving and it is interdependent. To
cope with these issues, there is an increasing need for enterprises
to deploy powerful management tools to control and monitor their
systems and networks.
Most large enterprises have invested heavily in their management
infrastructures for IT systems and networks. These manage the
technology but do not relate this to the business of the
enterprise. These companies quite often operate a number of
management systems to control their technology. This can result in
a number of control workstations and a number of staff required to
drive these systems.
The demands of agile e-business companies dictate that they need a
system and network infrastructure that is managed end-to-end to
ensure reliability and maximise productivity. Historically, most
management tools are dedicated to controlling
 | | Agile e-business companies need a
system and network infrastructure that is managed end-to-end to
ensure reliability | | | | | |
| | Source: Butler Group | | |
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individual technologies and functions rather than the complex,
interdependent infrastructure.
Most IT skills are scarce and with the pace of change the
management of systems and networks becomes increasingly complex.
The skills to manage them will become ever more scarce. This
applies at every level of organisation, including Small to
Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). In a true enterprise computing
environment, the complexities of the infrastructure, together with
the demands upon it, means
| | An enterprise needs to evaluate
and manage technology at a business process level | | | | | |
|  | Source: Butler Group | | |
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an automated management solution is essential. Even if the
enterprise is able to recruit the skills, it knows that it is going
to have to pay a premium to retain them for any length of time.
Technology problems very quickly become business issues in today's
fast-moving commercial environment. The enterprise cannot afford to
lose part of its infrastructure for a time without it impacting its
performance. However, it is a fact that management tools have grown
up focused on individual technologies and functions, and not
business processes.
Technology in Business Terms
In order to provide a
better service to its customers and users, an enterprise needs to
evaluate and manage technology at a business process level. This
will provide a business-oriented view of the enterprise's
information systems that translates the traditional metrics
familiar among IS professionals into demonstrable measures that
make sense to the company's senior executives.
As already mentioned, organisations are being forced to establish
new business models through e-business. They have to strengthen
their relationships with suppliers and customers. Executives need a
business view of the enterprise's infrastructure where IT is mapped
to business processes. This means if there is a problem with one or
more elements of the infrastructure, any effect on business
services is brought to the attention of designated enterprise
management when it occurs.
Key business services supplied by an enterprise to its customers
will quite often rely on a number of business processes. For
example, to accept an order for a product from a customer will
probably entail the delivery of product information to a company's
Web site, the checking of stock availability and the process of
credit authorisation. Each of these three processes will rely upon
combinations of multiple technology resources, including network
devices, system platforms, applications and databases.
For an organisation to ensure its product ordering is functioning
correctly, it has to collect and relate a large amount of
availability, fault, status, and performance information that
extends across the whole array of management systems. The
information then has to be put into context across the relevant
business processes and this has to be consolidated across business
units and possibly companies.
Most management tools on the market are concentrated on individual
technologies or specific management functions, and are unable to
provide business-oriented views of the infrastructure. They only
indicate the status of one group of components, such as the
network. The administrator has the task of interpreting this
information to determine what effect it may have on the service to
the customer.
A Strategy for Business Service Management
In order to
be truly accountable for the delivery of the business service, IT
needs a BSM Strategy that is flexible and easy to implement. It
needs to allow focused, bi-directional monitoring, reporting and
control of elements, systems and services that are critical to all
the enterprise functions. Such a system should be able to generate
subset views of specific line-of-business assets and provide a
single point of control for operations and line-of-business
management.
It should also be able to leverage information from all the
management systems deployed and integrate and consolidate all
management information in real-time. Most importantly, it should
provide a holistic view of the entire environment that is being
managed.
In order to implement such a strategy, the enterprise IT function
needs a management platform that enables:
- The integrated monitoring and management of public Internet
Protocol services that are required to support end-to-end
e-business applications.
- Comprehensive, accurate, real-time views, and control of
service availability and performance through the integration of
enterprise, network, and service provider management data.
- The shared monitoring of all elements involved in providing
e-business services. This will include everything from applications
to network devices, irrespective of whether the services are
supported by the enterprise or an external service provider.
The growth in the service provider market means that the provider
faces many challenges. They need to be able to provide a flexible
array of services to their clients that can be remotely managed,
combining both internal and outsourced infrastructures. Real-time
management data, from a variety of distributed sources, needs to be
aggregated and shared, while maintaining security. In order to
overcome these challenges, service providers require a scalable
management platform that quickly develops a partnership between
them and their customers through the sharing of performance
information.
Management Tools
There are many management products on
the market that administer and monitor the components that make-up
the infrastructure for e-business. Some service management products
have only been able to define the concept of service at the level
of device, application, or transaction-specific. They monitor the
availability and performance of specific management domains such as
the network, Web resources, systems platform, or applications.
These tools allow the organisation to determine how the network is
behaving, what response time is being achieved on the Web site, but
they do not enable the impact of an outage of an element to be
assessed at a business process level. Enterprise management systems
extend the availability and performance monitoring across multiple
management systems, but they normally lack the ability to easily
associate management data with the business processes that it
affects.
Some products focus at the business process level, but supply
little or no information on the behaviour of the underlying
infrastructure. Few of these solutions offer a secure way for
management information to be shared across enterprise boundaries so
that they are unable to supply a comprehensive view of critical
services that span multiple business units.
Infrastructure management vendors have tended to offer solutions
that do not interoperate with other systems or that can only
exchange limited types of information with other management
systems. This has further complicated matters for the IT
administrator who is then presented with a proliferation of data
from various sources that give their own narrow view of what is
happening in the infrastructure.
While there may well be a vast amount of data showing volumes,
events, faults, availability, status, and performance, these cannot
be related to the services that they combine to provide. When
problems do occur, it is difficult to prioritise their seriousness
in order that remedial action can be taken in a logical and most
effective manner.
The Integration of Management Systems
Some vendors
have responded to these problems by marketing solutions that
integrate or consolidate event streams from different management
systems. These solutions are supposed to align the infrastructure
with the goals of the business, although they can be expensive.
Many require the replacement of existing management systems or an
upgrade to the latest version of the vendor's system. Some are
based on proprietary technology that limits co-operation with
competitive management systems.
Integration solutions are limited in their functionality, as most
are not able to integrate or correlate data from disparate
infrastructure components. This means that they are unable to
relate network data with applications data.
Most integration solutions are also not designed to work across
multiple organisation boundaries. So the overall picture of service
management is of domain-specific performance and availability
reports, rather than a reflection of how the entire infrastructure
is delivering the business service.
For it to be accountable for the delivery of service, IT must
manage simultaneously across business processes, management
systems, and different business units, enterprises, and/or
organisations. As the IT infrastructure has become so important to
the conduct of the enterprise's business, so its complexity has
increased dramatically. This has meant it is imperative that the
technology issues involved must be understood by the business, as
must their consequences.
To gain this understanding, enterprises must view the
infrastructure from a business service perspective. In order to
achieve this, each line of business must be accessible with a
degree of granularity that allows access to each individual
technology element for diagnosis and repair. Lines of business
services now tend to cut across the traditional management systems
and business processes. They can also span organisations and
divisions. An application such as supply chain management can range
across the functional organisations of sales, marketing,
purchasing, manufacturing, and customer service.
This requires that in order to be truly responsible for service
delivery, it is necessary to manage simultaneously the delivery of
management systems, business processes, and the various business
units, enterprises, and/or organisations. A BSM system complements
an enterprise's existing management systems to achieve this level
of management sophistication. It operates as a top layer and
provides a single, centralised method of command and control for
the entire IT infrastructure.
A Platform for BSM
Managed Objects, a company based in
McLean, Virginia, recognised there was a need for a product in the
BSM space in the market. It calls its vision Business Service
Management3, which recognises that service delivery must be
simultaneously managed across three dimensions:
- Management systems.
- Business processes.
- Business units, enterprises, and/or organisations
Based on this vision, Managed Objects developed its formula V2
product. It enables organisations that have made large investments
in proprietary management systems to understand how their
infrastructure supports the business. It provides a standard
architecture that is vendor-neutral and links multiple, disparate
management systems across corporate boundaries.
Formula provides a model that is built with Internet-driven
technologies, including Java, Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and the
Web. It is an Object Integration Model that can talk the same
language as all the popular management tools. It creates a layer
that enables the enterprise to organise transparently and share
information across management systems, business processes, and
companies.
The product is built in Java and it enables IT professionals to
build business-oriented groupings of the IT infrastructure's
components. These groupings unify the status, availability, and
performance data that is supplied by different underlying
management systems. Formula unifies this data by integrating and
consolidating it dynamically into a Web-enabled Object Integration
Model. Its Integration Engine is not visible to the underlying
management systems, as they regard it as an extension of their
consoles.
The functionality of all the underlying management systems is
available through formula's bi-directional access. This means a
real-time representation of the business is created where all
system and network management functions can be carried out from the
formula console. Likewise, all information from the management
systems is available to formula. As the Integration Engine is
Web-enabled, management console views can be distributed anywhere
through the use of a browser.
Formula users can construct focused Business Service Views of
selected assets using a simple drag-and-drop procedure. The command
and control of the infrastructure of the entire enterprise, or of
any focused view, is available at the central console or through a
standard browser.
While transactions and processes can be managed in real-time for
the whole infrastructure, each user can have a unique view of the
information that they require.
This eliminates the need for managers and technicians to utilise
multiple consoles or applications in order to establish whether
business processes are meeting their expected service levels. There
is also the powerful facility to drill-down on any object to see
the status of the underlying resources related to the object.
Formula builds on an enterprise's existing management systems
through non-intrusive software adapters that permit fast, simple
integration. Their information elements are encapsulated in
CORBA-compliant 'object wrappers' so that the disparate information
is turned into a seamless and manageable, integrated whole. Users
of the system can view and control the enterprise's infrastructure
of interacting objects, including services, applications,
databases, networks, and devices. Every element of the enterprise
can become a managed object.
With the global information of the system, the IT department can
create focused Business Service Views by selecting subsets as
required. These can be tailored for individual requirements and
permissions so that users are only supplied with the information
that they are authorised to see. Management data is converted into
business intelligence through these views for use by business
executives, line managers, customers of service providers, and
those responsible for specific services, customers, and regions.
The relationships and data flow between interconnected applications
can be viewed by users, as well as the dependencies between
applications and physical resources. This enables problem
identification and resolution to be carried out more quickly.
Formula supports XML which simplifies the customisation of Business
Service Views and ensures future flexibility.
BSM in Action
Although Managed Objects is a relatively
young company, with a new product aimed at a new space in the
market, it has already achieved the adoption of formula by a number
of high-profile clients.
Amazon.com uses it as an enterprise-wide service management console
that monitors and helps troubleshoot the delivery of critical
business services worldwide. It enables Amazon.com to enhance
further the availability and performance of its business processes,
as well as the efficiency of its IT operations.
Bank of America uses formula to provide end-to-end Business Service
Views of its IT infrastructure. It enables it to understand the
health of its overall services, as well as how resources combine to
deliver specific services to specific customers. It also enabled it
to integrate and consolidate its many management tools following a
complex merger with NationsBank.
BellSouth uses formula to provide Business Service Views of its
Message Broker Bus, which is a large enterprise application that
enables anywhere, anytime, customer access to customer and product
data. With formula, BellSouth maps resources to supporting
services, and enables the company to understand performance across
the enterprise.
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Dell Computer Corporation,
Fidelity Investments, Merrill Lynch, and WebLink Wireless are other
major companies that have recognised the benefits of using formula
to manage their infrastructures, and are realising those benefits.
The Benefits of BSM
The overriding benefit of BSM is
that it is future-proof. It can cope with technological advances
because it operates at a level above the system and network
management systems that control the infrastructure of today and
those that will control the more advanced infrastructures of
tomorrow.
Because it operates at this level, if enterprises merge or
acquisitions take place, BSM can be deployed to interface with an
expanded architecture. As a result, forecast savings and
efficiencies through consolidation of resources can be achieved
much more quickly.
BSM can also enable IT management to be much more focused on the
business. New services can be introduced earlier as the management
challenges of roll-out are made simpler. As a consequence, the
enterprise can be more innovative due to the increased
responsiveness of IT in providing the new and changed
infrastructure that can lead to growth of the business.
The information available from a BSM system can improve customer
service. By supplying views of the business services and the
details of where problems occur, it can enable responses to be
prioritised in line with business goals. It can also reduce the
time needed to resolve service problems through enhanced isolation
and diagnosis of the elements involved. Performance information can
be used to aid management planning of the network infrastructure.
BSM can reduce costs because it obviates the need to replace
current management systems and builds on these existing
investments. BSM interfaces and interworks with existing management
products. The skill level required to manage the infrastructure can
be reduced and productivity of staff increased. With expansion of
the environment, additional staffing requirements are contained due
to the increased productivity levels. As it has a consistent user
interface, BSM empowers staff who require a minimal amount of
training in the use of the system.
BSM improves management flexibility in that its functions are
independent of existing management platforms and customised views
can be created for each user of the system. Users of the system can
have its facilities, and those of its underlying management
systems, available to them anywhere: throughout the corporate
network; through the Internet; or via a laptop on the road or at a
customer site.
Increased scalability is supplied by BSM, as the management
information can be integrated and consolidated from the underlying
management tools. Additional proprietary management tools can be
incorporated as underlying objects, and the BSM system can be
adapted to future integration requirements in case of
intra-enterprise co-operation.
Through BSM, IT has the tools to be accountable for business
services. Time-to-market for new products and services can be
reduced and rapid innovation and growth of the business is made
possible. Existing investments in management technology and people
skills are preserved, thereby minimising the costs associated with
the deployment of the BSM system.
IT staff are empowered as their productivity is increased and they
are able to improve the levels of service to customers. Management
costs are reduced and risks are managed, as the BSM platform will
be open to the adoption of new solutions when they are required.
Conclusion
BSM is a logical extension of management of
the enterprise infrastructure. The demands on enterprises to
provide near 100 per cent availability will continue to increase.
The number of components to be managed will expand, and the
interdependencies between those components will increase. The
skills needed to operate them will become even more scarce.
True command and control of the whole IT infrastructure, in
business terms, is something that more and more companies will feel
is necessary to drive their businesses.
About Butler Group Research and advisory services
This
Concept Paper is reproduced from Butler Group's Research and
Advisory Service. For more information on these and other
technology focused services, contact Mike James on +44(0)1482
586149, email mike.james@butlergroup.com or visit
http://www.butlergroup.com/ras/