PCA20S01L - IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

1 Introduction
INFRASTRUCTURE:
 In information technology and on the internet, infrastructure is the physical
hardware used to interconnect computers and users.
 Infrastructure includes the transmission media, including telephone lines, cable
television lines, satellites antennas, Routers (A router is a networking device
that forwards data packets between computer networks) and other devices that
control transmission paths.
 Infrastructure also includes the software used to send, receive and manage the
signals that are transmitted.
Information technology (IT) Infrastructure:
 IT Infrastructure is the integrated framework upon which digital network
operates.
 The infrastructure includes data centres, computers, computer network,
Database management devices and regulatory system

Components of IT Infrastructure:
1. Switching
2. Routers
3. Firewalls
4. Servers
5. Physical Plant (also known as Physical facilities such as, lands, buildings,
furniture’s and physical infrastructures)
6. People
7. Server Rooms / Data Center
8. Infrastructure Software
Infrastructure Components
The IT infrastructure today is composed of seven major components, which
constitute investments that must be coordinated with one another to provide the firm
with a coherent infrastructure.
 Computer hardware platforms; Includes the client machines (Desktop PCs,
mobile computing devices such as iphones, blackberrys and laptops) and the
servers
 Operating System Platforms: the systems that manages the resources and
activities of the computer. Operations such as logging on, file management, and
network connectivity are controlled by the operating system. Example
Windows, Linux, Unix etc
 Enterprise Software Applications: Integrating applications into seamless
processes across the organization is the goal of enterprise software
applications. Customer relationship management and supply chain management
systems are the two most popular applications in this category. Example,
Enterprise Resource Planning software, middleware software for achieving
firm-wide/ organization-wide integration by linking the existing application
systems.
 Data Management and Storage: Extensive Data storage facilities as the
amount of new digital information in the world is doubling every three years
driven part by e-commerce and e-business. Storage area networks (SANs)
provide a cohesive, economical way to consolidate data from across any and all
systems within the business
 Networking / Telecommunication Platforms: Networking and
telecommunication facilities
 Internet platform: The Internet and its technology standards continue to
expand the services businesses are able to provide their employees, customers,
suppliers, and business partners. Intranets and extranets built on Internet
technologies give businesses an easy and inexpensive method of providing
services that were cost prohibitive a few years ago.

Introduction
IT infrastructures started to becomemore complicated as a result of the rapid
development and deployment of newtypes of applications, such as e-commerce,
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),data warehousing, big data, the Internet of
Things, and cloud computing. Theseapplications required new and more sophisticated
infrastructure services, secure,highly scalable, and available 24/7.
Most current infrastructure landscapes are the result of a history of
applicationimplementation projects that introduced their own specialized hardware
andinfrastructure components. Mergers and acquisitions made things even
worse,leaving many organizations with multiple sets of the same infrastructure
servicesthat are hard to interconnect, let alone integrate and consolidate.
Organizations benefit from infrastructure architecture when they want to
bemore flexible and agile, because a solid, scalable, and modular
infrastructureprovides a firm foundation for agile adaptations. The market demands a
degreeof flexibility that can no longer be supported by infrastructures that
areinconsistent and hard to expand. We need infrastructures that are constructedwith
standardized, modular components. And to make infrastructures consistentand in line
with business needs, architecture is crucial.
Architecture is the philosophy that underlies a system and defines the
purpose,intent, and structure of the system. Various kinds of architecture can be
defined,including business architecture, enterprise architecture, data
architecture,application architecture, and infrastructure architecture. Each of these
disciplineshas certain unique characteristics, but at their most basic level, they all aim
atmapping IT solutions to business value. Architecture is needed to control
theinfrastructure when it is designed, in use, and when it is changed.
What is IT infrastructure?
IT infrastructures have been around for quite a while. But surprisingly enough
no generally accepted definition of IT infrastructure seems to exist. I found that many
people are confused by the term IT infrastructure, and a clear definition would help
them understand what IT infrastructure is, and what it is not. In literature, many
definitions of IT infrastructure are described. Some of them are:
 IT infrastructure consists of the equipment, systems, software, and services
used in common across an organization, regardless of mission/program/project.
IT Infrastructure also serves as the foundation upon which
mission/program/project-specific systems and capabilities are built. (cio.gov -
the website for the United States Chief Information Officers Council).
 All of the components (Configuration Items) that are necessary to deliver IT
Services to customers. The IT Infrastructure consists of more than just
hardware and software. (ITILv2).
 All of the hardware, software, networks, facilities, etc., that are required to
develop, test, deliver, monitor, control, or support IT services. The term IT
Infrastructure includes all of the Information Technology but not the associated
people, Processes and documentation. (ITILv3).
 Information technology infrastructure underpins the distributed operational and
administrative computing environment. Hidden from the application-based
world of end users, technology infrastructure encompasses the unseen realm of
protocols, networks, and middleware that bind the computing enterprise
together and facilitate efficient data flows. Yet information technology
infrastructure involves more than justthe mechanics of data systems; it also
includes people providing support and services. (Technology Governance
Board Definition of Information Technology Infrastructure).
 Infrastructure is the shared and reliable services that provide the foundation for
the enterprise IT portfolio. The implementation of an architecture includes the
processors, software, databases, electronic links, and datacenters as well as the
standards that ensure the components work together, the skills for managing the
operation, etc. (Goethe University of Frankfurt, www.is-frankfurt.de).
2 Challenges in IT Infrastructure Management
1. Lack of Powerful Computing Platforms
2. Data Acquisition Problems
3. Compute Management (Administration, Controlling, Supervision) and
Provision (facility)
4. Lack of Efficient Data Storage Architectures
5. Dearth (Lack) of Ways to Improve Data Analytics
6. Improper Networks and Connectivity
7. Poor Team Protocols
8. Slow or Out of Date Hardware
Top 6 IT Infrastructure Management Challenges & Their Solutions
Most of the global tech analysts understand that there are several challenges
related to IT infrastructure that the companies face. The main challenges are regarding
computing platforms, data acquisition, compute provisioning and management, data
storage architectures, data analytics, and networks and communication. We have listed
some of the top infrastructure management challenges that your organization may face
in the future and their probable solutions -
1 Lack of Powerful Computing Platforms
Challenge - The major challenge in growing processing power of computers has been
the lack of energy and space to power supercomputers. IT managers have always been
on the lookout for better and faster systems which will help in the faster processing of
the large amounts of data available today.
Solution - A simple solution to this challenge would be to employ new general
purpose graphical processors or multi-core platforms. By using better systems, the
existing software will have to be optimized and adjusted to provide the best results.
Many projects have been started to develop faster computers which will be available
at low costs and energy needs.
1

2 Data Acquisition Problems

Challenge - Firewalls which protect emails, applications and web browsing can cause
important packet losses in the TCP/IP networks. This can result in important data loss
and reduce the network speeds considerably, making the online collaboration
impossible. Similar losses can occur due to the switches and routers which do not
have the required high-speed memory.

Solution - IT managers need to look out for high-performance computing resources

with huge data sets and a secure bridge to collaborate with dispersed scientific teams.
They will also need to employ more sophisticated means to collect, filter and store
using high-speed networks.
3 Compute Management and Provisioning
Challenge - One of the biggest challenges for IT managers is the humongous amounts
of data that is available today. High-performance computing of these large data sets
will require virtualization and automation to avoid adding more people to these
processes. The major challenge for IT managers is to simplify these tasks and speed
up the processing.
Solution - This challenge can be solved by using distributive systems. These systems
divide complex tasks into smaller independent bits which can be processed by
individual computers which are connected to a network. Grid computing consists of
virtualization of resources and supports computations across multiple administrative
domains and helps in speeding up the processing of complex tasks.
4 Lack of Efficient Data Storage Architectures
Challenge - Cloud storage has taken over in most of the cases in the modern world.
Though it is a cost-effective and scalable alternative for data storage for IT managers,
it does not provide the required data storage architectures which can accommodate a
variety of applications. The IT community needs something more flexible which is
beyond space and cost in cloud storage options.
Solution - It is important that the cloud storage options become more flexible to
improve the IT infrastructure. It should be easy to optimize the cloud storage
architecture according to the application which is being deployed. It needs to be more
reliable, efficient and be able to handle a variety of applications and needs of the user
community. The cloud storage options need to serve as long-term and archival instead
of a short-term solution for the IT community.
5 Dearth of Ways to Improve Data Analytics
Challenge - Currently there are not many methods in place which can be used by IT
managers to separate quality data from the humongous data sets. It is important to
identify patterns in the data and correctly analyze it and use it to take business
decisions in infrastructure management.
Solution - The best solution to solve this problem would be to have an ideal system
which would consist of a standards-based framework facilitating easy data transfer
between different tools and layers. This will help in faster data transfer and hence
better data analysis. This analytics would be used for industrial control systems and
for network and IT monitoring.
6 Improper Networks and Connectivity
Challenge - For any organization to work smoothly, it is important that there is a
good and reliable network in place. Without a reliable network connection, IT
infrastructure management can be a difficult task for any IT manager of the
organization. New software-based methods and network architecture design are
required for the optimization of data.
Solution - The ability to migrate the IP address would help to allow application
services to be migrated to other hardware. Another solution to this challenge would be
to add intelligence to the wired as well as Wi-Fi network connections. This will help
the networks to optimize the traffic delivery to contain costs and improve the service.

3 DESIGN FACTORS FOR IT INFRASTRUCTURE

The approach to transformation of the infrastructure can take place over three stages.
Stage I: Consolidation and standardization
In this stage, there are three key strategies:
  Consolidate data centers: Data center consolidation has been reached to the
top of most CIOs’ agendas as they perceive (observe) to modify their data
center facilities due to limits in power, cooling, efficiency and space.
 Rationalize (justify) infrastructure: Rationalization strategies help reduce
overlap, cut costs and enhance business value by aligning IT and investments
that will contribute to business results.
 Virtualization: Virtualizing your data center is the first step towards achieving
the flexibility and cost benefits of cloud computing. To realize the full benefits
of virtualization, IT organizations must have an integrated virtual data center
strategythat has integrated management of key operational processes and
procedures.
Stage 2: From Consolidation to Shared Infrastructure
After consolidation, the next stage is to optimize (improve) and maximize the ROI
(Return on Investment) and utilization of IT assets and resources.
 Tier Infrastructure: Defining service levels and tiering the infrastructure
according to SLA (Service Level Agreement) provide businesses freedom of
choice – to pick and pay for the quality, service level, performance and
capacity they require.
 Optimize Resources: Optimizing resource utilization and efficiencies through
modern technologies such as Automated storage tiering(to assign different
categories of data to various types of storage media),
• Capacity management(computing infrastructure has adequate resources
to handle current data processing requirements as well as the capacity to
accommodate future loads)
• Thin provisioning (allocates disk space to users on demand based on
how much space they need at any given time. As a user saves more data,
they take up more of the disk; when they delete data, their portion
shrinks)
• Deduplication(technique for eliminating duplicate copies of repeating
data)
• Virtualization(creation of virtual servers, infrastructures, devices
and computing resources)which help to reduce per unit costs by doing
more with less.
• Integrate and Automate Management: Management of a dynamic and fluid
infrastructure requires proactive, real-time and “intelligent” managementacross
the multi-lT layers and across physical, virtual and legacy platforms.
Stage 3: From Shared Infrastructure to IT-as-a-Service
• The final stage of the Infrastructure Transformation is to extract advantage of
cloud computing and evolve towards IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS), in particular, IT
offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). The IaaS service catalog may
include services for compute (or server), storage, backup, disaster recovery,
data center and network.
• In addition to following above mentioned structured, three-phase plan for
successful infrastructure transformation, CIOs should also understand the
baseline the IT organization is seeking to improve. Businesses positioning
 themselves for high performance should recognize the inherent role IT plays in
enabling critical business capabilities.
• CIOs must evaluate next gen technology trends rigorously, stay mindful of the
bigger picture of how different elements would interconnect and their impact
on organizational efficiency, productivity, innovation and competitiveness.

4 Organizations
An IT organization (information technology organization) is the department
within a company that is charged with establishing, monitoring and maintaining
information technology systems and services. In a large organization, the IT
organization may also be charged with strategic planning to ensure that all IT
initiatives support business goals. IT organizational structures vary and can be
centralized or decentralized depending upon the needs of the company.
Impact of IT on Organization:
 The use of computers and information technology has brought many changes to
organizations like the manager's job, Organizational structure, authority and
power, Job content (Value and supply Chain), Employee career paths.
 The most important task of mangers is making decision. IT changes the manner
in which many decisions are made.
 Less expertise required for many decisions.
 More rapid identification of problems and opportunities.
Advantages of IT on Organization:
 Reduces office space
 Decreases the number of employees
 Improves job satisfaction
 Increase the productivity(efficiency)
 Provide the security to organization
 To manage the data and time schedule
Challenges:
• High Skilled management required
• Negotiation of each level
• Availability of resources
• Cope(manage) against loyalty(reliable)
• Need more financial support
• Decisions deliver is required to be fast.

5 IT infrastructure
IT infrastructure management
IT infrastructure management is the coordination of IT resources, systems,
platforms, people, and environments. Here are some of the most common technology
infrastructure management types:
• OS management:Oversees environments running the same OS by providing
content, patch, provisioning, and subscription management.
 • Cloud management: Gives cloud admins control over everything running in a
cloud—end users, data, applications, and services—by managing resource
deployments, use, integration, and disaster recovery.
• Virtualization management: Interfaces with virtual environments and the
underlying physical hardware to simplify resource administration, enhance data
analyses, and streamline operations.
• IT operations management: Also known as business process management,
this is the practice of modeling, analyzing, and optimizing business processes
that are often repeated, ongoing, or predictable.
• IT automation: Creates repeatable instructions and processes to replace or
reduce human interaction with IT systems. Also known as infrastructure
automation.
• Container orchestration: Automates the deployment, management, scaling,
and networking of containers It can help you to deploy the same application
across different environments without needing to redesign it
• Configuration management:Maintains computer systems, servers, and
software in a desired, consistent state.
• API management: Distributes, controls, and analyzes the application
programming interfaces (APIs) that connect apps and data across enterprises
and clouds.
• Risk management: Identifies and assesses risks and creates plans to minimize
or control those risks and their potential impacts.
Types of IT infrastructure
Traditional infrastructure
• With a traditional infrastructure, the components—like datacenters, data
storage, and other equipment—are all managed and owned by the business
within their own facilities. Traditional infrastructure is often thought of as
expensive to run and requires large amounts of hardware, like servers, as well
as power and physical space.
Cloud infrastructure
• Cloud infrastructure describes the components and resources needed for cloud
computing. You can create a private cloud by building it yourself using
resources dedicated solely to you. Or
• You can use a public cloud by renting cloud infrastructure from a cloud
provider like Alibaba, Amazon, Google, IBM, or Microsoft.
• And by incorporating some degree of workload portability, orchestration(helps
IT to more easily manage complex tasks and workflows), and management
across multiple clouds, you can create a hybrid cloud(solution that combines a
private cloud with one or more public cloud services)
Hyperconverged infrastructure
• Hyperconverged infrastructure allows you to manage your compute, network,
and data storage resources from a single interface.
• With software-defined compute and data storage bundled together, you can
support more modern workloads with scalable architectures on industry-
standard hardware.
• Simplify Deployments....
 • Increase Flexibility....
• Lower Costs....
• Raise Reliability....

6 IT SYSTEMS
• IT Systems means the hardware, Software, data, databases, data
communication lines, network and telecommunications equipment, Internet-
related information technology infrastructure, wide area network and other
information technology equipment, owned, leased or licensed by the Company
or any of its Subsidiaries.
• It means all computer systems, servers, network equipment and other computer
hardware owned, operated, leased or licensed by any of the Acquired
Companies and otherwise used in the conduct of the Company Business.
• The IT Systems material describes the conduct of the Business as currently
conducted are adequate and suitable for the conduct of the Business as
currently conducted.
• Since January 1, 2018, there has been no (i) failure, breakdown or other
adverse event that caused a material disruption to or the unavailability of the IT
Systems or (ii) Security Incident.

7 IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT (ITSM)

• ITSM aims to align the delivery of IT services with the needs of the enterprise.
The full form of ITSM is IT Service Management. The focus of ITSM tools is
to deliver satisfactory service to the end-user.
• ITSM is a combination of a set of defined policies, process, and methods for
delivering IT products and services. It improves and supports customer-centric
IT services.
ITSM Processes
 ITSM process helps you to manage IT services. Organizations need to manage
the service's capabilities, how it performs, changes to it, and what happens when it
experiences problems.
 Configuration Management:It includes the physical and logical perspective
(creation, maintenance, controlled change and quality control) of the IT
infrastructure and services
 Change Management:It is standard methods and procedures to manage all the
changes made in ITSM services
 Release Management:Testing, release, and verification of changes to the IT
environment.
 Incident Management:It is a day to day process, which restores normal,
acceptable service with a minimal impact on business.
 Availability Management: (to ensure that services deliver agreed levels
of availability to meet the needs of customers and user)
 It optimizes IT infrastructure services, capabilities, and support to minimize
service outages. It also offers sustained levels of service to suit the business
requirements.
 Capacity Management:Helps the organization to manage resources and also
allows them to plan for future resource requirements.
 Service Level Management:It helps you to improve and maintain the level of
service to your clients. It helps to meet the SLA (Service Level Agreements).
 Project Management:Project management allows IT firms to maintain orderly
services to avoid issues like outdated systems.
 Financial Management:This IT service helps you to manage the costs required
by the company to meet its financial obligations (requirements). These services
also include the resources needed to meet requirements.
 Knowledge Management:Knowledge management helps you to avoid
duplicated work by organizing and making available information about various
types of IT products and services.
 Problem management:A problem is the root cause of any incident. An IT
organization might temporarily solve the issue but can't fix the problem. This
may lead to incidents, so problem management is a method to fix issues to
improve service delivery and performance.
Implement ITSM Process and Workflows
Step 1) Audit your current ITSM operation and find out the gaps
Step 2) Educate, communicate, and involve stakeholder while implementing ITSM
processes
Step 3) Outline the critical success factors and keep a tab on KPI(Key Performance
Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a
company is achieving key business objectives) and metrics
Step 4) Use relevant ITSM tools to automate the process
Step 5) Develop feedback loop and other stack holders
ITSM Success Factors
People - Helps you to offer quantity and quality of expertise and knowledge.
Process - IT and organization-specific practices, guidelines, procedures, etc.
Technology - It offers logical and physical technology infrastructure consisting
of hardware, applications, DBMS, etc.
Organization Internal and external business factors which affect IT, how IT and
the organization interface, what is the organizations. It also includes how it does
affect IT services.
Integration It is also important how IT services should be integrated with a
specific business model. It also includes what services does IT provide, how are
the services are offers.

CHALLENGES OF ITSM:
• Difficult to adapt to the team
• Maintaining regulatory compliance
• Risk and security concerns
• It does not offer visibility across teams
• Not offers any coordination with developers
• Avoiding unplanned downtime
8 Information system design process
Information systems are designed using the systems development life cycle
(SDLC). The life cycle defines a methodology for improving the quality of software
and the overall development process. The following figure is a graphical
representation of the various stages of a typical SDLC.

Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis

Requirement analysis is the most important and fundamental stage in SDLC. It
is performed by the senior members of the team with inputs from the customer, the
sales department, market surveys and domain experts in the industry. This information
is then used to plan the basic project approach and to conduct product feasibility study
in the economical, operational and technical areas.
Planning for the quality assurance requirements and identification of the risks
associated with the project is also done in the planning stage. The outcome of the
technical feasibility study is to define the various technical approaches that can be
followed to implement the project successfully with minimum risks.
Stage 2: Defining Requirements
Once the requirement analysis is done the next step is to clearly define and
document the product requirements and get them approved from the customer or the
market analysts. This is done through an SRS (Software Requirement
Specification) document which consists of all the product requirements to be designed
and developed during the project life cycle.
Stage 3: Designing the Product Architecture
SRS is the reference for product architects to come out with the best
architecture for the product to be developed. Based on the requirements specified in
SRS, usually more than one design approach for the product architecture is proposed
and documented in a DDS - Design Document Specification.
This DDS is reviewed by all the important stakeholders and based on various
parameters as risk assessment, product robustness, design modularity, budget and time
constraints, the best design approach is selected for the product.
A design approach clearly defines all the architectural modules of the product
along with its communication and data flow representation with the external and third
party modules (if any). The internal design of all the modules of the proposed
architecture should be clearly defined with the minutest of the details in DDS.
Stage 4: Building or Developing the Product
In this stage of SDLC the actual development starts and the product is built.
The programming code is generated as per DDS during this stage. If the design is
performed in a detailed and organized manner, code generation can be accomplished
without much hassle.
Developers must follow the coding guidelines defined by their organization and
programming tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers, etc. are used to generate
the code. Different high level programming languages such as C, C++, Pascal, Java
and PHP are used for coding. The programming language is chosen with respect to the
type of software being developed.
Stage 5: Testing the Product
This stage is usually a subset of all the stages as in the modern SDLC models,
the testing activities are mostly involved in all the stages of SDLC. However, this
stage refers to the testing only stage of the product where product defects are reported,
tracked, fixed and retested, until the product reaches the quality standards defined in
the SRS.
Stage 6: Deployment in the Market and Maintenance
Once the product is tested and ready to be deployed it is released formally in
the appropriate market. Sometimes product deployment happens in stages as per the
business strategy of that organization. The product may first be released in a limited
segment and tested in the real business environment (UAT- User acceptance testing).
Then based on the feedback, the product may be released as it is or with
suggested enhancements in the targeting market segment. After the product is released
in the market, its maintenance is done for the existing customer base.

9 IT Infrastructure Library
• ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. The acronym
was first used in the 1980s by the British government's Central Computer and
Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) when it documented dozens of best
practices in IT service management and printed them for distribution.
• The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a library of volumes describing a
framework of best practices for delivering IT services.
 • ITIL is a library of best practices for managing IT services and improving IT
support and service levels. One of the main goals of ITIL is to ensure that IT
services align with business objectives, even as business objectives change
• Why is ITIL needed:It equips a service provider with a clear capability model,
aligning them to the business strategy and customer needs.
• Microsoft standardized on ITIL to help develop its Microsoft Operations
Framework.
• One of the most essential parts of ITIL is the configuration management
database (CMDB -used by an organization to store information about hardware
and software assets), which provides the central authority for all components—
including services, software, IT components, documents, users, and
hardware—that must be managed to deliver an IT service.
ITIL service lifecycle
1. Service Strategy
This stage focuses on the ITIL service lifecycle and describes how to design,
develop, and implement IT Service Management. It includes the following processes:
• Strategy Management for IT Services:Assessment and measurement of IT
strategy
• Service Portfolio Management:Defining and documenting IT services
• Financial Management for IT Services: Determining IT service costs and
budgeting
• Demand Management: Forecasting future demand for IT services and
budgeting resources
• Business Relationship Management:Managing the feedback and
improvement of the IT services
2. Service Design
This stage describes how to design services and processes. Processes include
the following:
• Service Catalog Management:Define services available in a service catalog
• Availability Management:Define, analyze, plan, measure and improve all
aspects of the availability of IT services and monitoring of IT services
• Information Security Management:Creation, management, and assessment
of Information Security services
• Service Level Management:Creation, management, and feedback process for
SLA's
• Capacity Management:Ensure that information technology resources are
right-sized to meet current and future business requirements in a cost-effective
manner
• Design Coordination:Coordination of process and policy designs
• Supplier Management:Selection and management of vendors as well as
performance monitoring
• IT Service Continuity Management:Development, implementation, and
maintenance of BC/DR services (set of processes and techniques used to help
an organization recover from a disaster and continue or resume routine
business operations.)
3. Service Transition
This stage explains how to manage the transition of a new or changed service
with a focus on ensuring that all service management processes balance. It includes
the following processes:
• Transition Planning and Support: Responsible for moving a new service into
production
• Change Management: Standardized methods and procedures are used for
efficient and prompt handling of all changes within internal and external
processes, Overall responsibility of change requests and risk management of
change
• Change Evaluation: Measure the impact and performance increase/decrease
of a change
• Release and Deployment Management: Codifies the lifecycle of IT service
updates - to test and live environments and ensure that correct components are
released
• Service Asset and Configuration Management: Monitors the asset lifecycle
of IT services and related hardware - purpose is to Identify, control, record,
report, audit and verify service assets & configuration items and aims to
maintain information about Configuration Items (CIs) required to deliver an IT
service
• Service Validation and Testing: Tests the impact and benefit of an IT service
before release
• Knowledge Management: Responsible for documentation and curation of
support documentation for the IT services
4. Service Operation
This stage guides you in ways to ensure that services are delivered and are
running smoothly and reliably. It includes the following:
• Access Management: In relation to data and physical access, controls the
rights assignments of people
• Event Management: Coordinates with incident and problem management to
manage the entire event
• Service Request Fulfillment: Manages the lifecycle of a service request, from
definition to closing it out
• Incident Management: set of procedures and actions taken to respond to and
resolve critical incidents: how incidents are detected and communicated, who is
responsible, what tools are used, and what steps are taken to resolve
the incident Problem Management
5. Continual Service Improvement
This stage covers how to re-align IT services as business needs change. CSI
consists of seven steps that cover what can and should be measured; gathering,
processing and analyzing data; and presenting and using information.
 UNIT - II
1 Service Level Management
What is Service Level Management (SLM)?
Service Level Management, or SLM, is defined as being “responsible for
ensuring that all its service management processes, operational level agreements, and
underpinning contracts, are appropriate for the agreed-upon service level targets.
Service guarantees exist between IT and other departments in the organization
to track hardware or software asset availability and response performance.For
example, the IT department might guarantee that a department server will be available
98% of the time and that 99% of the time IT will respond to an outage involving that
device within one hour.
You can use Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to monitor the performance of
Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) in support groups and Underpinning Contracts
(UCs) with applicable vendors.The Underpinning Contract (UC) is a contract between
an IT service provider and a third party. The third party provides supporting services
that enable the service provider to deliver a service to a customer.The practice
of Service Level Management (SLM) gives assurance to the service consumer that a
provider will deliver a level of service that meets their needs.
Service Level Management is responsible for ensuring that all its service
management processes, operational level agreements, and underpinning contracts, are
appropriate for the agreed-upon service level targets.SLM monitors and reports on
service levels, and holds regular customer reviews.
In other words, the key criteria for any information to be contained within a
Service Level Agreement (SLA) are that it must be measurable, with all language used
is clear and concise (brief) in order to aid understanding. Maintain and improve IT
Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon
IT Service achievements and instigation(initiate) of actions to eradicate(eliminate)
poor service in line with business or cost justification. PLAN, DO, CHECK, ACT.
Why is service level management important?
• Executing Service Level Management processes permits IT staff to more
accurately and cost effectively provision identified levels of service to the
business.
• The processes ensure business and IT understand their roles and responsibilities
and empower (authorize) the business units.
• SLA Stands for Service Level Agreement – Signed between the
Customer/Client and the Service Provider.
• OLA Stands for Operational Level Agreement –
• The agreement describes the responsibilities of each internal support
group toward other support groups, including the process and timeframe
for delivery of their services.
• Signed between Business Units/Divisions and Internal IT of the same
Organization.
• UC Stands for Underpinning Contracts – Signed between Service Provider and
the Vendor
 • The main difference between OLAs and SLAs is that they represent different
commitments. The SLA underscores a commitment to the client, while
the OLA highlights the commitment to internal groups within the organization.
Service Level Management activities
 Identifying business requirements by working with business units
 Establishing the scope of services, timeliness, hours of operation, recovery
aspects, and service performance
 Translating business requirements into IT requirements
 Developing and maintaining a service catalog, including costs for different tiers
of service performance
 Performing gap analysis between business requirements and available services
 Determining the costs related to services such that service goals satisfy
business needs at a price the business can afford
 Drafting, negotiating and refining SLAs with the business units, ensuring
business requirements are met and agreement from all parties involved
 Implementing SLAs
 Measuring SLA performance, reporting results and adjusting as necessary
Immediate benefits to implementing SLM processes include:
 Enabling a better understanding between business units and IT
 Setting more accurate service quality expectations and effectively measuring,
monitoring and reporting service quality
 Clearly delineating roles and responsibilities
 Providing the necessary flexibility for business to react quickly to market
conditions
 Creating more accurate infrastructure sizing based on clearly defining service
levels
 Avoiding or mitigating the costs of excess or insufficient capacity
 Providing discipline in supporting internal or external sourcing of IT services
SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT:
 • An SLA is a negotiated agreement between two or more parties designed to
create a common understanding about service
• A communication tools
• A conflict resolution tool
• A living document
• A method for gauging(measuring) service effectiveness

2 Incident Management
ITSM and Incident Management
 ITSM (IT service management) is a common approach to creating, supporting,
and managing IT services. The core concept of ITSM is the belief that IT should
be delivered as a service. And one of the core practices of ITSM is incident
management.
 Incident management is the process of responding to an unplanned event or
service interruption to restore the service to its operational state. According
to ITIL (IT Infrastructure library), “the incident management process ensures
that normal service operation is restored as quickly as possible and the business
impact is minimized.”
 Incidents are events of any kind that disrupt or reduce the quality of service (or
threaten to do so).
 A business application going down is an incident. A crawling-but-not-yet-dead
web server can be an incident, too. It’s running slowly and interfering with
productivity.
 In the incident above where the network is creeping and a business application is
down, a misconfigured router could be the underlying problem behind both.
 Considering all the software services organizations rely on today, there are more
potential failure points than ever. And, the impact of an incident can be huge.
 Research says major incidents can cost $300,000 for every hour a system is
down. For some web-based services, that number can be dramatically higher.
 Having a well-defined incident management process can help reduce those costs
dramatically.
IT incident management process
 In practice, IT incident management often relies upon temporary workarounds
to ensure services are up and running while the staff investigates the incident,
identifies its root cause, and develops and rolls out a permanent fix. Specific
workflows and processes in IT incident management differ depending on the
way each IT organization works and the issue they are addressing.
 Most IT incident management workflows begin with users and IT staff pre-
emptively addressing potential incidents, such as a network slowdown. IT staff
contains the incident to prevent potential issues in other areas of the IT
deployment. Then, they find a temporary workaround or implement a fix and
recovery of the system and release that system back into the production
environment. IT staff then reviews and logs the incident for future reference.
  Documentation enables IT staff to find previously unseen and recurring
incident trends and address them. If a temporary workaround is in place, once
the disruption to end users is mitigated, the staff can develop a long-term fix
for the issue.
 A focus on IT incident management processes and established best practices
will minimize the duration of an incident and shorten recovery time, and it can
prevent future issues.
 A common framework to understand IT incident management is through
analyzing the ITIL process. ITIL, trademarked by Axelos, is a widely used
ITSM framework. ITIL incident management uses a workflow for efficient
resolution: incident identification, logging, categorization, prioritization,
response, diagnosis, escalation, resolution and recovery, and then closure.
Incident management tools
Help desk and incident management teams rely on a mix of tools to resolve
incidents, including monitoring tools to gather operations data, root cause analysis
systems, incident management and automation platforms, and other support products.
 Monitoring tools enable an IT staff to pull operations data from across multiple
systems, such as on-premises or cloud-based hardware and software.
 Root cause analysis tools help sort through operational data, such as logs,
which were collected by systems management, application performance
monitoring and infrastructure monitoring tools
 Incident response tools correlate that monitoring data and facilitate response to
events, typically with a sophisticated escalation path and method to document
the response process.
 ITSM service desk tools log data such as what the incident was, it’s cause and
what steps were taken to solve the incident.
 ServiceNow Incident Management is a root cause analysis and auditing tool
that can both log and prioritize IT incidents. ServiceNow can prioritize incident
events through a self-service portal, email, incoming events and more
The benefits of a well-defined process include:
 Faster incident resolution
 Reduced costs or revenue losses for the organization resulting from incidents
 Better communication—both internal and external—during incidents
 Continuous learning and improvement

3 Financial Management
Financial Management means planning, organizing, directing and controlling
the financial activities such as procurement and utilization of funds of the enterprise. It
means applying general management principles to financial resources of the
enterprise.
Objectives of Financial Management
Building on those pillars, financial managers help their companies in a variety
of ways, including but not limited to:
Maximizing profits: Provide insights on, for example, rising costs of raw materials
that might trigger an increase in the cost of goods sold.

Tracking liquidity and cash flow: Ensure the company has enough money on hand
to meet its obligations.
Ensuring compliance: Keep up with state, federal and industry-specific regulations.
Developing financial scenarios: These are based on the business’ current state and
forecasts that assume a wide range of outcomes based on possible market conditions.
Manage relationships: Dealing effectively with investors and the boards of directors.
Importance of Financial Management: Solid financial management provides the
foundation for three pillars of sound fiscal governance:
 Strategizing: Identifying what needs to happen financially for the company to
achieve its short- and long-term goals. Leaders need insights into current
performance for scenario planning, for example.
 Decision-making: Helping business leaders decide the best way to execute on
plans by providing up-to-date financial reports and data on relevant KPIs.
 Controlling: Ensuring each department is contributing to the vision and
operating within budget and in alignment with strategy.
Types of Financial Management
The functions above can be grouped into three broader types of financial
management:
Capital budgeting
Relates to identifying what needs to happen financially for the company
to achieve its short- and long-term goals. Where capital funds should be
expended to support growth?
Capital structure
Determine how to pay for operations and/or growth. If interest rates are
low, taking on debt might be the best answer. A company might also seek
funding from a private equity firm, consider selling assets like real estate or,
where applicable, selling equity.
Working capital management
As discussed above, is making sure there’s enough cash on hand for day-
to-day operations, like paying workers and purchasing raw materials for
production.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR IT SERVICES
 IT financial management (ITFM) is the oversight (supervision) of expenditures
required to deliver IT products and services.
 The discipline is based on traditional enterprise financial and accounting best
practices, such as mandating documentation of expenses and requiring regular
audits and reports.
 Financial Management for IT Services is an element of the service delivery
process area in the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure
Library) ITSM (information technology service management) framework.
  The ITIL framework is designed to standardize the selection, planning, delivery
and support of IT services to a business. The financial management component
of the service delivery framework provides best practices for cost-effective
oversight of IT assets and resources.
 The main goal of IT financial management is providing the organization with
an accurate and complete view of spending for all IT resources. The end
purpose is optimization of IT spending and increased profitability.
Funding can be of 2 types: External and Internal.
External funding comes from the revenue received from selling IT services to
external customers, and Internal funding comes from selling IT services to business
units within the IT service provider’s organization.
Purpose of Financial Management for IT Services:
 To provide operational visibility, insight and superior decision-making
capabilities to the organization.
 To make sure that the IT service provider does not commit to a service which
they are not able to deliver.
 To get the appropriate level of funding for the design, development, and
delivery of IT services which are required to support the service strategy.
 To identify the perfect balance between service cost and quality, supply, and
demand.
Objectives of Financial Management for IT Services:
There are several objectives of financial management for IT services. Some of them
are:
Defining and maintaining a framework in order to:
Secure the funding to manage the provision of services
Identify, manage and communicate the cost of providing services
Recover the costs incurred for providing a service.
To evaluate the financial impact caused by newly implemented or changed
strategies.
 To execute financial policies and practices which are specific to enterprises and
IT service providers.
 To account for the expenditure in the development, delivery, and support of
services.
 To forecast the financial requirements of the service provider.
Scope of Financial Management for IT Services:
 Usually, a specifically dedicated department within the IT service provider
owns financial management for IT Services. They typically report directly to
the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
 There are 3 core aspects of financial management, each of which has an annual
planning cycle and a monthly operation monitoring and reporting cycle.
1. Accounting: It consists of the mechanisms by which the IT service
provider accounts to the organization for the money spent.
 2. Budgeting: It involves prediction and controlling of the service
provider’s income and expenditure which are achieved through periodic
negotiation cycles.
3. Charging: It involves the IT service provider billing its customers for
the service provided.

4 Continuity Management
IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT
 IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM) is a key component
of ITIL service delivery.
 It focuses on planning for incident prevention, prediction,
and management with the goal of maintaining service availability and
performance at the highest possible levels before, during, and after a disaster-
level incident.
 It is a reactive and proactive process which involves contingency planning for
recovery in case the Information and communication technology service is
damaged or put out of action by a sudden disaster.
Purpose of IT Service Continuity Management:
 The main purpose of the IT service continuity management is to support the
overall business continuity management process by making sure that the IT
service provider is always capable of providing minimum levels of business
continuity related service.
Objective of IT Service Continuity Management:
The objectives of IT service continuity management (ITSCM) are:
 To provide advice and assistance on issues which are related to continuity and
recovery
 To maintain a set of plans on IT service continuity and IT recovery which are
in support of the overall business continuity plans. They should also perform
business impact analysis, risk analysis, and management activities on a regular
basis.
 To minimize the costs which cannot be eliminated
 To make sure that suitable continuity mechanisms are installed which can meet
or exceed the agreed upon targets of business continuity.
 Analyse the impact which the changes have had on the IT service continuity
plans.
 Make sure that proactive measures are implemented wherever it is economical,
which will increase the availability of services.
 Perform negotiations and agree on contracts with the suppliers to provide the
required recovery capability.
Principles and Basic Concepts of IT Service Continuity Management
Business continuity plan (BCP)
 A business continuity plan outlines and defines the steps which are needed to
restore the business processes after they have been disrupted.
 It also identifies the triggers for invocation, the people who need to be
involved, communications, etc.
Business continuity management (BCM)
 The role of business continuity management is to manage risks which can have
a serious impact on the business, bring them down to an acceptable level and
plan for the recovery of business processes if a business disruption occurs.

Business impact analysis (BIA)

The main purpose of business impact analysis is to quantify the impact that loss
of service would have on a business. It identifies the following:
 The form which will be taken by the damage or loss
 The way in which the degree of loss or damage is likely to increase following a
service disruption.
 The staff, skills, facilities, and services which are needed to make sure that the
viral business processes continue to operate at minimum acceptable levels.
 The time period within which the minimum levels of staff, facilities and
services should be recovered.
 The priority assigned to each business during recovery.
Implementation Procedure of IT Service Continuity Management
 Service Continuity Management is a process which can evolve over time and
not necessarily an end-to-end task which has to be finished in order to possess
some value. Service continuity management has to be developed over time.
The steps taken to implement service continuity management in an
organization are:

IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE
Step 1: Identify Services and Assets
Firstly, all the services and assets in our possession need to be identified.
Assets are the main component of services.Services and assets can be any of the
following:
 This information is gathered in the Framework for ICT Technical Support
(FITS) processes.
 FITS Service Level Management should be implemented in order to understand
the criticality of the services in possession.
 FITS Configuration Management should be implemented in order to get an
idea about the main assets.
Step 2: Identify risks and threats
 Once the services and assets have been identified, the risks and threats should
be identified.
 What can happen to the services and assets are categorized as risks and the
causes which make it happen are categorized as threats.

Step 3: Make contingency plans

 Contingency plans are similar to insurance policies.
 They can be simple & cost effective and can cover minor risks, or they can be
complicated & expensive and cover major risks.
 The type of contingency plan which should be implemented depends on the
level of risk which the company is taking.
 These plans involve prioritizing the services to be restored first, creating
backups and storing them on-site and off-site.
Step 4: Document the recovery plan
 The recovery plan should be documented properly to ensure that all the
essential information is present in it.
 This plan should be circulated among the key staff, who should be kept up to
date regarding any changes in the plan.
 A copy of the plan should be given to the recovery team as well.
 Another copy of the recovery plan should be stored off-site to make it
accessible in an emergency situation.
ROLES AND FUNCTIONS OF IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT
1 Service continuity manager
 Handles the responsibility of service continuity
 Owns the service continuity management process
 Leads the service continuity recovery plan’s development
 Invokes the service continuity recovery plan personally
 Is a senior member of the ICT or technical support staff
 Has no need to be technical
 Should have an understanding of the ICT priorities of the users.
 Should appoint someone else to cover during absence
 Should not delegate responsibility
2 Service continuity recovery team
 Is led by the service continuity manager
 Participates in the testing and invocation of the service continuity recovery
plan.
 Includes the technical staff for technical procedures
 Includes users for testing and during the actual invocation
 Includes representatives from the departments for communication and
coordination.