IBM Global Technology Services

Thought Leadership White Paper

August 2011

Gaining efficiency and business valuethrough better management of yourIT infrastructureEight challenges to overcome for effective service delivery and cost savings

2 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Table of Contents

2 Introduction

2 Understand key challenges of infrastructure

management

4 Plan for effective infrastructure management

4 Detecting and handling incidents and problems

5 Handling changes with minimal impact on availability

5 Preventing security problems

6 Using emerging or challenging technologies effectivel

6 Maintaining server software and firmware

7 Having indicators of status and trends for specific

infrastructure activities

7 Having the right tools for the job

12 Deploying infrastructure and tools rapidly with a

proper level of ongoing management

12 Focus on service areas of growing importance

12 Batch processing and cross-platform workloads

12 Backup and restore

12 Middleware and database support services

13 Consider outsourcing and managed services

13 Summary

14 Infrastructure management checklist

IntroductionManaging today’s complex server environments, networks andIT infrastructures is challenging. Most organizations have toolsand disciplines in place to provide basic availability management,including hardware and software monitoring capabilities.However, your staff may not have the skills or time to supportand implement notification handling, performance and capacitymanagement, security management, configuration managementand automation. With the pressure to do more with less, howcan you balance the need to drive down costs and also improvedelivery of system administration, information access, remoteaccess and problem and change management?

This paper surveys the challenges and solutions for effectivemanagement of your server infrastructures and network devices.It discusses important disciplines, such as availability manage-ment, and the tools you need to support a complex IT environ-ment. Use of outsourcing, managed and cloud services arediscussed as strategic ways to drive efficiency and create businessvalue. You may choose to use this paper as a tool or checklist toevaluate and improve your in-house handling of infrastructuremanagement or to evaluate potential services providers.

Note: Throughout this paper you will encounter special “call toaction” sections. These sections are inserted where most relevantto the main content, and are intended to further your under-standing of the topic with information about efforts and researchundertaken by IBM to apply technology solutions to that field.

Understand key challenges ofinfrastructure managementAn infrastructure typically consists of a broadly heterogeneouscollection of elements such as servers, virtual machines, logicalpartitions, routers, switches, wireless appliances, disks, proces-sors, operating systems, middleware and database instances andbatch jobs. All of these elements can be mapped, more or less,into a simple framework as shown in Figure 1.

y

3IBM Global Technology Services

Applications and services

Middleware

Operating system

Computer and network hardware

Platform

Figure 1: Software and hardware service layers in distributed systems.

The management of your distributed and complex IT infrastruc-ture is often a significant portion of your total cost of ownership(TCO). Getting costs under control while also meeting yourservice-level commitments requires a focus on the followingeight infrastructure management challenges:

1. Detecting and handling incidents and problems.Incidents and problems are a way of life for systems thatinvolve hardware, software and people. Detecting and handling problems effectively is simply not easy. Handlingproblems requires discipline, imagination and experience.

2. Handling changes with minimal impact on availability.Change is frequently required in today’s highly complexsystems. Dealing with change while striving for minimumdowntime requires a variety of skills.

3. Preventing security problems. Security challenges are ongoing and constantly changing. Your managementsolution should incorporate plans to address the threats toyour systems and information in the form of web-basedattacks and hackers.

4. Using emerging or challenging technologies effectively. New technologies hold great promise for businesses by enabling cost reductions and flexibility. Evenso, the benefits from these technologies can be elusive,because of the learning curve that users face in understand-ing them and effectively dealing with their complexity.

5. Maintaining server software and firmware. Applyingemergency security fixes or even routine software changescan be a daunting task for your staff. To avoid negativeimpacts on your application availability and performancerequires planning and careful execution, including provi-sions for restoring to a previous software or firmware level.

6. Having indicators of status and trends for specificinfrastructure and activities. Information on the status ofsystems and applications is important in infrastructuremanagement, especially in problem situations. This infor-mation is also needed for capacity planning. However,obtaining and analyzing operational and trend informationis time consuming and complex.

7. Having the right tools for the job. There are many tools,from commercial products to home-grown tools, which can be used to manage IT infrastructures. Having just theright toolset for your environment requires balancinghuman aspects, types of tools, number of tools, level ofintegration and secure use. A lack of such balance isreflected in ineffective support for business goals or undulyhigh software or staff operations costs.

8. Deploying infrastructure and tools rapidly with theproper level of ongoing management. The fast pace ofchange in today’s business environment requires the needto rapidly deploy systems and the tools to provide ongoingsupport, especially for the mission-critical components ofyour IT infrastructure. These activities can be routine, butare important for meeting service-level commitments andsupporting new business initiatives.

4 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Plan for effective infrastructuremanagementAs you evaluate your current infrastructure management capabilities and consider outsourcing and managed servicesproviders, focus on solutions that address the key challenges presented earlier. A focus on value should shape your goals, withcost and complexity playing a major factor in your evaluationand consideration. With this focus, you can then determine thebest approach to achieving your goals in the context of specifictactics, as shown in Figure 2.

Cost and complexity

Business alignment

Goals Tactics

What are wetrying toachieve?

What canwe do to

achieve it?

Valu

e

Conte

xt

Figure 2: Strategy framework for an effective IT management solution.

Based on this framework, consider the recommendations that follow for solutions to address the eight key challenges previously identified

Detecting and handling incidents and problemsIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be to providerobust incident and problem handling, resulting in thesmoothest possible operation. If possible, this solution shoulduse preemptive actions to prevent failures.

The proven tactics that can help achieve this goal include proactive and passive monitoring to detect incidents and problems. Using technology to automatically handle incidents,open problem records and assign priority is also important toreduce labor costs. The use of innovative tools and methods toanticipate and correct problems before they occur is anotherlabor-saving approach (see sidebar on Parity that follows). It isalso useful to provide automated software support that makes iteasier for a system administrator to resolve incidents and prob-lems. Assigning support personnel based on the severity of theincident or problem to improve response time is a proven way toprioritize work in conjunction with using a service level agree-ment (SLA). An example SLA pertaining to Severity 1 problemswould have the goal of resolving 90 percent of the problems inless than four hours. Following rigorous problem handling andmanagement steps to ensure effective problem resolution is alsoimportant. So is involving a specialized service manager and amultidisciplinary team.

The business value of effective detection and handling of incidents and problems is reflected in higher availability of IT resources, which can result in infrastructure and applicationsthat function better for the company.

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Call to action: Use innovative tools to anticipate and correct problems.

Up to 80 percent of system outage time is consumed byefforts to determine the nature or cause of the problem.Once the source of the problem is determined, the recoveryactions take relatively little time to execute. This representsan opportunity for continuous improvement, and Parity wascreated as a response. As it pertains to the support of dis-tributed server environments, Parity is a combination of elements—code, logic, known environmental relationshipsand administration paradigm change—that can enable support teams to eliminate the problem-discovery processand proceed directly to recovery.

IBM Global Services, in partnership with IBM Research Labs,created Parity. Parity is a tool designed for and used exclusively by IBM personnel delivering managed servicesthat uses patented technology to help improve the stabilityand efficiency of support, and provides support personnelwith a tool kit to better equip them for day-to-day manage-ment of their environments. The tool kit can handle commonproblems automatically. For example, it can be used to perform automatic log-file management for system andapplication logs, including pruning, rotating and rolling. Parityalso can be used to gather data so system administrationpersonnel can be more productive using a real-time graphi-cal representation of the entire environment—dynamicallygenerated. This is useful in situations in which Parity cannotautomatically handle the incident.

Handling changes with minimal impact on availabilityIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be to managechange in a manner that results in highly predictable outcomes.

To help achieve this goal, one proven tactic is to have the teamparticipate at least weekly in change-management planning.Prepare for change by planning activities and estimating thetime required. Test changes prior to their implementation andprepare remediation activities in the event of a failed change torestore the system to its previous condition. Using a skilledchange manager is a proven way to improve the quality ofchange success, because you can benefit from their accumulatedexperience.

As shown in the previous example, the business value of handling changes with minimal impact on availability is reflected in higher availability of IT resources, which can resultin better-functioning systems and applications.

Preventing security problemsIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be to deliver serv-ices and support that effectively manage security risk while main-taining the necessary business agility.

To help achieve this goal, one proven tactic is to use informationsecurity controls based on an industry standard and explain themin a living document. Implement key security variables, such aspassword length and update frequency, early in the process andperform security remediation as required for servers and otherdevices to help refresh and update your security posture. Lookfor security exposures during the ongoing support period. For aclosed-end process, specify the frequency of these analyses withmonthly reporting on key security attributes and activitiesrelated to servers and other devices.

The business value you can achieve by preventing security problems is the reduced financial risk associated with securitybreaches.

6 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Call to action: Complement day-to-day security operationswith end-to-end risk management solutions.

As a complement to day-to-day security activities, end-to-end risk management solutions help to protect against thelatest threats while reducing the costs and complexity ofsecurity. An example of this is from the IBM X-Forceresearch and development teams that study and monitor the latest threat trends, including vulnerability, exploits andactive attacks, viruses, malware, spam, phishing and mali-cious web content. The X-Force team also publishes severalpublicly available reports each year, among them the Trendand Risk Report and the Threat Insight Report. The Trendand Risk Report is intended to help clients, researchers andthe public at large understand the changing nature of thethreat landscape and what might be done to mitigate it.

IBM has developed several technologies and solutions tohelp clients protect their critical assets from security threats.An example is IBM® Proventia® Management SiteProtectorSystem, which is designed to provide central management ofsecurity devices, policies and events to help evaluate andcommunicate your overall risk posture. Another example isIBM Proventia Desktop Endpoint Security, which helpssecure your desktops and laptops against known andunknown attacks, providing multilayered security functional-ity in a single agent.

Using emerging or challenging technologies effectivelyIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be a focus onemerging and challenging technologies such as virtualization anhigh-availability configurations, resulting in sustained benefitsfrom the use of these technologies. Virtualization can provideflexibility to achieve rapid change and high utilization of yourexisting IT resources. High availability (HA) technology helpssupport business resiliency and your requirements for continu-ous application availability.

d

To help achieve this goal, one of the proven tactics is to focus onskills support for virtual machines and logical partitions, usingchange windows to make dynamic changes to productionservers—like adding processor or memory resources to animage. Develop the skills of your staff in a variety of HA software, including HP Multi-Computer/ServiceGuard(MC/ServiceGuard), IBM HACMP™, Linux HA or Red Hat Cluster Suite, Microsoft Cluster Services, Sun Cluster orVeritas Cluster Services and VMware HA.

The business value of using these technologies includes lowercosts, higher application availability and improved business flexibility as compared to obsolete technology approaches.

Maintaining server software and firmwareIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be a balanced col-lection of proactive and reactive activities supported by effectivesoftware products and tools.

To help achieve this goal, one of the proven tactics is to monitorservers proactively and use monitoring software. Startup tasksmay involve refreshing operating system processes, establishingstartup sequences and changing priorities, as appropriate. Otherserver support activities include patching, configuring and main-taining log files, using remote tools to perform operational pro-cedures, providing server security activities for identification andaccess, and supporting virtualization software.

The business value you can achieve through server monitoringand management is a more reliable server operation that proac-tively monitors systems, resulting in higher availability throughearly detection of incidents and problems. In addition, compre-hensive management can result in fewer software compatibilityissues. Finally, remaining current with software patches and levels helps ensure support is available, when necessary, for thesoftware supplier.

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Call to action: Innovate system patching and maintenanceapproaches.

Patching is an important ongoing system maintenance activity. It is a delicate maneuver: to “keep up” with recommended, scheduled maintenance while working to reduce risk by not implementing the system patch toonear the release date of a given patch or patch set. It is alsonecessary, from time to time, to apply specific patches to fixor resolve immediate problems. Most patching approachesrequire that the system be running; however, many environ-ments have dormant VM images that require periodicupdates.

Researchers from IBM and North Carolina State Universityrecently published a paper on a tool called Nüwa that per-forms offline patching of images.1 The tool examines therequired patches and converts patch instructions so theycan be executed in batch, which is often a more scalable andefficient manner.

Having indicators of status and trends for specificinfrastructure and activitiesIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be a dynamicreporting capability that can yield monthly reports that provide agood way to understand the activities and performance of theservice. An operational or business dashboard is also useful, ifyou can justify the high cost of information integration.

To help achieve this goal, one of the proven tactics is to postreports on a portal for easy access. Also, make use of tools thatfocus on server resource management and generate performanceand capacity reports to help you analyze trends. It is also impor-tant to generate and post reports that focus on security manage-ment. A portal can also be used to enter problem records andchange notifications, while providing links to other needed tools,portlets and services that support ongoing activities.

The business value you can achieve by way of useful reporting is to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the service beingprovided and to report on elements that may have been missedduring the daily operation. An example is servers with outdatedsignature or antivirus files. Dynamic reporting can also be usefulin supporting functional disciplines, such as performance andcapacity management.

Having the right tools for the jobIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be to use maturetools and processes that deliver optimal service and support your SLAs.

To help achieve this goal, proven tactics include the use of toolsthat can support disciplines or activities that need to be carriedout, such as those listed and defined forthwith.

Availability managementThe focus of basic availability management is to determine the operational status of a device or resource. An example of atool that is designed to support this capability is IBM Tivoli®NetView®, which can provide basic availability monitoring andsmart logic to minimize the occurrence of false alerts. The logicperforms multiple checks to determine whether a device is trulyunavailable.

Hardware monitoringThe purpose of hardware monitoring is to pay special attentionto system events that affect hardware. These events may includepower failure, tampering, temperature changes and voltageirregularities. IBM Systems Director can be an effective tool for hardware and software monitoring of server resources.

Software monitoringSoftware monitoring of server resources is aimed at periodicallyquerying key system elements to determine if any irregularitiesexist. The presence of these irregularities, even if intermittent,usually indicates a loss of IT service quality. Monitored system

8 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Figure 3: Performance report on virtualized partitions.

elements include processor workload, processor status, processorconsumption and system thrashing. IBM Tivoli Monitoring soft-ware can make such monitoring possible.

Notification handlingNotification handling aims to inform systems administrator personnel that an event has occurred or a threshold has beenexceeded. The notification can take a number of forms—email,short message or page text. TelAlert from Network SystemArchitects, Inc. (NSAi) is an example of a tool that can be usedin this manner to notify teams or individuals of problems.

Performance and capacity managementPerformance and capacity management involves the gathering of and reporting on data that is specifically focused on the per-formance characteristics of devices and their capacity over time.An IBM Global Services web application and service offeringcalled Server Resource Management (SRM), for instance, can bea valuable tool to assist with server performance and capacitytrend analysis. Figure 3 shows a sample performance report fromSRM on virtualized partitions.

Security managementThe focus of security management is internal and external.Three important areas for security are within a local system,among distributed processes, in data and over networks andcommunications.

Examples of security management tools are Fusion, a securitycompliance tool designed for and used exclusively by IBM per-sonnel delivering managed services, and hosted vulnerabilitymanagement, a comprehensive cloud-based program designed to help organizations implement the tools, methodologies andbest practices required to address today’s dynamic vulnerabilitylandscape. Fusion helps improve efficiency through centralizedserver management. Fusion functions include operating systemsecurity patch management, antivirus status checking, securitylog management, compliance checking and workflow remedia-tion, systematic attack detection and server information. IBM’s delivery compliance administration support team uses Fusion and other tools to help manage efficient server security-audit compliance, based on the contracted security policy and Authorized Program Analysis Reports (APARs) foroperating systems.

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as necessary—in short, they perform most activities associatedwith keeping servers up and running. An example of a systemadministrator tool is IBM Service Delivery Portal, a web-basedinformation integration platform for server system administra-tors that can be used to consolidate operational data from clientenvironments. IBM Service Delivery Portal is a single dashboardthat can standardize and simplify the user interface, helping toachieve centralized and consistent execution of tasks.

Information accessThe aim of information access is to provide easy access toreports, an operational dashboard and tools and related subsys-tems. Information access is important, because it can provide visibility of the infrastructure management service.

Typically, access to information is provided by way of a portal.IBM Services Connection, shown in Figure 4, is a primary interface that organizations can use to access reports and tools. Itcan also support information access for IBM Remote ManagedInfrastructure Services.

Configuration managementThe focus of configuration management is to identify, capture,organize and maintain configuration information for use byother processes. A key challenge associated with configurationmanagement is supporting the dynamic nature of systems, networks and applications.

Configuration tools vary greatly in scope—from keeping a basicinventory of the items to using a complete data model thatemploys dynamic discovery capabilities. One such tool is theGlobal Asset and Configuration Data Warehouse, which uses aconfiguration management database to help maintain configura-tion information about supported features and devices.

System administrationThe focus of system administration is to perform tasks that sup-port devices, especially servers. System administration personnelinstall and maintain software products and tools, patch softwareand perform problem determination, participate in change-management activities and support application programmers,

Figure 4: IBM’s Services Connection web portal for IBM Remote Managed Infrastructure Services.

10 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

AutomationThe automation functional perspective, or discipline, is complexto describe, because it is both a stand-alone function and onethat is embedded in other functional perspectives, such as opera-tions and problem management. For example, Parity can be usedto proactively and automatically solve problems. Parity checkswhen a process or communication of a software client is notworking properly. If the process is not working because of adependent component on a different client, Parity uses knownrecovery methods to help restore the functionality of thedependent client.

EnVision, another automation tool designed for and used exclusively by IBM personnel delivering managed services, canautomatically open problem records for access and handling.Developed by an IBM team responsible for enterprise servicemanagement infrastructure tools integration, the EnVision tool is a single sign-on, front-end web portal designed to access and manage multiple problem management systems.Near-real-time information from disparate systems can beorganized and consolidated into a centralized web portal for easier access and management. The EnVision integration toolhelps collectively organize problem tickets, details, priorities and statuses from multiple problem management systems into asingle-access web portal.

Call to action: Use autonomic solutions where they can befound.

At the same time that databases are growing rapidly in scaleand complexity, skilled database administrators (DBAs) arebecoming more rare and costly, thus inspiring innovativeefforts to automate many of those functions currently performed by people. One result of these efforts is “autonomic databases,” the goal of which is to make databases self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing andself-protecting—in short, completely self-managing.

This is part of a wider “autonomic computing” initiative byIBM to provide technology designed to increase the effec-tiveness of human intervention in computer systems byreducing the number and complexity of those interventionsthrough the use of automation, intelligent advice and learn-ing. These efforts can result in a reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO) and increased business productivity.Recently, IBM has extended its research in self-healing systems to the challenges of problem determination, such as detecting, isolating and determining the root cause ofunknown problems, after first determining whether the problem is known by matching the symptoms to a databaseof known symptoms. To learn more about the latest auto-nomic features of DB2, visit: ibm.com/software/data/db2/

linux-unix-windows/features.html

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Remote accessRemote access tools such as RemotelyAnywhere by LogMeIn,Inc. and OpenSSH, an open source tool for secure access, canassist with reaching infrastructure elements, such as servers, in asecure and productive manner. OpenSSH is integrated into basesystems such as OpenBSD, FreeBSD, BSDi BSD/OS, NetBSD,Computone, Stallion, Cygwin, e-smith server and gateway, Mac OS X Version 10.1, HP Procurve Switch 4108GL2524/2512, IBM AIX® and SunSSH in Sun Solaris 9.

Problem and change managementManaging problems is important because users expect timelycorrection and resolution. Change management is closely linkedto problem management because change can introduce risk to

the stability of your systems environment. An important consid-eration for change management is the need for written backoutprocedures and a process to reduce the risks of failed changes.

ManageNow, another internal web-based tool for use exclusivelyby IBM personnel delivering managed services, can supportproblem and change management, using enterprise systemsmanagement infrastructure to store and manage problem andchange information.

The business value of having the right tools is measured in terms of the effectiveness of the service at a manageable and sustainable cost. Table 1 summarizes all the tools listed in thissection, organized by activity or discipline.

Table 1. Tools in context.

Activity or discipline Tool example

Basic availability management NetView with software logic to eliminate false alerts

Hardware monitoring IBM Systems Director

Software monitoring of resources IBM Tivoli Monitoring Windows OS Agent

Notification handling TelAlert

Performance and capacity management Server Resource Management (SRM)

Security management Fusion

Configuration management Global Asset and Configuration Data Warehouse

System administration Service Delivery Portal and Knowledge Base

Information access IBM Services Connection

Automation Parity and EnVision

Remote access RemotelyAnywhere and OpenSSH

Problem and change management ManageNow

12 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Deploying infrastructure and tools rapidly with a proper levelof ongoing managementIn addressing this challenge, the goal should be rapid deploy-ment through pre-engineered and solid ongoing support using aservice manager.

The proven tactics for deployment to achieve this goal includeusing a model project plan based on prebuilt components, with aproject manager to ensure that your deployment goes smoothly.A delivery architect—a specialized role—helps to serve as a technical complement to the project manager.

The proven tactics for achieving ongoing support are to usewell-defined ongoing support activities, using desk procedures to help provide your enterprise with an optimum degree ofongoing management. While a specialized service delivery manager can help ensure the ongoing support goes smoothly,you could also consider using other specialized roles, such assecurity specialists, change managers and duty managers.

The business value you can achieve by deploying infrastructurewith a proper level of ongoing management is more rapiddeployment (time value of money) and more reliable and predictable outcomes.

Focus on service areas of growingimportanceThree areas of growing importance include batch processing,backup and restore, and middleware and database support services.

Batch processing and cross-platform workloadsPlanned, batch workloads are growing in significance inmidrange systems. It is important to handle this workload in aplanned fashion using an automated tool. This way, as batchwindows decrease in duration, you can plan for and automateyour batch and cross-platform workloads.

Backup and restoreBackup and restore, like batch processing, is an example of a time-critical service that is subject to a shrinking or nearly nonexistent time window. Make the best use of the backup window by using technology to leverage automated approaches.Also, use backup-while-active when possible. For rapid restora-tion of the operating system and environment following a diskfailure, backups should be independent of incremental copies.

Middleware and database support servicesWith the dominance of databases and middleware, managedservices providers have begun offering support for products inthis category. Middleware and database services are not new, butextensive adoption by companies worldwide is making themmore relevant. Middleware that supports mobility devices isgrowing in importance, and support services in this domain areimportant to help companies realize the productivity benefitsthat come from effective employee mobility.

The business value you can achieve from middleware and database support services is assistance with the daily activities of software management and the skill of experienced personnelwho accompany the service. This can result in the ability to better deploy existing support personnel, improve handling ofproblems and changes and more rapidly deploy new systems andapplications.

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Call to action: Extend your support for collaborationbeyond the four walls.

Advances in mobility technology are helping organizationsextend their capabilities beyond the four walls of the office—enabling employees to collaborate in real time and be pro-ductive wherever they happen to be. The more mobilitydevices supported by the collaboration software, the better,as it allows employees to own and use the device of theirchoosing.

Mobility features in IBM Lotus® Sametime® software canhelp you collaborate in real time—virtually anywhere you areworking. The Sametime mobile client can extend many of thecapabilities available from the desktop Sametime client tothe Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung,Sony Ericsson and Microsoft Windows mobile devices. And,Sametime 8.5 is designed to support a browser-based AppleiPhone chat client.

Consider outsourcing and managedservicesUsing outsourcing and managed services are strategic ways tohelp drive efficiency and create business value. These servicescan offer:

● Broad and deep skills needed to support a heterogeneouscomputing environment. It is obviously more difficult foryou to employ these skills within your organization at anaffordable cost.

● Redeployment of your key human resources to morestrategic activities, rather than maintaining existing systems. Even as you use services providers to manage yourinfrastructure, your employees can build the future of yourcompany.

● Experience with processes and tools. This experience isparticularly deep because these providers serve many clients,all of whom look for cost-efficient services.

● Lower cost for a higher level of service. Economies of scalecan make significant process improvements more affordable.

This is not a comprehensive list of reasons, but a compelling list,all the same for you to seriously consider using an outsourcingor managed services provider.

Call to action: Use managed cloud services.

IBM is developing the next-generation enterprise cloud service delivery platform, called IBM Smart Business Cloud,offered in two tiers—IBM Smart Business Cloud-Enterpriseand IBM Smart Business Cloud-Enterprise+. Currently,IBM Smart Business Cloud-Enterprise cloud is up and running around the world and IBM is piloting IBM SmartBusiness Cloud-Enterprise+ with key clients. IBM SmartBusiness Cloud-Enterprise+ will be available later in 2011.IBM’s Smart Business is a common IBM architecture andplatform for private, public and hybrid clouds and is basedon IBM hardware, software, services and best practices.IBM is committed to deliver, as a complementary service tothe Smart Business platform, a robust set of services,including desktop, compute, storage, backup, SAP, securityand unified communications.

SummarySupporting a dynamic business and resilient IT environmentrequires effective management of your server infrastructure andnetwork devices. By focusing on the activities or disciplines andtools necessary to carry efficient support and delivery services,you can improve your own management capabilities and evaluatethe capabilities of potential outsourcing and managed servicesproviders.

14 Gaining efficiency and business value through better management of your IT infrastructure

Infrastructure management checklistUse the following table as a checklist to help you evaluate your infrastructure management effectiveness.

Table 2. Infrastructure management effectiveness checklist.

Detecting and handling incidents and problems Maintaining server software and firmware

✓ Monitoring to detect incidents and problems? ✓ Proactively administering servers and using monitoring software?

✓ Using technology to automatically handle incidents, open problem ✓ Managing server platform support activities like patching and log file

records and assign priority? maintenance?

✓ Using tools to anticipate and correct problems before they occur? ✓ Performing server security administration for identity and access?

✓ Providing automated support for system administrator to resolve inci- ✓ Providing specific focus and support for virtualization?

dents and problems? ✓ Providing high-availability software support, including periodic

✓ Assigning support personnel, based on the severity of the incident or testing?

problem?

✓ Using service level agreements (SLAs)?

✓ Following rigorous problem handling and management steps to

ensure effective problem resolution?

✓ Using a specialized service manager and a multidisciplinary team as

needed?

Handling changes with minimal impact on availability Having indicators of status and trends for specific infrastructureand activities

✓ Implementing team participation in change-management planning? ✓ Posting reports on a portal for easy access?

✓ Preparing for change by planning activities and estimating time ✓ Providing tools that focus on server resource management and gener-

required? ate performance and capacity reports to analyze trends and manage

✓ Testing changes prior to their implementation and preparing back-out security?

activities in the event of a failed change? ✓ Setting up a portal to enter problem records and change

✓ Using a skilled change manager to benefit from experience of previ- notifications?

ous changes? ✓ Providing links to other needed tools, portlets and services that

support ongoing activities?

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Table 2. (continued) Infrastructure management effectiveness checklist.

Preventing security problems Having the right tools for the job

✓ Using information security controls, based on an industry standard? ✓ Support for availability management?

✓ Implementing key security variables, such as password length and ✓ Hardware monitoring?

update frequency, early in the process? ✓ Software monitoring of key computer resources?

✓ Performing security remediation as required for servers and other ✓ Flexible notification handling?

devices? ✓ Support for performance and capacity management?

✓ Looking for security exposures during the ongoing support period ✓ Support for security management?

and specifying the frequency of these analyses? ✓ Support for configuration management?

✓ Reporting monthly on key security attributes and activities related to ✓ Support for system administration?

servers and other devices? ✓ Easy access to information?

✓ Automation of routine processes?

✓ Standardized remote access?

✓ Support for problem and change management?

Using emerging or challenging technologies effectively Deploying infrastructure and tools rapidly

✓ Focusing on skills support for virtual machines and logical partitions? ✓ Use of a model project plan that is based on prebuilt components?

✓ Using change windows to make dynamic changes to production ✓ Use of a project manager to ensure that your deployment goes

servers? smoothly?

✓ Developing skills in a variety of high-availability software like ✓ Use of a delivery architect?

IBM HACMP and VMware HA? Proper level of ongoing management

✓ Well-defined ongoing support activities, using desk procedures?

✓ Use of a service delivery manager?

✓ Use of security specialists, change managers and duty managers?

Focusing on service areas of growing importance

✓ Use of planned batch processing and cross-platform workloads?

✓ Use of technology to make the best use of backup windows?

✓ Specialized support for middleware and database?

Please Recycle

For more informationTo learn more about IBM Remote Managed InfrastructureServices, please contact your IBM marketing representative orIBM Business Partner, or visit the following website:ibm.com/services/server

Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financingcan enable effective cash management, protection from technol-ogy obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and returnon investment. Also, IBM’s Global Asset Recovery Services helpsaddress environmental concerns with new, more energy-efficientsolutions. For more information on IBM Global Financing, visit:ibm.com/financing

About the authorDr. Joseph Gulla is an executive IT specialist for IBM, focusedon business development and portfolio management for man-aged services. His current focus area is flexible managed servicesin Asia, Europe and the Americas. Dr. Gulla is also a facultymember of the Nova Southeastern University, where he teachesdistributed computing, enterprise architecture and systemsdevelopment process. He has published and presented over 70 documents in a wide variety of forums, including SHARE(Boston, Denver and Orlando), IDC Outsourcing and ManagedServices conference (Dublin), the Technical LeadershipExchange (Orlando and Los Angeles), the High Availability“Best Practices” Topical Conference (Ontario, Canada), InternetSociety Conference (Sweden), Professional Leadership TechnicalExchange (Paris and Vienna), Planet Tivoli (Lisbon) andEnterprise Systems Management Share Net (Chicago). His dissertation final report, Design and Implementation of a Prototype Toolset for Full Life-Cycle Management of Web-Based Applications, was published as an IBM technical report in 2003.

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1 Zhou, Wu, Ning, Peng, Zhang, Xiaolan, Ammons, Glenn, Wang, Ruowenand Bala, Vasanth. “Always Up-to-Date – Scalable Off line Patching of VMImages in a Compute Cloud.” IBM Research. 11 March 2010.http://domino.watson.ibm.com/library/cyberdig.nsf/papers/

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