Author: Xu Yuyi, Beijing Guangtong Xincheng Technology Co., Ltd. Xu Yuyi, born in 1972, holds a master’s degree from the Computer Science Department of Zhejiang University. He previously served as a lecturer in the department. |
Currently, enterprise informatization in China generally suffers from weak IT service management. Both large enterprises and SMEs lack effective security management, incident management, financial management, problem management, configuration management, change management, and release management. This introduces significant uncertainty into IT investments and makes it difficult to control the outcomes of informatization. As business expands and informatization deepens, enterprise information systems become increasingly complex, and business reliance on these systems grows tighter. Any fluctuation in the information system directly impacts normal business operations; a system crash would be fatal to the business.
The most important feature distinguishing IT Service Management (ITSM) from traditional IT management is its emphasis on effectively integrating IT with business requirements while focusing on the cost and benefits of IT investment. Before building an information system, ITSM requires the rational arrangement and design of IT infrastructure configuration based on the organization’s actual business and customer availability needs, avoiding blind IT investment and redundant construction. After the information system is operational, ITSM supports the continuous operation of the IT infrastructure and organizational business through processes like incident management and problem management, ensuring the effective use of IT resources and the high availability, continuity, and security of business operations. ITSM brings all IT investments into a unified accounting framework, providing a reliable evaluation basis for assessing the cost and benefits of IT services.
Understanding the ITIL Standard
ITIL is a set of best practice guides for IT service management published in the early 1990s by the UK government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), aiming to address poor IT service quality.
The core idea emphasized by ITIL is that IT service requirements should be understood from the perspective of the customer (business), not the IT service provider (technology). In other words, when providing IT services, we should first consider business needs and determine IT needs based on business requirements. The Business Management module guides business managers to analyze IT issues using their familiar thought patterns, deeply understand the capability of IT infrastructure to support business processes, and the role of ITSM in delivering end-to-end IT services, helping them better handle their relationship with service providers and achieve business benefits.
Therefore, the international standard for IT service management is ITIL. This standard is independent of any vendor, essentially unrelated to the nature of the organization or its business, and only summarizes the most important practices in the field of IT service management. It can be said that ITIL is merely a “rational abstraction” of IT service management practices, clearly indicating only “what” should be done, not “how” to do it. When enterprises or other organizations implement ITIL, they can materialize the standard and establish their own methodology. When enterprises apply the processes and best practices provided by ITIL, which contains quality management thinking, for internal IT service management, they can not only provide satisfactory service to improve customer experience but also ensure this process complies with cost-effectiveness principles.
ITIL and Network Management Systems
Next-generation network management systems must not only manage network devices (including routers, switches, security products, servers, and PCs) by monitoring network operation status through technical indicators and thresholds, but also adopt Portal technology to integrate multiple sets of existing monitoring software within the enterprise, achieving “single sign-on” access. The Portal provides required content for different roles within the enterprise (via service dashboards), allowing leadership and business departments to participate, understand the difficulties better, and increase mutual understanding. Next-generation network management systems provide customers with visualized monitoring and management, making the operational status of IT systems clear at a glance and significantly lowering the technical barrier. These systems advocate ITIL, proceeding entirely from actual conditions and operability. By complying with ITIL, next-generation network management systems enable enterprises to achieve process-oriented, automated, and standardized IT operations.
Product Standards for Next-Generation Enterprise IT Operations Management
In the early days of enterprise network operations, IT operations management focused on network and hardware devices. As market competition intensified, more people realized the importance of improving user satisfaction, reducing operational costs, and enhancing emergency response capabilities鈥攖hat is, focusing more on service quality and efficiency. Therefore, current enterprise operations systems increasingly emphasize process orientation and standardization. Since network operations work itself is complex and trivial, in designing a next-generation enterprise IT operations management platform, technology providers must first fully consider that the system, as a tool and assistant for operations personnel, must be easy to use and practical, capable of reducing the daily work pressure on operations staff. This requires enterprises to embody such design principles in their product lines, with system functionalities increasingly meeting the personalized needs of users.
Next-generation network operations management products embody the standards for enterprise IT operations management. Taking Broadview as an example, the Broadview operations service solution consists of five major components: Network Management NCC, Business Application Management BCC, Security Management SCC, Desktop Management DCC, and Centralized Operation Management COSS. It is a complete management solution for network management, system management, security management, IT basic environment management, and operational duty management, maximizing the protection of the network’s existing investments while fully considering future management requirement expansion.
Broadview’s IT operations platform solution is a combination of “IT management philosophy + system tools.” It is not only the management software product itself but also includes management processes (Process), management norms (Policy), management business (Business), and the implementation methods that embed these processes, norms, and business into the software product.
ITIL Operations Process Management Model
The manifestation of ITIL in network management currently includes the following key aspects:
Service Desk
As the single point of contact between users and the IT department, the service desk ensures users can find relevant personnel to help resolve their issues and requests. The service desk is not only responsible for handling incidents, problems, and customer inquiries but also provides an interface for other activities and processes, including customer change requests, maintenance contracts, service level management, configuration management, availability management, and continuity management.
Incident Management
An incident refers to all fault reports related to IT infrastructure and applications within the scope of data center IT operations and maintenance. This process is designed to restore the business department and end customers to normal working conditions as quickly as possible. It adopts an incident-driven model, focusing on the response speed to incidents and the rapid restoration of business operations.
Problem Management
The underlying cause corresponding to an incident, before the root cause of the incident is identified, is referred to as a problem. Problem management emphasizes finding the root cause of incidents to formulate appropriate solutions or preventive measures to stop recurrence. The main objectives of