ITIL in Data Centre Management

[sue_ida]

Hi...! I'm new here...pls to meet you all...

Can somebody explain to me, how i'm gonna setup my data center using this ITIL concept/technology? i'm very new with this ITIL concept but i'm very interested in using this technology.

[UKVIKING]

ITIL is NOT a a technology.It is a IT Best practice on how to do things - processes people etc

Please go to the OGC web site and look up the ICT Infrastructure management book

That is more geared to Data center mgmt

the service support and delivery are for incidents, problems etc
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[m_croon]

Hi Sue,

ITIL is a best practice that (when implemented and used properly) will help you to:
* Improve your service (give added value to your customer),
* Structure your organisation,
* Give your people a framework and terminology to improve communication

ITIL is basicly a collection of IT Management processes such as incident, problem, change, configuration and release management (service support) and availability, capacity, service level mgt, financial mgt, it continuity mgt (service delivery). There's a lot more processes, but these 10 are the most wellknown.

(I'm giving you a shortcut, there is much more to it and the recent update of ITIL places services central instead of processes)

Implementing ITIL is best done in an integral / holistic way: not only work on processes, but focus on all 4 'p's:
* Process
* Product (i.e. technology - tooling)
* Partner (suppliers / underpinnings)
* People
(* personally, I think that you should add the P from Performance, which is not explicitly mentioned by ITIL v3).

Since ITIL is a best practice, it is descriptive and not prescreptive. It tells you what to do but not how to do it (although ITIL v3 has improved on this somewhat). ITIL being descriptive gives you room to adapt / adopt it to the needs of your organisation. This also means that ITIL might still give you some unclear areas though. If you want to use a prescriptive standard, have a look at ISO20.000, although I would not advice you to work on that untill your organisation has some level of maturity.

There is also MOF, which is the Microsoft version of ITIL. One of the extra's that MOF will give you is the teammodel, which can help your people to focus on the right tasks and avoid confusion on work at hand.

Hope this helps,

Michiel Croon
Getronics Pinkroccade

[xianne]

Hi Sue,

if you plan to set up your DC based on ITIL concepts, then I'd suggest you get a good ITIL resource in as early as possible.

Your DC will require processes and procedures for dealing with systems and network management, operational issues, DC, server, db and apps changes, ways of dealing with upgrades / roll-outs, an understanding of what your DC estate comprises, how these items depend on each other and how they support services to your organisation, and how you ensure appropriate levels of service, performance, throughput etc etc, as well as planning how you might deal with unexpected major issues like DC floods, fires, or total plant loss.

While you could just implement a new DC and try to organise this later, this would likely create a lot more work and headaches.

There are many technologies which you can use to help you achieve your own appropriate ITIL implementation, but the right ones for you depend very much on your circumstances and requirements.

Good luck!

[Cotswolddave]

Hi

I "cross over" the disciplines of data centre management and ITIL as I deliver courses on both and develop toolsets for DC management which link to service desks.

So to answer your question, there are bits of overlap between ITIL processes such as change, incident management and others but not a lot. If you want to improve data centre management best practices then the principles of defining processes, services etc. is a good one. The ITIL change process is generic for all changes, whereas in data centres change management often means provisioning, moves, disposals etc.

There is little in the ITIL world that will help with managing the facilities such as space, power, cooling, connectivity. ITIL really helps when managing the critical tin (servers, firewalls), software and services which often is down to changes created and implemented by external teams.

A key challenge for DC staff for instance - how to identify the impact of powering down a rack, with an ITIL orientated organisation being able to predict affected services much faster than one which doesn't have integrated process and supporting knowledge bases.

Theres more stuff on the web of you search for "data centre management itil .ppt "using google then you'll find various materials.

Dave

[ITIL_Girl]

Hi Sue,

I would definately start with ICTInfrastructure Management or ICTIM. You will have to take an organized approach to implementation. Implementing the basics of ICTIM gets you there before attempting the more mature discipline of Support and Restore and Service Delivery. Those libraries are at the core of ITIL v2. I hope this helps.