SLM- Is the network a service ? (Part 2)

[antoniogh]

Thanks for the answers. The both of them are eye opener for me (SLM- Is the network a service ?).

But, some "consultant expert" in my organization said: " You don't car about the network (as Service Level Manager) there is a problem for the Infrastructure Manager (ITIL infrastructure mgmt), in the service (e-mail) you don’t need to worry about the network, you can think it is always available and the Network Service Management in the Infrastructure Management responsibility must send you the service level of the network"...

It is correct?? We don't have a Infrastructure Manager, but, in the ITIL perspective, Is the network service a problem solved in the Infrastructure Management book ??

Thanks again.


Gracias por las respuestas, ambas han traido nueva luz a la solución del problema.

Pero, un “consultor experto” en mi organización ha dicho: “Tu no te preocupes por la red (al ser un Service Level Manager), ese es un problema para el Infrastructure Manager (ITIL Infrastructure Management), en el servicio (correo) no necesitas preocuparte por la red, puedes considerarla como que siempre está disponible y el administrador del servicio de red dentro del administrador de infraestructura en la responsabilidad de ITIL deberá enviarte el nivel de la red.

¿Es esto correcto? Nosotros no tenemos un administrador de infraestructura, pero, desde la perspectiva de ITIL.¿Es el servicio de red un problema resuelto en el libro de Infrastructure Management?

Gracias nuevamente.

[Guerino1]

Hello Antonio,

Anything you provide is a "Service". Not only is the network a service but so are things like the ITIL disciplines, themselves.

It's important to itemize and create accountability for "all" services so that you can properly manage them.

I hope this helps.

My Best,

Frank Guerino, CEO
TraverseIT
On-Demand ITIL

[JoePearson]

Antonio, I saw your question earlier and struggled to think how to answer.

Sometimes the network is a service and sometimes it isn't. (In response to Frank's point, I'll agree that everything you provide is a service, but in the case of ITIL disciplines you typically do not "provide" them to your customers. With the exception of Service Desk and Service Level Management, perhaps, they care about service level results, not the disciplines themselves. I claim this is true even though some customers do insist upon seeing ITIL-"compliant" procedure documents, etc!)

The real question is not so much whether you or an "Infrastructure Manager" should care about the network - but whether your customers care.

If they, for example, connect their own equipment to your network, or run network-dependent applications that they manage themselves, then they are very likely to care a lot about network service levels in their own right. Then the network would be a service. Of course, in such an environment you could argue that your own customers are IT service providers ... and should adopt ITIL best practice themselves.

If they only care about application (including email, file servers, printing, etc) performance and availability, then the network is a piece of infrastructure supporting the actual services.

Whether you report on network issues separately from end-to-end application issues depends on you - we discussed this in your previous thread.

Joe

[Guerino1]

Hi Joe,

The reality is that you do have other customers that do care about the network. Those customers may be IT groups, themselves. Remember, your customers are other groups. There is no specification in ITIL that says that those groups have to be non-IT. For example, when Engineering designs and builds a Network, they are the Service Owners for a Service that Production Operations becomes one of the key customers for.

Remember, a Service is anything at all that is provided to other people that they can call and complain about.

Also, it's important to look beyond ITIL, since ITIL is very limited and flawed in many ways. The most important thing is to be a good IT organization, not an ITIL compliant IT organization. If you just look to ITIL, you're going to be far short of everything you need to do to make your organization good enough to satisfy the business that funds and relies on it.

I hope this helps.

My Best,

Frank Guerino, CEO
TraverseIT
On-Demand ITIL