Cloud

Best Practice Cloud Service Management

Share this post:

In my last blog I wrote about the impact of cloud computing on IT Service Management.  This blog continues the theme by describing the IT Service Management functions necessary to deliver cloud infrastructure services.  Delivering infrastructure as a service requires IT Service Management to move closer to Infrastructure Management (or IT Operations) and combine multiple processes from each of these separate departments to become a single functional component.

I’ve grouped the necessary functions into four service component groups; (i) Fulfillment Service, (ii) Offering Management Service, (iii) Monitoring & Restoration Service, and (iv) Environment Control Service.

The first two service components include the functions that are predominately specific to delivering cloud infrastructure as a service.  These are essential for the IT department to become an online IT shop and satisfy the business’ demand for compute, storage and network.   The latter two components seek to integrate common support processes to provide a step change in Service Support.

The Fulfillment Service component is the primary function of the Infrastructure Service.  It facilities requests for infrastructure services across the delivery lifecycle.  Its workflow includes three core stages, (i) the administration of infrastructure requirements, based on standard pre-designed patterns or images at pre-agreed prices, submitted via a self-service request mechanism, (ii) the automated provision or decommission of infrastructure resource according to the request, and (iii) the metering and billing of actual consumed resource.

The Offering Management Service component is comprised of the functions necessary to develop and maintain the Infrastructure Services offered and the delivery capability required to provide these services.  These enable the cloud service to (i) describe its services in a catalogue, (ii) develop and maintain its services (in this case standard build patterns), (iii) assess demand to help manage IT Operations and plan for future service requirements, (iv) offer service commitments (SLAs), and (v) research and develop future cloud infrastructure services and delivery capabilities according to the organisation’s Technology Strategy.

The purpose of the Monitoring and Restoration Service is to ensure any unplanned outages are detected and resolved as soon as possible to avoid additional service downtime.  It includes (i) the monitoring of the infrastructure systems, (ii) management of events triggered by system alerts, (iii) automated and manual resolution of incidents, (iv) managing problems underpinning any previous or potential incidents, and (v) analysis of incident data to detect trends that highlight unknown errors.

The final component, Environment Control, is concerned with the control, administration and deployment of changes to the IT infrastructure hardware and software.  This includes three core functions, (i) managing the infrastructure hardware and software release cycle, (ii) facilitating change activities without impacting service availability, and (iii) maintaining the currency of configuration data referred to by the delivery operations.

For more information about best practice cloud service management contact Dr Lloyd I Dale, Associate Partner IBM, via lloyd_dale@uk.ibm.com.

Associate Partner, IBM Services

More Cloud stories
By Eileen O'Mahony on 12 November, 2024

Converting website traffic into happy customers with a smart virtual assistant

  With a long track record of guiding companies across various sectors through digital transformation, IBM Business Partner WM Promus is now focusing AI innovation. Eileen O’Mahony, General Manager at WM Promus, explains how her company helped a UK-based commercial finance brokerage enhance customer experience, and develop new sales leads using IBM watsonx and IBM […]

Continue reading

By Dr. Nicole Mather on 5 November, 2024

Reducing the time taken to write regulatory submissions – Introducing our Accelerator

The Case for Generative AI in Regulatory Acceleration Generative AI and automation are now enabling digital transformation across biopharma, allowing radical reshaping and automation of core processes – and focusing human effort where it is required. Companies embracing this approach across the whole organisation are deriving significant competitive advantage and transforming the way work is […]

Continue reading

By Mark Restall on 5 November, 2024

Impact on Data Governance with generative AI – Part Two

Many thanks to, Dr. Roushanak Rahmat, Hywel Evans, Joe Douglas, Dr. Nicole Mather and Russ Latham for their review feedback and contributions in this paper. This blog is a continuation of the earlier one describing Data Governance and how it operates today in many businesses. In this blog, we will see how Data Governance will […]

Continue reading