I recently was asked to write an article by my good friend Eileen Brown at Microsoft on my thoughts on the forthcoming
System Center Service Manager release, which I thought I would share with you folks.......
Some of the biggest mountains that I have had to climb in my IT Career have not been down to technology but have been related to problems that arise around people and processes. Understanding how an organisations infrastructure is accurately laid out and how data is handled and processed to getting a solution to fit exactly with the way end users work on a day to day basis have been some of the biggest challenges that I have faced on the way to a successful software implementation.
Well it appears that my life is about to get a whole lot easier in the form of Microsoft’s new System Center Service Manager (codenamed Service Desk).
Service Manager brings together a number of existing Microsoft Technologies such as Operations Manager , Change and Configuration Manager (formerly MOM and SMS), SharePoint and InfoPath along with new technologies such as Windows Workflow Foundation to provide a single point of contact for all service requests, knowledge and associated workflow as well as incident, problem, change and asset management.
One of the biggest benefits I have seen for the companies that I have worked with when deploying products such as Operations Manager has been not only the deep product support knowledge that it brings but also the move it allows you to make towards the better adoption of industry best practices as defined by standards such as Microsoft Operating Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Service Manager really takes this to the next level by providing a centralised Service Desk function where end users can interact with IT Services on day to day operational issues as well as providing visibility for management through comprehensive reports and dashboards that show how the overall performance of IT is affecting the business.
Being involved in many large scale Helpdesk implementations, I have always found that the one of the hardest areas to tackle has not always been the automation of complicated IT processes but the ability to implement a solution that can be easily extended to meet the ever changing needs of business. Microsoft have tackled this by making sure that Service Manager deeply integrates with your existing technologies offering seamless workflows from inventory discovery and event detection to Service Management processes such as incident, problem and change management, leveraging these existing technologies also cuts down drastically on having to train users with a new interface (another big challenge facing companies deploying a new service desk) by delivering a recognisable and common user experience, reducing the overall impact to your business.
Significant investment in the product has also gone into self service portal technologies that will provide features such as user initiated password re-sets, this kind of functionality can provide significant reduction in overall support costs.
As well as many built in MOF related automated workflows that can help streamline many tedious and time consuming IT processes, Service Manager will also come with and extensible Solution Pack framework which will form the basis for many “bolt-on” solutions, that will be provided by both Microsoft and partners that will further extend Service Managers capabilities as well as integrating further Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies, these will be similar to the Management Packs that are available in Operations Manager.
Probably one of the most exciting aspects of the product to me is the embracing of Microsoft’s new System Definition Model (SDM) which was recently renamed to Service Modelling Language (SML)
Service Modeling Language (SML) was put for to the W3C for standardisation in March this year a major landmark in ensuring widespread adoption of SML for modelling enterprise data centres.
SML is a language or a meta-model that is used to describe the structure and behavior (set of applicable operational tasks, rules, and policies) of a distributed system. This language is the future for both operations and configuration management already and will provide operational support engineers with a complete blue print of a distributed applications architecture, health and configuration.
Service Manager has a Change Management Database (CMDB) based on the Service Modeling Language (SML) Using this rich language as the foundation for a CMDB enables Service Manager to capture a more detailed, comprehensive, and accurate description of the IT environment as well as providing a common framework for integration to other platforms.
CMDBs have been the buzzword in the industry for some time and as any good IT Manager will tell you, quite often form the backbone of a successful IT Operation. For those new to this concept a CMDB is a database store that provides an authoritative view of your managed IT infrastructure and services, including all relevant information about current and desired state, history and future plans, associated incidents and problems, and related change requests. It also stores information about all of your assets and who is using them. The CMDB can play a critical role in ensuring consistency across your incident, problem, change, configuration, and asset management and planning IT processes and is the component really at the heart of the Service Manager product.
The initial release of the product will focus solely on IT Service Management areas of incident, problem, change and asset management as well as integration with System Center Operations Manager and System Center Configuration Manager and will hopefully be accompanied by an abundance of third party add-ons.
So I am looking forward to packing a copy in my climbing gear next time I’m off to scale the North face
GordoDaMOM
Ok, after much abuse from my fellow WMUG founders about my complete lack of blogging on our beloved Community Site....
So here I am to provide you with some insight into the crazy world of Systems Management that I exist in....
Bit of background for those of you who are saying "who the hell is this guy".
My name is Gordon McKenna MOM - MVP, Ops Mgr Consultant and part time clubwear Entrepreneur (yes really).
I have pretty much been working with my beloved MOM (now OpsMgr), since it was born back 98, as lead consultant for Mission Critical Software and have been putting it in for people ever since.
I run my own Systems Management Consultancy Business - Inframon, and I am currently working on numerous projects including a monster one at Microsoft
In my spare time (what little I have), I run a clubwear business called Contagious Clubwear with my gorgeous gal Claire, as well as being Dad to two cheeky but adorable children.
So watch this space for some hints and tips and ramblings and anything else I can think to write about...
Catch ya soon,
GordoDaMom