{"id":3467,"date":"2012-09-05T12:15:08","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T12:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.journeytothecloud.com\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2012-09-05T12:15:08","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T12:15:08","slug":"mind-the-gap-service-oriented-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/mind-the-gap-service-oriented-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind the Gap \u2013 Service-Oriented Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT management used to be about specialization.\u00a0 We built skills in a swim-lane approach \u2013 deep and narrow channels of talent where you could go from point A to B and back in a pretty straight line, all the time being able to see the bottom of the pool.\u00a0 In essence, we operated like a well-oiled Olympic swim team.\u00a0 Each team member had a specialty in their specific discipline, and once in a while we\u2019d all get together for a good ole\u2019 medley event.<\/p>\n

And because this was our talent base, we developed tools that would focus their skills in those specific areas.\u00a0 It looked something like this:<\/p>\n

\""Mind<\/a><\/p>\n

But is this the way IT is actually consumed by the business?\u00a0 Consumption is by the service, not by the individual layer.\u00a0 Consumption looks more like this:<\/p>\n

\""Mind<\/a><\/p>\n

From a user perspective, the individual layers are irrelevant.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the results of all the layers combined, or to put a common term around it, it\u2019s about a service<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Email is a service, so is Saleforce.com, but both of those have very different implications from a management perspective.<\/p>\n

A failure in any one of these underlying layers can dramatically affect to user productivity.\u00a0 For example, if a user is consuming your email service, and there is a storage layer issue, they may see reduced performance.\u00a0 The same \u201cresult\u201d could be seen if there is a host, network layer, bandwidth or local client issue.\u00a0 So when a user requests assistance, where do you start?<\/p>\n

Most organizations will work from one side of the \u201cpool\u201d to the other using escalations between the lanes as specific layers are eliminated, starting with Help Desk services and ending up in the infrastructure team.\u00a0 But is this the most efficient way to provide good service to our customers?\u00a0 And what if the service was Salesforce.com and not something we fully manage internally? Is the same methodology still applicable?<\/p>\n

Here is where we need to start looking at a service-level management approach.\u00a0 Extract the individual layers and combine them into an operating unit that delivers the service in question.\u00a0 The viewpoint should be from how the service is consumed, not what individually makes up that service.\u00a0 Measurement, metrics, visibility and response<\/em><\/strong> should span the lanes in the same direction as consumption.\u00a0 This will require us to alter the tools and processes we use to respond to events.<\/p>\n

Some scary thoughts here, if you consider the number of \u201cservices\u201d our customers consume, and the implications of a hybrid cloud world.\u00a0 But the alternative is even more frightening.\u00a0 As platforms that we do not fully manage (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) become more integral to our environments, the blind spots in our vision will expand.\u00a0 So, the question is more of a \u201cwhen\u201d do we move in this direction rather than an \u201cif.\u201d\u00a0 We can continue to swim our lanes, and maybe we can shave off a tenth of a second here or there.\u00a0 But, true achievement will come when we can look across all the lanes and see the world from the eyes of our consumers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IT management used to be about specialization.\u00a0 We built skills in a swim-lane approach \u2013 deep and narrow channels of talent where you could go from point A to B and back in a pretty straight line, all the time being able to see the bottom of the pool.\u00a0 In essence, we operated like a…Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-3467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous-it","tag-cloud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}