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Showing posts with the label CMS

Cloud is Here… Is CMDB Dead?

The question about how to manage virtualization and configuration items pertaining to the Cloud continues to challenge service management practitioners and managers who are trying to strategize and architect a working solution to provision business services.  Some would say the idea of the CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is dead because we use the infamous “Cloud”. Let’s start with a refresher about the structure and purpose of a CMDB and system and then move into how that relates to the management of virtual Configuration Items or Cloud services. Configuration Management System The key to a CMDB, or the sets of data that comprise your broader Configuration Management System (CMS), is “Relationships”.  When provisioning a service, the service provider must be able to manage and control all of the items necessary to produce “Value” to the consumer.  All elements in the end to end service that need to be managed and controlled are referred to as a Configuration Item

SACM (Configuration Management)

Service Asset & Configuration Management (SACM) is genuinely the one process that touches all of the other ITIL processes. SACM delivers accurate and up-to-date data and information to every other process across the lifecycle.   What is really cool about SACM is that in many cases it depends on those other processes through their defined, documented and agreed to activities, to help insure that the data and information about those assets is up to date , accurate and properly recorded through the Configuration Management System (CMS),    No organization can be truly efficient and effective without having a configuration management process to insure we understand how and where that infrastructure, application, tools, documentation and sometimes even people are being utilized in delivering business outcomes and creating value. Service Asset & Configuration management ensures that CIs (configuration items) are properly identified; baselined and that changes made to them are pr

Where to start with SACM? Service Asset and Configuration Management

I often get asked the questions, "Where do I start with SACM? How do I implement this process?" In my experience, this is one of the most difficult processes to implement correctly. Let’s discuss the first activity of the SACM process of Planning . In this activity, decisions will be made about the scope of what needs to be controlled in your organization. What level of configuration management is required? How will that desired level is achieved? Do you gather information about a service or about specific components? Do you need to control assets which are causing your customers the most pain points? When do you establish a controlled configuration, how do you change a controlled configuration, and what amount of resources are you going to expend to manage configurations? All of these decisions must be documented and formalized within the configuration management plan. Configuration Management Plan: · Context and Purpose · Scope · Requirements · Applicable policies and stand