Seamlessly link IT development and operations

IBM solutions optimally integrate software creation with subsequent stages of deployment

Tivoli Beat - A weekly IBM service management perspective. For enterprise-class IT, getting best business value from software assets is an exceptionally challenging task. Keeping close track of asset versions, knowing which ones are in place on which systems throughout the infrastructure and updating them to comply with fluctuating security policies and government regulations – all are essential components of effective IT governance. All, too, have a direct and powerful bearing on the business bottom line.

“Internally-developed software and third party software components can be created and deployed in an elegant, effective way that fulfills IT governance and general business mandates, drives compliance and helps to maximize total business value.” In the case of internally developed software, this challenge is multiplied further. When an organization creates its own software assets, it must dedicate considerable time to optimizing and governing every stage of the development process, to ensure that code quality and development goals and milestones are achieved in a prioritized, comprehensive way. Moreover, the organization must strive to integrate this development process seamlessly and efficiently with subsequent operational deployment of the software, as well as with change and configuration.

This is no trivial feat. Such a complex, multifaceted challenge requires best-in-class tools, designed to simplify software asset management, enable compliance initiatives, quickly isolate problems, increase efficiency, lower costs and help to proactively assess the potential impact of software changes to optimize for best business value.

Optimize the link between IT development and IT operations

Fortunately, IBM offers a powerhouse suite of tools designed to fulfill exactly these goals. These include IBM Rational Asset Manager (RAM), a collaborative software development management solution that governs software assets and tracks relationships to operational assets; IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB), a configuration database and platform that is continually updated via an out-of-the-box change process to reflect changes in IT assets, and their relationships and dependencies; and IBM Tivoli Release Process Manager (RPM), a tool to manage, audit and coordinate software release tasks so that they're performed by the right people in the right sequence to minimize business impact and maximize operational efficiency.

Together, they form a powerful overall solution, spanning both IT development and IT operations, to integrate software creation with subsequent stages of software deployment (including change and configuration updates) for a superior business outcome.

To understand how this integration works, begin with the general concept of the way RAM manages software assets on the development side. "Software asset" in this context means more than just applications; it can apply to services, components, VMware images, business process models and other elements. RAM identifies and manages all of these assets using asset metadata, such as asset name, description, version, state, custom attributes, categories and relationships to other assets. RAM also provides a structure for unique asset identification through the Reusable Asset Specification (RAS), which can be used to configure multiple asset types to suit specific business requirements.

On the operations side, CCMDB uses a different approach to organize its information and thus help organizations track and visualize their deployed software assets and the relationships between them. CCMDB is made up of configuration items (CIs); these can be used to describe designated operational assets to whatever extent, and in whatever level of detail, the organization requires. For instance, a CCMDB CI might contain information on a particular system in deployment, including its operating system, patches, underlying hardware, etc.

Connecting the dots

Linking these two content groups in a clean, effective and efficient way, so that assets are not only created but also deployed for ideal business results, can be a challenging proposition. Software assets will not always pertain directly to the operations (change and configuration) side; similarly, configuration items in CCMDB may not directly relate to the development side. Furthermore, operations and development, as IT domains, are frequently organized in a fundamentally different way. For instance, often the development side is governed more loosely, in a coarse-grained workgroup manner, to facilitate collaboration, whereas change and configuration management is governed in a stricter, more fine-grained manner. What organizations need, then, is a means to integrate these two domains efficiently and appropriately to ensure that each domain benefits optimally from the other.

Toward that end, IBM provides seamless information linking across solutions. For instance, RAM can be used to create assets based on CCMDB information. In this scenario, a remote asset will be stored in RAM linking to the configuration item. This remote asset will retain much of the configuration item's metadata, and will also be classified in the CCMDB category; thus the software development process can be continually informed and guided by deployment information.

Similarly, CCMDB can create new configuration items based on RAM assets. In this case, information will be stored in the configuration item to reflect the asset, or assets, from which the configuration item came. CCMDB can also configure the Rational Asset Manager repository as a Definitive Software Library (DSL)—essentially, a storage location for approved versions of all software CIs, as well as for other related data such as licenses and documentation.

In both cases, search functions are directly enhanced. If a software development manager needs to search for all information drawn from CCMDB, or if an operations manager needs to search for all information drawn from RAM, those functions are easily accomplished and will lead to superior visibility of assets and configuration items, as well as their links and dependencies. This seamless flow of relevant information will lead to many desirable business outcomes—among others, improved compliance, increased operational efficiency, lower development costs and faster software rollouts. All will drive organizational goals effectively.

Better cross-domain integration leads to a better overall outcome

One organizational goal for IT development is certainly to create software which is fully compatible with, and fully leverages, the infrastructure. This requires development and operations to work closely in tandem; each must be aware of changes in the other. When such tandem is achieved, it can lead directly to a superior software build, because that build will reflect the operational side more accurately.

Suppose that a new version of Java has been deployed throughout systems in the infrastructure; that information will be stored in CCMDB. It can therefore be accessed in RAM and stored as a remote asset. Because the development team is apprised, via RAM, of this change in the infrastructure, new software builds will be created against that version of Java. The possibility that different versions of Java will be utilized by different software assets, which could lead to problematic outcomes such as security failures, compliance shortcomings, or even functional collapse, is greatly diminished.

Similarly, the flow of information from development to operations is facilitated via RAM 7.1, which includes an integration module allowing it to be configured as a DSL for Tivoli Release Process Manager (RPM). Suppose software assets in RAM are ready for deployment, following testing and approval from the release managers; updating CCMDB with new information about these assets is a crucial step in the deployment process. Thanks to RAM's integration module, RPM can import RAM assets into CCMDB as configuration items. RPM can then manage the deployment process through both manual and automated steps, as guided by ITIL best practices.

All of this ensures that internally-developed software and third party software components can be created and deployed in an elegant, effective way that fulfills IT governance and general business mandates, drives compliance and helps to maximize total business value of both IT operations and IT development.