IBM Service Management – Infrastructure Management Software and Solutions

How to get started with managing value and IBM Service Management - Infrastructure Management Software and Solutions

Infrastructure management software solutions help meet the challenges of complicated IT infrastructures and rising labor costs. Typically, the majority of the IT labor budget is focused on managing what is already in place, resulting in a decline in spending on new application development. Businesses end up facing a shift from revenue and growth investments to covering current IT costs, primarily those of labor.

But this doesn't have to be the case. IBM has an infrastructure management solution called IBM Service Management - Infrastructure Management Software and Solutions designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a company's IT infrastructure by seamlessly integrating people, processes, information and technology. This approach can help clients assess and automate key IT processes, understand availability issues, resolve incidents more quickly, implement changes with minimal disruption, satisfy service level agreements, and ensure security.

The solution, based on a service-oriented architecture, includes software from Tivoli®, Rational®, WebSphere and several other brands, as well as systems hardware (especially System x® and p) and Global Technology Solutions services.

Complex infrastructures impeding service management

Most IT departments don't understand the impact a change will have across the organization. Nearly 80 percent of the time, users - not the IT department - discover a problem.

Additionally, many clients want IT processes, but very few can consistently manage them - assuring system availability and security becomes a pipe dream. Furthermore, organizational silos, such as the networking and the storage experts, create their own tools to use, which may or may not coincide with the company's priorities.

Today's IT environments must be grounded in sound business processes using best practices such as ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). Compliance initiatives, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II Accord, Patriot Act and HIPAA, have also served to push this to the forefront of the minds of CIOs and CEOs.

How does IBM Service Management - Infrastructure Management Software and Solutions Help?

The Service Management infrastructure software solution is a set of offerings and services that can be customized to align to the business goals. It helps make ITIL actionable - allowing clients to understand all facets of their infrastructure management resources, their interrelationships, and how to best establish and manage processes for them. There are five key project areas:

• Change and Configuration Management
• Availability Process Management
• Storage Process Management
• Network Service Management
• Security and Compliance Process Management

While competitors in this space are many, IBM offers several advantages, such as virtualization technology. In addition, the IBM Service Management solution is based on experience with thousands of client engagements. Aligned with ITIL, IBM has developed the IBM Tivoli Unified Process – the industry's first navigational tool to provide the "how-to" for implementing best practices for mapping, modifying and improving IT processes.