Automating data in key critical IT processes

In the context of the virtual datacenter, and building on the capabilities of the data centre infrastructure, this type of a set up offers customers the tools to automate two key processes today – IT service delivery and business continuity – both of which are critical to the overall agility and availability of the systems that support the business.

When it comes to IT Service delivery in business, IT service can be anything from a compute resource to a complex combination of multiple virtual machines that support an entire application stack. IT service delivery is the process of developing, testing, staging, deploying, monitoring, changing and eventually retiring an IT service – all in compliance with the established policies in the company. Though companies may vary in their definition and naming of the different stages of IT service delivery, this basic life cycle is substantially the same in every company. It is by far one of the most ubiquitous and important activities for any IT department, and spans the various “zones” and user constituencies of a business, no matter what type of business it may be in any case. Businesses across the UK and right across the world are all now following this type of lead in terms of how it is to which they go about their overall IT set up. 

IT services move across these zones as service changes, patches and updates are applied to systems. Managing growth, maintaining high availability, controlling server sprawl, increasing efficiency and responding to business requirements quickly represent key challenges across all of these areas. However, each functional area in the data center has specific requirements and challenges that require different approaches. Once companies discover the ease of deployment, they often ramp up their use of virtualization significantly – which, if left unmanaged, can lead to some unintended outcomes and/ or consequences which can and do often follow.

Most virtual machine provisioning requests are handled through spreadsheets, e-mails, phone calls, or at best, a service ticketing system. Even in this last case, IT administrators don’t have a consistent way to ensure that virtual machines are deployed in compliance with policy, and as a result, spend a great deal of time on manual provisioning processes. Managing virtual machine provisioning in an enterprise environment effectively requires IT to establish standardized templates, track requests and approvals, automate provisioning of approved request and control the lifecycle of the virtual machine to improve both resource utilization and corporate compliance. IT also needs a “system of record” that records all requests, deployments, changes and decommissioning of virtual machines.