Foundations of Service Level Management

The authors, experts in IT management who also write for "Internet Week" magazine, offer detailed recommendations for creating a service level management strategy and establishing service level agreements. The book shows IT managers and executives at third-party SLM companies how to deploy services more quickly, become more service-oriented, and reduce costs through automation.

Wayne Morris is the vice president at BMC Software, Inc. He speaks regularly at industry trade shows and conferences including Uniforum, Networld+Interop, DB Expo, Enterprise Management Summit and Computer Measurement Group. In addition, Morris is frequently asked to comment in major trade press articles on application management and his papers have been published in the USA, Europe and Australia.

Introduction

1

(4)

Part I Theory and Principles

5

(80)

The Challenge

7

(14)

Mission Impossible

8

(1)

Divergent Views

9

(2)

Technical Challenge

11

(2)

What Is SLM?

13

(1)

Pros and Cons

14

(1)

Other Service Providers

15

(1)

The Importance of SLM

15

(3)

Why Now?

18

(2)

Summary

20

(1)

The Perception and Management of Service Levels

21

(18)

Availability

22

(2)

Performance

24

(2)

Workload Levels

26

(2)

Security

28

(3)

Accuracy

31

(1)

Recoverability

32

(2)

Affordability

34

(4)

Summary

38

(1)

Service Level Reporting

39

(14)

Audience

40

(2)

Types of Reports

42

(4)

Frequency of Reporting

46

(3)

Real-Time Reporting

49

(3)

Summary

52

(1)

Service Level Agreements

53

(24)

The Need for SLAs

53

(2)

Functions of SLAs

55

(1)

Types of SLAs

56

(2)

SLA Processes

58

(17)

Summary

75

(2)

Standards Efforts

77

(8)

IT Infrastructure Library

78

(3)

Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) SLA Working Group

81

(1)

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)---Application Management MIB

82

(1)

Application Response Measurement Working Group

83

(1)

Summary

84

(1)

Part II Reality

85

(38)

Service Level Management Practices

87

(14)

Lack of Common Understanding

87

(3)

Current Service Level Management Practices

90

(10)

Summary

100

(1)

References

100

(1)

Service Level Management Products

101

(22)

Monitoring Tools

102

(15)

Reporting Tools

117

(3)

SLM Analysis

120

(1)

Administration Tools

121

(1)

Summary

122

(1)

Part III Recommendations

123

(64)

Business Case for Service Level Management

125

(12)

Cost Justifying Proactive Service Level Management

125

(2)

Quantifying the Benefits of Service Level Management

127

(4)

A Sample Cost Justification Worksheet

131

(5)

Summary

136

(1)

Implementing Service Level Management

137

(16)

Planning the Rollout

138

(4)

Going Live with SLM

142

(7)

Following Through

149

(2)

Summary

151

(2)

Capturing Data for Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

153

(16)

Metrics for Measuring Service Levels

153

(2)

Methods for Capturing Service Metrics

155

(1)

Monitoring Individual Components and Aggregating Results

156

(4)

Inspecting Network Traffic for Application Transactions

160

(1)

End-to-End Service Level Measurement

161

(3)

Common Architectures and Technologies for Data Capture Solutions

164

(3)

Summary

167

(2)

Service Level Management as Service Enabler

169

(10)

The Ascendance of IP

170

(1)

A Spectrum of Providers

170

(2)

The Importance of SLAs in the Service Environment

172

(1)

Different Strokes

173

(1)

Smart Implementation

174

(1)

Advice for Users

174

(2)

Advice for Service Providers

176

(1)

Summary

177

(2)

Moving Forward

179

(8)

Establishing the Need for Service Level Management

179

(1)

Defining the Services to Be Managed

180

(1)

Communicating with the Business

181

(1)

Negotiating Service Level Agreements

181

(1)

Managing to the Service Level Agreement

182

(1)

Using Commercial Management Solutions

183

(1)

Continuously Improving Service Quality

183

(1)

Evolution of Service Level Management Standards

184

(1)

Evolution of Management Solution Capabilities

184

(3)

Part IV Appendixes

187

(54)

A Internal Service Level Agreement Template

189

(6)

About the SLA

189

(1)

About the Service

190

(1)

About Service Availability

191

(2)

About Service Measures

193

(2)

B Simple Internal Service Level Agreement Template

195

(2)

C Sample Customer Satisfaction Survey

197

(4)

Rating Service Quality

197

(2)

General Comments

199

(1)

Current Usage

199

(1)

Future Requirements

200

(1)

Optional Information

200

(1)

D Sample Reporting Schedule

201

(2)

Daily Report

201

(1)

Weekly Report

202

(1)

Monthly Report

202

(1)

Quarterly Report

202

(1)

E Sample Value Statement & Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis for a Service Provider Delivering an SAP Application

203

(8)

Summary of Value

204

(1)

Return on Investment (ROI) Value Areas

204

(3)

Benefit Areas

207

(3)

Return on Investment Analysis

210

(1)

Summary

210

(1)

F Selected Vendors of Service Level Management Products

211

(30)

Glossary

241

(6)

Index

247

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Foundations of Service Level Management

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials