IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor is a software tool that helps companies manage service level agreements (SLAs) and ensure quality of IT services. It collects data from various IT systems, analyzes the data to identify trends and SLA violations, and generates reports. The key components include task drivers that collect data, an application server, database servers, and a data warehouse. It provides a process to define SLAs, import data, evaluate performance, notify of issues, and access reports. Companies can use it to proactively manage SLAs and meet customer expectations for IT services.
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The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
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Bob Boule
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Gopinath Rebala
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1. Insights into integrating generative AI.
2. Understanding how this integration enhances test automation within the UiPath platform
3. Practical demonstrations
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20. Trademarks
The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both:
AIX® Perform™ SP2®
DB2® pSeries™ Tivoli®
DB2 Universal Database™ Redbooks™ Tivoli Enterprise™
IBM® Redbooks(logo)™ Tivoli Enterprise Console®
Informix® RETAIN® TME®
Netfinity® RS/6000® WebSphere®
NetView® SP™ xSeries™
The following terms are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation and Lotus Development
Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lotus® Notes® Word Pro®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
ActionMedia, LANDesk, MMX, Pentium and ProShare are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United
States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States, other countries, or both.
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
C-bus is a trademark of Corollary, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.
SET, SET Secure Electronic Transaction, and the SET Logo are trademarks owned by SET Secure
Electronic Transaction LLC.
Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
xviii Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
22. Edson Manoel is a Software Engineer at IBM Corporation - International
Technical Support Organization, Austin Center. He applies his extensive field
experience as an IT Specialist to his work at the ITSO in the Systems
Management area. Prior to joining the ITSO, Edson worked in the IBM Software
Group as a Tivoli Technology Ambassador and in IBM Brasil Professional
Services Organization as a Certified IT Specialist. He was involved in numerous
projects, designing and implementing systems management solutions for IBM
customers and Business Partners. Edson holds a BSc degree in Applied
Mathematics from Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
J.B. Baker is a Software Engineer for the IBM Tivoli Software Group in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina. He holds a degree in Psychology and
Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Upon
graduation, he joined IBM in 1999 where he served as a Systems Administrator
for the e-Business Web Content Hosting Group, until joining IBM Tivoli in 2000.
He is a Cisco Certified Network Associate and is currently pursuing a
Certification for Information System Security Professional (CISSP).
Filippo Giannelli is an IT Specialist at IBM Integrated Technology Services, Italy.
He has three years of experience in the Information Technology field. He has
worked at IBM for three years. He holds a Masters degree in Electronic
Engineering from Universita La Sapienza in Rome. His areas of expertise include
the architecture and implementation of Tivoli Solutions in the Configuration and
Operation area, in the Application Management area, and the Web Services,
Management area.
Frans Sadie is an Advisory IT Specialist at IBM Integrated Technology Services,
South Africa. He has six years of experience in the Information Technology field.
He holds a Bachelors of Commerce degree in Industrial Psychology from the
Rand Afrikaans University and a Honours Bachelors of Commerce Degree in
Business Management from the University of South Africa. His areas of expertise
include the architecture, design, and implementation of Tivoli systems
management solutions, as well as business process design and re-engineering.
His product experience includes the Tivoli Core products and the “Tivoli Manager
for” product suite on the AIX and Windows platforms. He is a Certified Tivoli
Consultant in Tivoli Framework, Tivoli Inventory, and Tivoli Distributed
Monitoring.
Sarie Weber is an IT Specialist from Pretoria, South Africa. She joined IBM
South Africa in 1997 and is currently working in IBM Integrated Technology
Services. She has experience in the Information Technology field. She holds a
Honours BSc degree in Computer Science from the Potchefstroom University.
Her areas of expertise include the Tivoli range of core products, AIX, and
Windows. She is certified in Tivoli Framework, Tivoli Distributed Monitoring, and
Tivoli Inventory.
xx Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
23. Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
International Technical Support Organization, Austin Center
Bart Jacob, Morten Moeller, Chris Blatchley, Julie Czubik
IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor Development, Performance, and Quality
Assurance teams
Kathy Hebblethwaite, Bryan Ellington, Ping Chang, Jayne Regan, Chris
Karstens, Kevin Kuhner, Eswara Kosaraju, Steve Tremper, Brian Jeffrey
IBM Tivoli Early Support Programs
Jon O Austin and Gary Forghetti
IBM Tivoli Market Management Business Impact & Event Solutions
Michael Tabron
IBM Tivoli Worldwide Sales Enablement
David Hobbs
Technical Evangelism, EMEA Product Management
Lewis Troke
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Preface xxi
24. We want our Redbooks to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments
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xxii Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
28. 1.1 Overview
In the context of delivering services in a complex IT environment, accomplishing
a high level of customer satisfaction requires the IT function of an organization to
have a full understanding of and insight into the different aspects of its operation
and performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
When the IT organization fails to ensure operational performance the business
may turn to an outsourcer that may quickly, accurately, and economically meet its
needs. To prevent this defection, an IT organization must improve service
delivery while spending less money. Service Level Management can offer IT
organizations the ability to deliver the level of service that will keep their
businesses competitive.
Running a customer focused, cost conscious information technology (IT)
organization is not an easy task. Today an increasing number of businesses are
putting pressure on their IT departments to think of themselves as competitive
corporate allies. This originates primarily from three main reasons:
1. Desire to reduce costs
Businesses are constantly seeking ways to reduce costs, and IT costs are not
immune. This has given rise to an increasing number of outsourcing service
providers, each promising to deliver reliable service while off-loading the
costly burdens of staffing, procuring, and maintaining an IT organization.
Enterprises that do not outsource are demanding more accountability from
their IT organizations as well as demanding that IT aligns with business goals,
not the other way around.
In both cases, there is the concept of a service level agreement, which
represents a contract of service delivery between IT and its customers. As a
result, IT departments need management services that focus on and support
business processes and service delivery rather than just simple monitoring of
the IT resources, such as disk space monitoring and server availability.
2. Use of IT Services to gain a competitive advantage
Businesses have recognized that electronic and online services can be a
significant competitive weapon. Beating competition is almost always
achieved through speed to market. Therefore IT teams need to be able to
respond quickly in deploying services such as online procurement, consumer
purchasing mechanisms, and supply-chain delivery in response to the
aggressive goals of their companies.
4 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
29. Given that there often are significant amount of money at risk (win if the IT
department deploys successfully, and lose if the services become unavailable
or inaccessible) there must be a flexible but very robust set of management
tools and services deployed as part of the IT infrastructure. Systems like this
involve networks, servers, and application management to succeed, as well
as focus on the overall service delivery.
3. Increased pace of change
Competition continues to quicken the pace of change. As companies turn
more and more to the network in order to market, sell, and deliver their
products and services, they must now focus on quick delivery from IT.
These requirements force IT organizations to continuously improve productivity
and reduce costs while maintaining and delivering a consistent high level of
service. IT organizations are being forced to improve alignment with their internal
customers and developing a competitive mind set using the concept of Service
Level Management.
Service Level Management can also provide the tool that enables IT to match the
service delivered to the real business need. Before jumping into the details of
Service Level Management, we will take a look at the concepts of IT Services,
Service Delivery, and Service Management. We will stay as close as possible to
the definitions provided by the ITIL, as it provides the best practices for the
management of an IT infrastructure. Appendix B, “Service Management
according to the ITIL” on page 365, provides a great deal of information on
service management in terms of the ITIL.
1.2 IT Services
For the purpose of the current discussion, the following definition of IT Service
will be used in this redbook: A set of related functions provided by IT systems
that supports one or more business areas and facilitates the achievement of
corporate objectives and business goals in a timely and cost-effective manner.
This service can be made up of IT and non-IT facilities and fulfills one or more
needs of the customer. Such services should be perceived by the customers as
being a self-contained, coherent whole. Examples are software, hardware, and
communication facilities. Figure 1-1 on page 6 shows a customer receiving IT
Services without realizing that there is an entire structure in place working
together in order to fulfill the customer’s requirements.
Chapter 1. Introduction 5
30. Monitoring
Implementing
Troubleshooting
IT Services
Planning
Customer
Figure 1-1 IT Service perceived by the end user and in reality
There are a couple of questions that come from the above definition:
Who does provide the service?
In order to provide a service in a timely and cost-effective manner, the service
provider is required to provide all the equipment, skills, procedures, and
documentation required to support the service, and ensure that the service is
reliable, efficient, and correct. This may be very costly and
resource-consuming to overcome, so instead of realizing all of the above
within the IT department, more and more companies choose to acquire one
or more sub-services from external providers. In this case the IT department
is still the service provider to the users, but the IT department itself may be
also be the receiver the true provider of the service. This lets us know that a
service can rely on other services and still be perceived by the end receiver of
the service as a hole entity.
Who pays for the service?
Another question raised by the definition is that of accountability. The word
service suggests that the users of the service are customers, and this in turn
suggests that the service provider is paid to provide the service. In the context
of IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor, a customer is a party that enters into an
agreement with the service provider on the level the service will be delivered.
6 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
31. Customers can be given access to the results of those agreements.
Customers can be internal (members of a department within the enterprise)
or external (a member, department, or company) associated with a service
provider.
1.3 Service Delivery
Delivering an IT Service requires careful planning of deploying, monitoring,
supporting, and reporting. The main motivation to perform all these tasks is that
customers’ expectations must be met. This also supports the decision-making
while planning the service delivery.
The actual execution of the tasks is taken care of by processes in the Service
Support area. However, the responsibility of ensuring that the required
infrastructure, capacity, and operational procedures are in place lies within the
Service Delivery area. Refer to “Service Delivery disciplines” on page 371 for
additional details.
The IT Service Delivery life cycle does not vary from that of other services. See
Figure 1-2.
Service Delivery
P
Pl
an
an
lv e
Re
sso
ep
STO
P
po
Di
or
t
t
P
Pl
Plan
an
an
loy
D ep
Service Support
Figure 1-2 Service Delivery life cycle
Chapter 1. Introduction 7
32. Once the various components have been deployed they must be monitored to
verify that the targets are met. If this is not the case, corrections have to be
applied in order to meet the targets, and of course it must be verified that the
corrections have no impacts other than those anticipated.
Pro-active monitoring of the components is not the only way of identifying
problems that might put the service delivery in jeopardy. The end users play an
important role by reporting irregularities and disturbances to the Service Delivery.
A Help Desk must be established to receive, register, and (if possible) answer
calls from end users, which are often known as incidents. If no solution to the
problem is available, the Problem Management processes will be used to provide
one.
In addition to problems reported by end users, the Help Desk may also receive
incidents generated by the tools monitoring the components that make up a
service. Most of these automatically generated incidents can be associated with
well-known solutions—tasks recovering or circumventing the problematic
situation. Some of these well-known solutions may be invoked
automatically—either directly by the monitoring tools generating the incident, or
by the tools used by the Help Desk. Other incidents may require manual
intervention or authorization before the well-known solutions can be applied.
Finally, the last group of incidents has no known solutions associated with them.
These incidents are handled by the Help Desk and passed on to Problem
Management for problem diagnosis and resolution, Change Management for
authorization, and finally to the group responsible for deploying the change for
implementation.
8 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
33. problem
Help Desk
incident Change
request
change Delivery
solution report
Approved
Change
Problem Management request
Software Delivery & Control
Change Management
Figure 1-3 Service Delivery in context
It is evident that in order to keep a consistently high level of any service, changes
that effect the provider’s ability to deliver the service must be authorized,
planned, and executed thoroughly. The service provider must have procedures in
place to help assess the impact of a change to any component in the service
hierarchy. Also, procedures to apply the changes securely and to verify that the
change actually had the desired impact are needed.
1.4 Ensuring service quality
Providing a service requires a dedicated and focused infrastructure consisting of
hardware, software, communication equipment and facilities, documentation, and
skills required to support the provision of the IT Service. In order to monitor the
components of a service, general and/or service-specific monitoring tools have to
be deployed either as an integral part of the service deployment or as
independent, self-contained service. These monitors are typically implemented
as part of the service components themselves or as integral part of
component-specific tools used to manage the components.
The capabilities of the monitoring tools may—or may not—support management
and operation of the service from, and reporting to, a central command center.
This functionality, however, is a necessity when delivering services, partly
because of the need to allow the support staff to fulfill their mission, and partly to
enable centralized diagnosis and reporting of all the components of a service.
Chapter 1. Introduction 9
34. In other words, an extra layer of service has to be established in order to provide
functions and facilities that enable managing of the service from a central
command center. These functions must include monitoring, event forwarding and
escalation, measurement data gathering, and status reporting from the service
components, and allow for operation and configuration of the components from
the central command center. This service layer is called the management
services layer.
Server Service
Server Service service III
monitoring
Server Service I events service II
reporting service I
Server System Mgmt.
Subsystem
Server System Mgmt.
service III
Subsystem
Service I operation service II
System Mgmt. Tools configuration
service I
Client System Mgmt.
Subsystem
Client System Mgmt.
Subsystem
Client I
System Mgmt. Tools
Client Service
Client Service
Client Service I
Figure 1-4 Point-solution based management infrastructure
It goes without saying that the general management service of choice must be so
versatile that the majority of—if not all—services delivered are supported. The
management service will have to have a modular structure to enable deployment
of special functions for specific services, while reusing the basic functions
provided by the management service. In this way the basic management can be
extended to fit the specific needs of a given mix of services - operating systems,
subsystems, networking, and applications alike.
Based on this, we define Service Management as: The management of an IT
infrastructure of hardware, software, communications equipment and facilities,
documentation, and skills used to provide the required service at the required
level of quality.
10 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
35. According to this definition, service management relies upon the internal IT
infrastructure management and the technical environment, as well as managing
third-party contractors.
IT Service Management
IT Service Provision
Customer
Third-Party
Hardware
management
Service
IT infrastructure management
Provider
Skills Software Documentation
Figure 1-5 Customer, service provider, and service management
1.5 Service Level Management
Service Level Management is the process of negotiating, defining, and
managing the levels of IT Service that are required and cost-justified. The
Service Management goal is important because it emphasizes the quantification
of services. Therefore, when defining the objectives for the Service Level
Management processes, the deliverable should be specified in quantifiable
terms. Examples of such definitions are as follows:
IT Services are catalogued.
IT Services are quantified in terms that both customer and IT provider
understand.
Internal and external targets of IT Services are defined and agreed upon.
Achievement of agreed service targets is reached.
Chapter 1. Introduction 11
36. The quantification of objectives applies to all three parts of the scope of the
Service Level Management process and involves the management of IT Services
between the customer organization and the IT Services organization, the IT
Services organization and its external suppliers, and the IT Services organization
and its internal departments.
According to this we can define Service Level Management (SLM) as follows:
The iterative, disciplined, proactive methodology and procedures used to ensure
that adequate levels of service are delivered to all IT users in accordance with
business priorities and at acceptable cost.
Negotiate/Define
implementation Review
Manage
Figure 1-6 Service Level Management iterative process
A key to the success of Service Level Management is correctly quantifying the
services being provided. Unless there is an agreed-upon method of how services
are to be measured, there is no way of knowing whether targets have been met
or not. Service Level Management is responsible for understanding and
documenting the customer requirements and translating them into a set of
understandable measures.
12 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
37. Service Level Management is a means for the lines of business (LOB) and IT
organization to explicitly set their mutual expectations for the content and extent
of IT Services. It also allows them to determine in advance what steps will be
taken if these conditions are not met. The concept and application of Service
Level Management allows IT organizations to provide a business-oriented,
enterprise-wide service by varying the type, cost, and level of service for the
individual LOB.
In order to accomplish Service Level Management and really manage the quality
of service provided by an internal IT organization or by an external service
provider, establishing Service Level Agreements is a must. For the context of this
redbook, we define Service Level Agreement (SLA) as follows:
An agreement or contract between a service provider and a customer of that
service, which sets expectations for the level of service with respect to
availability, performance, and other measurable objectives.
There are various types of Service Level Agreements. From an IT organization
standpoint, the most common are:
Internal or in-house SLAs
These are agreements negotiated between the service provider, such as an
IT department, and an in-house user or department. These kinds of SLAs are
sometimes used by the company as an important selling point to external
customers, ensuring the high quality of the company products.
External SLAs
These are agreements that a company may establish when purchasing
services from an external provider. For example, company A may hire an
Internet services provider (ISP) to host its Web site requiring 100 percent
availability. If company A gets less than acceptable service from its ISP,
without this SLA in place, company A may not have many options to force the
ISP to address the problem or to terminate their contract without penalties.
There are a number of components that make up an SLA, including the following:
Term
Defines the period of time the SLA will cover.
Scope
Defines the services covered in the agreement.
Limitations
Define what must happen in order for the requested service levels to be
provided.
Chapter 1. Introduction 13
38. Service level objectives
Define the level of services that both the customer and the service provider
agree on. This is a specification of a metric that is associated with a
guaranteed level of service.
Service level indicators
Define the means by which the service level objectives can be measured.
Non-performance
Defines what happens if the service provider does not meet the objectives.
Exclusions
Specifies what is not covered in the SLA.
Reviews
Establish scheduled reviews between the customer and the service provider.
Reporting is the most important way this can be accomplished and is a key
component of Service Level Management.
Once established, Service Level Agreements help with the following:
Allows for the IT organization to better understand customer service
requirements
Controls customer expectations for levels of service to be delivered
Allows for a clear understanding of priorities when handling service problems
1.6 Why bother with Service Level Management
There are six compelling reasons to establish a Service Level Management
discipline in your company or with your service provider:
Satisfying clients
The IT Service provider must understand what the customer perceives as
good service. The customer must understand what is reasonable to expect
from the IT Service provider given limitations in hardware, network
performance, staff, and so on. Communication between an IT service provider
and a customer is an essential part of Service Level Management. There
must be an agreement of what constitutes acceptable service against which
service levels can be measured. When IT service providers meet
expectations, customers can clearly see their expectations are being met and
confidence increases.
14 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor
39. Managing expectations
Often, customers who were satisfied with service yesterday want better
service today, and even better tomorrow. Some savvy ones may just want to
maintain service levels knowing that more users are receiving IT Services. To
manage such a situation, an IT service provider and customer must negotiate
a SLA. Both parties may later renegotiate the agreement as needed.
Regulating resources
When both the IT service provider and customer monitor service levels
closely, they can become aware of developing problems in overcapacity or
lack of resources and can be proactive by taking corrective actions.
Marketing internal IT Services
In the old days, the only contact between the IT service provider and
customers happened when something went wrong. This situation was always
seen as a roadblock to achieving business goals. With a Service Level
Management process in place, an IT service provider can document the fact
that it is providing good services supporting the business.
Controlling costs
With a Service Level Management process in place, IT service providers can
clarify which areas if of its services need improvement and requires
investment, and which areas still perform at satisfactory levels. This helps with
the decision-making process and justification as to whether investments are
necessary to upgrade service levels.
Establishing a defensive strategy
IT service providers can demonstrate in measurable terms that they are worth
the customers investments. With precise SLA and effective reporting,
customers’ perceptions of a good service can be eased and most likely
customers will be less likely to purchase IT Services from a different IT
service provider. In the case of an internal IT organization, it can disperse
arguments for outsourcing.
Chapter 1. Introduction 15
40. 16 Introducing IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor