Assignment_3_2017_CIS3003_v6 (1) (1)

IT MANAGEMETN SOLUTIOSN

Student’s name

Course

Professor

University

City, State

Date

Letter of transmittal

Name, Chairman

Company

Address

City, State

Dear Sir/ Madam

As agreed before I am submitting the report on IT service management solutions.

The report investigates various IT solutions and deals with two options that are to be chosen by the company in the end with various recommendations. It dwells on the issue of private cloud in relation to virtualization and the managing of information and applications over servers (Smoot & Tan 2012). In addition, the use of virtualization and help desk support for users is discussed in the report together with providing the alternatives available to quicken the user experience.

I hope the report delivers the required management goals and objectives to change the company for the better.

Yours sincerely

Name

Company

Address

Executive Summary

IT support mechanisms are necessary for the efficient management of IT infrastructure in a company. Using private cloud is beneficial for business in many ways, and there is need to adopt management systems that will help the company achieve its goals. Private clouds different from public clouds and therefore the management systems should suit the needs for the private cloud (Hugos & Hulitzky 2011). The management systems should help users in accessing the IT resources more efficiently in a virtual environment by providing them with the various skills needed. Software Defined Networks and Public Based Management systems are some of the solutions that are available to provide a better management system of a company’s IT infrastructure. The business has adopted more homegrown approaches in dealing with the infrastructure in place. It is therefore important to consider the homegrown technologies, which cannot compete with the two solutions above. Virtualization has enabled the optimum use of applications services and servers to enhance the user experience and further provide a better platform on which administrators can deal with the various tasks associated with networks. The management method to use , in this case, is an SDN, which provides more flexibility, and automation that provides for optimum functionality when it comes to execution of tasks of servers and the use of applications. SDN provides for a better experience especially in tailoring the software and network to align to the needs of the organizations. Virtualization, in this case, is managed with less interference should there be changes that are carried out. Therefore, the adoption of SDN will help the company better manage its software applications and management of its IT infrastructure.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Business has embraced the use of technology in many of their daily operations. Most of the services using technology have developed overt time where additional resources have been added to the functionalities of the IT infrastructure. Since businesses have to deal with many devices associated with the technologies, it is important to have an IT management system in place (Turban et al. 2012). Many businesses may end up with ineffective IT infrastructure because of lacking an effective management system in place. IT support systems are necessary for the sense that they provide ways in which applications and servers can be used in an organization optimally. The help and support systems for IT are essential in ensuring a better user experience. Users need to have skills in using the different interfaces, and therefore they need to be trained to be ready for such systems should the company chooses them. Businesses face many changes in their functionalities, and as a result, there is the addition of more IT resources (Tavana 2012). As they adapt to new technologies and applications businesses are faced with decisions that need to be quickly made to ensure that their operations are more flexible and are not clogged. If systems are ineffective, users will experience difficulties in carrying out tasks on the respective IT infrastructures. Therefore coming up with management systems like software-defined networks is further important in ensuring that flexibility is enhanced. Business can further adopt management systems that are policy based to ensure that changes are made to the rules in place and not to the coding of the IT infrastructure. Therefore, in coming up with the systems to manage IT infrastructures, it is important for a company to consider its business needs about the management systems they are to choose. The report will look into the various benefits and available systems, which can help the company to manage its IT infrastructure especially in the use of a private cloud. Alternative strategies in adopting private cloud

Various alternatives can be used for IT support and help desk in particular together with the improvement of web instructions. The software, in this case, is Freshdesk, Zendesk, DeskPro Zendesk is one of the alternatives that helps provide support to users on a cloud service. Zendesk as software has its origin in Copenhagen. Zendesk is one of the most used support software in many companies (Bento & Aggarwal 2013). The user interface is significantly customized for the end user in providing an interface that is easy to use. It integrates with different social media platforms like Twitter, email, together with mobile applications. It has an automation engine in addition to user forums. The mobile apps are customized for Android and iPhone.

Freshdesk is another alternative that mostly embraces the social side of the user experience. It most deals with the tracking of tweets, wall bulkposts, direct messaging and thus forming the social help desk according to Freshdesk. Freshdesk offers an excellent knowledge base methodology and customer based forums. The discussions concentrate on managing customer’s comments, feedback, and ideas. The forum further includes options where customers can like other comments from other clients. Freshservice is another desktop solution, which is multipurpose in nature. Freshdesk is more is known for its usability than functionality. The platform focuses on keeping the frequently used functions up front and centre. The user interface is not cluttered and therefore provides for a better user experience. Freshservice is another important platform that is part of ITIL system. Freshservice is part of ITIL management solution. The business in adopting ITIL helps the company to focus IT efforts on business needs. Freshservice has various tools that include incident management, knowledge base, problem management change management, ticketing system, vendor management, contract management, asset recovery, supplier management and product catalogues to name a few.

Virtualization

There are various types of virtualizations that are available in the market for companies to develop their IT management. One of the virtualizations is virtual machines. The operating system, in this case, is virtualised. Many or different instances of an operating system are made available virtually. In this case, the virtualization uses one machine reducing the number of actual machines that would have been used (Baun 2011).

Another type of virtualization is application server virtualisation. Advanced load balancing is another name for application server virtualisation. Here applications are loaded on different servers, and different servers are loaded with various applications. In this case, the loading of applications especially those used for large projects cannot be overloaded as different servers are used. The virtualisation type helps in managing applications and servers (Goransson, Black & Culver 2017). Applications security further gives more protection for information by the company since it provides one server to the users while others are concealed at the back of a proxy.

Application virtualisation is another type of virtualization. Applications in such cases function on computers as though they were on the hard disk of the respective computer. The applications, in this case, are run from a server. The applications operate through the ram of computers using cloud software. Administration virtualization is employed in data centres. The administration, in this case, is that there are grouped administration functions through user and group policies. The administration virtualisation usually has rules regarding what can be read by different admins. Such access to the application is further shown in the way that the applications are run on the servers and the various admin roles (Fenton & Bieman2015).

Network virtualization is the virtual management of IPs. Network virtualization is done through devices like routing tables, VLAN tags, Switches, and NICs. Hardware virtualisation bears similarity with operating system virtualisation. Different sections of machines are virtualized instead of the operating systems. Hardware virtualisation bears similarity with operating system virtualisation. Various sections of machines are virtualized instead of operating systems (Kim 2015). Storage virtualisation further consists of the different servers by the system of virtual storage. Their servers usually do not know where data is, but they function to get the applications.

Benefits of virtualization

The footprint of the data centre is less. The consolidation of servers through virtualisation decreases the energy used in a data centre. In the case of data centres, the space occupied is smaller, and the supposed equipment and hardware is reduced significantly. The company saves money by using virtualisation and cloud storage as a result (Duan & Toy 2017). The reduction of energy helps in marketing the company to the users who appreciate its green efforts.

The use of virtual machines has the advantage of decreasing the cost significantly. Hardware is what makes the use of computers more expensive. More hardware means more cost and therefore decreasing the hardware by using virtual machines greatly reduces expenses associated with hardware (Saboowala, Abid & Modali 2013). Data centres have traditionally had a lot of hardware that has led to the production of much heat when the IT infrastructure is in operation. More expense has gone into reducing the heat since it can adversely affect the functioning of machines and applications together with the servers the organization uses. Reducing the heat has not been easy, and virtual machines create space for the use of less hardware and thus less heat generation.

Virtualisation provides for better testing. Better testing, in this case, arises particularly when one makes a mistake that is grievous, and that can cost the company information is taken care of by virtualisation. In this case, the information cannot be lost. The use of snapshots of different instances on the virtual machines can help in bringing back the work environment and retrieving lost information (Minerva & Crespi 2016).

Vendor lock-in is another benefit which focuses on abstraction between hardware and software. A company, in this case, can have the option of using different providers and choose the best software as a result. Getting the best of the virtual machines becomes another factor that will help the company in carrying out its tasks more efficiently (Fonseca & Boutadi 2015). The type of hardware does not affect virtualisation as long as it can support virtualisation.

Virtual machines further help companies quickly adopt cloud technology. The virtual environment is close to cloud technology in the sense that applications are run either on servers or one machine using different hardware to access the data and applications. The virtualisation, in this case, makes the company come closer to cloud computing. Virtualisation help quicken backup of information (Chandrasekaran 2015). Snapshots and backups of the virtual machines can be done quickly and the data saved easily. The snapshots and backup can help the company in case there are different users through the usage of the virtual machines since instances can see a loss of information in future. Virtual machines and their redeployment are faster over different machines especially when they are moved to different servers.

IT Service Solutions and their benefits

The two applicable service solutions chosen by the company are service-defined networks and policy based management systems. The systems are different tough they enhance some similar benefits to the company like flexibility. The company in dealing with the private cloud has to choose between the better solutions and in this case, it is important to look at each IT solution.

Software Defined Networks (SDN)

SDN as a management system provides a set of measures regarding the IT infrastructure ensuring that corporations quicken delivery and deployment of applications significantly decreasing IT expenses with policies that enable automation in the workflows. SDN allows cloud architectures by providing agility, on request application and automation scale (Vacca 2017). When using SDN benefits are enhanced particularly regarding the virtualisation of data centres while increasing adaptability and usage of resources and decreasing overhead and costs of infrastructure. IT polices are centralized which help bring together unmerged workflows and groups. It results in an advanced infrastructure that can provide new services and applications quickly as opposed to other methods that have taken long. SDN is, therefore, a faster and efficient management solution for cloud architectures. There are speed and agility connected with SDN in the handling of business servers and applications. SDN, as a result, focuses on programmability, policy, adaptability as its major drive to meet its functionalities (Portnoy 2016).

Software-defined networking encompasses different types of network technology focused on creating the network to be flexible and agile. The network, in this case, is a storage infrastructure and virtual server. SDN provides network administrators and engineers more leverage in dealing with the tailoring to the needs of the business environment. The administrator can thus direct the traffic from a central console without using individual switches. The administrator can thus deliver services to points where they are needed on the network without interfering with the hardware or server being used (Furht & Escalante 2010). The vital technologies about SDN working are automation and network virtualisation and functional separation.

Policy Based Management Systems

PBM is the managing of IT architectures using policies. Vast networks at present can have multiple components in the millions that interconnect across many boundaries in different organizations. Failure in the parts means other components should be flexible to take their place. Many changes take place especially regarding the addition or removal or resources, services, and new applications that make the place for new requirements on the IT architecture in place. The mobility of users switching between fixed and wireless communication connections creates many changes that need to be looked into to ensure that the IT management is working correctly (Buyya, Vecchioli & Selvi 2013).

Concealing system and networks become imminent to prevent users from drowning in too much detail. This will result from raising the level of abstraction. Policies are therefore made about management goals and help in setting in place the behaviours desired of the heterogeneous spread networks, systems, and come up with particular ways to administer the behaviour (Bergstra & Burgess 2014). The complexity of managing IT resources as they become more sophisticated due to the heterogeneity of the distributed applications and the various network technologies. As the IT resources increase so does the work for managing the systems.

Policies are critical in the management of IT infrastructures especially since they give the means which management can change strategies specifically without re-coding when at the implementation stage. There are many benefits associated with PBM, which include providing understandable, correct, and consistent network systems. The sophistication of network systems will stand to benefit from the use of PBM especially security services.

In Policy-Based Network Management, services and rule state the criteria for the access of resources and their usage. Policies in as such are set which are related to the rules. The policy rules set usually focus on a myriad of conditions and the resulting round of activities. The condition determines the rules in the policy are applicable. The activation of policy rules leads mostly to the execution of the respective policy rules (Mahmood 2013). The implementation of the actions as such may not be up to the expected condition set in the policy rules. Systems that follow policy based management methodologies provide better adaptation to the business environment. The systems are guided based on the response to the business climate. The applications change according to the policy rule in place. When there are changes, the policy rules can be changed without affecting the system. As such, policy-based management systems are better applied when dealing with complex systems.

PBM is a paradigm of management that delineates the rules governing the performance of a system from its functionality. PBM mostly focuses on the decrease of the costs of maintenance of communication and information systems. Also, it improves tractability and runtime adaptability. PBM is widely used in many paradigms and architectures that include adaptive, autonomous, business-led and SLA driven management. The manager in using PBM does not have to monitor the systems and equipment directly especially on huge computer systems. Management of computer systems thus becomes effective by the use of PBM (Windley 2012). It further gives a methodical approach that can establish, revise and distribute policies more efficiently. Policy helps managers point to the particular set of actions regarding a specific system. PBM is originated, illustrative, long lasting and goal of managing computer systems.

PBM has therefore many merits as a result. Changes in the system requirement a call for the alterations of policies without the need to recode, however, this can be a cumbersome process. Another merit is that of use resources effectively by the flexibility in their distribution about the data dynamics together with the different needs of service categories. The system is more maintainable and extensible due to the availability of various policies that can be used by multiple users. It creates more convenience to individuals who can use different policies as they carry out their tasks (Mori 2014). PBM makes the system more autonomous from the system manager in that it can intelligently function without requiring constant supervision by the manager.

Recommended approach

I would recommend the Software Defined Networks. The SDN is, provides more flexibility to network administrators and engineers, and gives them more advantage in dealing with the infrastructure in place. When handling a private cloud, the network administrators will not experiences restrictions and can operate remotely through a centralized console without affecting the user operations. The increased automation and mobility especially in accessing servers and applications is a critical merit of SDN (Bond 2015). The decrease of costs in using SDN further puts it as a better management system for the private cloud. The company had been using overgrown solutions and adopting the SDN will still enable the engineers and administrators to deal with the various needs without affecting the network usage. Managing application and network service in the private cloud will be easier as they are centralized and the orchestration of platforms centralized to make changes applicable to the whole infrastructure. The company should thus consider using SDN in the management of its IT infrastructure to ensure flexibility and the resulting automation, which comes with more adaptation to business needs.

Conclusion

The management of IT infrastructure should be directed with the utmost clarity to ensure that all users have an interface that they can work with quickly without hitches or functionalities that they do not understand. A workforce that is knowledgeable on the IT infrastructure in place will optimally use it according to the needs and goals of the organisation. The IT infrastructure determines whether the system will be useful in providing support to the users and the access of information and efficiently in operation. Various alternatives can help in the management of a private cloud technology. They include Policy Based Management and Software-defined management systems. Such systems support a broad variety of services and application functions that help organizations deal with their task and administration of IT infrastructure efficiently. Therefore, it is expedient for the company to consider SDN as the IT solution of choice to further enhance the use of infrastructure and increase the experience among the consumers together with effective management of IT infrastructure.

References

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