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Write You - ITIL and the CMDB: Think Small?
When I'm traveling to someplace new, I like to get directions beforehand. Sure there's something to be said for the proverbial "scenic routes" and "roads less traveled," but, as Yogi Berra noted, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."A business plan serves a similar purpose. It's like MapQuest®, except that you choose both the destination and the route you want to take. And, like MapQuest®, it needn't be overly detailed, drawn in pretty colors, or able to fit in your pocket; it just needs to give you a good sense of where you're going and how you intend to get there. If you're serious about starting or growing your business, M.A.P. out your route by following these three steps:Make a Master Plan. One of the benefits of a written plan is that it forces you to think carefully and with focus about what you are providing, how, to whom and, significantly, why you want to do this. What is the vision in your mind's eye for who you can help and how they will benefit? To build a successful business, it helps to answer the following questions, among others (which you would do in your Master Plan):-Who will buy
Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment.
Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first.
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If you own a home business and are struggling with a way to advertise your not alone. Website advertising is not cheap. You don't need ppc to advance yourself in the home business world. There are many ways in promoting your home business that are free. I will give you a list in order in which to advertise all of which are free. Getting links to your website is probably the most important thing for yor home business. You don't have to pay for links, their are many companies which will exchange links for free. Go to any search engine and look for freelink exchanges. This will help you get the proper exposure you need.Make sure you link with similiar websites. Your home business should be linked with similiar, this will give your customer a choice which you want. Secondly you need to write about your company. Article writing is a great source to get the word out about your work at home company. This is also a free source. When writing don't overanalyze anything. Try to give an overview of your business. When you started it, what your offering, how it pertains to your audience. Let the world know about the positive effects it will have.I also like forums as a form of free adverti
But as a standard and trusted data source, even the simplest of CMDB’s can provide a means for improving internal communications and dialogue with IT customers. Even small-scale CMDB deployments could potentially help IT yield measurable benefits in operational effectiveness, cost efficiencies and improve the overall quality of service. But perhaps most importantly, the CMDB provides an early foundation for changing a reactive IT culture into a proactive service provider.
Establishing an initial IT framework and baseline of data through the deployment of a simple, tactical CMDB tool can help promote a more cohesive IT Service Management culture.
CMDB: Simply Defined
In the real world, a banking customer would not write a check without first ensuring there is enough money in their account. Additionally, these same customers need to rely on their banks to accurately record their deposits and withdrawals. Each time money is withdrawn or deposited, the customer assumes the transaction was successful and any changes to the account balance were precisely updated. This level of accuracy is required to determine how much money needs to reside in the account at any given time to cover the customer’s daily expenses.
Unfortunately, IT decisions are not always based on a similar level of data integrity, and its common place to see one IT group interfere with another internal group, redundantly performing operational tasks or even making assumptions about who is handling a specific IT support activity. The IT Security Team, for example, may pick a specific time to apply patches to a cluster of servers, inadvertently disrupting automated database backups taking place on those same servers at the same time.
From a proactive standpoint, the same IT Security Team can establish an improved process for internal communications, identify the owners of the target server group and notify them prior to deployment-- alleviating issues with subsequent service support and delivery activities.
A CMDB provides a common repository for IT configuration items (CI), their attributes and relationships, offering a single source of record and a logical model of the IT infrastructure as it related to IT services. As a proactive management tool, the CMDB can provide accountability and ownership of CIs, improving the identification, verification and management of the IT infrastructure.
Why Use a CMDB?
This concept of a CMDB serving as single source of data is one of its greatest strengths-- without a central repository for configuration information, IT organizations continue to work in silos, and fail to align activities with business objectives. A basic Configuration Management (CM) process and toolset (i.e. CMDB) can enable teams to better communicate and coordinate processes by establishing a common data repository.
The CMDB breaks down barriers between IT and the business, removing IT silos and creating a higher level of synergy between people, processes and supporting technologies.
Put another way, how can you manage and improve IT services if you don't know what equipment you have, where it is, how it’s connected and the impact of changing it? It is suggested that 80% of critical system outages are the result of people or process failure, with the main proponent being that of changes to the IT environment. This is exacerbated by the fact that planning activities derived from inadequate sources of information drive a path to failure. Additionally, subsequent recovery processes are further hampered by those same inadequate data stores.
Since the CMDB provides the logical model for the IT infrastructure and related services, organizations can more easily manage configuration items and their relationships with other entities and services. Some of the primary benefits a CMDB can provide from the start are related to the areas of proactive change management, security and IT compliance.
Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment.
Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first.
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Setting the StageThe startup environment is one in which feathers are flying and those involved are in perpetual motion (both mentally and physically). Often, in the course of developing products and/or services, chasing down funding and looking for those first precious customers, the concept of a customer service organization falls way behind the back burner. And, while staffing this function and fully equipping it with all of the bells and whistles that are available to customer service organizations may not be the best move in these early stages, it is never too early to build the foundation for this vital function.There are few, if any, entrepreneurs who would actively and knowingly reject the concept of customer service. Of course, everyone knows how important the customer is – right? Well, yes and no. While the idea of providing good customer service seems like an obvious one at any stage of a company’s life, the actual delivery of great service takes much more than just a passing thought or general presumption. In fact, the earliest seeds that need to be planted in any new organization are those representing “top of mind” placement given to customer service at every step in the
In the real world, a banking customer would not write a check without first ensuring there is enough money in their account. Additionally, these same customers need to rely on their banks to accurately record their deposits and withdrawals. Each time money is withdrawn or deposited, the customer assumes the transaction was successful and any changes to the account balance were precisely updated. This level of accuracy is required to determine how much money needs to reside in the account at any given time to cover the customer’s daily expenses.
Unfortunately, IT decisions are not always based on a similar level of data integrity, and its common place to see one IT group interfere with another internal group, redundantly performing operational tasks or even making assumptions about who is handling a specific IT support activity. The IT Security Team, for example, may pick a specific time to apply patches to a cluster of servers, inadvertently disrupting automated database backups taking place on those same servers at the same time.
From a proactive standpoint, the same IT Security Team can establish an improved process for internal communications, identify the owners of the target server group and notify them prior to deployment-- alleviating issues with subsequent service support and delivery activities.
A CMDB provides a common repository for IT configuration items (CI), their attributes and relationships, offering a single source of record and a logical model of the IT infrastructure as it related to IT services. As a proactive management tool, the CMDB can provide accountability and ownership of CIs, improving the identification, verification and management of the IT infrastructure.
Why Use a CMDB?
This concept of a CMDB serving as single source of data is one of its greatest strengths-- without a central repository for configuration information, IT organizations continue to work in silos, and fail to align activities with business objectives. A basic Configuration Management (CM) process and toolset (i.e. CMDB) can enable teams to better communicate and coordinate processes by establishing a common data repository.
The CMDB breaks down barriers between IT and the business, removing IT silos and creating a higher level of synergy between people, processes and supporting technologies.
Put another way, how can you manage and improve IT services if you don't know what equipment you have, where it is, how it’s connected and the impact of changing it? It is suggested that 80% of critical system outages are the result of people or process failure, with the main proponent being that of changes to the IT environment. This is exacerbated by the fact that planning activities derived from inadequate sources of information drive a path to failure. Additionally, subsequent recovery processes are further hampered by those same inadequate data stores.
Since the CMDB provides the logical model for the IT infrastructure and related services, organizations can more easily manage configuration items and their relationships with other entities and services. Some of the primary benefits a CMDB can provide from the start are related to the areas of proactive change management, security and IT compliance.
Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment.
Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first.
More Ac
Sarah is a highly effective, multitasking business professional with a strong passion for her work. She is also a loving and caring mother of three kids. Sarah is happily married to an equally busy man. They have lots of friends and an active life outside work. It sounds too good to be true! How does she manage?Some years ago Sarah was overwhelmed, frustrated, constantly tired and ready to stop her professional dreams. She worked over 60 hours per week, and tried desperately to catch up with dead lines and projects, meetings blended with business travel. She had difficulties to deliver in time, her occupational stress level was high and her job motivation was low. Sarah’s performance declined. Her life was going in a downward, steep spiral. She was close to loosing her job, and to get a divorce, all at the same time, and she felt miserable.Sarah didn’t want to give up. She understood she needed help to sort out the different parts in her life. She learned the 3 key secrets to how to solve career burnout:Secret #1: Sarah started with herself. By identifying her life goals and how she wanted to live her life she got a much clearer picture of her values and what was important to
From a proactive standpoint, the same IT Security Team can establish an improved process for internal communications, identify the owners of the target server group and notify them prior to deployment-- alleviating issues with subsequent service support and delivery activities.
A CMDB provides a common repository for IT configuration items (CI), their attributes and relationships, offering a single source of record and a logical model of the IT infrastructure as it related to IT services. As a proactive management tool, the CMDB can provide accountability and ownership of CIs, improving the identification, verification and management of the IT infrastructure.
Why Use a CMDB?
This concept of a CMDB serving as single source of data is one of its greatest strengths-- without a central repository for configuration information, IT organizations continue to work in silos, and fail to align activities with business objectives. A basic Configuration Management (CM) process and toolset (i.e. CMDB) can enable teams to better communicate and coordinate processes by establishing a common data repository.
The CMDB breaks down barriers between IT and the business, removing IT silos and creating a higher level of synergy between people, processes and supporting technologies.
Put another way, how can you manage and improve IT services if you don't know what equipment you have, where it is, how it’s connected and the impact of changing it? It is suggested that 80% of critical system outages are the result of people or process failure, with the main proponent being that of changes to the IT environment. This is exacerbated by the fact that planning activities derived from inadequate sources of information drive a path to failure. Additionally, subsequent recovery processes are further hampered by those same inadequate data stores.
Since the CMDB provides the logical model for the IT infrastructure and related services, organizations can more easily manage configuration items and their relationships with other entities and services. Some of the primary benefits a CMDB can provide from the start are related to the areas of proactive change management, security and IT compliance.
Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment.
Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first.
More Ac
The customer is the lifeblood of any business, and it is only right that business owners and managers provide optimum customer support through the quickest and most accessible medium – the telephone.You can easily provide your customers with this kind of support from call centers. Call centers refer to firms that act as ‘company phone centers’ on your behalf. These call centers are able to handle services like help desks, live customer support, lead generation projects, emergency responses, inbound responses, outbound telemarketing and simple, telephone answering service.Most companies now outsource their call centers to save on the costs of maintaining one in-house. Many call centers can be found in India and in Manila, where labor is cheaper and the workforce speaks fluent English. Big call centers offer value-added services such as multilingual customer support, directory assistance, credit card services, interactive voice response and web-based functions.Call centers bring your company closer to customers, paving opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling. A good call center not only helps strengthen your company’s relationship with its customers, but it also generates new bus
The CMDB breaks down barriers between IT and the business, removing IT silos and creating a higher level of synergy between people, processes and supporting technologies.
Put another way, how can you manage and improve IT services if you don't know what equipment you have, where it is, how it’s connected and the impact of changing it? It is suggested that 80% of critical system outages are the result of people or process failure, with the main proponent being that of changes to the IT environment. This is exacerbated by the fact that planning activities derived from inadequate sources of information drive a path to failure. Additionally, subsequent recovery processes are further hampered by those same inadequate data stores.
Since the CMDB provides the logical model for the IT infrastructure and related services, organizations can more easily manage configuration items and their relationships with other entities and services. Some of the primary benefits a CMDB can provide from the start are related to the areas of proactive change management, security and IT compliance.
Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment.
Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first.
More Ac Less Reactive, More Proactive Management. A CMDB, coupled with an effective Change Management process, can provide the ability to more effectively manage changes within the IT environment. Since the number of IT changes in an environment will increase as the infrastructure becomes more complex, having a central repository of all configuration information and relationships can help avoid downtime through better planning and understanding of the impact of those changes on the rest of the computing environment. Improved Security Deployment and Assessment of Risk. When assessing a known vulnerability on a server, CMDB information can be used to assess risk based on both the severity of a patch, as well as the business context of the vulnerability. This capability allows IT organizations to prioritize patches that support the business and ensure that critical systems are secured first. More Accurate and Streamlined Compliance. To better facilitate Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA initiatives, IT organizations can tap into the CMDB data model to ensure that asset information is accurate and complete. Additionally, the CMDB coupled with the assignment of accountable CI owners and auditors can better enable IT organizations to demonstrate better internal controls. Tracking CIs, relationships and validating their accuracy through continuous monitoring can provide a higher level of assurance that IT systems and related components are controlled and managed in accordance with legislative requirements. Other advantages of deploying and optimizing a standard CM process and supporting CMDB toolset may include: * Centralize storage of physical and logical infrastructure information Implementing a CMDB Deployment of a CMDB can only be accomplished in parallel with a Configuration Management process. Therefore, IT organizations need to establish goals, create a baseline and foster an environment of continuous improvement. In turn, related activities will help IT management and supporting personnel to gain momentum and demonstrate the value of standard policies, processes and supporting procedures. In order to establish an effective Configuration Management process, process stakeholders need to ensure that any data associated with core IT operational processes is appropriately stored and managed. Guaranteeing the integrity, validity, accuracy and completeness of CM data is no small task, and requires certain levels of accountability and ownership in order to properly manage the data. Therefore, deployment of a CMDB requires careful consideration of who owns and is accountable for the operational components of the repository itself. At a minimum, the following Key Goal Indicators (KGI) should be reviewed, established and/or communicated to all stakeholders prior to commencing any CM strategy or CMDB implementation: - Establish process ownership and executive sponsorship for the Configuration Management process - Ensure accountability for the setup, ongoing maintenance and support of CMDB related hardware and components - Ensure network availability, throughput, capacity and access to CMDB related resources is provided - Implement regular, scheduled backup of data and related files required for continuous, reliable CMDB operation - Plan for timely audit and validation of CMDB data to ensure ongoing accuracy of IT environment - Establish a continuous improvement program specific to CM that focuses on the people driving the process Bottom Line: For many organizations, simply establishing a starting point for a CMDB can greatly help facilitate effective awareness and maturity of the Configuration Management process. However, incorporating too much detail during an initial CMDB deployment can add significant cost to the process and exceed the actual (or perceived) value it provides. In the end
Toolbox meeting is part of daily routine for Offshore Oil & Gas Workers. Main reason is to identify hazard and to ensure all safety pre-cautions are in place before and during execution of works. This toolbox meeting is monitored and supervised by Safety Officer. Safety officer is also another interesting jobs. For those who are interested to become one, below are the safety officer roles, responsibilities and qualifications.Roles and ResponsibilitiesAssist Management in developing and implementing their HSE plans and advise on operational safety matters related to the works.Co-ordinate and conduct inspections/audits of facilities and activities to ensure compliance to safe and good work practices in accordance to statutory requirement of the Factories and Machinery ACT and all safety Procedures.Have the ability to communicate in written and spoken English & Local language.Give safety presentation with the objective to enhance the Health, safety and Environment awareness of all workers.Assist in accident investigation, reporting and monitor their follow up in accordance to safety procedures.
* Establish clear ownership and accountability for IT components
* Allow more efficient planning and support of the IT infrastructure
* Highlight technical inefficiencies for correction and/or improvement
* Provide a foundation for standard ITIL-based service management (ITSM)
* Compliment regulatory compliance and auditing activities
* Decrease the cost of patching, repairing and troubleshooting
* Minimize downtime and improve customer responsiveness
* Decrease redundancy of IT operational support activities
* Support proactive Problem Management initiatives
* Track intangible attributes of IT assets and their relationships
* Fine-tune Incident Management and operational support
* Allow for more efficient handling of data center and/or IT asset migrations
* Articulate the business context of IT processes and associated activities
* Proactively assess inherent risk from potential IT service failures
* Support Business and IT Service Continuity (ITSCM) initiatives
* Promote IT standards to the broader IT community
* Provide a service-oriented view of the IT infrastructure
* Foster an environment of continuous improvement
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