For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Service Catalog — Your Prerequisite For Effective IT Service Management

Yes, They Can Help Connect You With The Business

by Evelyn Hubbert, Glenn O'Donnell, October 28, 2009

The vision and purpose of effective IT service management is to efficiently develop, operate, and deliver services with value and alignment to the business. To do this, IT must transform itself from an organization with many silos of technical and functional . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Service Catalog Manager — Job Profile And Description  (33 KB XLS)

by Glenn O'Donnell, Evelyn Hubbert, October 16, 2009

The service catalog manager plans, implements, configures, and maintains the catalog of available IT services.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

The Shifting Sands Of IT Compel A New Landscape For IT Automation Tools

by Glenn O'Donnell, October 16, 2009

Automation is critical to the efficient and consistent execution of nearly all businesses. Ironically, while IT is the organizational entity responsible for automating business execution, it remains woefully manual in its own internal execution. To attack . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

IT Operations 2009: An Automation Odyssey

Prepare For The IT Automation Inflection Now

by Glenn O'Donnell, July 24, 2009

A combination of forces, including skyrocketing complexity and severe economic pressure, are radically and irreversibly altering the IT landscape. New methods, new functional sourcing, and new organizational structures are needed to address this onslaught, . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: CMDB And CMS, Q3 2009

by Glenn O'Donnell, July 16, 2009

As IT organizations recognize the high value of structured IT management initiatives, Forrester is receiving many questions related to the configuration management database (CMDB). Since January 2008, Forrester has fielded 172 client inquires on various . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Knocking The NOC: Enter The New Operations Center

by Glenn O'Donnell, April 30, 2009

The operational hub of any well-run and complex organization is a strong operations center. In IT, this function is often fragmented into pockets that tend to be too isolated. Such isolation is a principal cause of much of the chaos that characterizes . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Network Monitoring And Management, Q1 2009

by Glenn O'Donnell, April 28, 2009

Despite being one of the most mature domains of IT management, the landscape for network monitoring and management remains an area of constant discussion. Forrester answered the inquiries of numerous end users between February 2008 and December 2008 on . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: ITIL, Q4 2008

by Evelyn Hubbert, Glenn O'Donnell, October 8, 2008

Every day Forrester sees growing interest in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) in the form of client inquiries with our analysts. Between July 2007 and July 2008 Forrester's IT infrastructure and operations team fielded more than 2,700 inquiries from . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Managing The IT Management Software Portfolio

For Tools, Follow A Shopping Mall Model Of Anchors And Boutiques

by Glenn O'Donnell, September 25, 2008

Operational management tools have been used for well over a decade, but their assembly is akin to a jumble of jigsaw puzzle pieces, and the value of these tools remains ambiguous. Much of the multibillion-dollar investment in management tools is wasted . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

A Federated CMDB Remains Distant, But Start Now

Those Who Wait For CMDB Stability Risk Organizational Irrelevance

by Glenn O'Donnell, June 30, 2008

The configuration management database (CMDB) is a major topic for IT operations professionals, as maturing IT organizations now comprehend its pivotal role in operational process initiatives such as ITIL. The CMDB term is itself an unfortunate misnomer, . . .