What is IT Operations Management and What are its Various Functions and Challenges?

What exactly is IT operations management?

IT operations management (ITOM) is the administration of an organization’s technology components and application requirements. ITOM encompasses IT infrastructure provisioning, capacity management, cost-cutting activities, performance and security management, and availability management for all IT infrastructure and assets.

The IT operations management process is described within the ITIL 2011 IT Operations Control book for organizations that use the ITIL® framework of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM). The framework’s ITOM goal is to watch and control IT services and infrastructure, moreover on performing the routine tasks required to support the operation of applications, services, and hardware components.

IT Service Management (ITSM) vs. IT Operations Management (ITOM)

ITOM and ITSM are both frequently accustomed describe management strategies for information technology departments, but despite some overlap, the 2 acronyms don’t seem to be interchangeable.

IT service management encompasses all of the activities distributed by an organization to manage IT services throughout their entire life cycle, including strategic planning, design, construction, service operation, and continuous service improvement. The ITIL framework, an industry-leading set of ITSM best practices, describes the service life cycle model well, providing a structured process for effective management at each stage.

IT operations management is additionally covered by the ITIL framework, so it’s possible to mention that ITOM may be a subset of ITSM activities. The main focus of IT Operations managers and their teams is on the day-to-day tasks related to running the organization’s existing infrastructure components and applications. All of those tasks comprise the “Service Operation” stage of the IT service life cycle.

IT Operations Management Functions

IT operations managers are chargeable for a growing catalog of services as an enterprise organization expands its IT infrastructure and application deployments. IT Operations is ultimately to blame for ensuring that each service and applications are stable and available for business use. ITOM professionals accomplish this by performing management tasks in three key service areas.

Management of Network Infrastructure

All of the equipment required to supply internal and external communications for the business is included within the networking infrastructure. This category includes tasks like fitting remote access networks, managing the interior communication system, regulating communication with external servers via firewalls, and maintaining network security.

Help Desk & Computer Operations

Help desk services, like incident response, event response, and request fulfillment, are managed as a part of IT operations management. IT operations managers also are answerable for scheduling and managing data backups, informing users about incidents and network outages, controlling the creation and provision of user profiles and system access, and implementing the IT organization’s disaster recovery plan.

Server and Device Administration

IT Operations teams manage network endpoints like servers and devices additionally to network infrastructure within the IT organization. IT Operations is liable for the day-to-day management of the servers that host critical business applications, including server maintenance, patching, and upgrading. IT operations managers are also responsible for assigning IT assets (desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and so on) to users and ensuring that applications have access to the space for storing their requirements to function properly.

IT Operations Management Challenges

As businesses of all sizes still embrace new technologies like cloud-based computing services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and so on), virtualization, and therefore the Internet of Things (IoT), IT organizations are being challenged to adapt their operations management processes and techniques so as to supply services in an ever-changing environment. As organizations expand their IT infrastructure, IT Operations must overcome key challenges so as to satisfy the business’s performance, security, and cost-control requirements.

IT Architecture isn’t Visible

IT Ops teams require a high level of visibility into the IT architecture so as to effectively allocate resources and reply to operational and security issues. Organizations that use legacy software systems and traditional on-premise architectures may discover that their current system provides limited visibility for IT Operations. IT Operations lacks the right controls and oversight to deliver on management objectives when information is spread across systems, software, and team members.

Disparities in Technology and Systems

Poor visibility is ultimately caused by the independent operation of the IT infrastructure’s technologies, tools, and processes. An organization may have some applications deployed on-premises, others provided by a SaaS provider, still others hosted by an IaaS provider, and so on. When these tools or applications are unable to share information or communicate, they have to be monitored separately, incurring additional costs in terms of cash, time, and resources.

Scaling Operations Are Difficult

When a replacement service must be introduced and maintained, IT operations teams are frequently unprepared because of an absence of visibility and control over increasingly disparate technology. The addition of recent services without a system for integrating data from across the IT environment may result in a more fractured IT infrastructure with poor oversight and increased security vulnerability.

ITOM Software Services

Enteros offers an industry-leading IT operations management solution that addresses the foremost pressing issues confronting IT organizations in growing businesses. Your ITOM team can use Enteros to source and aggregate application data like event and system logs into one platform, making it easy to watch and troubleshoot IT issues in real-time, detect and reply to Indicators of Compromise (IoC), and leverage application data to enable better business decision-making.

The integration of knowledge from your hybrid cloud environment into one platform improves the visibility of your entire IT infrastructure and makes scaling IT Ops easier as your business grows.

About Enteros

Enteros offers a patented database performance management SaaS platform. It proactively identifies root causes of complex business-impacting database scalability and performance issues across a growing number of RDBMS, NoSQL, and machine learning database platforms.