Metrics for the Internet, Information Technology,
and Service Management
Over 540 Objective
Metrics Defined
83 Graphical Metric Reports
show over 240 metrics
Compliant with ITIL
ISO 20000
IT Service Management
IT Metrics are not understood by many business executives. What non-IT business execurives often focuses on is the one metric that they understand - the cost of IT. This in turn leads to a continuous cycle of IT budget reductions.
Most IT metrics efforts lack relevance to the business and are not well linked to business outcomes. They tend to be IT focused, such as WAN availability or server downtime. It is difficult for the business to understand how these measures relate to its objectives, and they provide little insight into the value that IT delivers.
CIOs must create a scorecard and service level agreements that:
- Relate to the enterprise and its management team. Server availability, network throughput, help desk call volumes, capacity utilization, and other IT operational metrics are not relevant to business executives. These types of metrics need to be translated into something enterprise management understands, such as availability of business applications or the cost to support a business area. The IT-operational metrics should be kept within IT unless they can be put in enterprise terms.
- Relate to the enterprise strategic and tactical objectives. Enterprise executives are concerned with introducing new products and services, improving customer loyalty and satisfaction, increasing gross margins, and growing market share. IT metrics must be linked directly to these enterprise objectives, specifically demonstrating how IT initiatives contributed favorably to improving them.
Effective SLAs are extremely important to assure effective Information Technology operations. The metrics used to measure and manage performance to SLA commitments are the heart of a successful agreement and are a critical long term success factor. Lack of experience in the use and implementation of performance metrics causes problems for many organizations as they attempt to formulate their SLA strategies and select and set the metrics needed to support those strategies. Fortunately, while reaching for perfection is difficult and costly, most organizations can achieve their objectives through a carefully chosen set of simple-to-collect metrics. Hopefully, this paper provides some insights into the "whys" and "hows" of this selection process. The Metrics HandiGuide is the tool that can be used to accomplish that task.
At the heart of an effective Service Level Agreement (SLA) are performance metrics and they
- Measure the right performance characteristics to ensure that the client is receiving its required level of service and the service provider is achieving an acceptable level of profitability
- Can be easily collected with an appropriate level of detail but without costly overhead, and
- Tie all commitments to reasonable, attainable performance levels so that "good" service can be easily differentiated from "bad" service, and giving the service provider a fair opportunity to satisfy its client.
The Metrics for the Internet, Information Technology and Service Management HandiGuide is over 300 pages, defines 540 objective metrics, and contains 83 metric reports that show over 240 objective metrics.
Operational Improvement Opportunities as defined by
CIO, CTO, and CEO
The metrics cover all areas of the Internet, Information Technology, and Service Management -- including WIRELESS metrics which in turn includes mobile broadband specifications. In addition, there are industry specific examples for financial services, distribution, manufacturing, education, entertainment, government, hospitality, insurance, medical, real estate and retail.
- Organizational responsibilities defined
- Metric process, design, and definition of 540 specific objective metrics
- 83 sample metric reports - includes over 240 of 540 objective metrics
- Graphic data presentation rules
- A full metric report package is defined - a template you can use right away
- Wireless metrics examples are featured
- Updated to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley
Sample Metrics Reports in Graphic Format
Click on the individual images above to to enlarge
Metric and IT Measurement News
Google stops supporting older browsers
Google has announced that Google Docs will drop support for Microsoft's nearly nine-year-old Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) browser starting on March 1.
Ironically, if Google had taken its anti-IE6 advice to heart before hackers broke into its corporate network last year, it might not now be mulling whether to abandon the Chinese search market.
"We're going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites," said the senior product manager for Google Apps, in a Friday entry on the company's enterprise blog . "As a result, you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products -- as well as new Docs and Sites features -- won't work properly in older browsers." Google Sites is the search engine's free Web hosting service.
Google's new list of supported browsers omits IE6, as well as other older programs, including Mozilla's Firefox 2.0, Apple's Safari 2.0 and Google's own Chrome 3.0. IE6 is by far the oldest browser of the bunch, with an August 2001 debut. In comparison, Firefox 2.0 dates to October 2006, Safari 2.0 to April 2005 and Chrome 3.0 to September 2009.
People running older browsers should upgrade to a newer version, said the Google represenative, who posted links to downloads of IE8, Firefox 3.6, Safari 4.0 and Chrome 4.0. The latter is available in final form only for Windows ; Chrome 4.0 for the Mac is still in beta .
Google's move is only the latest in a year-long string of major Web properties dropping support for IE6 or urging users to ditch it for something newer. The campaign began in February 2009, when Facebook prompted IE6 users to upgrade. It then accelerated last summer when Google's YouTube did the same, as Digg announced it would curtail IE6 support and as a California site builder led nearly 40 Web start-ups to urge their users to dump the browser . An "IE Must Die" petition on Twitter, meanwhile, has accumulated more than 14,000 signatures.
- more infoProductivity improvements are possible
Similar to the explosion in regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley after Enron, many pundits expect new regulations in light of the financial industry meltdown. And industry experts expect that IT organizations in many government agencies will have to take on the heavy burden of the new regulations that are expected to emerge. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 can help IT departments in public sector organizations meet today's demands for lower TCO, improved security, and delivery of IT services. Companies that want to cut costs, lower complexity, and increase agility need to embrace virtualization in their production environments, and Windows Server 2008 R2 supports high-availability virtual environments.
CIO - Productivity Bundle
Over 220 IT and Internet Job Descriptions, Disaster Recovery Template
IT Service Management Template - Sensitive Information Policy - Salary
Survey - Security Template
The CIO productivity kit standard edition contains:
- Over 220 job descriptions in MS WORD format
- Current IT Salary Survey for US and Canada (by city)
- Disaster Recovery Template which is Sarbanes Oxley compliant
- Security Template which is Sarbanes Oxley and ISO 27000 compliant
- IT Service Management Template (Change Management, Help Desk, and Service Requests)
- Sensitive Information Policy (Protect Credit Card Card and Personal Information)
NASA to redo IT Infrastructure
NASA has issued a final request for proposal for a menu
of information technology services such as e-mail, security management, instant
messaging and mobile communications. Estimates have pegged the work as worth
$2.5 billion.
The project, Agency Consolidated End User Services (ACES), is
designed to consolidate services across NASA into one agencywide solution. The
requirements are currently met through the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for
NASA, the ODIN contract.
The ACES contract is expected to be biggest of five contracts that NASA plans to issue as part of its Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) acquisition to consolidate the agency's IT and data services.
Market research firm Input puts the total value for the five contracts, based on NASAs draft RFPs, at $4.3 billion. Input said ACES value is $2.5 billion based on information in the draft RFPs.
According to the final RFP, the winning contractor will be responsible for a range of services including:
- E-mail and collaborative calendaring services:
- Active Directory services.
- Security management including IT security, emergency management and preparedness, and data at rest services.
- Software license management: The contractor shall provide a fully managed and supported shared license infrastructure.
- Instant messaging services.
- Mobile communications device services such as cell and smart phones.
Service-Oriented Architecture and IT Service Management Are Keys To Success in the Recovery
SOA and ITSM drive success and productivity
One bad customer experience can cost you that customer for life. Hospitality, travel, retail, healthcare, and financial services are especially prone to losing customers who have a negative experience. It does not take much for a customer to decide that you and your company are not worth his time, effort, or money.
Customers like to feel loved, and they are turned off very quickly when they sense that you do not care about the pain they are feeling. Even if you cannot help them because the situation is beyond your control, acknowledge that you understand both the situation and their frustration.
No
customer wants the person serving her to be distracted or preoccupied. Ever go
to the local mall and try to get help from a teenager focused more on texting
her friends than helping you find what youre looking for? On the other hand,
being too focused can be a bad thing. Have you ever asked an innocent question
out of curiosity and then found yourself stuck for an eternity while a customer
support person hunts endlessly for an answer? This person is likely so focused
on getting the answer that he does not realize that you really do not care that
much about it and would rather not wait for an answer to an inessential
question. Be sure your people understand the degree of focus required for the
job.
Even if the employee has the right skill set and experience, his odds of being successful and remaining on the job are low if his core behaviors and tendencies do not line up with those needed for success in that particular role. This is especially true for customer-facing roles in which your frontline employees act as extensions of your brand and heavily influence the customer experience.
- more infoAttackon Google mail accounts in China
It was reported in
Computerworld that a "highly sophisticated and targeted" attack against
Google's network last month originated in China, and tried to access the Gmail
accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
In a blog post Tuesday, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said that attacks have forced the company to "review the feasibility of our business operations in China." Google, continued Drummond, is "no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."
The end result of those discussions, said Drummond, may be that Google shuts down its search engine and close its offices in the People's Republic of China.
"This is a bold and a very difficult move on [Google's] part," said Leslie Harris, the president and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a Washington, D.C.-based civil liberties group. "But with the revelations that there have been major cyber attacks aimed at human rights activists, both in China and in the West, it's hard to see how Google could have remained silent."
According to Drummond, Google was one of at least 20 large companies that were targeted by massive attacks in December. In Google's case, the attacks resulted in the theft of some company intellectual property.
- more infoH-1B Reaches quota - More Audits to Take Place
U.S. employers again hit
the cap of 65,000 for the controversial visas that allow foreign workers in
specialty fields such as computer science and programming to work in the United
States for three to six years.
Despite an early slump in U.S. employer demand for H-1B visas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Dec. 22 it had reached the 65,000 cap for the controversial guest worker visas favored by technology companies. H-1B visas allow companies to hire foreign workers with special skills to work in the United States for three to six years.
USCIS officials intend to up the ante of verifying and investigating the validity of H-1B visa usage by companies. Immigration officials will ramp up law enforcement to help thwart fraud and quell political pressure that wants to severely limit H-1B visa usage.
The United States Customs and Immigrations Services plans to up its enforcement of the law on H-1B visas and the U.S. companies that take advantage of them by conducting 25,000 on-site inspections in 2010. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Google and many technology giants and smaller IT shops employ temporary H-1B visa holders to fill U.S.-based jobs from foreign countries. After a Congressional report showed a range of fraud within the H-1B visa program, the pressure to enforce the law on the books has increased.
In 2009, the USCIS conducted 5,191 on-site inspections, according to a report in Computerworld, with many of the inspections being unannounced visits. The 25,000 inspection effort in 2010 could be a serious boost to quelling fraud, but it may not be enough for those in the U.S. government who advocate for stronger limits on H-1B visas.
- more infoCan Tape Backups Work In a Disaster Recovery Process
Tape backup can provide for the long-term archival needs of the virtual servers; however tape cannot provide the level of recoverability required for critical business applications. Disaster Recovery Planning requires more.
Rebuilding one application from tape can be a difficult and lengthy process. Recovering four or more applications at the same time from tape to rebuild one physical server will result in an excessive period of downtime, likely more than the business can afford.
Organizations may not understand how vulnerable their data and business remain to disaster - even after they've made a huge up-front and ongoing investment in tape-based disaster recovery. An article in SearchSecurity reports that in a survey of 500 IT departments, as many as 20% of routine nightly backups fail to capture all data. Among participants of another survey cited in this article, 40% of IT managers were unable to recover data from a tape when they needed it. This is a significant concern for corporations that are regulated as they can face the risk of being out of compliance if they cannot produce required data when they need it.
Tape backup also places limits on your recovery point objective (RPO), the point in time to which you can recover your systems should disaster strike. Periodic tape backup guarantees hours of lost data in the event of a disaster. Suppose, for example, that a critical system fails anytime today; the best you can do is recover to yesterday's data, which will be at least twelve hours old. The later in the day disaster strikes, the older the data from which you'll recover. In addition, recovering from a disaster, any data not backed up is lost for good - unless you recreate it.
- more infoJob market prospects remain poor at best
The yearly cap for H-1B visas is 65,000. In 2008, the H-1B quota was met in one day. According to the most recent numbers issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the late rush has pushed the number of H-1B visa petitions to 58,900.
In additions, according to some forecasts the first quarter of 2010 will see only minor IT hiring increases, but also a small additional IT job losses. In a survey of 1,400 CIOs, 7 percent said they expect an increase in hiring, while 4 percent expect to reduce staff for a net gain of 3 percent in favor of hiring.
That does not bode well for IT professionals and college graduates. The question is when will the market turn around.
- more infoU.K.Inacts Big Brother Laws
Under the guise of
the Digital Economy Bill,
the UK proves without a doubt that truth is stranger than fiction and that 1984
mindsets rule in government.
- If illegal file sharing is suspected (not necessarily proven) within a home, all Internet access to that residence could be terminated and fines of up to £50,000 could be imposed on the household.
- ISPs could be compelled to spy on their own users or face stiff fines and other penalties.
- The UK Business Secretary (similiar to the US Secretary of Commerce) would be granted the power to modify any aspect of the law without debate, including the definition of new violations and penalties at a whim, essentially turning his position into that of a dictator for all digital communications within the United Kingdom.
Needless to say, these are bad ideas at best, even coming from a country with an Official Secrets Act. The language in this bill would place corporations in complete control over the Internet in the United Kingdom, answering to nobody but themselves. It's practically a step-by-step guide on how to force your best and brightest to move to another country.
- more infoCIOs address security threats
Business processes today rely on vastly different methods of data storage and data exchange than even a few years ago. The objective is to provide full 360-degree security that protects against the widest range of attacks.The changes in the computing landscape make it essential that companies adopt a new approach to security. According to published research 90% of all CIOs say that data security is "important" or "very important" and would get high priority in 2009.
CIOs need to worry about three possible threat can affect the business operations, data integrity and overall security of organizations.
- Theft or loss of a mobile device - SmartPhone or laptop
- Theft or loss of removable media containing confidential data - USB storage
- Disgrunteled employee or contrator
The security manual template addresses each of these issues with specific policies and procedures that can be implemented quickly.
- more info