As a physical carrier of information and information systems, data centers are currently mainly used for the storage and management of IT-related host, network, storage and other equipment and resources. Only a good data center can be operated and maintained to play the role of the data center, so that it can better provide strong support capabilities for business departments. This article summarizes it from the three aspects of data center operation and maintenance management objectives, objects and requirements.
Operation and maintenance goals
From the perspective of the data center, data center operation and maintenance management is to systematically plan, organize, coordinate, and control various management objects of the data center related to the information system service in order to provide information system services that meet the requirements. General term for various management work related to information system services. Data center operation and maintenance is the last and longest phase in the life cycle of a data center. The so-called production operation and maintenance period refers to the entire process from the delivery of the data center project until the project is abolished, that is, the period in which the project carries out production operation and maintenance activities and recovers the investment to achieve the expected investment goal. The operation and maintenance management at this stage will rely on the infrastructure already delivered by the data center. Through scientific management, the data center will eventually achieve its service and economic goals. Simply put, the operation and maintenance management is to use and manage the data center that has been built and delivered. Therefore, in the data center life cycle, operation and maintenance management mainly shoulders the following important goals: compliance, availability, economy, and serviceability.
1. Compliance
Compliance requires that the data center can avoid violating any laws, regulations, standards and contract documents during operation and maintenance management. The data center is required to design and execute the entire process of the management framework of the operation and maintenance management (including personnel use, process design, product deployment and vendor management, etc.), can fully consider the requirements of the relevant documents, and leave corresponding in the operation and maintenance management process Records, establish a corresponding management evaluation mechanism to prove to stakeholders that it can achieve compliance goals.
2. Usability
Availability requires the data center to ensure that the functional components of the data center maintain the ability to support the established functions during the operation and maintenance management process. Here, the data center is required to accurately identify the relevant functional components during the operation and maintenance management process, understand the design capabilities of the component, define monitoring indicators that match the technical characteristics of the component, and ensure the data center to the greatest extent through active and passive management Availability of management components.
3. Economical
Economical, the data center is required to achieve the financial goals that the data center requires in the entire operation and maintenance management cycle. Here, the data center is required to establish an IT financial mechanism during the operation and maintenance management process. On the one hand, it will accurately and timely analyze and record various expenditures in the operation and maintenance management process through reasonable financial budgeting, accounting, and cost analysis. It is necessary to formulate a corresponding pricing model to allocate the costs during the operation and maintenance of the data center reasonably. In addition, through financial management, the operation and maintenance management of the data center should be relatively balanced with other management objectives.
4. Serviceability
Serviceability means that the data center should establish a service-oriented operation and maintenance management framework. From the perspective of service, it is necessary to analyze the various interaction interfaces between customers and data centers, so as to build various management processes at the source, and finally form an overall management framework. For example, the data center can refer to the requirements of ITSM (IT Service Management System) in the design of the management system, and establish processes such as service desk, service level management, and business relationship management to drive background operation and maintenance management.
Operation and maintenance objects
As mentioned above, the operation and maintenance management of the data center refers to the general term of the management work related to the information service of the data center. Therefore, before exploring the operation and maintenance management methods of the data center, it is necessary to sort out the operation and maintenance objects of the data center in order to establish the corresponding management mode for the specific operation and maintenance objects of the data center. Data center operation and maintenance objects are divided into 5 categories.
The first type of operation and maintenance object is the infrastructure part. This mainly refers to the network communications, power resources, and environmental resources necessary to ensure the normal operation of the IT equipment managed by the data center. This part of the equipment is almost transparent to customers, because most customers basically only focus on business, and will not pay attention to the wind, water and electricity in the data center. However, such an accident of such equipment is fatal for IT applications that rely on the infrastructure. The main contents of the infrastructure part include: power supply facilities, environmental facilities, security and fire protection, network and others.
The second type of operation and maintenance objects are various IT equipment used in the process of providing IT services, including hardware resources such as storage, servers, network equipment, and security equipment. This type of equipment provides computing, storage, and communication functions in the process of providing IT services to users. It is the most direct physical carrier of IT services.
The third type of operation and maintenance objects are systems and data, including software resources such as operating systems, databases, middleware, and applications; as well as business data, configuration files, and logs. Although this type of management object is not "visible and touchable" like the previous two types of management objects, it is a logical carrier of IT services.
The fourth type of operation and maintenance objects are management tools, including infrastructure monitoring software, IT monitoring software, workflow management platform, reporting platform, and SMS platform. Such management objects are software and hardware facilities that help management subjects manage various management objects in the data center more efficiently, and assume some management functions in management activities. Through these tools, you can intuitively feel and verify how the data center manages the resources directly related to its IT, thereby indirectly improving the availability and reliability of IT.
The fifth category of operation and maintenance objects are personnel, including data center technicians, IT operation and maintenance personnel, management personnel, and service provider personnel. On the one hand, personnel are responsible for managing data center operation and maintenance objects as the main body of management, and on the other hand, as management objects to support the operation of IT. Such objects are different from other O & M objects and have a strong subjective initiative. The quality of their management will directly affect the entire O & M management system, not just the O & M objects themselves. Therefore, there will be a special chapter below to discuss the management of personnel.
Operation and maintenance requirements
Since data center operation and maintenance objects involve many types, from power supply and distribution facilities to IT equipment, to application systems, to various types of personnel, this undoubtedly requires that the data center operation and maintenance management should be able to adapt to all the above management objects. In addition, as a physical carrier of IT services, customers' requirements for real-time, security, and reliability of IT services will eventually be internalized into requirements for data center operation and maintenance management. Finally, if the data center is to pass some professional certifications or provide IT services for some special industries, its operation and maintenance management must comply with relevant standards and industry specifications. The following lists some requirements for operation and maintenance management.
1. Information security requirements
With the widespread application of technology and the transformation of information, information has become as important to institutions as traditional resources such as land, manpower and capital. In addition, as the threats to information increase year by year, such as viruses, phishing sites, spyware, misuse, unauthorized use, and personnel security, as a data center hosting customer information systems, information security is definitely its O & M management Important requirements.
2. Requirements for operation and maintenance management service
As the customer's dependence on the IT system increases, the quality of the data center's work will directly affect the customer's business, market, and even the company's image. It is not uncommon for companies to suffer losses of tens of millions of yuan a day due to outages in information systems, and even to be punished by regulatory agencies. This change has gradually brought the operation and maintenance management of the data center to the surface. The data center operation and maintenance management team has evolved from the original computer room manager to an IT service provider. How to define the relationship between data center work and service, how to establish a service level agreement with customers, how to quickly support the IT service needs of customers' business, how to plan IT system construction to better provide the driving force for business departments, etc., All have become an indispensable part of the data center operation and maintenance management planning process.
3. Requirements for total quality management
One of the goals of data center operation and maintenance management is to ensure the quality of users' IT services. This goal can be subdivided into the availability of infrastructure, the availability of IT equipment, the effectiveness of configuration management, and the proficiency of personnel in equipment operation. , The degree of service provider management and other aspects. Since data centers are different from manufacturing companies, the above-mentioned service work cannot be measured as easily as industrial products, and even if the service quality is qualified at the time of inspection, it cannot be ensured that the service quality is also qualified when the service is needed. Therefore, how to do comprehensive quality management is the main content of data center operation and maintenance management.
4. Requirements for systematic management system
The data center is a new thing, and its operation and maintenance management is also a discipline that has only emerged in recent years. Therefore, the operation and maintenance management system of the data center is mainly established by the operation and maintenance personnel using the previous experience and summing up the experience and lessons in the data center management process. This kind of management system can meet certain management requirements, but because there is no standard guidance, and in the initial stage of construction, it mainly follows the bottom-up approach, resulting in insufficient systemization of the entire system. This deficiency of insufficient systematization will lead to fragmentation of enterprise management, that is, when an organization faces a new job or management requirement, a new system will be created, and the relationship between the system and the original system is difficult Integration will eventually make managers confused.
5. Requirements for management system measurement
With the wide and deep application of IT technology and the introduction of refined management, quantitative management has become the direction of efforts of many mature enterprises. As a data center that directly supports IT services, it is also necessary to introduce this quantitative management method and speak with numbers. This requires the data center to consider future measurement needs when constructing the operation and maintenance management system, and reserve these measurement points in the process, and finally meet the requirements for measuring the system through the output of reports and records.
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