IT Infrastructure Management eI9RGuDM0m

IT Infrastructure Management
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COURSE DESIGN COMMITTEE
Chief Academic Officer Content Reviewer

Dr. Sanjeev Chaturvedi Dr. R. Vijaylakshmi
NMIMS Global Access – Visiting Faculty, NMIMS Global Access -
School for Continuing Education School for Continuing Education
Specialization: Information Technology
TOC Reviewer TOC Reviewer

Ms. Brinda Sampat Kali Charan Sabat
Assistant Professor, NMIMS Global Visiting Faculty, NMIMS Global
Access - School for Continuing Education Access - School for Continuing Education
Specialization: Information Technology Specialization: Operations Management
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Author: Sanjive Saxena
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Reviewed By: Dr. R. Vijaylakshmi

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Copyright:
2017 Publisher
ISBN:
978-93-86052-09-4
Address:
4435/7, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi–110002
Only for
NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education School Address
V. L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai – 400 056, India.
NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

C O N T EN T S
CHAPTER NO. CHAPTER NAME PAGE NO.
1 Overview of Infrastructure Management 1
2 Preparing for Infrastructure Management 33
3 Server Farms 59
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4 Service Management Processes 75
5 Asset Management 103

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6 Cloud Computing 127
7 Virtualisation 183
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8 Green Computing 225

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9 Case Studies 243

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I T I nf r a s t ru c t u r e M a n a g e m e n t
c u r r i c u l u m
Infrastructure Management Overview: Definitions, Evolutions of Systems - Mainframes-to-Mid-

range-to-PCs-to-Client-server computing-to-New age systems - growth of internet, ARPA – DAR-
PA – Management - concept of Infrastructure management – Roles and responsibilities - current
business demands - IT systems Management Model- Fault Management- Configuration Manage-
ment- Accounting Management- Performance Management- Security Management - IT systems
issues – system complexity.
Preparing for Infrastructure Management: IT infrastructure - Design Factors -Determine cus-

tomer Requirements – elucidation - documentation - Identifying System Components- Existing
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Process documentation, Data, applications, Tools- integration, - standby stores - operations man-
agement - IT systems management patterns -design process of information systems – Information
system Models.
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Server Farms: What are Server farms? Applications of Server Farms, Performance, Compile farm
Service management processes: ITIL-Service-level management, financial management and cost-

ing, IT services continuity management, Capacity management, Availability management - Config-
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uration Management - Service desk - Incident management - Problem management - Change man-
agement - Release management – Service level agreement - Infrastructure management – Roles
– response times– Escalation charts – Dash boards.
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Asset management: Asset – Asset classes - Organizational asset – IT asset – Physical asset – In-
formation asset – Use of assets in business - Asset capture methods – Concepts of stock registers.
Asset continuity planning – GAP analysis – Equivalent unit cost – Repair replace decisions – MTTR
– MTBF – Impact of downtimes - Over view of Risk,–Risk assessment methodology – Risk identifi-
cation, - Risk Evaluation, - Risk categorization - Risk registers - RISK Matrix
Virtualization & cloud: Virtualization concepts - Server virtualization - Server Virtualization Im-
plementations - Managing Virtual Server Environments- physical partitioning – logical partition-
ing – host machines – virtual machines – guest operating systems - platforms – Hypervisor –ESX
platform –VM kernel – COS – VMFS- ESX architecture -Cloud Basics -Service-Oriented Architec-
tures -Cloud Architecture -Amazon Web Services -Google Cloud Services -Windows Azure -Open
Source Cloud Stack
Green Computing: Introduction, Regulations and initiatives in Green computing, Approaches to

Green Computing , Energy Efficient Networking and Communication, Greening Data Centres and
Servers

C h a
1 p t e r
Overview of Infrastructure Management
CONTENTS
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1.1 Introduction
1.2 Understanding IT Management
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Self Assessment Questions
Activity
1.3 Understanding Infrastructure Management
1.3.1 Benefits
1.3.2 Roles and Responsibilities
1.3.3 Current Business Demands
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1.3.4 Challenges in IT Infrastructure Management

1.3.5 Response Time
Activity
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1.4 IT System Management Models

1.4.1 Fault Management
1.4.2 Configuration Management
1.4.3 Performance Management
1.4.4 Security Management
1.4.5 Account Management
Activity
1.5 Information Systems
1.5.1 IS Components
1.5.2 Trends in Information Systems
1.5.3 Framework of IS in an Organisation
1.5.4 Information System Models
1.5.5 IT System Issues
Activity

2 IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
CONTENTS
1.6 IT System Complexity

Activity
1.7 Summary
1.8 Descriptive Questions
1.9 Answers and Hints
1.10 Suggested Readings & References
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Overview of Infrastructure Management 3
Introductory Caselet
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strategy for reducing IT complexity
Operating and managing a technology-driven management sys-

tem is a highly complex process and becomes even more complex
when IT related problems occur. Here, we will discuss the case
of a US based company that was in the business of private house
building. Due to financial slowdown in America, the company was
facing great financial crisis, and therefore was forced to cut down
on IT costs and simplify its IT processes.
While cutting down on IT management costs, the company also

needed to keep in mind that the services provided to customers
must be of equal standard as earlier, if not higher. Some principles
followed by the the company to reduce the IT complexities and
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simply the IT processes are as follows:
Experimentation with small projects: The first principle that
they followed was to run each idea of IT streaming on a small-
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scale project to know how successful the idea would turn out
to be. For this, they needed a project manager who had all the
knowledge about the project and also knew when it is time to
declare the project a failure. Small-scale projects were cho-
sen as they would not cost the company a lot of its revenue
and also would give them the flexibility to try new approaches.
Of course, some ideas turned out to be a success and some
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didn’t.
Virtualisation of everything: The next step was to virtualise
all the key components used in IT management, from servers
to storage to desktops, everything was virtualised. This helped
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in the differentiation of process and hardware constraints.

Simplification of all the components possible: The IT team
of the company believed that all the overhead cost was be-
cause of the large number of people that the company had to
manage and therefore; reduction in the number of people is
required to run the management process. Also, the reduction
of sub-components was equally important in order to simplify
IT management. Hence, at the time of evaluation of a prod-
uct, special importance was given to the product’s ability to
perform core functions, and the additional functions of the
product were considered to be useless or obsolete unless they
could be hidden or removed completely. Reduction of data
centres was also a part of the simplification process of IT man-
agement.
Reduction in the number of hardware and software provid-
ers: Taking large quantity of products from a single vendor is
anytime considered to be better than procuring them in bits
and pieces from different vendors. Having a large number of

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providers is one of the reasons for high complexity. Hence, the

next step was to reduce the number of vendors so as to reduce
the complexity. But, at the time of choosing the vendor, simpli-
fication should be kept at a higher priority than the functional-
ity. In other words, high functionality should be chosen unless
it derives simplification.
By applying the preceding approaches, the company succeeded

in simplifying IT complexities and reducing the related costs.
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learning objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

>> Explain IT management
>> Define infrastructure management
>> Explore how infrastructure management is useful for
companies to meet current business demands
>> Discuss IT system management models
>> Describe Information systems
>> List IT system complexity
1.1 INTRODUCTION
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By definition, infrastructure management means the management
of the various important aspects of an organisation, such as policies,
processes, internal and external relations of the company, in order to
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improve the overall performance of the organisation. In other words,
infrastructure management deals with the management of the infra-
structural policies of a company and helps in identifying the best prac-
tices to carry out the various functions of an organisation leading to
the reduction of cost, improved production practices, better customer
satisfaction, etc.
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In this chapter, you will study the concept of management and IT

management. You will also study infrastructure management in de-
tail, including its benefits, roles and responsibilities, current business
demands, challenges and response time. In addition, you will study IT
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system management models. Finally, you will study about the infor-
mation system and IT system complexity.
1.2 Understanding IT Management

Management refers to the process of coordinating the various func-
tions of an organisation in order to achieve the desired and preset
goals along with the optimum utilisation of its resources. The entire
process of management includes various sub-functions, such as plan-
ning, organising, staffing, leading, motivations, controlling, etc. The
term ‘management’ has been defined by various authors. Some of
these definitions are as follows:
According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is to forecast and to plan, to
organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control”.
According to Fredmund Malik, “The transformation of resources
into utility”.
According to Peter Drucker, “The management task can be divided
into two parts, marketing and innovation”.

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The basic aim of IT management is to ease the various processes of

day-to-day management through the use of technology. This can be
achieved only when the business policies, strategies and the technolo-
gy are brought together to work under the same domain.
But, before we move any further with the concept of IT management,

we first need to understand how IT management and normal manage-
ment are different from each other. Normal management, or manage-
ment information system as we call it, deals with methods related to
the support of human decision making, whereas IT management main-
ly deals with the IT-related management activities of the organisation.
The main objective of IT management is value creation with the help

of the available technology; and for this, the first step is to bring the
technology and the strategy together so as to be able to achieve the
goal of value creation much more effectively. The connection between
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the business strategies and the technology improves the working of
the organisation as the business strategies work towards improving
the connections of the internal and external environment, whereas
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the technology helps in improving the connections so formed by the
scientific methods of management.
Until the recent times, the management of the organisation was done
in a silo-like fashion in which resources were allocated and dedicated
according to the functions of the organisation. However, the drawback
of this method of resource allocation was that the resource utilisation
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could not be optimised and hence, could sometimes not meet the actu-
al demand of the customers. This drawback led to the development of
the technology-driven organisation method and allocation of resourc-
es. This simplified the task of managing to a great extent as the func-
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tions of the organisation could be performed with greater speed and

efficiency.
self assessment Questions
1. The main functions of management include planning,

________, leadership, motivation, staffing and ________.
2. The benefits of infrastructure management include better
product line, reduction of cost and _________.
3. The main objective of IT management is ________________
with the help of the available technology.
4. In a ______________ fashion, resources were allocated and
dedicated according to the functions of the organisation.
Activity
Using the Internet, find out the IT management practices followed

by any firm of your choice. Make a report on your findings.

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Understanding Infrastructure
1.3
Management
Infrastructure management can be defined as the management of an
organisation’s basic operations including its policies, equipment, data,
human resources and processes, in order to achieve overall business
performance.
Infrastructure management can be divided into various categories,

such as system management, network management and storage man-
agement. It helps in enhancing the flow of information in different de-
partments of an organisation. Moreover, infrastructure management
can help in meeting the current business demands of the organisation,
handling business challenges faced and maintaining effective busi-
ness operations.
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Let’s discuss the benefits of infrastructure management first.
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1.3.1 BENEFITS
The benefits of infrastructure management are so profound that we

cannot imagine getting on with our business without these services in
today’s world. The following are some of the benefits of IT infrastruc-
ture management:
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This type of management helps in the efficient utilisation of the

resources of the organisation.
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helps in improving the customer experience and hence, leads to
more customer satisfaction.
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It helps the organisation to deliver differentiated services.

Ithelps in improving the quality of the products being offered by
the organisation.
Itimproves the innovation capabilities of the employees of the or-
ganisation.
The various tools and techniques of IT infrastructure management
help in checking the performance of employees and hence, help in
exercising better control over the employees.
The fault management tools of the management technique help
in identifying a fault in any of the processes with greater ease and
higher efficiency and help in saving a lot of precious employee
time and organisational resources and funds.
The configuration management tool helps in designing the best
layout of the production processes that will not only reduce the
time and cost but also help in increasing the production efficiency.

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This management not only reduces the cost of production but also
helps in the effective utilisation of the money so saved; thereby
helping the organisation to gain an optimal point.
Risk management is one of the main concerns of the businesses to-
day. Business firms cannot completely eliminate the risk involved
in their various operations, but the IT management tool helps in
a better management of the risk, which reduces the overall cost of
production. Also, this kind of management helps the firms to get
their hands on the critical data in real time, combat the risks with
greater efficiency and ease and prepare for the future risks as well.
1.3.2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
In today’s technology-driven world, IT infrastructure management
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plays a very important role in managing an organisation. This kind
and style of management has various roles and responsibilities to fulfil
in order to help in the systematised functioning of the organisation.
Some such roles and responsibilities are discussed as follows:
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The designing and executing of plans for the short-term and long-
term development of the company ensure that the infrastructure
of the company is able to meet its current and future needs.
Infrastructure management helps in the project development and
execution of the various procedures to fulfil the projects undertak-
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en by the firm.
The management also helps in defining various priority tasks,
such as maintenance, design, security, development of the infra-
structure system, etc.
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The management also helps in conducting research and recom-

mends and implements any kind of change necessary in the organ-
isation for its better functioning.
It also supervises the data of the organisation for the best utilisa-
tion of it.
It also helps in creating a backup strategy for the organisation in
case of any kind of disaster occurring in the organisation.
It also helps in the standardisation of the hardware and the soft-
ware to be used in the company.
It also helps the company to devise top-notch security service for
the organisation’s network, server and infrastructure.
It also helps in forecasting the cost to the organisation, not only
short term but also long term, so that the organisation can reduce
the cost.

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1.3.3 CURRENT BUSINESS DEMANDS
With the changing scenario in the business environment and with the
emerging importance of technology in every sphere of life, the need
for better management policy has increased many folds, resulting in
an increase in the demand for infrastructure management as the man-
agement technique not only helps in the better management of the
company but also helps in the reduction of the costs for the company.
Because of this new emerging model of management, there has been

some debate between the business heads and the service providers
on the issue of the cost incurred to them for using this technique of
management; and hence, some organisations often struggle a lot to
manage the demand for the management technique, which includes
the hardware, software, operational support and end-user services.
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In order to make this IT infrastructure management technique more
adaptable, the organisations are taking up the two key models of ser-
vice management. Two key characteristics include a catalog of stan-
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dard services that are offered at a preset price to be consumed at a
price-time-quantity basis. This means that the cost will not be decided
on arbitrary estimation but on the basis of the aggregate cost of the
components used. Second characteristic includes making the man-
agement software more interactive and in a more commercial way by
defining the standard offers and solutions that are custom made to
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meet the business demand.
1.3.4 CHALLENGES IN IT INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT
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Despite the fact that infrastructure management is gaining popularity

tremendously, there are many challenges involved in it. Some of the
main challenges faced by the organisations are as follows:
The price of the management technique is sometimes considered
to be too high, which discourages the use of infrastructure man-
agement or the heads of the business firm think that the benefits
incurred from the management model are too little for the cost
paid by them. The CIOs must adhere to these three approaches
in order to minimise the cost and increase the benefits, such as
deferring discretionary spending, decommissioning little or never
used applications, reevaluating the cost of managing applications
and adjusting the level of service based on the utility of the service
in consideration. This helps in bringing down the cost by 20%.
The companies should also ensure that their infrastructure man-
agement model should be up and running at all times. This is more
of a problem because most companies outsource this management

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model, and hence, they cannot afford to degrade their manage-

ment model.
Customer satisfaction is also crucial for the success of any busi-
ness firm. If the business follows a rigid infrastructure model and
is not able to meet the rapidly changing desires of the customer,
it can never expect to grow in its business operations. Custom-
ers’ desires should be regularly surveyed, and new technologies
should be formed accordingly so as to keep customers satisfied.
The reporting ability of the business also defines the growth of the
business. A good reporting system means that the organisational
decisions are taken with the greatest ability and after taking into
account all kinds of faults and errors prevalent in the organisa-
tion. These lead to the monthly reporting schedule of the business
firms. Also, the firms must have all the necessary tools to analyse
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the reports so made and take the correct decisions.
The firms should also be able to strike a balance between human
contributions and the dependence on computers. High human
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contribution will result in lower productivity and also, the produc-
tivity will not be standardised, and high dependence on computers
will result in a higher risk of security breach. Hence, it is of utmost
importance for the business firms to strike a balance between the
human and computer contribution so as to be able to grow and
develop.
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1.3.5 RESPONSE TIME
Response time, according to the definition, means the time taken by

a computer to evaluate and respond to an enquiry put in by a con-
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sumer. If the software takes less time to respond to the enquiry, it is

considered to be better. Hence, the working capability of a particular
software is judged on the basis of the response time taken by it. Other
than that, there is also a thing called perceived response time. It is the
time that a user perceives will be taken by the software to respond to
the complaint. Sometimes, the time estimated can be too fast as com-
pared to the time actually taken, but that is not usually the case.
5. The pricing strategy of infrastructure management helps to

bring down the cost by _______.
6. __________ is crucial for the growth of the business firm.
7. The time taken by a computer to evaluate and respond to an
enquiry put in by a consumer is known as _________.

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Activity
Search the Internet to find out the challenges faced by a new start
up in the current business environment with respect to IT infra-
structure management.
1.4 IT SYSTEM MANAGEMENT MODELS

There are various management models available in the market for
the better utilisation of resources and reduction of the cost of pro-
duction for the company. The scope of infrastructure management is
quite widespread, covering the proper implementation of the changes
in the company’s policies, the methods to standardise the production
method and help in its prolonged life, the evaluation of performance
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and the areas of discrepancies. This section discusses various man-
agement models used in an organisation to optimise different process-
es of production and also the performance of the employees.
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1.4.1 FAULT MANAGEMENT
Fault management, as the name suggests, deals with the process of de-
tection, isolation and correction of malfunctions in the communication
network. In detail, it deals with the acceptance of the malfunction or
error, tracing the source of the error and taking corrective steps to re-
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pair the malfunction with the help of various diagnostic tests and also
taking into account the various environmental changes taking place in
the organisation. In case of any occurrence of fault, the system sends
a notification to the network in the form of SNMP and a persistent
alarm is only cleared once the problem has been resolved. There are
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different lists of faults based upon the frequency of their occurrences.
The fault management system allows the operator to monitor events

not from a single system only but from multiple systems and per-
forms actions based on the information so acquired. The corrective
action taken may be through various portals, such as launching a pro-
gramme or a script, activating notification software, allowing humans
to take proper action, etc. Some of the notification systems have been
designed in such a way that they are able to notify various individuals
as a chain process on the basis of severity of the fault in the system.
TYPES OF FAULT MANAGEMENT
The fault management system can be broadly classified into two types:
active management and passive management. Passive fault manage-
ment collects the alarms that are pinged on the devices through a sim-
ple network management protocol. But, the drawback of this kind of
fault management is that it triggers an alarm only if it considers the

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device being monitored to be smart enough to report the error, but in

case the device is locked down or it fails completely, the device will
not be equipped enough to be able to trigger the alarm. Active man-
agement helps in combating this issue of passive management by ac-
tively monitoring the devices through various apps, such as ping. If
the device is active and responding, the app will not throw an alarm,
but if the device is shut down due to any possible reason, the alarm is
triggered and helps in effective fault management. Figure 1.1 shows
the process of fault management:
Service Alarms Failure Fault

Failure Detection Isolation Restoration
Occurrence
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Data Investigation Repair Repair
Collection Diagnostics Procedures Monitoring
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Figure 1.1: Fault Management Process
1.4.2 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
Configuration Management (CM) was set up with the aim to establish

consistency in the product’s performance, design and operational in-
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formation all through the product’s life. The main areas of the use of
this tool of management are in the military engineering organisations
for the better management of the weapon systems. Apart from this,
this management tool is used in IT service management, civil engi-
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neering and industrial engineering.
CM helps in the visualisation and control of physical, functional and

performance-related attributes of a product. It helps in the proper
management of the system information so that they are able to im-
prove their performance, reduce the cost and correct various defects.
The disadvantages of not implementing CM can be quite diverse and
huge, such as failure of equipment, loss of life or high cost of produc-
tion, but on the other hand, the implementation of CM is quite cheap,
and the minimalistic cost of implementation of CM can however be
earned back through cost effective methods of management.
CM not only helps in the reduction of the cost but also helps to ensure
that the proposed changes are implemented effectively, immediately
and systematically so that the negative effects can be minimised. Once
the changes have been agreed upon and the way to implement it has
been decided, CM helps in the evaluation of the implementation of the
changes in the policies and the programmes of the organisation. The
categories of CM are shown in Figure 1.2:

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Configuration
Management
Configuration
Configuration Change
Status
Identification Management
Accounting
Define the product Control changes Provide status and
and its configuration to a Product and Information about a product
documentation its configuration and its configuration
Identification documentation documentation
Configuration
Audits
Verify consistency of configuration documentation
against the product
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Figure 1.2: Categories of Configuration Management
1.4.3 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Performance management only aims at the most effective and efficient

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manner of meeting the performance goals of the organisation. It takes
into account all kinds of performance measures, the organisation, the
department, the employee and even the processes being used in the
production of a product. It also helps in the strategic alignment of the
resources of the organisation.
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APPLICATION
The application of this management tool is not restricted to compa-

nies only, but it can be extended to any organisation that makes use
of human interactions in order to meet the final goals of the organi-
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sation. It is important for the achievement of any organisational goals

that the personal goals of an employee must be in agreement with the
organisational goals, and this can be done either at the organisational
level or in a single department. This is also known as self-propelled
performance process. The process of performance management is
shown in Figure 1.3:
Figure 1.3: Performance Management Process

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First, the employees must reconcile their goals with the mission state-
ment drawn in order to achieve the goals of the organisation. The
main reason behind such analysis is to determine the key objectives
for a particular job and also to set standards for job positions and con-
vey the same to the employees at the job position.
BENEFITS
The benefits of performance management are quite diverse. Some
argue that the use of performance management software and the im-
provement of the organisational performance are interrelated and
have a direct relation between each other. The benefits include vari-
ous broad categories, discussed as follows:
Financial gain
It helps in the growth of sales.
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It helps in the cost reduction for the organisation.
It helps in the alignment of the employee and organisational
goals.
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It improves the communication process inside the organisa-
tion, which, in turn, results in better implementation of the
changes in the organisation.
Motivation of the workforce
It improves the employee contribution as employees are able
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to judge their contribution towards the organisational goals.

The bonus received by the employees helps in boosting confi-
dence.
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The achievement of goals also creates transparency in the or-

ganisation.
Improvement in the control of the management
Employees become much more flexible towards the manage-
ment changes introduced.
It simplifies the communication process in the organisation
greatly.
It also helps in the audit function and compilation with the le-
gal requirements.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In this section, performance management is considered to be a cy-

cle in which performance planning is used to develop goals for the
organisation. Performance coaching helps in conveying the goals of
the enterprise to the employees and making necessary adjustment

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of the performance according to the goals set and then, performance

appraisal is used to reward the employees and provide incentives to
them to work better towards the achievement of organisational objec-
tives.
But, there are different definitions of performance management for

different institutions. For example, the US Office of Personnel Man-
agement lists the following processes to be key for performance man-
agement:
Planning the work and goals
Monitoring the performance of the employees
Developing and enhancing staff ability
Rating the performance of the employees for the process of perfor-
mance appraisal
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Rewarding the hardworking employees
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN COMPANIES

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There is often a lot of confusion between the terms ‘performance man-
agement’ and ‘performance appraisal’. Performance management in-
volves various tools, processes and programmes that the companies
organise in order to manage the performance of its employees, which,
in turn, will help in the achievement of organisational goals. On the
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other hand, performance appraisal is the term that includes all those
rewards and incentives given to the employees for their extraordinary
performance and is considered to be an incentive for the employees to
work better and contribute towards the fulfilment of the organisation-
al goals and objectives.
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Performance management is considered to be a means that is imple-

mented in the workplace to measure the performance of the employ-
ees and to find out how well are the goals of the organisation being
met with. Performance management implemented in the workplace
is kind of an evaluation procedure that will help in determining the
performance appraisal.
The results from the performance evaluation method set up in the

workplace can be used in different ways. They can be used to help
the employees in improving their skills and behaviour and also in the
selection of the methods of intervention for the improvement of the
employees. As discussed above, they can also be used to determine the
level of performance appraisal.
1.4.4 SECURITY MANAGEMENT
Security management mainly deals with the estimation of the com-

pany’s asset and the formulation and implementation of the policies

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for the protection of the company’s assets. The main strategies used
by the companies to protect their assets are information classifica-
tion, risk assessment and risk analysis. These policies are adopted to
identify, analyse and measure the company’s threats and their
vulnerability.
Security management can be broadly classified into two types. The

first type is loss prevention, where the main aim is to prevent the loss.
In this type of security management, the main focus is on determina-
tion of possible sources of threats and the manner of accomplishment
of the goals of the organisation. Here, only the minimisation of the
threats is mainly focused upon. The second type of security manage-
ment is a security risk management. In this type of management, the
risk management techniques are applied to the security threats of the
organisation. This mainly includes identifying the threats, measuring
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the extent of loss incurred in case of occurrence of the risk and then
handling the risk on the basis of the priority of the risk.
But, before that, we need to identify the various risks prevalent in the
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business world. The risks can be categorised as external risks and in-
ternal risks. They are then further divided into various subcategories.
External risks are subdivided into the following categories:

Strategic: Level of competition in the market, customer demand
prevalent, etc.
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Operational: Regulation, suppliers, contracts available for the

company, etc.
Financial: Credit facilities provided and used by the organisation
Hazard: Natural disaster, cyber, external criminal act, etc.
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Compliance: Compliance with the various legal regulations
Internal risks are subdivided into the following categories:

Strategic: R&D
Operational: Systems and process (H&R, Payroll)
Financial: Liquidity, cash flow
Hazard: Safety and security, employees and equipment
RISK OPTIONS
Infrastructure management often follows a four-step technique to

combat the risks that occur during the day-to-day working of the
organisation. The first step is to avoid the risk and risk-causing ac-
tivities. Before taking up any of the new projects, the risk factor of
the project is evaluated. If the project has high intensity of risks, the

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management often suggests not to take up the project. If the project

can be dropped altogether, the management techniques often result
in devising plans to reduce the risk to the lowest possible intensity
so that the company won’t have to suffer as much loss but that would
also mean that the business is not operating on the maximum possible
efficiency and is not employing its resources to the full extent. In order
to use the organisational abilities to the full extent, the company often
follows the policy of spreading the risk over various projects. This can
also be understood as earning more profits from one project so that
it can compensate for the risk of another project. The organisation
often follows this method of risk stabilisation. But, even then, if the or-
ganisation is not able to bring down the risk to the acceptable level, it
tends to transfer the risk to other organisations. One of the examples
of this is when the organisations insure their assets against the theft or
loss of an asset due to any other factor. This results in the reduction of
S
the risk to a considerably lower level. Once the risk has been brought
down to an acceptable level, the organisation can accept the risk and
carry on with its day-to-day activities.
IM
SECURITY POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Once the security policy has been devised by the infrastructure man-
agement software, it is important to properly implement it. There are
various methods of security policy implementation. These methods
are listed as follows:
M
Alarm system
Keycard, locks, biometric locks
Attack dogs
N
Barricade
Security guards
Tie up with law enforcement agencies
1.4.5 ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Identity management/account management helps in the identification

of the individuals trying to access the information and resources of the
organisation and the control of their access by establishing identity
and putting user right and restrictions to play so that no necessary
information of the company is lost or changed to harm the image of
the company.
Account management would ensure that the changes in the organisa-

tion propagate all the way down to the lowest level of the organisation
so that there is no scope of mismanagement in the organisation. It also
helps to ensure that there is no difference between the data copy of

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the employees and that of the company so that in case the employee
leaves the organisation, he does not have the custody of any data that
is not in the company’s knowledge, or if any new employee is working
on any existing project, he does not have any problem in the procure-
ment of the information needed by him to get on with his work effi-
ciently. In a non-technology driven scenario, every organisation would
either have a central database or would have a different database for
different project or a mix of both, but in today’s highly decentralised
and technology-driven times, this method of data management is ab-
solutely impossible and hence, they need to find a new and improved
method of data storage and account management. This is where infra-
structure account management comes in.
Account management helps in defining the access granted to each

user on the basis of the role they play in the organisation and the au-
S
thority they hold in the organisation. This also helps in differentiating
the users from the guest visitors and the Web logins. Account manage-
ment also ensures that no one can delete or distort any kind of data
in the system who is not authorised to do so. It helps in the access to
IM
the data according to the entitlements, and the people are granted
access to the information only according to the information they are
entitled to, and hence, it is not made available to all the employees.
It also reserves the right to access the information on the basis of the
passwords given to system, i.e, for every new information that the user
demands, the user will have to give a new password or some new iden-
M
tification code so that the system can verify that the user trying to
access the information is doing so in order to benefit the organisation
and not to harm it.
Figure 1.4 shows the login credentials required for account manage-
N
ment:
Figure 1.4: Login Credentials

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8. __________ only aims at the most effective and efficient manner

of meeting the performance goals of the organisation.
9. ________ management helps in the identification of the
individuals trying to access the information and resources of
the organisation and the control of their access.
10. The categories of internal risks are: Strategic, Operational,
Financial, and _____________.
Activity
Using the Internet, find out the various identity/account manage-
S
ment measures taken by an organisation to establish identities of
the employees for protecting the image of the organisation.
IM
1.5 INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The coherent group of individual digital components for the purpose
of collection, processing and storage of data in order to establish mean-
ingful information as well as knowledge is known as ‘Information Sys-
tems’ (IS). The IS are areas of major investment in the terms of high
M
cost of installation and are considered as corporate assets. Informa-

tion systems stores large amounts of critical data and present them
readily in summarised form whenever required across geographical
boundaries. It makes decision making activities for senior managers
N
easier. It is also used by managers for customer interactions, feedback,

communication with the suppliers, to assess competitors’ strategies
required for surviving in the market. It facilitates smooth flow of infor-
mation, documents, data, across the key persons in the organisation
which aids in good team building.
For example, big corporates use IS tools to communicate with their es-
teemed clients through online surveys, polls, targeted SMS services,
etc. Not only corporate entities, but also the Government is also using
Information Systems to cater to the citizen’s needs like e-Adhaar, on-
line tax filing, etc. E-Commerce organisations like Flipkart.com, Am-
azon.in, etc. are creating revolution by using information systems to
sell their products online and gain huge profits. Other activities like
social networking banking services, educational services, entertain-
ment also use Information System for delivering superior customer
satisfaction.

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1.5.1 IS COMPONENTS
Information systems stores large amounts of critical data and pres-

ent them readily in summarised form whenever required across geo-
graphical boundaries. Figure 1.5 shows the components of IS:
gb
Hardware
Procedures
S
People
Software
IM
Databases
Telecom
M
gb
Figure 1.5: Components of Information System

N
Source: http://maribelajarsss.blogspot.in/2013/05/introduction-to-information-systems.html
The information system of an organisation is a complex entity. Though

the components vary from organisation to organisation, depending on
the type of industry, there are some common elements of the Informa-
tion System. They are listed as follows:
Software: The software installed in a computer has two broad cat-
egories. First is system software and the second one is application
software. The system software is the software which provides a
basic medium for running a computer. the most common of this
type of software is operating system. The OS provides a medi-
um where program files, databases, computer hardware perform
and it also provides an interface to the end user to regulate the
computer. Those programs which cater to the specific tasks as re-
quested by the end users is known as application software, e.g. MS
Word, MS-Excel, Paint tools etc. Large companies deploy business
specific softwares (like Hospital Information System) which fulfils
their business requirements. They either develop it in-house or
outsource it from a software vendor.

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Hardware: The physical component of a computer system like

input–output devices, storage medium, Central Processing Unit
(CPU), telecommunications, etc. is known as computer hardware.
Large corporates install distributed computer networks from data
center’s powerful servers. This causes superfast processing speed
and huge storage.
Database: The collection of data sets which are inter linked and ar-
ranged systematically so that they can be retrieved when required
is known as database. Examples include list of services provided,
records of employees, records of cars allocated etc. The concept
of data warehouse is also gaining importance. It can be defined as
the storage of archival data for the purpose of information mining
when required. Data warehouse is used when a company wants
to develop new products, perform market surveys, deliver better
services, etc.
S
Telecommunications: Telecommunications are the means of elec-
tronic transmission of information over distances. The information
can be in the form of voice telephone calls, data, text, images, or
IM
video. In these days, telecommunications are used to organize re-
mote computer systems into telecommunications networks. These
networks themselves are run by computers. Generally, telecommu-
nications network consists of computing and telecommunications
resources for communication of information between distant loca-
tions. The network can be established by either wired or wireless
medium. The wired medium use coaxial cables and optical fibres to
M
connect whereas Wireless medium use radio waves and microwaves

to make connection among computer networks. Several network
systems are used depending on the requirement like LAN (Local
Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), VPN (Virtual Private
Network), etc. The immensely popular Internet (or the World Wide
N
Web) connects the whole world across a continent which is consid-

ered as a big network for millions of small networks.
People and Procedures: The information system cannot function
alone without human intervention. The qualified and trained hu-
man resource personnel like system analyst, business analyst, da-
tabase administrators, implementation specialist, computer secu-
rity experts etc. are an important part of the information system.
The documentation part is also vital which states the procedure
for the implementation, maintenance, developing of information
systems.
1.5.2 TRENDS IN INFORMATION SYSTEMs
Time is changing very fast and so is the digital world. According to a

recent study by Accenture, the following are some of the trends which
are emerging very fast in the world of IT:

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Platform architecture: It is forecasted that the use of application

will be minimised and instead platform architecture will be com-
mon to cater to large data volumes and more complex nature of
data. Though the RDBMS will not cease to exist but other forms
will come into existence like streaming database.
Social platforms: The social media will transform into social plat-
form giving more valuable, detailed information about a company
which all users of the particular media will be able to view. So the
company websites will no longer be the first point of contact for
clients, vendors, suppliers and other stakeholders.
Cloud computing: This is an innovative concept and is gaining
popularity very fast. It will shift the focus from developing phys-
ical IT infrastructure to developing virtual cloud solutions which
have wide applicability and greater flexibility of information. The
S
SaaS (Software as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) will
enhance the growth of the business.
Data security: It is estimated that the role of human resource in
IM
the security of enterprise data will decrease with time and auto-
mated versions of IT will come into existence which will detect any
violation, assess the threat and respond accordingly.
User experience: Today, the IT solutions is being developed and
implemented by business owners, top management or IT person-
M
nel which emphasises on cost cutting and greater optimisation.

But in the near future it will also involve inputs from the end us-
ers with various suggestions like minimising inefficiencies, user
friendly interface, user guides, etc.
N
Mobile application: This is already gaining popularity as the IT

software can be accessed from mobile platforms (tablets, smart-
phone, etc.). It increases portability, ease of use, easy maintenance,
etc. Examples of mobile operating system includes Android, Mac,
Windows, etc.)
1.5.3 FRAMEWORK OF IS IN AN ORGANISATION
The general Information System structure remains the same in all or-
ganisations. The information system has a three layered structure as

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Executive
information
Systems
Decision
Support Systems
Management
reporting Systems
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
Professional Collaboration Knowledge

support systems systems Management
systems
S
SUPPORT OG KNOWLEDGE WORK
Supply chain Customer Transaction

management relationship Processing systems
IM
management
OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
Figure 1.6: Framework of Information System

Source: http://www.britannica.com/topic/management/images-videos
1. Operational support layer: This layer forms the basic layer of

M
an IS model and contains different systems for the production,

design and delivery of the organisation’s goods or services.
Examples include Transaction Processing Systems, Supply
Chain Management, etc.
N
2. Support of knowledge work: This is the middle layer which

contains the most crucial systems for the sharing of data as well as
information within the boundaries of an organisation. Examples
include Knowledge Management Systems, Collaboration
Systems, etc.
3. Management support: This is the topmost layer which contains
various systems for the administration and evaluation of the
activities, goals and resources in an organisation. Examples
include Executive Information System, Decision Support
System, etc.
1.5.4 INFORMATION SYSTEM MODELS
Models in Information System are used to describe the underlying

concepts of IT infrastructure. Some of the common models are de-
scribed as follows:
a. Business processes model: In this model, the major processes in
the business of the organisation are identified. These processes

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are then represented in use case diagrams highlighting the major

work done in each level and illustrate all the business steps to
complete a particular task. This model analyses all the current
business steps followed and propose any future improvements
in the processes. This model is usually used by the Quality
Department or by the Business Analyst to improve the quality
and productivity of the business processes in an organisation.
Example: In a travel agency or online car rental, the Business
Process Model for allocating a taxi to the client is shown in Figure
1.7 (after receiving taxi order from a client):
Taxi Order Process
S
Register
Request
Request Is
Rejected
Request Is Rejected
Car Is
Allocated + Request Is Made
IM
Customer
No
Review
Request
Approved
Administrative
M
Office
Yes
Allocate
a Car
Yes
+ Perform
Transportation
N
Allocated
Garage
Figure 1.7: Example of Business Process Model

Source: http://conceptdraw.com/samples/business-process-diagrams-business-process-mod-
el-notation
b. Management activities model: It is a model which emphasises

on the management roles performed within each business
processes. This revolves around making the right choices in
selecting the management role as well as emphasises the fact
that management has several important dimensions.
Figure 1.8 shows the Management of Human Resources in an
organisation:

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Human Resources Management Function

Business Process Model
– Sub-functions and Activities –
DRAFT
Select
Assess
Define Deploy
(requirements) Evaluate
Recruit Monitor
Design Plan
(plans)
Develop
Measure
Plan Design
(performance)
Evaluate Deliver
Evaluate
Analyse Reatain Monitor
Report Compensate Protect

(health and safety)
Adjust
Release
S
Staff Relations
Figure 1.8: Example of Management Activities Model

IM
Source: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/government-information-resources/tools/busi-
ness-activity-structure-classification-system-guidance/Pages/function-human-resources-man-
agement
c. Hybrid model: This model proposes a combination of the

business processes and the appropriate IT processes to support
them. This model believes in the fact that an organisation is a
complex entity in which various processes coexist and function
M
together with a certain degree of dependency on each other.

Figure 1.9 shows the combination of business and IT processes
in an organisation:
N
Simple Model of IT Management

Business Space Reporting
IT Management Space
Management
Instrumentation Information
Business
Processes
Business Event
Data Information
Relationships
Process
& Tool
SLM Business Management Prioritization Management

Process Impact data Data Information Analysis
Device
Tool Relationship
Data Information
Tools
Action
Resolution
IT Tool Space Reporting
Figure 1.9: Example of Hybrid Model

Source: http://www.impactingbusiness.com

n o t e s
1.5.5 IT SYSTEM ISSUES
With the day-to-day improvement in the technology of the world,

humans are being replaced by machines. The tasks that were earli-
er done by humans are now being performed by machines, and also,
the performance of the tasks has improved on the account of the ef-
ficiency of the tasks performed. The improved efficiency of the per-
formance, however, come at a cost of the loss of the personal touch in
any and every transaction and communication that happens between
two business professionals. This often leads to confusion and even
strained relations between the customer and the business firm, mak-
ing the business firm lose clients to some other business firm.
Besides impersonal communication, another disadvantage of replac-

ing humans with computers is the increased threat of security breach.
If proper safety measures are not devised, it could often result in un-
S
authorised access to the confidential data of the company. If that is the
case, the information may be altered, destroyed or could even be used
for detrimental uses. This could also lead to the damage to the reputa-
IM
tion of the company in the eyes of the customers.
11. In business process models, use case diagrams are used.

(True/False)
M
12. Name the three layers of Information Systems.

13. The full form of SaaS is ____________________________
14. With the day-to-day improvement in the technology of the
world, ________ are being replaced by machines.
N
15. If proper safety measures are not devised, it could often

result in unauthorised _______ to the confidential data of the
company.
16. The full form of VPN is virtual private network. (True/False)
Activity
Discuss and describe the security measures undertaken by an or-

ganisation to protect its data.
1.6 IT SYSTEM COMPLEXITY

With the introduction of every new technology in the market, there are
some complexities that every new technology has to face. The IT team
of a company constantly comes up with new ideas to keep up with the
growing technology, and they have to do it fast. However, there are
some guidelines that can be followed to avoid the delay of the imple-

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mentation of the new technology, IT infrastructure management in

this case. Some of these guidelines are discussed as follows:
Standard architecture of the technology: In case the company
wants to avoid any delays, the first step it has to follow is to devel-
op the technology that has unified architecture throughout. The
infrastructure elements such as servers, networks and the cloud,
all of it should have a simple and standard build up so that it does
not result in the complexities of architecture and also helps in the
speedy implementation of the new technology. Not only that, it will
also help in adding new technologies without disrupting the ex-
isting network of technology. A study has proven that a uniform
architecture results in 58% better application deployment as com-
pared to non-uniform architecture technologies.
Flexibility of the technology: The next step is to make sure that
S
the technology is flexible enough so that the company is able to
adjust any future change in the technology. If the new technology
is not flexible enough, every change in the technology will disrupt
the current working and will also result in the delay of the im-
IM
plementation of the technology. It is like buying a new television
every time you want to watch a different channel. You don’t want
to do that. If a television is not flexible enough to adjust new chan-
nels, it is of no use as it would just make the television watching
experience more and more complex. Same is the case when a new
technology is introduced. If the IT team has to develop a new tech-
M
nology in order to adjust for any new change in the future, the
technology is nothing more than useless, and hence, it also leads
to complexity in the user experience.
N
17. __________ and _________ are the two main requirements for
reducing the complexities of the management system.
18. If the new technology is not flexible enough, every change in
the technology will disrupt the current working and will also
result in the delay of the implementation of the technology.
(True/False)
Activity
Write a brief report on the issues that crop up while implementing

new technologies in an organisation.
1.7 SUMMARY
Infrastructure management deals with the management of the
infrastructural policies of a company and helps in identifying the
best practices to carry out the various functions of an organisation

n o t e s
leading to the reduction of cost, improved production practices,

better customer satisfaction, etc.
Management deals with the coordination of the various functions
of an organisation in order to achieve the desired and preset goals
of the organisation along with the optimum utilisation of its re-
sources.
Infrastructure management can be defined as the management
of an organisation’s basic operations including its policies, equip-
ment, data, human resources and processes, in order to achieve
overall business performance.
The main objective of IT management is value creation with the
help of the available technology. For this, the first step is to bring
the technology and the strategy together so as to be able to achieve
the goal of value creation much more effectively.
S
Risk management is one of the main concerns of the businesses to-
day. Business firms cannot completely eliminate the risk involved
in their various operations, but the IT management tool helps in
IM
a better management of the risk, which reduces the overall cost of
production.
The price of the management technique is sometimes considered
to be too high, which discourages the use of infrastructure man-
agement or the heads of the business firm think that the benefits
incurred from the management model are too little for the cost
M
paid by them.
The reporting ability of the business also defines the growth of the
business. A good reporting system means that the organisational
decisions are taken with the greatest ability and after taking into
N
account all kinds of faults and errors prevalent in the organisation.

Response time, according to the definition, means the time taken
by a computer to evaluate and respond to an enquiry put in by the
consumer. If the software takes less time to respond to the enquiry,
it is considered to be better.
Fault management, as the name suggests, deals with the process
of detection, isolation and correction of malfunctions in the com-
munication network.
Configuration management was set up with the aim to establish
consistency in the product’s performance, design and operational
information all through the product’s life. The main areas of the
use of this tool of management are in the military engineering or-
ganisations for the better management of the weapon systems.
Performance management only aims at the most effective and ef-
ficient manner of meeting the performance goals of the organisa-
tion.

n o t e s
Security management mainly deals with the estimation of the

company’s asset and the formulation and implementation of the
policies for the protection of the company’s assets.
Identity management/account management helps in the identifi-
cation of the individuals trying to access the information and re-
sources of the organisation and the control of their access by es-
tablishing identity and putting user right and restrictions to play
so that no necessary information of the company is lost or changed
to harm the image of the company.
The coherent group of individual digital components for the pur-
pose of collection, processing and storage of data in order to es-
tablish meaningful information as well as knowledge is known as
“Information Systems” (IS).
S
key words
Application software: Software which cater to the specific tasks

as requested by the end users is known as application software.
IM
Examples include MS Word, MS-Excel, Paint tool, etc.
Database: The collection of data sets that are interlinked and
arranged systematically so that they can be retrieved when re-
quired is known as a database.
Fault management: It deals with the process of detection, isola-
M
tion and correction of malfunctions in the communication net-

work.
Hardware: The physical component of a computer system like
input-output devices, storage medium, Central Processing Unit
N
(CPU), telecommunications etc. is known as computer hard-

ware.
Identity management: It helps in the identification of the indi-
viduals trying to access the information and resources of the or-
ganisation and the control of their access by establishing iden-
tity.
Response time: It means the time taken by a computer to eval-
uate and respond to an enquiry put in by the consumer.
System Software: Software which provides a basic medium for
running a computer. The most common of this type of software
is operating system.
Telecommunications: Telecommunications are the means of
electronic transmission of information over distances. The in-
formation can be in the form of voice telephone calls, data, text,
images, or video.

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1.8 DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What do you mean by management?
2. What do you mean by infrastructure management?
3. What are the benefits of adopting infrastructure management
over normal management?
4. Explain the use of the configuration management tool in
infrastructure management.
5. What are the challenges faced while using infrastructure
management?
6. What are the system issues that crop up and negatively impact
firms?
7. IT system complexity tends to delay the implementation of a new
S
technology. Discuss how this situation can be avoided.
1.9 ANSWERS AND HINTS

IM
ANSWERS FOR SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
Topic Q. No. Answers
Understanding IT 1. Organising, controlling
Management
2. Innovation
M
3. Value creation
4. Silo-like
Understanding Infrastruc- 5. 20%
N
ture Management
6. Customer satisfaction
7. Response time
IT System Management 8. Performance
Models
9. Account
10. Hazard
Information Systems 11. True
12. Operational Support Layer, Sup-
port of Knowledge Work, Manage-
ment Support
13. Software as a Service
14. Humans
15. Access
16. True

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IT System Complexity 17. Standardisation and flexibility
18. True
HINTS FOR DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Management deals with the coordination of the various functions
of an organisation in order to achieve the desired and preset
goals of the organisation along with the optimum utilisation
of its resources. The management function of the organisation
includes various sub-functions, such as planning, organising,
staffing, leading, motivations, controlling, etc. Refer to Section
1.2 Understanding IT Management.
2. Infrastructure management means management of the various
S
important aspects of an organisation, such as policies, processes,
internal and external relations of the company and human
resource management policy of the company, in order to improve
IM
the overall performance of the organisation. Refer to Section 1.3
Understanding Infrastructure Management.
3. The benefit of this kind of management technique over normal
management is that this technique uses technology to attain
standardisation of the production process. It also helps in the
performance evaluation of employees. Refer to Section 1.3
M
Understanding Infrastructure Management.

4. The configuration management tool helps in designing the best
layout of the production processes that will not only reduce
the time and cost but also help in increasing the production
N
efficiency. Refer to Section 1.4 IT System Management Models.

5. The price of the management technique is one of the major
challenges faced while using infrastructure management. Refer
to Section 1.3 Understanding Infrastructure Management.
6. Impersonal communication between the customer and business
firm and the threat of security breach are some system issues
that crop up and may negatively impact firms. Refer to Section
1.5 Information Systems.
7. With the introduction of every new technology in the market,
there are some complexities that every new technology has to
face. And the same was the case when the IT infrastructure
management technique was introduced. Sometimes, to help
themselves out of the complexities of the new technology, they
end up buying gadgets more than required, resulting in the exact
opposite of what was intended to be done. Refer to Section 1.6 IT
System Complexity.

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1.10 SUGGESTED READINGS & REFERENCES
SUGGESTED READINGS
Anita Sengar, “IT Infrastructure Management” 2nd Edition, S. K.
Kataria & Sons 2009.
Roberto D. Sigolini, Abhijit V. Deshmukh, Lorenzo Fedele, Sara A.
McComb, “Recent Advances in Maintenance and Infrastructure
Management”, Springer 2009.
Bill Holtsneider, Brian D. Jaffe, “ IT Manager’s Handbook: Getting
Your Job Done”, Elsevier 2012.
E-REFERENCES
S
Limited, I. (2015). Infosys - Infrastructure management services
from Infosys. Infosys.com. Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://www.
infosys.com/IT-services/infrastructure-management-services/
IM
SearchCIO,. (2015). What is infrastructure management (IM)? -
Definition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://
searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/infrastructure-management
M
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C h a
2 p t e r
PREPARING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
CONTENTS
S
2.1 Introduction
2.2 IT Infrastructure
IM
2.2.1 Design of an IT Organisation
2.2.2 Design of IT Infrastructure
Activity
2.3 Determine Customer Requirements
2.3.1 Elucidation
M
2.3.2 Documentation
Activity
2.4 Identifying System Components
N

Activity
2.5 Existing Process Documentation
Activity
2.6 Data
2.6.1 Characteristics of Data
2.6.2 Types of Data
Activity
2.7 Distinguishing between Applications and Tools
Activity
2.8 Operations Management
Activity

CONTENTS
2.9 IT Systems Management

2.9.1 Common Tasks of IT System Management
2.9.2 Organisational Management Approaches
Activity
2.10 Summary
S
IM
M
N

PREPARING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT 35
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IT Infrastructure Transformation in
Northern Gas Networks
Northern Gas Networks is a gas supplying company in North-

England, serving almost 2.6 million customers across East, West
and North Yorkshire, and North-East and North Cumbria. The
company provides a gas pipeline network spanning over an area
of 37,000 km. The company was operated by a strategic asset man-
agement model operated by United Utilities Operations Limited
(UUOL). In October 2010, the company decides to develop an in-
tegrated operating model to bring the services provided by UUOL
from in-house resources.
Northern Gas Networks required the following changes in the ex-
S
isting system:
A robust asset management system is required to be integrat-
ed with the existing system and provide improved customer
service from the field.
IM
The laptops used by field engineers must be refreshed and up-
dated with some security checks.
Anetwork set up of mobile infrastructure is required for com-
munication.
The network must be upgraded from GPRS to 3G network.
M
Implementation required for an asset management solution.

Implementation required for a security solution to prevent
theft of laptops.
N
Cost penalties caused by delay in implementing the project

must be avoided.
Solution
Wipro Ltd. is a global information technology, consulting and out-

sourcing company, having more than 170,000 employees serving
clients in more than 175 cities across 6 continents. It provides In-
frastructure Engineering services to enterprises to design, build,
test and deploy infrastructure solutions. Some benefits coming
from Wipro’s Infrastructure Engineering services are as follows:
Higher availability of systems and stable environment
Improved quality of service
Reduced operational costs
Reduced operational risks
Improved stability in applications, like robust operating sys-
tems

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Wipro Technologies provides consulting, design, and implementa-

tion of the project with following facilities:
Wipro had provided Panasonic Toughbooks to Northern Gas
Network’s field engineers, after having collaboration with
Panasonic.
Wipro implemented a real time Asset Management Solution.
Wipro provided a private VPN network set up for Northern
Gas Networks, implementing a mobile data management solu-
tion that enables Toughbooks to connect with Apollo backend
systems providing secure anti-virus protection, along with 3G
network connections by using Sybase Afaria remote manage-
ment software.
S
Wipro designed the new network set up to work with the exist-
ing Oracle/AT&T data center.
Wipro implemented Computrace solution on the hard drives
IM to track the movement of laptops to prevent theft, and hav-
ing remote access capability to destroy the device in case of a
theft.
Wipro coordinated with multiple vendors and service provid-
ers to assure the client that the project would be completed as
per its scheduled time.
M
Result
Wipro fulfilled all the challenges faced by the Northern Gas Net-
works company. It coordinated with Panasonic and other vendors
N
to deliver a reliable, secured, effective system and components

that can easily be integrated with the existing utility’s system of
Northern Gas Networks. As a result of this integration, Northern
Gas Networks is now able to manage its assets more effectively,
and is counted as the top second company in providing gas utility
to its consumers.

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learning objectives

>> Design the IT infrastructure
>> Explain the customer requirement for IT
>> Identify IT system components
>> Explain the existing process documentation
>> Define the concept of data with their characteristics and
types
>> Differentiate between tools and applications
>> Explain operations management
>> Explain common tasks in IT systems management
S
2.1 INTRODUCTION
IM
Information technology in this digital era has become an indispens-
able tool for an organisation’s success. The performance of the organ-
isation depends heavily on the effective implementation of IT tools.
Latest, robust and improved versions of software and hardware are
created to cater to the client’s needs with implement IT solutions in
the organisation.
M
The term “Infrastructure Management” refers to the effective admin-

istration of vital components like data, policies, equipment, human re-
sources, external vendors, etc., which combine together to create the
“infrastructure” of an establishment. A cost effective investment in
the firm’s “Infrastructure Management” is one of the causes of multi-
N
plication of the revenues.
The “Infrastructure Management” structure retains interoperability

standards among the internal as well as external entities of an organ-
isation, enhances adaptability for a dynamic environment, minimises
duplicity, increases the standards adherence, ensures smooth flow of
information within the framework of an information system, etc.
Some components of IT management infrastructure include software

development/deployment/preservation, IT hardware composition,
software tools essentially website tools/email tools /RDBS or Oracle/
MS office/ERP packages, etc. This whole conglomerate of infrastruc-
tures is usually supervised by the Information Technology (IT) de-
partment of an organisation. The skilful administration of all these
facilities is crucial which fulfils the requirement of the organisation in
presenting the highest quality of customer service.
In this chapter, we will study the various aspects of IT infrastructure

and its management such as determining customer requirements,
identifying system components, process documentation, distinguish-

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ing between applications and tools, operations management, IT

systems management and information systems.
2.2 IT Infrastructure
The combination of various system components necessary for the fab-
rication, operation and conservation of the IT surrounding of a typical
organisation is known as IT infrastructure. The IT infrastructure pre-
vails within the organisational boundaries (internal) and caters to the
needs of the employees or staff, merchant, consumer, etc. The central
ambition of the management of IT infrastructure include:
Minimise operational costs
Effective business planning
Improved quality of service provided
S
More customer satisfaction
Minimise downtime
Improved level of flow of information in an organisation
IM
Better compliance to standards
Energetic work environment
In any IT system, there are three basic elements that are illustrated in
Figure 2.1:
M
Host/
Server
N
System
Elements
Client Network
Figure 2.1: Basic Components of an IT System

Server/Host: The area of a system where a majority of data is
cached, processed, governed is known as the server. The individ-
ual sends a transaction appeal to the server, which processes the
same and sends it back to the individual. When an individual is
performing a monetary transaction in a bank then the large main-
frame computer in the bank (backend) acts as the server, which
stores all the details of customer’s bank accounts and processes
each transaction.

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Network: The communication medium between the server and

the client which passages on the information is labelled as net-
work. Examples include heterogeneous types of cables, centralised
telephone ports, etc.
Client: This is usually the end user which makes a request to the
server for an unambiguous task. For example, the final user who
appeals to the server for the transaction is the Client.
2.2.1 DESIGN OF AN IT ORGANISATION

The planning and design structure of the IT infrastructure is the key
driver of success in an organisation. The design structure should
appease the business requirements and should aid in the IT infra-
structure. The architecture of the IT organisation should instill good
strategy for implementation as well as conservation, have structured
S
liability plan necessary for the usage as well as problem solving of the
technology and so on.
Designing IT structure in an organisation is a challenging job as there
is no single proven design for every organisation but there are set of
IM
process and benchmarks which guide the design methodology. In ad-
dition, there should be an appraisal mechanism for locating the tough-
ness and shortcomings of the new system.
According to the book Structural Cybernetics: an Overview [UK edi-
tion] written by N. Dean Meyer, there are six core ingredients which
form the basis of IT design of an establishment. They are as follows:
M
Support services: These refer to the routine jobs performed by the

people on day to day basis which facilitates various other entities
to deliver IT products to the establishment. Examples include pur-
chasing, service desks, repairs cum installation etc.
N
Core infrastructure services: This is the area which forms the

basis of IT infrastructure and is the operational hub for the in-
formation system so that it can be used efficiently by the final us-
ers. Examples include data centers, telecommunications, network
functioning, etc.
Application specialist services: These services are responsible
for the entire life cycle of software like planning, fabricating, ac-
quisition, deployment, preservation of IT software. Examples of
application specialist services encompass programmers, system
analysts etc.
Basic technology specialists: These persons are responsible for
maintaining the life cycle of software except transaction process-
ing software. This breed of technology specialists is accountable
for IT systems like software engineering, computer hardware, tele-
communications etc.
Strategic business partners: They are the primary stakeholders
in a business surrounding. They endeavour with the top manage-
ment and mastermind effective combinations of business strate-
gies with the requirements of information system.
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Architects: They are the actual persons who are responsible for
the supervision of an IT infrastructure. They are accountable for
obedience to the standards and necessary guidelines that ensure
that IT development is carried out as per the documented busi-
ness plan and design specifications.
2.2.2 DESIGN OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE
An effective IT infrastructure design requires attention to detail and

constant dedication. The design should be capable enough to satisfy
the associated business processes. It should be developed by an expe-
rienced team of professionals.
The very first step in designing an IT infrastructure is creating a qual-

ity “Design Manual” or “Design Document” in consultation with var-
S
ious experts. It should contain the detailed design specifications of
the IT infrastructure to be created along with step by step description
of processes. A typical design document should include the following
types of information:
IM
Design of the network of the IT infrastructure.
Design of the server/host and data centre.
Design of the client and server operating system.
Hardware and software details of the components of IT infrastruc-
ture.
M
Design of the E-Mail network to be created.

Specifications about access controls and the suitable designated
authorities for accessing important IT assets.
N
Design specifications of data recovery software’s and various back-

up devices.
Details about internet bandwidth, firewalls, anti-malware soft-
ware’s etc. to maintain the smooth functioning of the IT network.
The design of an IT infrastructure requires entire enterprise trans-

formation which involves business processes, organisational policies,
organisational framework, software and hardware, applications etc.
Table 2.1 gives an idea of the 3 tier IT infrastructure model:
Table 2.1: IT Infrastructure Model

Type of architecture Constituents
Business Business Needs, Data Model, Flow Diagram
Technical Tools, Hardware
Application Software, Applications
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/PhilippeJulio/infrastructure-design-en
Effective migration from the traditional infrastructure set up to

new IT software.

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Efficient
design of the Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area
Network (WAN) as well as routers, switches, modems, hubs etc.
Adequate attention should be given to the crucial network security
mechanisms with a careful assessment of risks and the methods to
solve them.
Effective architecture of the directory must be considered in order
to explore the geographic boundaries of an organisation in order
to undertake the most suitable deployment structure.
There is also a growing popularity for development of infrastructure
which is spread across a number of different cost centres as well as a
variety of platforms of the organisations that can be effectively added
or removed from the system as per necessity. This type of adjustable
mechanism is known as Cloud Computing.
There is a basic structural similarity between the IT infrastructures of
S
different companies. The basic segments of an IT system comprises of
broad categories like software, methodology, hardware, surrounding
and human resource. These leagues have smaller subdivisions that
IM
form the core of an IT infrastructure in any organisation.
1. A judicious investment in the organisation’s ‘Infrastructure

Management’ is one of the causes of decrease in the profits.
(True/False)
M
2. The very first step in designing an IT infrastructure is creating

a quality ___________.
3. Basic components of a system are _____, _______ and _________.
N
Activity
Find out the architecture of IT infrastructure in any organisation

of your choice.
DETERMINE CUSTOMER
2.3
REQUIREMENTs
As customers are considered as “Gods” in any business setting and
their choices should be given unconditional importance. Before con-
structing an IT infrastructure, the requirement and miniscule specifi-
cations of the customers must be settled. This job is generally execut-
ed by a Business Analyst. They reach out to the customers, represent
their requirements, investigate about the deployment time etc. The
noted requirement is transferred to the core IT team so that the de-
sign structure fulfills the customer demands absolutely.
The requirement gathering is not fixed and it changes from custom-

er to customer and from one organisation to the other. Sometimes

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the requirements can get modified which should be noted down and
communicated to the design team so that necessary changes can be
integrated. Various techniques are adopted like client surveys, ques-
tionnaires, customer polls etc. Sig sigma approach emphasises the
significance of customer requirements and treats them as a unique
entity.
2.3.1 ELUCIDATION
The requirement gathering is a progressive process which needs to be
done through utmost care.
There are certain steps which need to be followed. Deriving from
Goldsmith’s proposition of “Problem Pyramid” the following steps
should be followed in sequential order:
S
1. Perceive the problem, perform root cause analysis and gauge
threats.
2. Observe the current measures which showcases that the problem
already identified is real.
IM
3. Perceive the goals to exhibit that the identified problem has been
effectively addressed and its importance of fulfilling it.
4. Enumerate the “As-is” logic of the aforesaid problem, as the
reason of problem needs to be solved so that the problem will be
solved automatically.
M
5. Formulate distinctly “Tangible things that should be delivered” in

order to fulfill the goal objectives.
6. Fabricate a design of the product which satisfies the requirements
of the customers and end users.
N
Figure 2.2 showcases few means of Requirement Gathering or Re-

quirements Elucidation Methods:
Brain-
storming
Use Proto
Cases typing
Requirement
Role User Ob
Elucidation
Playing servation
Methods
Question-
Interviews
aires
Workshops
Figure 2.2: Requirement Elucidation Methods

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2.3.2 DOCUMENTATION
No design is possible in a verbal manner. A well written design docu-

ment should be created before starting the design of IT infrastructure.
The design document should be comprehensive, easy to understand,
user friendly approach, detailed. The design document should be a
bridge between the business and automation which should be circu-
lated among the concerned clients and other stakeholders for their
ready reference. Also one copy of this document should be duly signed
by the stakeholders as well as the customers and it should be ensured
that the IT design will be done according to the specifications men-
tioned in the design document.
The design document should contain the below details about the IT
project:
S
Key deliverables and the primary objective of the project.
The blueprint of the customer’s requirements should be men-
tioned in a clear and crisp manner.
IM
Blueprint of the surrounding in which the IT infrastructure will
function.
Any background report or information pertaining to the current
IT infrastructure to be deployed.
Details of the possible challenges that might come up in designing
M
the IT infrastructure.
The deadline of the project that is the time limit for the delivery of
the IT infrastructure should be mentioned clearly as well as major
project milestones should be established.
N
The requirement gathering document generally includes end users

specs, various use case scenarios used, user interfaces, system re-
quirements, etc. They are written from the end user’s point of view
and are written in lucid, simple language in a narrative manner.
4. The Requirement Gathering document should be from the

vendor’s viewpoint. (True/False)
5. Mention any 4 elucidation methods.
6. __________ ___________ approach emphasises the significance
of customer requirements and treats them as a unique entity.
Activity
Find out which requirements elucidation methods are used in your

choice of organisation.

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2.4 IDENTIFYING SYSTEM COMPONENTS

The components of Information System include Software, Environ-
ment, Hardware, Processes, and People. All the components work to-
gether to give seamless IT infrastructure in an organisation.
Figure 2.3 gives you a concept of the various components of an IT

system:
CPU
INPUT DEVICE
HARDWARE OUTPUT DEVICE
S
CABLES
STORAGE DEVICE
IM
FIRMWARE
UTILITIES
SOFTWARE OS
SOFTWARE
M
APPLICATIONS
POWER
N
SYSTEM COMPONENTS ENVIRONMENT COOLING
FLOOR SPACE
ACTIVATION
OPERATION
PROCESSES USER MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
HOUSEKEPPING
USERS
PEOPLE SYSTEM SUPPORT STAFF
VENDORS AND SUPPLIERS
Figure 2.3: Components of an IT System

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7. An example of software is operating system (True/False)

8. Components of an information system include _____________,
____________, hardware, processes and people.
Activity
List down all the software installed in your PC.
2.5 EXISTING PROCESS DOCUMENTATION

The process documents emphasises the fact behind why the IT infra-
S
structure process is done, what process flow needs to be done, how
the finished product will look like etc. The colour scheme or design of
the welcome screen can be modified by the end user. There is detailed
mention of the System Requirements (technical perspective) needed
IM
for the IT infrastructure. Usually there are four preset themes for the
welcome screen of the system requirements. Different colour schemes
are provided for the text, active links, seen links, unseen links, back-
ground of the page and the different buttons. There is also a separate
section in the process document which specifies the design of the User
Interfaces that is the portion of the system which the end user visua-
M
lises and uses it on day to day basis.
The requirement gathering document which underlines the crucial

processes is prepared by a series of simplified steps which is illustrat-
ed in Figure 2.4:
N
GATHERING RECORDING CLASSIFYING PRIORTISIZING

REQUIREMENTS REQUIREMENTS REQUIREMENTS REQUIREMENTS
Figure 2.4: Steps for Initialising a Requirement Gathering Document
After the process flow document or the requirement specification doc-

ument has been kicked off, by careful ordering and prioritising the re-

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quirements gathered, the document is being written in the following

format:
1. Introduction: The beginning of the document has an introduction
which briefs about the goal of the particular document and steps
of using it. If a technical background is required to understand
the process of requirement gathering, it is explained in this
section. In this part, the scope of the IT solution, its boundaries,
etc. are also defined.
2. General description: In this section, the IT infrastructure is
explained in detail in simple and non-technical terms. The
functions of the infrastructure, its requirements, list of all
stakeholders, user features, etc. is mentioned in detail in this
particular section. Also, challenges faced, technical errors,
assumptions made, etc. are mentioned here.
S
3. Specific user requirement: This section contains the list of
requirements including any specific requirements along with
relevant requirement groupings.
IM
4. Appendix: This section contains the source documents if any,
like user interviews, use case scenario, etc.
5. Glossary: This section contains the list of uncommon terms and
their meanings, abbreviations or acronym used in the entire
document along with their full forms.
M
6. References and suggested readings: If any website or journal or

reference books have been used for the purpose of writing the
document, the same is mentioned in this section of the document.
7. Index: In case of large manual, this section is used for easy
N
retrieval of the contents.
9. Appendix is the section which contains the source documents,

if any, like user interviews, use case scenario, etc. (True/False)

10. General description of the document should be in
________________ terms.
Activity
Find out the samples of requirement gathering documents in large

corporates.

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2.6 DATA
The small information piece which has exclusive formatting, stored
on a recording intermediate and transferred via electronic signals is
known as data. All the software have two distinct classes Data and
Programs. Programs are accumulation of data which functions on the
basis of coded instructions. Their main function is to monitor and in-
fluence the operation of an IT device like computer. Data is being pro-
cessed to convert information into knowledge.
There are several forms of data. It can be text or numerical form, bytes
or bits embedded in the electronic memory device etc. The nomencla-
ture “Data” is frequently used to separate human readable pieces of
information from binary information which can be read by machines.
The information about the database is stored in the data files of the
S
system. The type of data set which provides a summary of the details
of the individual data used is known as “Metadata”.
Metadata makes individual data search easier. In large organisations

IM
“Database Management Systems” are used which are defined as large
centrally maintained repository of data (either automated or mechan-
ical) which stores all the data of the organisation in specific categories.
2.6.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF DATA

M
Data can have one or several characteristics as listed below:

Accurate
Reliable
Valid
N
Relevant
Timely
Complete
Meet set data quality standards

Component of systems and processes
The data embedded in databases has some characteristics as listed

below:
Data is unique and is not repeated.
Permanent existence of data.
Data Sharing is easy among various types of applications and end
users within an organisation.
Correct form of data with proper categorisation.
Modifications in data made at one strata never affect the data at
other stratas.

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2.6.2 TYPES OF DATA
There can be several data types. In the languages of programming, a

data type can be elaborated as a assorted set with embedded values
which have features that are already predefined. Table 2.2 will give a
decent idea regarding types of data:
Table 2.2: Types of Data
Type of data Description Example
Numerical Whole number or decimal but no 66, 29, 89.5
fraction
Currency Automatically puts currency sym- $82.97
bol like $ before the data ( up to
two decimal places)
Alphanumeric Enter symbol, text or numerical Name Hari, Address-
S
value 17/5 James Street
Boolean Data has got only two substitutes True/False, Yes/No
Date/time Provides different formats to en- Dates 28 June 2015,

IM
ter Date and Time 28/06/15
Time 08.05 PM, 20.05
Figure 2.5 illustrates an example of the data types:
Fiel Name Data Type

M
CUSTOMER_ID AutoNumber Autonumber

FORENAME Text
SURNAME Text
Text
ADDRESS Text
N
TELEPHONE_NUMBER Text
DATE_OF_BIRTH Date/Time Date/Time
NUMBER_OF_CHILDREN Number Number
RECEIVE MAIL Yes/No Logical/ Boolean/ Yes/No
Figure 2.5: Data Types

Source: http://www.teach-ict.com/ks3/year7/data_handling/miniweb/pg7.htm
11. In databases, repetition of data takes place quite often. (True/

False)

12. The small _______________ piece which has exclusive
formatting, stored on a recording intermediate and transferred
via electronic signals is known as data.
Activity
Search for more information on “Metadata”.

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DISTINGUISHING between
2.7
APPLICATIONS AND TOOLS
The small constituent of a software which is responsible for the over-
all smooth functioning of the software package as a whole is referred
as “Tools”. The miniature ingredients perform together to form a big-
ger entity which have practical applications. Each miniature part may
not perform at the same time but work in coordination when desired.
With the absence of the tools in a software package, the entire product
will be malfunctioned. Software tools are periodically amended and
new tools are added frequently in order to optimise the performance
of the software program.
The set of programs or the entire software package which allow the
end user to perform several activities, tasks by relevant directions is
S
known as “Application”. The Application software fails to perform ef-
ficiently on its own unless the Tools or the System Software executes
the specified function.
IM
Examples of Application include Web Browser, MS Word, Spread-
sheets, Graphical Interface, and Operating System etc. For example,
in software like MS Word, there is one tool called spell checker that
helps in checking spelling.Some of the fundamental distinguishing
factor between Applications and Tools are shown in Table 2.3:
Table 2.3: Comparison between Application

M
and Tools
Application Tools
Big entity functioning as a Tiny miniature elements
single system.
N
Performs as a single unit. Performs with others to give desired outcome

Unable to work alone. Can work alone
Dependent on tools. Works independently
Example- MS Word, Web Example Word Count in MS Word
Browser.
13. The set of programs or the entire software package which

allow the end user to perform several activities, tasks by
relevant direction is known as _________.
14. The small constituent of a software which is responsible for
the overall smooth functioning of the software package as a
whole is known as _________________.
Activity
Write down three applications of your choice and their correspond-

ing tools.

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2.8 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

The operations management with regard to information technology
can be defined as the administration of all the services that are of-
fered by the IT staff inside the organisation as well as outside in order
to achieve the business mission. The IT operations management is
crucial for smooth working of IT and its related infrastructure in any
company. An IT operations manager inspects routine repetitive activ-
ities of the IT department.
The exemplary roles in IT operation management encompasses com-

puter operation, network management, security management, serv-
er management, application supervision, implementation of new IT
infrastructure, project management, vendor management, disaster
recovery, audit, help desk management, email/network configuration,
S
etc.
In today’s digital world, where the modern establishment is trans-

formed into automated entity, the operations management is admin-
IM
istered through software developed for this goal. For example, the
famous tech giant HCL has invented the spectacular “Integrated Op-
erations Management” software which caters to a wide range of oper-
ational activities from Interface Management to Real Time Reporting.
The ensuing illustration in Figure 2.6 gives an idea of the tasks per-
formed by the specific software:
M
Integrated Operations Management Services
Incident
Monitoring Administration Troubleshooting Reporting
Management
N
► End user ► Alert handling ► Data fixes ► Interface issues ► Ad-hoc

transaction ► SOP based ► Archival-backups etc ► Deployments reporting
monitoring resolution ► Master data ► Diagnostics ► Parameters &
► Log monitoring ► Ticket configuration ► Problem frequency
► Session monitoring assignment ► Patch management ► Real time
identification
► Ticket triaging
► Process monitoring ► Interface management ► Root cause reporting
► Escalation
► Usage patterns ► Production support analysis
management
operations ► Problem resolution
► Application
deployments
Services
Incident Problem Change Release
End user centric approach Real time ops culture Reduced costs of operations
ITL based service delivery Tool based approach Proactive performance management
Packaged SAP, Bespoke .Net, Bespoke .Net, OS, DB,

JDE,BI, Siebel, etc JAVA, ASP, etc Java, ASP., etc Security, Networks
Figure 2.6: Example of Operations Management

Source: http://www.hcltech.com/it-infrastructure-management/integrated-operation-manage-
ment-service-offerings

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15. Vendor management is one of the examples of operations

management in IT. (True/False).
16. An ____________inspects routine repetitive activities of the IT
department.
17. _______ software invented by HCL caters to a wide range of
operational activities from Interface Management to Real
Time Reporting.
Activity
Explore the IT management initiative in any leading MNC.
S
2.9 IT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
IM
The administration of the widespread computer network in an organ-
isation is known as IT systems management. It aims in basic manage-
ment activities, fabricating structures, deploying required infrastruc-
ture, administrating the available IT resources in a company. It acts as
a catalyst in making the IT infrastructure in an establishment robust,
durable and competent. They are usually centralised and integrated
M
in nature.
The typical tasks in IT Systems Management include formulation of

vision, requirement gathering, disposition of new system, system allo-
cation, system update, assessment of the physical systems etc. Such
N
range of tasks are usually being executed under the spearhead of

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Information Officer (CIO).
2.9.1 COMMON TASKS OF IT SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
Today, in this hi-tech age, IT systems have disseminated beyond in-

stitutional boundaries. IT systems management have spread to the
physical systems positioned outside the institution where merchants,
end users etc. are the main collaborators. This innovative idea forms
the heart of Cloud Computing. This whole webbed system should be
dealt in a responsible manner.
Some of the common job undertakings include:

Propose schemes for installation sites, determining locations of
servers, allocating IP address to individual systems, design of the
network.

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Installationof computer hardware like printers, network hubs,

DVD drive, CD rom, motherboard, CPU, UPS, etc.
Establish ace environment for the IT systems like humidity, tem-
perature, fire safety, electrical wiring safety, etc.
Conventional preservation for optimum performance of the IT
systems like booting systems, keeping a backup of data, regular
updates of Operating System, etc.
Installing indispensable software and erasing insignificant ones.
Surveillance of network security, workstations, OS errors, server
system, etc.
Storage management of data.
Administration of anti-malicious software applications and eradi-
S
cating the infected systems.
2.9.2 ORGANISATIONAL MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

IM
Organisational Management Approaches are the basic principles of
management which are essential to understand how the management
team operates. There are numerous theories for Organisational Man-
agement, but two theories are most popular. The first one is “Peo-
ple-Process-Technology” approach and the second one being “Strate-
gy-Tactics-Operations” approach.
M
We will examine these two unique theories one by one.
PEOPLE-PROCESS-TECHNOLOGY APPROACH
N
Figure 2.7 illustrates the people-process technology approach:
Process
People Technology
Figure 2.7: People -Process-Technology Approach

Source: http://www.vijugroup.com

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This approach believes that the IT infrastructure is managed by the

combination of three driving components - people, process and tech-
nology. The three aspects work cohesively:
People:It refers to the human capital of an establishment in the
top management level which includes directors, CEO, CIO, etc.
Process: In this, human resource at the middle management level,
are convoluted who are liable for the mapping, implementation,
assessment of the IT framework. Examples are IT admin, system
supervisors, etc.
Technology: In this level, human resource at the operational lev-
el are involved like Programmers, Network Administrators and
many others who are liable for troubleshooting, fixing and con-
serving IT systems.
S
STRATEGY-TACTICS-OPERATIONS APPROACH
In this approach, it is being simulated that the combination of three

IM
elements–strategy, tactics and operations make the management of
IT systems successful. Figure 2.8 illustrates the strategy-tactics-oper-
ations approach:
Strategy
M
Tactics
N
Operations
Figure 2.8: Strategy–Tactics-Operations Approach

Strategy: In this element, long term goals of an organisation are
laid down which involves planning the major strategies required
to accomplish the vision. The concept revolves around substitutes,
alliance, identity, etc.
Tactics: The mission formulated in the preceding level are con-
verted into short term goals in this level.
Operations: In this level, actions are formulated in order to achieve
the goals of the concerned firm. Practical realisation of theories
happens at this level.

n o t e s
18. One of the tasks of IT systems management is installing anti

malware software (True/False).
19. The full form of CIO is ________________.
20. Which of the following is an approach used in organisational
management?
a. People- Process-Techniques
b. People-Process-Technology
c. People-Processing-Technology
d. None of these
21. In strategy-tactics-operations approach, the ________ element
S
refers to actions that are formulated in order to achieve the
goals of the concerned firm.
IM
Activity
Find out the common tasks of IT systems management in a health-

care organisation.
2.10 SUMMARY
M
The term “Infrastructure Management” refers to the effective ad-

ministration of vital components like data, policies, equipment,
human resources, external vendors, process flows, etc., which con-
stitutes the “infrastructure” of an organisation.
N
A well written design document should be created before starting

the design of IT infrastructure. The design document should be
comprehensive, easy to understand and user friendly.
The coherent group of individual digital components for the pur-
pose of collection, processing and storage of data in order to es-
tablish meaningful information as well as knowledge is known as
“Information Systems”.
The main components of IS include Hardware, Software, Data-
base, Telecommunication, People and Procedures.
The two most common Organisational Management Approaches
are First one is “People-Process-Technology” approach and the
second one being “Strategy-Tactics-Operations” approach.
key words
Appendix: This section contains the source documents if any,

like user interviews, use case scenario, etc.

n o t e s
Data: Small information piece which has exclusive formatting,

stored on a recording intermediate and transferred via elec-
tronic signals is known as data.
Documentation: A well written design document should be cre-
ated before starting the design of IT infrastructure. The design
document should be comprehensive, easy to understand and
user friendly.
Elucidation: Refers to requirement gathering, it is a progres-
sive process which needs to be done through utmost care.
Index: In case of large manual, this section is used for easy re-
trieval of the contents.
Information system components: The components of Informa-
tion System include Software, Environment, Hardware, Pro-
S
cesses, and People. All the components work together to give
seamless IT infrastructure in an organisation.
IM
1. Explain the basic design characteristics of an IT infrastructure.
2. List down the requirement gathering methods.
3. Write the process for initialising a requirement gathering
M
document.
4. What do you understand by data?
5. List down the different types of data.
N
6. What do you mean by operations management?

7. What do you undersatnd by organisational management
approaches?

IT Infrastructure 1. False
2. Software development, IT support
system
3. Server, Client, Network
Determine Customer Re- 4. False
quirements
5. Use cases, Brainstorming, Proto-
typing, Interviews

n o t e s

6. Six Sigma
Identifying System Com- 7. True
ponents
8. Software, Environment
Existing Process Docu- 9. True
mentation
10. Non technical
Data 11. False
12. Information
Distinguishing between 13. Applications
Applications and Tools
S
Operations Management 14. Tool
15. True
16. IT operations manager
IM
17. Integrated Operations Manage-
ment
IT Systems management 18. True
19. Chief Information Officer
20. b. People-Process-Technology
M
21. Operations

N
1. The combination of various system components necessary for the

fabrication, operation and conservation of the IT surrounding
of a typical organisation is known as IT infrastructure. Refer to
Section 2.2 IT Infrastructure
2. Some requirement gathering methods are as follows:
Brainstorming
Prototyping
User Observation
Interviews
Workshops
Questionnaires
Role Playing
Use Cases
Refer to Section 2.3 Determine Customer Requirements

n o t e s
3. The process for initialising a requirement gathering document

is:
Gathering requirements
Recording requirements
Classifying requirements
Prioritising requirements
Refer to Section 2.5 Existing Process Documentation
4. The small piece of information that has exclusive formatting,
stored on a computer’s memory and transferred via electronic
signals is known as data. Refer to Section 2.6 Data
5. In the programming languages, a data type gives a set of values
from which an expression, such as variable and function take
S
their respective values. There can be several data types, which
are as follows:
Numerical: Represents the whole number or decimal but no
fraction
IM
Currency: Puts currency symbol like $ before the data ( up to
two decimal places)
Alphanumeric: Enters symbol, text or numerical value
Boolean: Represents logical values , such as true or false and
0 and 1
M
Date/time: Provides different formats to enter Date and

Time
Refer to Section 2.6 Data
N
6. The operations management in an IT scenario can be defined

as the administration of all the services that are offered by the
IT staff inside the organisation as well as outside in order to
achieve the business mission. Refer to section 2.7 Distinguishing
between Applications and Tools
7. Organisational management approaches are the basic principles
of management which are essential to understand how the
management team operates. There are numerous theories for
Organisational Management, but two theories are most popular.
The first one is “People-Process-Technology” approach and the
second one being “Strategy-Tactics-Operations” approach. Refer
to section 2.9 IT Systems Management.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Choubey, M. (2015). IT infrastructure and Management.
Hudson, R. (2015). Infrastructure Management.

n o t e s
E-REFERENCES
Techopedia.com. (2015). What is IT Infrastructure? Definition from
Techopedia. Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://www.techopedia.
com/definition/29199/it-infrastructure
Webster, M. (2013). IT Organisation Design. Leadership Thoughts.
Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://www.leadershipthoughts.com/
it-organisation-design/
Projectsmart.co.uk. (2015). Requirements Gathering 101. Re-
trieved 14 July 2015, from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/require-
ments-gathering.php
SearchCIO. (2015). What is infrastructure management (IM)? Defi-
nition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://search-
cio.techtarget.com/definition/infrastructure-management
S
IM
M
N

C h a
3 p t e r
Server Farms
CONTENTS
S
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Applications of Server Farm
IM
Activity
3.3 Performance of Server Farms
Activity
3.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Server Farms
M

Activity
3.5 Compile Farm
N
Activity
3.6 Render Farm
Activity
3.7 Link Farm
Activity
3.8 Summary

n o t e s
INFOTECH IMPROVES ITS SERVICES BY USING A

NEW SERVER FARM
Company Profile
Infotech Enterprises is a leading IT services provider, which oper-

ates over 27 countries and provides its services to different com-
panies of various sectors, from telecom to aerospace.
Once, due to high number of clients and work load, the company’s
servers started running out of memory due to which the compa-
ny failed to deploy large projects and complete the existing proj-
ects within deadlines. Moreover, the projects were highly dynam-
ic and demanded rapid modifications. B.L.V. Rao, CIO, Infotech
S
Enterprises stated, “This massive amount of customer data and
project information needs to be preserved, processed, analysed and
archived securely on heterogeneous platforms. There was an urgent
need for storage optimisation.”
IM
Challenges
Scaling the storage space requires higher capacity and speed.

Therefore, Rao decided to combine and virtualise all file servers
and applications by building a new server farm. Depending upon
M
the availability of critical data and performance requirement, the

tiered storage architecture was used.
Rao also stated that customers were very rigid about timelines
regarding the deployment of their project and the increase in the
N
storage space of servers can solve the problem. With any new ex-
periment, meeting client expectations are very crucial.
Solution
The Infotech’s IT team has set up a new server farm by using high
capacity disk for storing and archiving data. The team has also
ensured the security by storing it in compressed and encrypted
form to satisfy their customers related to security concern.
With the installation of new server farm, the company has saved
80 lakh rupees per annum and with the current ability of han-
dling of large projects, the company has been adding 15 custom-
ers every year. Moreover, the projects profit has been improved by
10-15 percent including better satisfaction of customers. The data
stored on the server farm are now more protected than before.

Server Farms 61
n o t e s
learning objectives

>> Discuss the applications of a server farm
>> Explain the performance of a server farm
>> Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a server farm
>> Discuss the usage of a compile farm
>> Explain the functioning of a render farm
>> Explore a link farm
3.1 INTRODUCTION
S
In the previous chapters, you have learned about the client server
model in which a client machine sends a request and the server ac-
knowledges it by providing the necessary resources or services. A cli-
ent may request a file, a Web page or other applications stored on a
IM
server. The client server model is used in almost all the organisations
where all the files are stored at a centralised location and the employ-
ees can access the resources, as and when required. Necessary per-
missions are granted to each and every employee so that no employee
can destroy data and resources stored on the server.
M
As the resources and data grow, a single server cannot handle the
large number requests of the clients, giving rise to the need of inter-
connected servers. These interconnected servers are known as server
farms, which can fulfil large numbers of requests of the clients that
is not possible with the single server machine. The server farms are
N
maintained by organisations to handle a large number of users and

data. A server farm consists of thousands of servers, routers, switch-
es, hubs and other networking devices to manage data and provide
prompt responses to user’s requests. Server farms are required not
only for providing functionalities and data storage but also for backing
up data. For this purpose, the server farms also include back up serv-
ers which retains back up of data in case of failures of primary serv-
ers. These backup servers are used to access data when the primary
servers are not functioning. Server farms are very important for any
organisation as they are the backbone of every organisation handling
a large number of client requests and data.
In this chapter, you will first study about applications of server farm in
the real world. Further, you will study about how the performance of
server farms is measured in organisations. Next, you will study about
advantages and disadvantages of server farms. This chapter will fur-
ther discuss about compile farm, render farm and link farm.

n o t e s
3.2 Applications of Server Farm

As discussed earlier, a server farm is used to provide integrated com-
puting power of several interconnected servers. These interconnected
servers are capable of executing a large number of applications simul-
taneously. For example, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other big or-
ganisations have large data centers which contain many server farms.
Figure 3.1 shows a Facebook’s massive Arctic Sever Farm which uses
fresh arctic for cooling instead of air conditioners:
S
IM
M
Figure 3.1: Facebook’s Arctic Server Farm

Source: https://www.cloudyn.com/blog/10-facts-didnt-know-server-farms/
N
The number of computers in the server farm can be increased or de-

creased depending upon the traffic on the network which means serv-
er farms are scalable. Besides, handling the traffic the server farms
also find its application in various fields which are as follows:
Cluster computing: Basically, a cluster is set of computers which
functions together to execute a large number of applications or a
large application. They give the illusion of a single computer work-
ing at the back end or a virtual machine. The benefits of cluster
computing are reliability, load balancing and high performance.
The high availability (HA) and failover clusters models are built
for ensuring the availability of resource in a continuous manner.
The main idea of building such clusters is that if a node or com-
puter of a cluster fails then another node provides the applications
and services to the users without any interruption. This kind of
clusters is used to create database of important missions, e-mail,
and applications.

Server Farms 63
n o t e s
Web hosting: Server farms are also used for hosting of Web ap-
plications. They are capable of deploying from small to large Web
based applications. In context of Web hosting, the server farms are
also known as Web farms as a large number of Web servers are
used to publish and deploy websites or Web based applications.
Besides hosting the Web sites, the server farm also does the load
balancing. The nodes or computers in the server farm handle the
incoming traffics and provides the required resources and services
as per the user’s requests. In case a node fails, then the incoming
traffic is distributed to other available nodes.
Scientific simulations: Server farms also find its application in
the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It is a branch of
fluid mechanics that deals with the problems related to fluid flows.
It analyses and solves problems by performing numerical analysis
and using data structures. With the help of server farms and super
S
computers the results can be achieved with more precision. The
latest supercomputers comprise giant server farms having proces-
sors of high-speed interconnected by either Gigabit Ethernet or
IM
customised interconnections such as Infiniband or Myrinet.
3D rendering: Rendering refers to the process getting the actual
2D image finally from the created scene. In case of 3D rendering,
the actual 2D images are obtained from 3D wire frame models.
The 3D rendering requires cluster of computers or server farms as
they are high performance computers and therefore, can perform
M
the process of rendering smoothly and speedily.
Besides, the previous applications of server farms, they are also used
by large organisations in addition to mainframe computers. The or-
ganisations keep on monitoring the status of the server farms so that
N
service and resources are available to users whenever they wanted.

The state of a server in a server farm can be one of the following:
Active: This state represents that a server can accept the request
of a user sent to the server farm.
Out of service: This state indicates that a connectivity verifier is
not getting response from a particular server in the server farm.
Draining: This state indicates that a server will only process the
requests that are received already but will not fulfil the new re-
quests.
Removed: This state signifies that a server does not exist in the
server farm and therefore, cannot fulfil any kind of requests.
Unable to verify: This state signifies that a server cannot be au-
thenticated in the server farm.

n o t e s
1. The high availability (HA) and failover clusters models are

built for ensuring the availability of resource in continuous
manner. (True/False)
2. A ______ is set of computers which functions together to
execute large number of applications or a large application.
3. In context of Web hosting, the server farms are also known as
_____ farms.
4. CFD stands for __________ fluid dynamics.
5. In ______ state, a server will only process the requests that are
received already but will not fulfil the new requests.
S
Activity
With the help of Internet, find the information about the size of
IM
server farms of top companies like Yahoo!, Google, etc.
3.3 PERFORMANCE OF SERVER FARMS

The performance of the server farms depends upon the working of the
M
cooling systems of data centres and the total cost of electricity con-
sumed to keep the servers working on a 24x7 basis. The performance
of the server farms is not judged on the basis of the functionality and
performance of processors present in the servers. It is because the
computer runs on 24 x 7 basis and consumption of electricity is very
N
high.
The design of the server farm is based on the performance per watt
due to the large consumption of electricity. The performance per watt
measures how much the computer architecture or computer hard-
ware is energy efficient. It basically measures the speed of computa-
tion that is done by a computer for every watt of electricity consumed.
The prediction of performance per watt in a server farm is done by the
EEMBC EnergyBench, SPECpower, and the Transaction Processing
Performance Council TPC-Energy.
The electricity consumed by every rack of equipment can be measured

at power distribution units. Servers can also include power tracking
hardware which helps in calculating the total electricity consumed by
each server in a server farm. The total electricity consumed in a server
farm can be reported either in context of Power Usage Effectiveness
(PUE) or Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE) which com-

Server Farms 65
n o t e s
putes how much energy is consumed by computing equipment. The

PUE can be calculated by using the following formula:
PUE= Total facility energy / IT equipment energy
The ideal PUE calculated is 1.0.
On the other hand, DCIE is the inverse of PUE. It calculates the ener-
gy efficiency of a data center in the percentage value by dividing the
computing equipment power with the total facility power.
It is estimated that for every 100 watts that is consumed by servers for
their operation, approximately additional 50 watts of electricity is re-
quired to cool them. Therefore, companies are looking for sites where
electricity consumption of server farms can be reduced. For example,
Iceland is an ideal site for building server farm hoisting because of its
S
climate which remains cold throughout the year. Moreover, another
advantage in Iceland is the availability of cheap carbon-neutral geo-
thermal electricity supply. Fiber optics cable being installed from Ice-
land to European countries so that companies can access their servers
IM
placed in the Iceland. Besides Iceland, some other countries such as
Canada, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland are also ideal for building
server farms because of their cold climate. The heat released from the
server farms are used to heat the buildings in the cold countries thus
saves the usage of conventional heaters for warming in these coun-
tries.
M
6. PUE stands for

N
a. power usage effectiveness

b. power use effectiveness
c. power use effectively
d. power usage effectively
7. Data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE) is same as PUE.
(True/False)
8. The performance per ______ measures how much the computer
architecture or computer hardware is energy efficient.
Activity
Find the information how companies are looking for new avenues
related to the performance of server farms.

n o t e s
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF

3.4
SERVER FARMS
Till now you have learned, how much a server farm is important for an
organisation. In addition to this, there are some advantages of a server
farm which are as follows:
The server farm is used by companies for quick recovery of data
in case of failure of one server in the server farm. This is done
through mirroring of data in servers which are also known as mir-
rored servers. The rest of the servers in working condition recon-
figured themselves automatically to handle the load of incoming
requests to server farm.
Data cannot be lost in the server farm because data is backed up
by other servers. In case, the servers having critical data fail, you
S
can access the data from the backed up server.
Server farms are scalable which means you can add or remove
hardware from the server farm. This does not affect the perfor-
IMmance of the server farm. Sometimes, the hardware needs to be
repaired or upgraded, which can be done without degrading the
performance of the server farm.
The servers in the server farm are capable enough to balance the
load of the server farm in terms of functionality, power consump-
tion, and bandwidth usage. For this purpose, they use the load
M
balancing algorithm which distributes the load evenly among the

servers in the server farm which results in improved productivity
of servers and maximises the throughout.
Server farm uses resource sharing algorithms to share the re-
sources among themselves especially the storage devices which
N
improve the performance in terms of availability of data to users.

Server farms are constantly monitored, therefore, any issues aris-
es in the server farm are handled instantly so that services and
applications are available to users on 24x7 basis.
A large number of jobs are available in the field of creating and
managing server farms as they are very crucial to any organisation
in terms of market growth and profits.
The technology is double-edged sword; therefore, server farms also
have their disadvantages, some of which are as follows:
Servers in the server functions constantly throughout the day and
night and therefore, consume large amounts of electric energy. For
example, IT giants like Microsoft, Facebook, Google and other com-
panies consumes large amount of power in a year which is equiva-
lent to the consumption of electricity of 40,000 homes in a year.
The server farm releases large amounts of heat because the serv-
ers remain operational every time. To maintain temperature in the
server farm, the power is also required by the air conditioners to
remain operational. It is estimated that half of the total power con-

Server Farms 67
n o t e s
sumed by the server farm gets consumed in cooling the servers in

the server farm. Furthermore, approximately 90% of the energy
consumed in the server farm gets wasted.
To keep the server farm operational in case of power failures, the
power backup systems also remains operational which runs on
diesel. Therefore, the smoke released by the server farm causes
air pollution.
The server farms of large corporations are very large and grow
constantly as the number of clients or users increases. The compa-
nies acquire acres of land to accommodate more number of serv-
ers to handle constantly growing users and their requests. This
land can be either forest land or agriculture land. In other words,
server farms are giving threats to agriculture land and forests.
The cost of implementing a server farm is very high due to the
S
size and number of servers. Moreover, you also require supporting
hardware for a server farm which includes cooling devices, power
backup devices and others. It is estimated that setting up a server
IM
farm of 70,000 servers would cost millions of dollars to a company.
Exhibit
Amazon to Use Server Farm Waste Heat for Office Heating

M
Amazon.com, Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, is a multina-

tional e-commerce enterprise and was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994
N
having its headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
The company was started initially as an online book store, but fur-
ther expanded into offering of different other products, such as
computer software, electronics, video games, clothes, furniture,
food, toys etc. Besides their online store, they also provide cloud
computing services. For this purpose, they require large number
servers in their server farms. A server in the server farms approx-
imately consumes 350 watts of power and generates about 1200
BTU/hr of heat as waste material. Now, let’s calculate the heat re-
leased from the 50 servers which is 60,000 BTU/hr. But, the heat
generated in the server farm is not used and is removed with the
help of air conditioning devices.
Therefore, Amazon is planning to build a new office center in Seat-

tle which will be heated from the heat released from nearby server
farms. This idea would lead to the use of heat generated in the serv-
er farm instead of requiring more energy to dissipate it from the
server farm.
Source: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/building-science/using-server-
farms-heat-buildings

n o t e s
9. The server farm is used by companies for quick recovery of

data in case of failure of one server in the server farm. (True/
False)
10. Server farms are ______ which means you can add or remove
hardware from the server farm.
11. A server farm cannot cause air pollution. (True/False)
Activity
Identify the reasons of shifting the server farms to colder locations

by the companies.
S
3.5 COMPILE FARM
IM
A compile farm refers to a server farm which is set up generally for the
compilation of computer programs remotely. In the compile farm, one
or more servers are deployed for the compilation to provide assistance
to developers for compilation of their developed programs by sitting
at a remote location.
An example of a compile farm is SourceForge. It is a Web-based service

M
that provides a centralised online location for controlling and manag-

ing the free and open-source software applications. The SourceForge
compile farm comprise of twelve machines having different kind of
computer architecture for executing a number of operating systems.
N
This farm allows software developers to test the developed programs

on variety of platforms before providing them to the users on the In-
ternet. Some other examples of compile farm are GCC compile farm,
OpenSUSE Build Service, FreeBSD reports service, Launchpad Build
Farm, etc. Compile farm is also used for many purposes which are as
follows:
Cross platform development: Sometimes, software are developed
that needs to be tested on multiple processors architecture and
operating systems, then compiler farm are used for this purpose. It
is because for a developer to develop such a system is not possible
to test the developed software. Therefore, the developers used the
shared server environment of the compiler farm which includes
the required hardware, OS and architecture to test the developed
software. The cross-compilers are used for the same purpose. In
cross compilation, when you execute the developed software on a
platform, the code for other platform is developed. For example, if
you run the developed software on Windows 7 PC then the code of
the Android smartphone is generated. However, the compile farms
are more preferred over cross compilers as the cross compilers are

Server Farms 69
n o t e s
hard to configure. Moreover, there are some cases in which com-

pilation can be done only on the server farm environment, thus
makes the cross compilation impossible.
Cross-platform continuous integration testing: In this type of sce-
nario, each server present in the compile farm has different archi-
tecture of processors and executes a variety of operating systems.
While developing a software that can run in the cross-platform
environment, an error can be left by a programmer unintentional-
ly that can hinder the smooth functioning of software or can stop
functioning of the software altogether. But, this type of errors can
be detected and removed by using the compile farm for executing
the software.
Distributed compilation: Sometime, the developed software re-
quires to be tested in an environment in which several operations
S
can be executed in parallel. The compile farm offers this facility to
developers to test the software in such an environment in which
many operations can run in parallel on several servers. Moreover,
by using the distcc software tool in distributed compilation envi-
IM
ronment, the speed of process of compilation on several servers
can be increased.
12. A ______ farm refers to a server farm which is set up generally

M
for the compilation of computer programs remotely.

13. In ________ testing scenario, each server present in the compile
farm has different architecture of processors and executes a
variety of operating systems.
N
14. The compile farm offers ______ facility to developers for testing
the software in an environment in which many operations can
run in parallel on several servers.
Activity
Search information about GCC compile farm.
3.6 RENDER FARM

A render farm is a cluster of computers or a server farm that is used
for rendering computer generated images for providing visual effects
in films and television. In the process of rendering the images are syn-
thesised from the 2D or 3D model with the help of computer software.
Rendering can be real time to provide better interactivity to users. In
real time rendering the images can be synthesised very quickly so that
a user can interact in the virtual environment provided to it. The real
time rendering is mostly used in case of video games.

n o t e s
The rendering of images requires highly parallelised activity in which

frames and tiles are reckoned independently from others. The pro-
cessors communicate in the highly parallelised environment and up-
load the source material that involves models and textures, and finally
download the finished images.
The quick synthesis of images depends upon the capability of com-

puter servers. With the advancement in computing, the servers are
developed which can quickly synthesise images. Earlier, the simple
images can be produced quickly but difficulties were faced in synthe-
sising high resolution images which takes lot of time in synthesis. But,
with the cluster of computers or render farm high resolution images
takes less time in synthesis. The high quality of work can be achieved
in images by using high amount of computing power.
The render farms include servers of high computing ability which can
S
produce high quality of images. The servers in the render farm are
managed by using the queue manager program which distributes the
processes among different servers which either obtains a full image
IM
or the sub-section of an image. The queue manager program in the
render farm performs various functions such as re-prioritisation of
the queue and management of software licenses. Besides this, queue
manager also manages some algorithms that best optimises through-
put on the basis of different types of hardware present in the farm.
Besides conventional render farms, the cloud based render farm are
M
also in use because of the high speed of internet access they provide.
Another benefit of using the cloud computing services is that they bill
for the amount of time of processors usage. The cloud based render
farm eliminates the requirement of customers of building and main-
N
taining their own render farm. Sometimes, users also use the process
of collaborative rendering in which they join the group of animators
who can share their processing power in the group for rendering im-
ages.
15. The real time rendering is mostly used in case of video games.
(True/False)
16. Besides conventional render farms, the ______ based render
farm are also in use because of the high speed of internet
access they provide.
Activity
List the companies that use render farms for image synthesis.

Server Farms 71
n o t e s
3.7 Link Farm

A link farm is a group of websites that are hyperlinked with each other.
The link farms were developed in 1999 by Search Engine Optimisers
(Seos).
These websites can be on the same server or on different servers.

These websites may differ in their size and services they offer to users.
The links among the Websites are created either manually or by using
the automated programs and services. Earlier, the links were created
on informal basis but companies later started automated registration
and classification of links of member websites. They also provide the
facility of updation of link pages of member websites. Consider the
case of Google search engine that uses the PageRank algorithm which
determines which link is more valuable in comparison to other and
S
assign weight to links accordingly. Link farming was used to enhance
the PageRank of member pages.
The link exchange systems are also built that enables independent
IM
websites to exchange links with the significant websites only. A link
farm can also be considered as the spamdexing because it sends links
to the index of a Web search engine.

M
17. The websites in a link farm can be on the same server or on

different servers. (True/False)
Activity
N
Using the Internet, write a note on the evolution of a link farm.
3.8 SUMMARY
A server farm is used to provide integrated computing power of
several interconnected servers.
Server farms are also used for hosting of Web applications. They
are capable of deploying from small to large Web based applica-
tions.
Rendering refers to the process getting the actual 2D image finally
from the created scene.
The performance of the server farms depends upon the working of
the cooling systems of data centers and the total cost of electricity
consumed to keep the servers working on 24x7 basis.
The total electricity consumed in a server farm can be reported ei-
ther in context of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) or Data Center
Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE).

n o t e s
Server farms are scalable which means you can add or remove
hardware from the server farm.
A compile farm refers to a server farm which is set up generally for
the compilation of computer programs remotely.
key words
Compile farm: A server farm set up generally for the compila-

tion of computer programs remotely.
Link farm: A group of websites hyperlinked with each other.
Load balancing: The process of managing the load of incoming
requests of clients on the servers.
Render farm: A cluster of computers or a server farm that is
S
used for rendering computer generated images for providing
visual effects in films and television.
Server: A computer having high storage and processing capa-
IM
bilities required to fulfill the requests of clients.
Server farm: A cluster of interconnected computers that gives
an impression of a single system to handle lots of applications,
services and clients.
M

1. What is a server farm? Discuss various applications of a server
farm.
2. Explain different states of a server farm.
N
3. Describe the performance of servers in a server farm.

4. Enlist some advantages of a server farm.
5. Discuss various disadvantages of a server farm.
6. What do you understand by a compile farm?
7. What is the purpose of using a render farm in organisations?

Applications of Server 1. True
Farm
2. cluster
3. Web

Server Farms 73
n o t e s

4. computational
5. Draining
Performance of Server 6. a. power usage effectiveness
Farms
7. False
8. watt
Advantages and Disadvan- 9. True
tages of Server Farms
10. scalable
11. False
S
Compile Farm 12. compile
13. Cross-platform continuous inte-
gration
IM
14. Distributed compilation
Render Farm 15. True
16. cloud
Link Farm 17. True
M

1. The server farms find its applications in various fields such
as cluster computing, Web hosting, etc. Refer to Section
N
3.2 Applications of Server Farm.

2. The state of a server in a server farm can be active, out of service,
draining, etc. Refer to Section 3.2 Applications of Server Farm.
3. The performance of a server farm depends on the working of the
cooling systems of data centers and the total cost of electricity
consumed to keep the servers working on a 24x7 basis. Refer to
Section 3.3 Performance of Server Farms.
4. The server farm is used by companies for quick recovery of data
in case of failure of one server in the server farm. Refer to Section
3.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Server Farms.
5. Technology is a double-edged sword; therefore, server farms
also have their disadvantages. Refer to Section 3.4 Advantages
and Disadvantages of Server Farms.
6. A compile farm refers to a server farm which is set up generally
for the compilation of computer programs remotely. Refer to
Section 3.5 Compile Farm.

n o t e s
7. A render farm is a cluster of computers or a server farm that

is used for rendering computer generated images for providing
visual effects in films and television. Refer to Section 3.6 Render
Farm.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Arregoces, M., & Portolani, M. (2004). Data center fundamentals.
Indianapolis, IN: Cisco.
Load Balancing Servers, Firewalls, and Caches. (n.d.). Retrieved
February 15, 2017, from http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTi-
tle/productCd-0471415502.html
S
E-REFERENCES
Cisco Press. (2014, February 14). Retrieved February 15, 2017, from
IM
http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=102268
Miller, C. (2015, September 29). Apple purchases 200 acres of land
in Oregon to further expand its server farms. Retrieved February
15, 2017, from https://9to5mac.com/2015/09/29/apple-purchases-
200-acres-of-land-in-oregon-to-further-expand-its-server-farms/
Data centers on rise in rural areas. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15,
M
2017, from http://www.iatp.org/news/data-centers-on-rise-in-ru-

ral-areas
Ahdoot, S. (2016, April 26). UPDATE: Data Center Locations and
the Arrival of Server Farms. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from
N
https://www.colocationamerica.com/blog/data-center-locations-ar-
rival-of-server-farms.htm
Prigg, M. (2012, October 19). Inside the internet: Google allows
first ever look at the eight vast data centres that power the online
world. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.
co.uk/sciencetech/article-2219188/Inside-Google-pictures-gives-
look-8-vast-data-centres.html

C h a
4 p t e r
Service Management Processes
CONTENTS
S
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Best Practice Approaches and ITIL
IM
Activity
4.3 Success of ITIL
Activity
4.4 Service Level Management
M
4.4.1 Purpose
4.4.2 Objectives
4.4.3 Scope
N
Activity
4.5 Other Service Design Processes
4.5.1 Financial Management
4.5.2 IT Services Continuity Management
4.5.3 Capacity Management
4.5.4 Availability Management
4.5.5 Configuration Management
4.5.6 Incident Management
4.5.7 Change Management
4.5.8 Release Management
Activity
4.6 Understanding the Service Level Agreement (SLA)
4.6.1 Building the SLA
4.6.2 Structuring the Agreement
Activity

CONTENTS
4.7 Escalation Charts and Dashboards

Activity
4.8 Summary
S
IM
M
N

Service Management Processes 77
n o t e s
INTRODUCTION OF SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT AT EDS
EDS is a global technology service company that offers different

business solutions to its client organisations. In 1997, EDS and
Vodafone signed a Service Level Agreement according to which
the IT activities of Vodafone, Netherlands would be outsourced to
EDS for 10 years. These IT activities would include IT helpdesk,
floor support and system management.
EDS introduced service level management and formed a service

delivery team that was headed by a service delivery manager.
EDS formed an IT helpdesk team, which was a single point of

contact for all IT-related issues like call logging, first line resolu-
tion, dispatching and monitoring. Around 80% of the issues used
S
to be resolved on the first call. However, in cases where the issues
required more time for resolution, the call was dispatched to the
appropriate second line group. The helpdesk uses a helpdesk tool
IM
to log all tickets, and based on this, monthly reporting used to be
done. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is measured by key per-
formance indicators like the number of calls answered, average
time taken to answer a call, initial resolution rate, etc.
Floor support is responsible for handling issues related to desk-

tops, laptops, printers, or any other hardware of users. It is also re-
M
sponsible for the installation of software, new standard desktops

or laptops, upgrading of existing desktops, etc. SLA is measured
by key performance indicators like the number of workplaces in-
stalled, the number of applications installed, etc. System manage-
N
ment is responsible for maintaining Windows application servers

and applications. This group also functions as a third line group
for floor support and is responsible for handling issues related to
desktops, laptops and applications like Microsoft Outlook. SLA is
measured by key performance indicators like availability of the
Windows server and the number of Outlook accounts created, etc.
During the time of the SLA report, it was seen that EDS had
shown a remarkable improvement in its performance. Out of 30
KPIs, one was reported as orange or red and the remaining 29
as green. Also, happy with the partnership with EDS, Vodafone
granted several other global services contracts to EDS.

n o t e s
learning objectives

>> Discuss best practice approaches and ITIL
>> Explain the reasons behind the success of ITIL
>> Explain the concept of Service Level Management (SLM)
>> Discuss the various service design processes
>> Explain Service Level Agreement (SLA)
>> Describe the utility of escalation charts and dashboards
4.1 INTRODUCTION
S
Service management is a customer-focused approach that creates
value for customers; thereby building cordial customer relationships.
ITIL is recognised worldwide as a best-practice approach to IT service
management with focus on the alignment of IT services with business
IM
needs. It focuses on processes, functions, and capabilities required for
supporting IT services in business. The main reason why ITIL is ad-
opted worldwide is that it is based on a practical approach to service
management.
Service management involves a wide body of knowledge, experience

M
and skills of a global community of organisations and individuals in

all sectors. The design of service mainly decides its success or failure
which is created in order to provide a new service or to modify an ex-
isting service capable of providing the needed strategic result. Apart
from these, Service Level Management (SLM) defines and documents
N
the services in an agreement, and ensures that the targets are mea-
sured and met. The scope of SLM comprises performance and quali-
ty of the existing services and the description of the required service
levels.
Other design processes like financial management, capacity manage-

ment, availability management, etc., are also necessary for the smooth
functioning of an organisation. Financial management is essential to
ensure proper and efficient use of funds by an organisation so that it
can meet its business objectives. The aim of the capacity management
process is to capture the current and future requirements of a ser-
vice and to make sure that it is capable of delivering the needed level.
The availability management process is required to take proper steps
needed to deliver the availability requirements specified in SLA.
SLA specifies the service and the quality processes that help in judg-
ing the delivery of this service. It should be a written agreement and
should provide the purpose and scope of the document so that any
reader can understand the intention of SLA clearly.

n o t e s
In this chapter, you will learn about service management processes

in detail. This includes detailed coverage of Service Level Manage-
ment (SLM), other service design processes, escalation charts and
dash boards. In this chapter, you will study the concept of ITIL. You
will also study the reasons behind the success of ITIL. Next, you will
study about the Service Level Management (SLM). Further, you will
study about the service design processes and Service Level Agree-
ment (SLA). Towards the end of the chapter, you will study about es-
calation charts and dash boards.
4.2 BEST PRACTICE APPROACHES AND ITIL

In order to sustain and grow in the market, organisations always try to
find out the best approaches of delivering services to their clients. One
such efficient approach is ITIL that is used to deliver IT services to cli-
S
ents efficiently. However, it is important for an organisation involved
in delivering services to ensure that the service must meet the require-
ments of customers, remain cost effective and come under customer’s
budget. Figure 4.1 shows many sources of service management:
IM
Standards Employees
Industry practices Customers
Source Enables
Academic research Suppliers
(Generate) (Aggregate)
Training & education Advisors
M
Internal experience Technologies
Substitutes Competition
Drivers Regulators Scenarios
N
Compliance
(Filter) Filter
Customers Commitments
Knowledge fit for business

objectives, context, and purpose
Figure 4.1: Sources of Service Management

Source: https://www.google.co.in/search?q=design+constraints+driven+by+strategy&bi-
w=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIuev46P_
ZxgIVSJOUCh135gpy#tbm=isch&q=Sources+of+service+management+best+practic-
es&imgrc=GRiT-4PaxLfMjM%3A
As shown in Figure 4.1, the sources of service management comprise

the following:
Proprietary knowledge/internal experience
In an organisation, the proprietary knowledge is generally
deeply embedded. This knowledge is very valuable, and can-
not be shared with any other organisation. It cannot be docu-
mented and therefore held as the knowledge of a person.

n o t e s
Proprietary knowledge is highly customised and is therefore

specific to an organisation. Such knowledge is based on indi-
vidual conditions and preferences and generally cannot be ap-
plied in another organisation.
The sharing of this knowledge can be restricted by proprietor-
ship and subjected to legal or monetary negotiation.
Standards/industry practices
Standards and commonly used industry practices can be pub-
licised by capturing data and documentation.
Standards can be authorised in several situations and environ-
ments despite being implemented and tested only by a single
organisation. They can be examined and studied by competi-
tors, partners and suppliers.
S
Six Sigma, ITIL, Lean, COBIT, Prince2, CMMI, PMBOK, ISO/
IEC 20000, ISO 9000 and ISO/IEC 27001 are some commonly
used standards.
IM
Training and education/academic research
Education and information present about publicly available
standards and research allow organisations in educating their
employees in a consistent way.
M
Acquiring knowledge is easier for organisations through the

marketplace as the skills and qualifications levels can be stan-
dardised.
N
1. ________ is recognised worldwide as a best-practice approach

to IT service management.
2. Organisations keep themselves competitive in the market
by constantly comparing themselves with their competitors.
(True/ False)
3. Which of the following can be ineffective in another
organisation unless similar conditions prevail?
a. Proprietary knowledge
b. Standards/industry practices
c. Training and education/academic research
d. None of these

n o t e s
Activity
Using the Internet, study and prepare a report on a service delivery

policy formed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
4.3 SUCCESS OF ITIL

ITIL is adopted widely because it is based on a practical methodology
to service management. The principle followed in the ITIL framework
ensures that all efforts must have a common objective. The key factors
behind the success of ITIL are as follows:
Vendor neutrality: This factor specifies that ITIL framework is
not based on a particular technology platform or type of industry.
Moreover, it is not bounded to any specific vendor or has relations
S
with any commercial proprietary approaches or solutions. There-
fore, the kind of guidance provided by the service management is
applicable across all types of organisations.
IM
Non-prescriptive: The ‘adopt and adapt’ approach has been fol-
lowed by ITIL since its inception. Implementing this approach
facilitates the adaptation to fulfill the particular needs for val-
ue creation in a particular organisation. The guidance compris-
es time-tested, robust and mature approaches that can be used
by any service industry. ITIL does not rely on the technological
environment and offers practical guidance that is applicable and
M
adaptable to any type of situation.

Best practice: ITIL provides the collected information and guid-
ance from the finest sources of service management approaches
used across the world.
N
Some more factors or advantages that encourage the organisations to

adopt the ITIL framework are as follows:
Value creation through the delivery of services
Emphasis on combination of business requirements with client’s
requirements
Capability of measuring, monitoring and optimising IT services
Ability of managing investment for IT services and controlling
budget
Perform knowledge management across a service management
organisation
Effective delivery of services using the resource management
Acceptance of a standard method to service management across
an organisation

n o t e s
Provides enhancement in the interaction and relationship be-

tween the service provider and their clients
Capability of coordinating while delivering goods and services
Capability to optimise and reduce costs
4. ITIL framework is based on particular technology platform or

type of industry. (True/False)
5. ITIL provides the collected information and guidance from
the finest sources of service management approaches used
across the world. (True/ False)
6. Which of the following is not a key factor for ITIL’s success?
S
a. Vendor neutrality b. Non-prescriptive
c. Perspective d. All of these
IM
Activity
Find the information on how the ITIL framework can be used for
service management in an organisation.
M
4.4 SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT

The purpose of service level management is to discuss, negotiate and
agree with the client about delivering IT services. It also makes sure
that the objective measures are used to determine whether the ser-
N
vices provided are up to the agreed level or not. In other words, ser-
vice level agreement is used to define and document the services in an
agreement and ensure that objectives are measured and met. It also
ensures that necessary actions should be taken to improve the level of
the delivered service.
The service level management comprises handling of existing as well

as planned IT services. Basically, the service level management is con-
cerned with warranty of the delivered service. The different attributes
of the delivered service such as response time, capacity, availability,
etc., depends upon SLA. Therefore, it is very important that the ser-
vice created and delivered must meet both utility and warranty re-
quirements.
4.4.1 PURPOSE
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) states that the

purpose of Service Level Management (SLM) is to ensure that all cur-
rent and planned IT services are delivered to the agreed achievable
targets.

n o t e s
In addition, SLM also ensures that SLA of IT services being deliv-

ered should exist and negotiations can take place for planned ser-
vices. SLM makes sure that SLA must be agreed before the services
get operational. Service level management is considered as a process
of service design which is created for delivering the levels of avail-
ability, capacity, etc. required by the customer. Moreover, the service
level management must be documented in the SLA. A problem that
encounters frequently with SLA is that it is not considered before the
operational date of the service. It may so happen that the prepared
SLA does not meet the customer level requirements. The different at-
tributes of the service such as response time, capacity, availability etc.
are the subject of SLA and therefore, it is necessary that the designed
service must meet the requirements of both utility and warranty.
4.4.2 OBJECTIVES
S
The goals of service level management are not limited to defining, doc-
umenting, agreeing, monitoring, measuring, reporting and reviewing
about how successfully the IT service is provided, and taking appro-
IM
priate actions for improvement when required. They also comprise
using business relationship management for dealing with business cli-
ents and building profitable business relationships with them.
Conducting regular meetings as part of service level management cre-

ates a strong communication channel and builds a strong relationship
M
between the client and IT service provider.
An important characteristic of service level management is that the

client and IT service provider must agree on what constitutes an ac-
ceptable level of service. Therefore, one of the goals of SLM is setting
N
targets that are feasible and mutually agreed upon by both parties.
These targets must be particular and measurable so that there would
be no debate on their achievement. Phrases like “as soon as possible”
or “reasonable endeavors” must not be used in the SLA because these
phrases are unclear and may create confusion. Using these expres-
sions in an SLA may save IT service provider from failing, but this
may create doubt at the customer’s end and spoil the relationship be-
tween the customer and IT service provider that SLM aims to create.
These phrases are often used by the IT service provider to save itself
from being sued by the customer. However, in case of internal service
provider, these excuses do not work. Use of objective success criteria
is necessary if SLM wants to attain one of its main aims, which is to
make sure that both the client and IT service provider have transpar-
ent and clear expectations with respect to the level of service.
Another significant aim of SLM is to determine the level of customer’s

satisfaction about the service being delivered and to take appropri-
ate actions to enhance it. Providers encounter challenges in attaining
this aim, as obtaining precise assessments of customer’s satisfaction

n o t e s
are not easy. Customer satisfaction surveys are only completed by a

self-selecting minority. The customers who are unhappy with the ser-
vice have more percentage to complete such a survey in comparison
to those who are satisfied.
Despite this nature of customers, the service level manager must still
try to monitor the satisfaction of customers as precisely as possible by
using whatever approaches are suitable. In addition to methods like
surveys and individual interviews, some other methods can also be
used. The final goal that ITIL has set for service level management
emphasises on improving the level of service even when the targets
are fulfilled. Improvements in the service level must be cost effective.
SLM always look for opportunities for implementing such cost-effec-
tive improvements.
S
4.4.3 SCOPE
The scope of the service level management comprises the perfor-

mance of already delivered services and the description of the needed
IM
service levels for the services planned. This creates a standard com-
munication medium between the business and the provider of IT ser-
vice on all issues related to the service quality. SLM, therefore, plays
an important role in handling expectations of customers for ensuring
that the level of service they are expecting and the level of service they
are getting should match.
M
As discussed earlier, SLM only focuses on ensuring that information

related to service warranty is provided as per the expected level. The
expected level of service for planned services must be provided in de-
tail in the Service Level Requirements (SLRs) specification, and the
N
decided service levels (following negotiation) are provided in the SLA.

SLAs must cover all the operational services. By involving in the de-
sign phase, SLM makes sure that the planned services must provide
the warranty levels needed by the business.
SLM does not contain agreement on the utility aspects of a service.

Each IT service comprises various elements given by internal support
teams or external third-party suppliers. Among various elements, an
essential element related to successful service level management is
the cooperation, agreement and negotiation with those who deliver
each element of the service, related to the level of service that they
deliver.
Finally, SLM focuses on measuring and reporting on all service suc-

cesses against the decided targets. The occurrence, method of mea-
surement and reporting depth are some challenges that are settled in
the negotiations during the creation of SLA.

n o t e s
7. ___________ specifies that the aim of service level management

is to make sure that all existing and planned IT services are
delivered as per decided achievable targets.
8. SLM focuses on measuring and reporting on all service
successes against the decided targets. (True/False)
9. Which of the following is an essential element of successful
service level management?
a. Negotiation b. Agreement
c. Proposals d. Both a and c
S
Activity
Using the Internet, design a Service Level Management (SLM) pro-

cess according to ITIL and highlight the most important interfaces
IM
of SLM, its sub processes and their interrelationships.
4.5 OTHER SERVICE DESIGN PROCESSES

We have covered the service level management process in some detail.
Now we will discuss about various service design processes. The vari-
M
ous service design processes are as follows:

Financial Management
IT Services Continuity Management
N
Capacity Management
Availability Management
Configuration Management
Incident Management
Change Management
Release Management
Let’s discuss about each in detail.
4.5.1 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Organisation must be able to handle their finances, but it is not easy.

Looking after the finances of an organisation is a responsibility that is
usually given to a very senior executive and managed as an indepen-
dent business function. Financial management is an extremely sig-
nificant area that enables organisations in managing their funds and
other resources. It also makes sure that their goals are being attained.

n o t e s
The IT service provider which is the part of an overall organisation

must take part in the process of financial management. It is important
to ensure that all financial practices are stated properly; even though
an individual process can be used, it should follow the overall organi-
sational values and needs.
The main aim of financial management is that an organisation must

have appropriate level of funding for designing, developing and de-
livering the services that meet the requirements of the organisations.
The financial management process must act as a gatekeeper to check
the expenditure on the IT services. This requires a balance between:
The expenditure and quality of the services
The cost and quality of the services
The service provider and their customers regarding supply and
S
demand of services
Cost and quality are main factors in the provisioning of services, and
the only method of allocating and understanding the cost of service
IM
provision is by using the sound financial methods.
Some of the objectives of the financial management process are as

follows:
To define and maintain a financial framework that enables the
service provider in identifying, managing and communicating the
M
genuine cost of delivery of service.

To understand and evaluate the financial effect and consequences
of any newly introduced or modified organisational policies on the
service provider.
N
To secure the funding needed for delivering the services. This will
need an important input from the business and will naturally rely
on the overall methodology to financial management and cross
charging in the organisation.
To work with the process of configuration management and ser-
vice asset in order to make sure that the service and customer as-
sets are being handled properly and all related costs are getting
noted.
To perform basic financial accounting with respect to the relations
between expenditures and income, and ensuring they are mutual-
ly balanced as per the overall organisational needs.
To report on and manage expenditure for service provisioning, in
place of the stakeholders.
To manage and execute the policies and practices of an organisa-
tion associating with financial controls.
To ensure that financial controls and accounting practices are ap-
plied while creating, delivering and supporting services.

n o t e s
To understand the future financial needs of the organisation and

provide financial predictions for the service assurances and any
needed compliance for legislative and regulatory controls.
To define a framework that ensures recovery of costs of service
delivery from the customer.
4.5.2 IT SERVICES CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT
The service delivered is of worth if it is available for use. The IT ser-

vice providers need to ensure that the service must be protected from
unfavorable events or actions that may prevent it from being deliv-
ered at all.
It is significant to know that IT Service Continuity Management

(ITSCM) is accountable for the continuity of the IT services needed by
S
the organisation. The organisation itself should have a business conti-
nuity plan for ensuring that any possible situations that could impact
the functional capability of the organisation must be identified and
IM
prevented. In case, where the avoidance of such an event is possible,
the business continuity management process must have a plan, which
is suitable and reasonable, for minimising its effect and recovery from
it. Therefore, ITSCM can be considered as one of the elements that
make up a business continuity plan, in addition to a human resources
continuity plan, a financial management continuity plan, a building
management continuity plan and so on. ITSCM must create several
M
plans for providing an acceptable level of IT services in case of a major

disruption.
It is important that ITSCM must carry out regular Business Impact

Analysis (BIA) to make sure that the plan still fits as per the need. In
N
case the requirements get changed, the plan must also be changed.
The main aim of ITSCM is to make sure that solutions must be creat-
ed and provided for ensuring that the needed level of service (or bet-
ter) can continue to be delivered. Whenever these solutions require
the use of services provided by external third-party suppliers, ITSCM
functions with supplier management to make sure the required con-
tracts are discussed and agreed.
4.5.3 CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
ITIL specifies that capacity management is responsible to ensure that

the capacity of IT services and the IT infrastructure must meet the
decided existing and future capacity and performance requirements
in a cost-effective and timely way. Providing sufficient capacity is a
main warranty feature of a service that must be delivered to realise
the advantages of the service.

n o t e s
Capacity management must be followed throughout the lifecycle of a

service to ensure that the developed service meets the demand of the
customer and is flexible enough to adjust as per the changing require-
ments.
The transition phase of the lifecycle makes sure that the implemented
service is performing according to its specification. On the other hand,
the operational phase of the lifecycle makes sure that routine adjust-
ments are needed in order to implement changes in requirements. In
the final phase, as part of continual service improvement, the capacity
related challenges are addressed, and adjustments are done to make
ensure the most cost effective and consistent delivery of the service.
The goal of the capacity management process is related with under-

standing of existing and future capacity requirements of the service
and to make sure that the service and the services supporting it are
S
capable of delivering to this level. The actual capacity needs will have
been decided upon as part of service level management. The capacity
management should not only fulfill these but also make sure that the
IM
future requirements of the organisation, which may alter over time,
are also fulfilled. An important goal is to provide any enhanced capac-
ity of service in time in order to prevent business from any negative
impact.
The aim of the capacity management can be fulfilled by creating a

detailed plan that specifies the current business needs, the expected
M
future needs and the tasks that can be performed to meet these re-
quirements. This plan must be reviewed and updated after regular
intervals to make sure that modifications in business needs are con-
sidered. Similarly, any requests required to modify the current config-
N
uration will be taken into account by capacity management to make

sure that they are in line as per the expectations or, if not, then the ca-
pacity plan is modified to suit the changed requirements. Those who
have the responsibility for capacity management must review any
challenges that occur and help in resolving any incidents or problems
that occurred due to insufficient capacity. This helps in ensuring that
the service meets its objectives.
4.5.4 AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT
ITIL defines availability as the capability of an IT service or other con-

figuration item to function as per its decided functionality, whenever
required. Any type of unexpected interruption to a service during its
agreed service hours is known as downtime. The availability measure
can be calculated by considering the downtime from the agreed ser-
vice time as a percentage of the total agreed time. Some objectives of
availability management are as follows:
To create and maintain a plan that describes how the existing and
future availability requirements are to be fulfilled. This plan must

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take into account the requirements of 12 to 24 months in advance

to make sure that any essential expenditure is agreed on in the
annual budget discussions and any new equipment is purchased
and installed before the availability is affected. The plan must be
revised frequently to consider any changes in the business.
To provide advice during the entire service lifecycle on all avail-
ability challenges related to both the business and IT, by ensuring
that the impact of any decisions on availability is taken into ac-
count.
To manage the delivery of services in order to fulfill the agreed tar-
gets. Whenever downtime has occurred, availability management
will provide support to resolve the underlying issue, utilising the
process of problem management.
To assess all requests needed for change for ensuring that any po-
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tential risk to availability has been taken into account. Any updates
in the availability plan are needed as a result of modifications will
also be considered and implemented.
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To implement monitoring of availability to make sure that targets
are being met.
To optimise all areas of IT service provision for delivering the re-
quired availability consistently in order to enable the business for
using the services provided for achieving its objectives.
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4.5.5 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
The aim of configuration management is to make sure that you will

be able to control the assets that create your services. In order to at-
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tain that control, you are required to know about the assets and their
connectivity with each other. Handling of assets involved in building
up your services can be a complex task in case of distributed environ-
ments. The components needed for your services may be present in
diverse locations, and may be handled by different types of teams.
The configuration management also ensures that the assets that are
under the control of the IT department are appropriately managed
which means the assets are required to be determined and, once de-
termined, are controlled during their entire lifecycles. Handling the
assets that are involved in creating your services is a significant part
of the governance and control that you must exercise for supporting
your organisation.
Determination about the assets is not the only part of the require-
ment. You also need to make sure that you have precise information
about them. Keeping such information is a challenge for any depart-
ment. Moreover, the information captured should comprise the re-
lationships among the assets and to maximise the utilisation of the
data. Understanding the associations between the items will aid in the

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management of the infrastructure and determination of the impact of

modifications by displaying the associations between the infrastruc-
ture items.
4.5.6 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
According to ITIL terminology, an incident can be defined as an un-

expected disruption to an IT service, which leads to decline in the
quality of the service, or a failure of a Configuration Item (CI) that has
not yet affected an IT service. You must note that incident resolution
does not perform the task of understanding the fault occurrence or
prevention of its reappearance. These types of matters are resolved
in problem management. With this distinction, resolving an incident
does not require the skill that is required to resolve a problem. If the
disrupted service can be restarted by simple rebooting, the desk staff
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can guide the user to do so without sending the highly skilled techni-
cian for this simple task. From the user’s and business point of view,
the main focus is to get back to the work as early as possible. The
incident management is accountable for observing all such incidents
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from the time they are first pointed out until they get closed. Some or-
ganisations keep dedicated management staff for resolving such inci-
dents, but the most common methodology is to make the service desk
answerable for the process.
The main objectives of the incident management process are to make

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sure that all incidents are efficiently analysed, responded, recorded,

resolved and reported upon. By performing these tasks in an efficient
and effective way and by making sure that customers who got affected
are updated as needed, the IT service provider wishes to increase cus-
tomer’s satisfaction, even though a fault has appeared.
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4.5.7 CHANGE MANAGEMENT
ITIL states that the objective of change management includes con-

trolling the lifecycle of all the modifications with minimum disturbance
to IT services. As per the IT Service Management Forum (ITSMF),
80% of all incidents occur due to modifications performed in the IT
infrastructure. Due to this reason, the best methodologies in service
management specify that change management must be controlled.
Any kind of failure in the change management will possibly need

some extra work and rework following the implementation, and this
has been probably the most significant impact of uncontrolled modi-
fication in an organisation. It may require additional costs for which
there is no budget allocated and this may lead to IT departments in
endless money pits into which the organisation pours money and gets
little rewards. The main objective of the change management is to op-
timise the risks for business.

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4.5.8 RELEASE MANAGEMENT
The purpose of release management is to ensure the effective intro-

duction of alterations made in the live environment to minimise the
unexpected influence to the business. In order to offer the releases
into the live environment successfully, you must have control over the
activities of release management and in this process, we include the
goals and scope of the process as well as the concepts of the release
policy.
Release management is a significant part while dealing with the live

environment. The process makes sure that the building, testing and
deployment of the release are provided with minimal negative impact
to the business. One of the key objectives of the process is to make
sure that this activity must be planned, scheduled and controlled as
per the requirements of the organisation.
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Some more objectives of release management are as follows:
Defining and agreeing on deployment strategies with the stake-
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holders of the project release. The agreement of a schedule and
management of the activity with the customers and stakeholders
who will take the delivery of the release is important in setting the
expectations for the desired result.
Creating and testing release packages. Release packages may
comprise a number of associated configuration items, and handle
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the responsibility of verifying the components that are compatible

and can be released collectively.
Maintaining the integrity of a software release package during the
release. All release packages must be stored as subset of a defin-
itive media library, and the records must be placed in the config-
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uration management system associated with the release. It also

includes management of the essential components of the release
package and keeping precise records about each component in-
volved. Hardware releases are managed in the similar manner but
without the need to verify them in Data Manipulation Language
(DML).
Managing the release package efficiently, making sure that it can
be traced, installed, tested and verified. Delivering the release in
an efficient way is important for its success.
Ensuring that the new or modified service should meet the utili-
ty and warranty requirements. It is important to make sure that
the supporting systems and technology for the release contribute
properly to attain the requirements.
Managing and recording unexpected outcomes, risks and issues
from the release. Capturing of any deviations from the expected
outcome is a significant part of the knowledge gained for the re-
lease, and proper modifications must be done to make sure tat the
final outcome fulfills the needs stated in the actual plans.

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10. _______ is an extremely significant area that enables
organisations in managing their funds and other resources.
11. The IT service providers need to ensure that the service must
be protected from unfavorable events or actions that may
prevent it from being delivered at all. (True/False)
12. _____ phase of the lifecycle makes sure that the implemented
service is performing according to its specification.
13. The aim of configuration management is to make sure that you
will be able to control the _______ that create your services.
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Activity
Using the Internet, write a report on how financial management

plays an important role in NGOs.
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UNDERSTANDING THE SERVICE LEVEL
4.6
AGREEMENT (SLA)
The Service Level Agreement (SLA) states the service and the quality
procedures using which the delivery of that service can be judged. It
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also provides a chance to clarify what is and is not offered. In addition

to the responsibilities of the service provider, any customer responsi-
bilities must also be specified here. It is very essential that the SLA
must be an actual written agreement, not an unclear understanding.
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All parties must sign the SLA involved in the agreement, including
the customer and service provider.
The SLA must be written in simple language, with some technical ex-
pressions, if possible. If the technical expressions are not avoidable, a
glossary must be provided. It is very essential that the business users
must understand the meaning of technical commitments provided in
SLA.
The first important element in a good SLA is a simple explanation of

the purpose and scope of the document. Next, the period of validity of
agreement should be clearly mentioned. For example, this agreement
is valid from April 1, 2017, until March 31, 2018. The version number of
the arguments must also be essential to track any type of changes. The
SLA must be reviewed and reissued annually, even if no changes have
been done in SLA. This is to make sure that any modifications that are
done in the service or in the organisation are chosen and mentioned
in the SLA.
It is also essential to find the difference between the service and the sup-
port offered for that service and to mention the period for which each of

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these is available. For example, email service is available 24 hours a day,

but support will be provided only between 10 A.M. and 6 P.M. In case, a
fault occurs after 6 p.m., it will not be responded on that day.
The SLA must specify the method used for calculating priority levels
for incidents and state the target times for incidents to be fixed and
requests to be responded. Some more SLA contents may include the
agreed downtime for maintenance and critical business periods when
alterations are not done to the service. The rates that are charged by
the service provider for the service must be stated clearly. It should
be clearly mentioned that whether the charge is per head or a charge
for particular elements such as megabytes of storage and so on. Is
there a provision of rebate in case the service fails to reach the agreed
standard? Finally, the practices by which the service delivery will be
judged must be stated in the SLA.
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4.6.1 BUILDING THE SLA
As discussed earlier, every service comprises a number of elements. In

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order to commit in SLA, the service level manager must be confident
enough about the required standard of each part of the service. This
can be achieved by ensuring the existence of agreements with the in-
ternal teams delivering elements of the service. Moreover, the manager
also ensures that the required contracts exist with third-party suppliers
to mention those aspects of the service delivered by external bodies.
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Integrating these agreements together form the basis of what can be

assured in the SLA. Some such agreements are discussed as follows:
Operational-Level Agreement (OLA): This type of agreement ex-
ists between internal support departments or other internal de-
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partments providing an element of the service. The comments in

the agreement may include the information about the following:
The time period for which the support is provided
The level of on-call support provided
The technology supported by each team
Matters that are outside their area of expertise
It must be noted that these agreements must be kept simple, be-
cause they are between colleagues and not between different or-
ganisations. Legal jargon in the agreement should be resisted as
the teams do not file case against each other. Technical language
can be used for describing the areas of expertise, but they should
also be described in a glossary in case they are vague. Targets
must be challenging but must be achievable. Setting impractical
and unachievable targets is useless and weakens the SLA.
Underpinning contract: This is the second set of agreements that
requires to be in place for supporting a service level agreement.
These agreements are created with the external organisations that
offer elements of the overall service. As these suppliers are out-

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siders, the agreements should be contractual and enforced legally.

In case of OLAs, the service level manager determines the third
parties that offered elements of the service mentioned in the SLA
and make sure that the targets within the UC are at least as chal-
lenging as the resolution targets within the SLA.
Every commitment in the SLA must be supported by an agreement,

which can be either an OLA or a UC.
4.6.2 STRUCTURING THE AGREEMENT

A significant decision taken in the planning phase to implement SLM
is to decide upon the most appropriate SLA structure for the organi-
sation. ITIL provides three options for this purpose:
Customer based SLA: It refers to an agreement that exist with a
distinct customer group. Customer-based agreements include all
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the services delivered to an individual customer or a group of cus-
tomers. For instance, the human resources department, finance
department, etc. can have a customer-based SLA. This agreement
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is straightforward from the customer’s perspective, because all the
services delivered to the customers are specified in a single agree-
ment. It is also fairly simple to determine the appropriate signa-
tory. From an IT provider’s perspective, however, customer-based
agreements mean that the information about the same service may
appear in multiple SLAs, which gets difficult to monitor.
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Service based SLA: It refers to the agreement in which each SLA

mentions about only one service. The service defined is delivered
to all the customers of that service, so the needs of all customer
groups require to be determined. This option is beneficial for or-
ganisation wide services such as email. However, there are some
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drawbacks to this approach. The service offered across all loca-

tions might not be of equal quality, because of issues in network.
For example, different departments of an organisation may have
different needs. These needs can be addressed by different service
levels such as gold, silver and bronze within the SLA. Difficulties
can also occur while trying to determine the proper participant to
the agreement, because the service is offered to various customer
groups. This type of agreement can also be used by an external ser-
vice provider for a standard service in their catalogue. By using an
integration of service-based and customer-based SLAs, the service
level manager can offer a simple framework, including all services.
Multilevel SLA: It refers to the agreement that has three levels
namely corporate level, customer level and service level, which are
described as follows:
The corporate level includes information which can be applied
to all users throughout the organisation. It helps in saving a
lot of repetition of this information in every SLA and does not
require frequent updation.

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The customer level includes information that can be applied only

to a particular customer irrespective of the service being used.
The service level contains information about a particular ser-
vice when it is provided to that particular customer.
The multilevel SLA helps in preventing the unnecessary repetition of

effort and can prove to be a very effective method to understand the
relations between the different types of services and customers. Fig-
ure 4.2 shows the multilevel SLA structure:
Service specific level SLA
Customer level SLA or

Business Unit level SLA
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Corporate level SLA
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Figure 4.2: Multilevel SLA Structure
Source: http://www.hci-itil.com/ITIL_v3/images/service_design_ch4_fig_4_7.jpg
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14. All parties must sign the SLA involved in the agreement,
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including the customer and service provider. (True/False)

15. The first important element in a good SLA is a simple
explanation of the _____ and _______ of the document.
16. ______ refers to the agreement in which each SLA mentions
about only one service.
17. Which of the following agreements include all the services
delivered to an individual customer or a group of customers?
a. Customer-based agreement
b. Service-level agreement
c. Non-operational level agreements
d. None of these
Activity
Taking help from the Internet, create an SLA suitable to be used in

a local government council.

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ESCALATION CHARTS AND

4.7
DASHBOARDS
The data visualisation/reporting tool that helps in monitoring busi-
ness processes is called a dashboard. The dashboard collects data
from data warehouses and other data sources and represents the out-
put through various visual aids like graphs, charts and tables on a
single screen, as shown in Figure 4.3:
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Figure 4.3: Dashboard Design

Source: http://businessintelligencetalk.blogspot.in/2010/04/executive-dashboard_16.html
The information presented in such visual aids is easy to understand,

simple to monitor and actionable. Apart from that, the dashboards
provide an insight about various KPIs. This kind of information is very
useful for any organisation in strategic decision making. The informa-
tion is updated regularly to keep it in sync with the real time data.
Digital dashboards were first introduced by Microsoft in 1991. These

dashboards are available in distributed desktop applications or on
organisation’s Intranet site. The dashboards that have the ability to
meet business intelligence requirements are known as business intel-
ligence dashboards or enterprise dashboards. Some examples of busi-
ness intelligence dashboard vendors are IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.
Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard tool includes Web-based elements (for
example, news, stock quotes, etc.) and corporate elements (for exam-
ple, e-mails, applications, etc.) in Outlook.

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Business intelligence dashboards have the following features:

Shared parameters: Using a variety of filter parameters, you can
choose from the layouts that are presented on a dashboard. These
parameters require to be shared among several elements on the
dashboard for providing an identical range of the KPIs at run-time.
Unlimited drill-down: This feature on a chart, report, map or an-
other dashboard helps you to see the detailed information about a
certain data point. There is no limit as to how deep you can drill-
down to and how many points to drill from.
Element linking: This feature helps you to interact with some
interlinked dashboard features. In such cases, clicking on a data
point in one element will transmit the value to other elements on
the dashboard. This enables the affected elements (linked with
each other) on the same dashboard to be refreshed with parameter
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value entered from single data point that is clicked.
Space efficient folders: This feature helps you to arrange a group
of reports and charts in a “folder” on the dashboard according
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to their requirements so that more information can be filled in a
dashboard.
Real-time refresh: This feature helps you to set up automatic re-
freshing time interval for updating data in the dashboard.
Slideshow: This feature enables you to utilise a group of dash-
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boards that can be presented as slide shows for customised data

monitoring or professional presentations.
Flexible formats: This feature helps you to display dashboard
charts in either static image for making them platform indepen-
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dent or animated flash player for added visual appeal.
18. The data visualisation/reporting tool that helps in monitoring

business processes is called ______________.
19. Digital dashboards were first introduced by Oracle in 1991.
(True/False)
20. Which of the following is the feature of a dashboard?
a. Element Linking b. Real-Time Refresh
c. Shared Parameters d. All of these
Activity
Using the Internet, create a dashboard that report on the status of

quarterly business target.

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4.8 SUMMARY
It is important for an organisation involved in delivering services
to ensure that the services must meet the requirements of custom-
ers, remain cost effective and come under customer’s budget.
Organisations can create their proprietary knowledge with the
help of standards and publicly available knowledge.
The principle followed in the ITIL framework ensures that all ef-
forts must have a common objective.
ITIL provides the collected information and guidance from the
finest sources of service management approaches used across the
world.
The purpose of service level management is to discuss, negotiate
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and agree with the client about the delivering of IT services.
The main aim of financial management is that an organisation
must have an appropriate level of funding for designing, develop-
IMing and delivering the services that meet needs of the organisa-
tions.
The service level agreement states the service and the quality pro-
cedures using which the delivery of that service can be judged.
A dashboard collects data from data warehouses and other data
sources and represents the output through various visual aids like
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graphs, charts and tables on a single screen.
key words
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Corporate Level SLA: It contains the information that is appli-

cable to all users across the organisation.
Customer Level SLA: The service level will contain informa-
tion on a particular service as it is delivered to that particular
customer.
Operational-Level Agreements (OLAs): These agreements are
very precise and exists between internal support departments
or other internal departments that provide a service element.
Space efficient folders: This feature helps you to arrange a
group of reports and charts in a folder on the dashboard.
Underpinning Contracts (UCs): These are the agreements re-
quired for supporting a service level agreement.

1. Discuss the sources of service management best practices.
2. What are the key factors behind the success of ITIL?

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3. Explain the concept of service level management.

4. What are the objectives of financial management?
5. Explain the role of release management.
6. What do you mean by Service Level Agreement (SLA) and what
does it contain?
7. Write a short note on Operational-Level Agreements (OLAs).
8. Explain the features of business intelligence dashboards.
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Best Practice Approaches 1. ITIL
and ITIL
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2. True
3. a. Proprietary knowledge
Success of ITIL 4. False
5. True
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6. c. Perspective
Service Level Manage- 7. ITIL
ment
8. False
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9. d. Both a and c

Other Service Design 10. Financial management
Processes
11. True
12. Transition
13. assets
Understanding the Service 14. True
Level Agreement (SLA)
15. Purpose, scope
16. Service based SLA
17. a. Customer-based agreement
Escalation Charts and 18. Dashboard
Dashboards
19. False
20. d. All of the above

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1. Organisations keep themselves competitive in the market by
constantly comparing themselves with their competitors. Refer
to Section 4.2 Best Practice Approaches and ITIL.
2. ITIL is adopted widely because it is based on a practical
methodology to service management. Refer to Section
4.3 Success of ITIL.
3. The purpose of service level management is to discuss, negotiate
and agree with the client about the delivering of IT services.
Refer to Section 4.4 Service Level Management.
4. Financial management is an extremely significant area that
enables organisations in managing their funds and other
resources. It also makes sure that their goals are being attained.
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Refer to Section 4.5 Other Service Design Processes.
5. The purpose of release management is to make sure the effective
introduction of alterations made into the live environment to
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minimise the unexpected influence to the business. Refer to
Section 4.5 Other Service Design Processes.
6. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) states the service and the
quality procedures using which the delivery of that service can
be judged. Refer to Section 4.6 Understanding the Service Level
Agreement (SLA).
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7. Operational-Level Agreement (OLA) is a type of agreement that

exists between internal support departments or other internal
departments providing an element of the service. Refer to Section
4.6 Understanding the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
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8. The data visualisation/reporting tool that helps in monitoring

business processes is called a dashboard. Refer to Section
4.7 Escalation Charts and Dashboards.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Looy, B. (2015). Services Management: An Integrated Approach
Macfarlane, I., & Rudd, C. (2003). IT service management. Read-
ing, England: itSMF
Cigolini, R. (2009). Recent advances in maintenance and infra-
structure management. London: Springer
Desai, J. (2010). Service Level Agreements. Ely: IT Governance Pub
Lewis, L. (1999). Service level management for enterprise net-

works. Boston: Artech House

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E-REFERENCES
ITSM - IT Service Management Information General Information.
(n.d.). Retrieved April 06, 2017, from http://www.itsm.info/ITSM.
htm
ITIL Service Design: From strategy to transition. (2016, December
09). Retrieved April 06, 2017, from https://advisera.com/20000acad-
emy/blog/2013/06/25/service-design-itil/
Best Practices for Service-Level Management. (n.d.). Retrieved
April 06, 2017, from http://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/
whitepapers/best-practices-for-service-level-management/
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C h a
5 p t e r
Asset Management
CONTENTS
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5.1 Introduction
5.2 Asset Classes
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5.2.1 Organisational Asset
5.2.2 IT Asset
5.2.3 Physical Asset
5.2.4 Information Asset
Activity
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5.3 Use of Assets in Business

Activity
5.4 Asset Capture Methods
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Activity
5.5 Concepts of Stock Registers
Activity
5.6 Asset Continuity Planning
5.6.1 Gap Analysis
5.6.2 Equivalent Unit Cost
5.6.3 Repair Replace Decisions
5.6.4 Impact of Downtimes
Activity
5.7 Overview of Risk
5.7.1 Risk Assessment Methodology
5.7.2 Risk Identification
5.7.3 Risk Evaluation
5.7.4 Risk Categorisation

CONTENTS
5.7.5 Risk Registers

5.7.6 Risk Matrix
Activity
5.8 Summary
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Asset Management 105
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Role of Asset Management in British Aerospace
In the mid twentieth century, the airlines such as BOAC and

Air France were mainly owned by the government and the pur-
chase of the aircrafts was done directly from the manufacturer
itself. That means that once the aircraft was sold, the producer
was freed of any financial responsibility regarding the aircraft.
Because the environment for the operations of the airlines was
relatively stable.
But during the 1980s there was a change in the operating envi-
ronment of the airline because of the new entrants in the market.
This was all because of the privatization process. And with the
new minds in the market, the new airlines started a new way of
operations, i.e., they started to lease the aircrafts instead of buy-
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ing them unlike what was earlier being done.
With the new style of operations, there was a new form of industry
formed that was the leasing companies which would buy the air-
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crafts from the manufacturers and would lease the aircrafts to the
airlines. But in case the airlines were unable to make payments
of the lease of the aircraft, then the British aerospace would make
the payments on behalf of the airline, i.e., the company started to
guarantee the lease payments for a period of 18 years which was
the normal life expectancy of an aircraft.
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But this system of agreement did not worked for a long period as
the gulf war of 1992 caused a major unrest in the economic envi-
ronment and had even a greater impact on the leasing industry.
Due to the gulf war, many airlines failed and many other carriers
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started to terminate their leases putting the British aerospace in

a tight spot.
Now the situation of the British aerospace company was that it
had aircrafts which it was not able to sell. These aircrafts were
referred to as the white tails as they could not longer find new
owners for them. This situation of economic turbulence was quite
extensive as the British aerospace had about 118 jets and 428 tur-
boprops in the lease portfolio out of which 30% were idle and yet
another 30% were under threat.
In order to deal with this crisis, the company took dramatic step of
creating a provision of about one billion pound in its accounts be-
cause of the large amount of unusable capital tied up in the form
of the aircrafts. This creation of the provision is considered to be
one the biggest provision to be ever made in the history of corpo-
rate UK. This provision was made to meet the liabilities from the
leasing obligations and the share price of the company fell to 98p.
This, form the asset management view point, was a great crisis
situation for UK and the British aerospace company.

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learning objectives

>> Explain the concept of asset classes
>> Describe the use of asset in business management
>> Describe the asset capture methods
>> Discuss the concept of stock registers
>> Explain asset continuity planning
>> Discuss the overview of risk
5.1 Introduction
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Asset management in its literal sense would mean the art and the sys-
tem of managing the assets that are of some value to any organisation.
The process of operating, maintaining, deploying, upgrading, and dis-
posing of asset cost in case of sale of any asset, and conducting all
IM
these functions effectively and efficiently is called the process of asset
management. The assets not only include the tangible assets, such as
land, building, machinery, etc. but also intangible assets, such as pat-
ents, goodwill, technical know-how, etc.
The term ‘asset management’ is not only used in the manufacturing

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business but the most common use of this term is in the investment
business where the companies invest the sources of other people on
their behalf like investment managers and pension fund assets.
However, the engineering industry has a different view about the

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term ‘asset management’. According to this industry, the practice or

method of managing the assets which help in receiving the greatest
returns on the asset, for example, choosing the plant and machinery
that helps in achieving high productivity at low cost, or the method
through which a company can provide the best services to the users
in order to increase the customer satisfaction of the company, such as
infrastructure assets.
In this chapter you will study about asset classes. In addition use of as-
sets in business, asset capture methods are discussed. Further ahead
concepts of stock registers are discussed in the chapter. Finally asset
continuity planning and overview of risk are explained in the chapter.
5.2 ASSET CLASSES

An asset class is a group of securities that are bound by similar legal
regulations and bear resemblance in financial characteristics. Asset
classes can be categorised into three different types namely, fixed in-
come, money market instruments, and stocks (or equity). Sometimes
even real estate and commodities are also added to the asset classes.

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But whatever may the asset class be, one fact that has been developed
over a period of time is that no two asset classes will react differently
in different market situations and would fetch different amount of re-
turns.
Stocks, also known as equities, are the representative of ownership

in a public company, i.e., anybody who is a holder of shares holds an
equal amount of ownership in the company. They have, over a pe-
riod of time, turned out to be a better investment venture than other
securities. They are considered to be highly liquid for short term in-
vestment and the return on the investments is also highly unstable,
resulting in returns that may be more than the actual investment or
may be even less than the investment of the public.
Fixed incomes or the bonds are highly stable venture of investment as

compared to the investment in stocks or equities as the rate of interest
S
of the bonds effect the rate of return that the investor will receive. The
only point where there can be instability of the return is current rates
of interest and the inflation rates of the economy.
IM
Money market including the investment opportunities such as bank-
er’s acceptance and commercial papers are highly stable form of in-
vestment when compared to stocks and fixed deposits but the down-
side of this form of investment is that it has a lower growth potential
when compared to the other two forms of investment.
M
Guaranteed assets are the assets that have a fixed rate of interest and
have the claim paying ability also issued by the insurer. This not only
preserves your capital but also provides you with a specified amount
of return on the investment.
N
Real estate is the shares of funds that are invested in commercial real
estate. This also includes the investment property or the home bought
by any one. The real estate investment does not have the effect of
inflation as the value of the property increases as there is increase
in inflation. And the value of the property tends to rise and fall at a
slower rate when compared to stocks and fixed income investment
opportunity but they are subject to environmental liabilities, changing
property values, etc.
But it is believed that the best investment option is not to investment

in one form of investment only but to put your money in different
forms of investment to earn the best return and reduce the risk at
minimum possible. The forms of investment to invest in are chosen
on various grounds and on the risk bearing ability of the investor, i.e.,
whether the investors are interested in more returns or in safer in-
vestment options. And what investment opportunities and how much
investment would give the maximum return to the investor with the
minimum risk possible.

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5.2.1 ORGANISATIONAL ASSET
There are various kinds of assets available in an organisation and or-

ganisational assets are one of such kind of assets. The organisational
asset includes all the employees of the organisation, information avail-
able, technology used and facilities provided. All the functions and
objectives of an organisation can be categorised by the services that
the organisation performs so as to fulfil its objectives. Services, in this
context, are viewed as resources that are being used by the organisa-
tion. And if the organisation fails to fulfil any one of the service, then
the repercussions of it could be quite serious ranging from the delay
in the fulfilment of a particular order to non-fulfilment of the organi-
sational goals as a whole.
And all of these services are backed up by the various assets of the
organisation. For example, the service of production is back up by the
S
asset of raw material and machinery used. But some other things are
also required to perform services such as people to operate machine,
information system to define the production process and carry out the
IM
actual production of the goods in the enterprise, technology to help in
the functioning of the organisation and to support the services of the
organisation.
5.2.2 IT ASSET
IT assets could be defined as the information system or the hardware

M
that is owned by the company to carry on the business processes of

the company. IT assets would, thus, include all the computers and the
hardware and software installed in the computers to carry the specific
functions that they are designed to perform.
N
IT asset management is a broad term that is used to describe business

practices which aid in strategic decision making and provide support
for life cycle management. This management would require the finan-
cial, contractual and the inventory functions to support the IT deci-
sion making process.
IT asset management or better known as IT inventory management in-

cludes the process of quantification of all hardware and software that
already exist in the company and hence defines the further purchase
and redistribution of the IT inventory. This type of management helps
the company in saving the time and cost as it would help in avoiding
the unnecessary purchase of the IT assets and further helps to reduce
the incremental risks and also avoids the cost of changing the obsolete
technology which is not necessary for the business organisation.
5.2.3 PHYSICAL ASSET
Anything that has a tangible existence, anything which can be touched

or felt, and anything that has a commercial value will be classified un-

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der the head of physical asset. The physical asset would include all the
cash, equipment, properties owned by the firm. Anything that can be
turned into cash at the time of inability to pay off the debts in the busi-
ness is also considered to be physical assets. For example, computers,
inventories, machinery, etc. are included in the category of physical
assets.
5.2.4 INFORMATION ASSET
Information asset is the information that is important to any organi-

sation for its working and is accessible to all those who need the infor-
mation to perform their functions. Information is an intangible asset
of an organisation.
Unlike the physical assets, the organisation might not be able to
S
change the information asset into cash and may not be able to pay
off the debts but like the tangible assets of the organisation, the infor-
mation asset of the organisation also undergoes depreciations but the
depreciation is at a faster rate because the life cycle of the information
IM
is very short.
But the life cycle of the information mainly depends on the type of
information in consideration. For example, a secret recipe of a food
industry may have a longer life cycle than the secrets of good manage-
ment system of the organisation.
M
There are certain characteristics of the information asset that distin-

guishes it from other forms of assets. The characteristics of informa-
tion asset are as follows:
The organised or systematic incorporation of the data in the com-
N
munication system of the enterprise for the easy fulfilment of the

goals are information assets.
The information assets also help in prioritizing the problems and
for its timely resolution so that there is no delay in the achieve-
ment of the goals.
The information system can either be controlled centrally or may
be dispersed over the whole organisation depending upon the type
and the scale of operations of the organisation and the type of in-
formation.
Information system may include most complex data as the project
ROI or may include the simplest form of data like a spreadsheet.
The value of the asset depends upon the amount of data it decodes
and the relevance of the data decoded and if not decoding then the
information that the information represents.

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1. Information is an intangible asset of the organisation.

(True/False)
2. _________ could be defined as the information system or
the hardware that is owned by the company to carry on the
business processes of the company.
3. An _________ is a group of securities that are bound by
similar legal regulations and bear resemblance in financial
characteristics.
4. Fixed incomes or the bonds are highly unstable venture of
investment as compared to the investment in stocks or equities
as the rate of interest of the bonds effect the rate of return that
the investor will receive. (True/False)
S
Activity
IM
Using the Internet, prepare a report on how an organisation can
manage its physical asset in practice.
5.3 USE OF ASSETS IN BUSINESS

M
There are a lot of efforts made each day by each department to just
meet the basic organisational goals, to help the enterprise get through
the day to the next one and to help the organisation survive cut-throat
competition of the world. And in order to be able to do that, the organ-
isation is always in need of assets. Yet some people sometime fail to
N
understand the importance of the business assets in the organisation.

The businesses owning tangible assets have an edge over those who
do not own tangible assets as the ownership of tangible assets helps in
the procurement of the finance at the time of need. It also provides a
better sense of confidence to the people who are investing their mon-
ey in the company which owns tangible assets. But the disadvantage
of being a capital intensive industry is that the overhead cost of the
company and the operating cost of the company are usually higher as
compared to other forms of the industry. So, basically there are three
main approaches followed at the time of valuation of the business:
1. Asset approach
2. Market approach
3. Income approach
The assets approach seems to seriously undermine the fact that an en-
terprise is a going concern and has a profit earning motive and hence
the assets approach of the valuation of business is applicable only in
the cases where the company is a marginally profitable enterprise.

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In other cases, the value of the business can be determined with the
other two approaches, market approach and income approach. These
two approaches of the company mainly depend upon the income
earning capacity of the business. Hence, the income earning capacity
is multiplied by the market based multiple in case of the market ap-
proach and in case of the income approach, the capacity is multiplied
by the forecasted discount rate.
The value of the business in the practical scenario is based upon the
value of the tangible assets owned by the company. The value of the
assets directly influences the value of the business and hence the im-
portance of owning the tangible assets can never be under mined. So,
directly or indirectly, the ownership of the assets helps in determining
the income earning capacity of the business firm.
S
5. The value of the business can be determined with the other

two approaches, ______approach and _______ approach.
IM
6. The value of the assets indirectly influences the value of the
business. (True/False)
7. The income earning capacity is multiplied by the market
based multiple in case of the _________ approach.
M
Activity
Using the Internet, prepare a report with a real life example to show
how a tangible asset can help in the procurement of the finance at
N
the time of necessity.
5.4 ASSET CAPTURE METHODS

It is important to keep the track of the assets and devise a proper plan
to manage it for any organisation that has multi-departments and
multi-level management. Yet there are firms that are using manual
ways to manage their assets which sometimes leads to the problems
of misidentification of the assets, delays, rising in cost for the manage-
ment. This problem is more evident in the mission driven organisa-
tions, such as MRO where there is already some inherent variability
in the diagnostics.
When the real-time locating system vendor conducted a study on

how the assets in various organisations were managed, it showed that
about 74% of the companies confess to perform at least on search of
assets per day put which 25% agreed to the number of searches being
even more than 10. There were 146 managers, engineer, and IT exec-
utives in the study and out of them, 84% are believed to use manual

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method of asset tracking. And everybody agreed to inaccurate data

assets because of the human input error factor or due to the missed
scans of the assets.
Hence, there arises a need for a better asset management and track-
ing methods. As this will help in company in not only estimating the
true worth of the assets of the organisation but will also help in sav-
ing the valuable time of the company. There are many management
software available in the market which are tailor made for the asset
management branch of the management function. This software not
only helps in the tracking of the assets but also helps in setting up of
the timely maintenance and servicing of the assets which help in the
extension of the life of the assets.
Although maintaining and keeping the track of the assets in an organ-

isation can be a tedious task sometimes but there are a lot benefits
S
attached to it as well, such as:
It helps in the collection of data at a faster rate and with greater
detail.
IM
It helps in eliminating the human error factor.
It tries to enforce a sense of responsibility and accountability in
the employees.
Hence, a proper asset tracking management system is of utmost im-

portance so that the company is able to keep track of all its assets and
M
know the true value of the assets owned by them.

N
8. There are many management software available in the market

which are tailor made for the asset management branch of the
management function. (True/False)
9. A proper ____________ system is of utmost importance so that
the company is able to keep track of all its assets and know the
true value of the assets owned by them.
Activity
Prepare a report with an example showing how an asset manage-

ment software helps an organisation to keep track of all its assets
and know its true value.
5.5 CONCEPTS OF STOCK REGISTERS

A stock register is the way to keep tracks of the stocks issued by the
company. Under this system, the company tried to keep a record of the
company’s total stock and the information about the current share-

n o t e s
holders of the company. For a public company, it is of utmost impor-

tance to keep an updated stock register so as the company has all the
information about the stock of the company and its stock holders. It
helps the company in making the decisions of future fresh issues or
buyback of shares as it contains the data about the stocks issued by
the company, the buybacks made by the company and the retirements
so that the company can guess about the amount of the shares out-
standing and hence would help in the decision making for the firm.
The stock registers also help in the tracking of the stock already issued
for every share held by a shareholder, there is unique identity number
issued to the shareholder with all the information of the share holder
as to the name, address, value of the shares held, value at which the
shares were bought, face value of the shares, etc. This stock register
also comes handy at the time of theft of a share and helps in the issue
S
of a new share certificate. Also it helps in the sale of the shares and
changes the data of the shares in the stock register so that there is no
confusion at the time of issue of the premium. Hence, the company
must always keep their stock registers up-to-date otherwise it could
IM
be of a great hindrance in the smooth working of the organisation.
10. A ________ is the way to keep tracks of the stocks issued by the
company.
M
11. The stock register also comes handy at the time of theft of a
share and helps in the issue of a new _____________.
12. The stock registers also help in the tracking of the stock already
issued for every share held by a shareholder. (True/False)
N
Activity
Prepare a report showing how a company can keep a record of its

total stock and the information about the current shareholders of
the company.
5.6 ASSET CONTINUITY PLANNING

An asset continuity plan (also known as business continuity plan) is
implemented in case a business suffers from a disaster resulting in
loss of business assets.
The plan helps a business to continue its operations even after a disas-
ter. Hence at the time of devising a business continuity plan, following
things are to be kept in mind:
1. Plan should analyse the organisational threats.
2. All the primary tasks important to keep the business operations
running should be listed down.

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3. All the information about the placement of the data backups and
the organisational backups should be duly provided.
Hence during the formulation of the plan, the most important opera-
tions of the organisations that are necessary to be carried on should be
duly determined. It is also important to determine the most necessary
people of the organisation as well as the most important tools and data
that are needed to run the operations of the organisation.
5.6.1 GAP ANALYSIS
Gap analysis, basically, means the comparison of the actual work per-
formed against the standards set. This helps in analysing if the re-
sources of the organisation are put to the best use or whether the in-
vestment opportunities provide the best kind of return or not.
S
Gap analysis, as the name suggests, analysis the gap between the op-
timum utilisation standards set by the system and the actual output
level received after performing all the necessary functions of the or-
IM
ganisation. It helps in determining the gap between the capabilities of
the organisation and the organisational goals. It also determines the
current level of the output received by determining and documenting
the processes of the organisation. The process of gap analysis starts
from the function of benchmarking and assessment. It helps in un-
derstanding the expected level of output of the company. It also helps
in the pointing out the areas where there is need for improvement in
M
order to reach the optimum level of production by the organisation.

Gap analysis can be either at the strategic level or at operational level
depending upon the type of the organisation.
N
Gap analysis in simplified terms would mean the study of current

organisational position and also defining the future goals of the or-
ganisation and ways to reach them. This study could be conducted
through various perspectives like:
Organisation
Business direction
Business processes
Information technology
Gap analysis helps in defining the amount of investment to be made in

the organisation in the form of time, money, and human resources so
as to be able to fulfil its organisational goals and objectives. The GAP
could also stand for the ranking of Good, Average or Poor. Another
benefit of gap analysis is to decide whether to enter a new product
market or to launch a new product in the existing line of products.
This helps in overcoming the gap between the existing product offer
and the demands of the consumers which tends to appear after some-
time and it is of utmost importance for the organisation to fill this gap
if they want to survive and grow in this environment.

n o t e s
The steps to be taken in order to analyse the gap and fill the gap be-
tween the desired outcome and the actual outcome are as follows:
Identify the existing process undertaken by the company.
Identifythe existing level of outcome at the existing processing
functions undertaken by the company.
Set the level of outcome that the company wants to achieve.
Analyse the gap between the existing level of outcome and the de-
sired level of outcome. Examine the difference that exists between
the desired and existing outcomes.
Then develop a way through which the gap between the desired
level of outcome and the actual level of outcome can be fulfilled.
After defining the means to fill the gap between the two, then there
is a need to prioritise the requirements.
S
Gap analysis also helps in the process of standardisation of the pro-
cesses carried out in various organisations in the industry. Gap analy-
sis helps in step-by-step comparison of the various processes and the
IM
analysis of the same and hence filling the gap between the desired
level and the actual level.
5.6.2 EQUIVALENT UNIT COST

Equivalent unit is a measure of work done by a manufacturer out of
the total work to be finished at the end of an accounting period. For
M
example, if at the end an accounting year, a manufacturer has 1000

completed units and has about 40 partially completed units then the
manufacturer is considered to have a total of 1040 units in its manu-
facturing concern that are completed.
N
The labour cost of production will also include the cost of production
for the partially finished goods. For example, if the cost of production
for a unit is ` 100 then it would be same for the finished products and
the partially completed units or the units in-process.
5.6.3 REPAIR REPLACE DECISIONS

One of the important decisions to be taken at the time when the com-
pany has to buy new machinery is to whether repair the machinery or
to replace the machinery. Most of the times, it is suggested to repair
the machinery and extend the life of the machinery as long as possible
and avoid the replacement cost of the machinery where the decision
to replace the machinery is a rare recommendation unless there is a
need for expanding the capacity of the plant. There are certain criteria
that the machine needs to fulfil and the entrepreneur must look before
deciding whether to replace the machinery or just repair it, such as:
When the usage of the asset has exceeded the expected life of the
asset.
The failure of the assets causes irreparable damage or the damage
caused is too extensive.

n o t e s
The cost of replacement is more than the revenue earned from the
replaced machinery.
The damage of the assets is beyond the repair capacity and the
repair of the asset will not result in improved performance hence
it is better to replace the machinery.
When the enterprise plans to expand its capabilities and the re-
placement of machinery would result in expanding the capabilities
with reduced costs and better performance.
The existing machinery has turned obsolete and the repair of the
machinery is either too difficult as the spare parts are not available
or the repair is too expensive.
The existing machinery or technology is a great threat to the
health, environment and to the working of the enterprise, hence it
is better to replace the machinery rather than repairing it.
S
MTTR
IM
MTTR or better known as Mean Time To Repair is the time required to
repair the broken hardware. In the operational sense, the term ‘repair’
is used interchangeably with the replacement of the hardware. Hence,
it is important for the organisation to replace the broken hardware at
the earliest possible, because delay in replacement of the hardware
would result in high installation cost in the long run because of the
cost incurred due to the downtime caused by the replacement of the
M
hardware. Hence to avoid the high cost, the companies usually keep a
stock of the spare products.
MTBF
N
MTBF means Mean Time Between Failures. But for better under-
standing of MTBF, we need to first understand that what defaults are
considered as failures under this model. All those defaults in the sys-
tem that are beyond the limits of repair are not included as failure
under this model. Hence, the only failures that are considered are the
models that are repairable. Also the routine shut of system for mainte-
nance purposes are also not included. Figure 5.1 shows MTBF:
up time down time

(after repair) (unplanned)
Up
between
Down failures
off one failure one failure one failure
Time Between Failures =
{down - up time}
Figure 5.1: Mean Time Between Failures

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5.6.4 Impact of Downtimes
Before we start to discuss about the impact of downtime, we need to

define what is actually meant by downtime. Downtime or the outage
duration is the time for which the system is unable to or is incapable of
performing the basic functions. The main reason for this kind of out-
ages is because of the planned reasons, such as maintenance or due to
unplanned reasons, such as the breakdown of the system.
The impact of downtime is not just measured in the forms of the money
lost but also includes the loss of goodwill among the customer, the
level of employee satisfaction, loss of competitive edge in this world
of cut-throat competition and the confidence level of the company or
the organisation as a whole. There are many examples that give us
the idea that the network outages not only cost the company a huge
amount of revenue but also a lot of confidence and other losses that
S
are beyond the capacity of measuring. For example, the 5 min network
outage of Google not only cost it about $500,000 but also caused a drop
of 40% in the overall traffic on the internet.
IM
One of the biggest and unexplained network outages that occurred in
amazon.com that was just below an hour caused the company a loss
of about $5 million. Not only that, it also caused the credibility of Am-
azon to come under the light of suspicion and a lot of questions were
being asked about the working of the Amazon.
M
While there are a lot of things that a downtime can impact in an indus-
try, some are of greater importance than other. Below is a list of some
of such things that are worst effected by occurrence of downtime:
Cash flow of the company suffers a great impact.
N
The company suffers a loss of revenue.

There is a loss in the productivity of the company.
The company also tends to lose their goodwill among the custom-
ers and also there is a great loss of competitive edge.
In some cases it might also lead to a lot of penalties.
The industries that can be worst affected by the network outages are
those who rely on the use of computer/network systems or depend
upon the 24-hour service of the computers, such as:
Medical informatics
Infrastructure and nuclear power industry
Banks and financial institutions
Aeronautics and airlines
News reporting
Online transaction processing

n o t e s
The sensitivity of the impact of the downtime can be broadly into two
categories:
The length of the network outage and the time taken to correct the
fault in the system.
The time at which the outage happens, for example, if the outage
occurs at the peak time of business for the industry.
Response and Reduction of the Impact of Outage
It is of utmost importance for the smooth working of an enterprise

and the economy as a whole to reduce the response time taken to re-
act to the network outage and to reduce the impact of the outage so
occurred. And it is the duty of the network designer to design such a
network that reduces the number of network outages and if it doesn’t
S
happen then combat the situation at the earliest possible to reduce the
impact of downtime.
A system of detecting the faulty components and taking up the cor-

IM
rective action is called network management. On the other hand, risk
management is the technique that measures the impact of network
outage and takes the corrective action that would help in minimisa-
tion of the risk.

M
13. ___________ is implemented in case a business suffers from a

disaster resulting in loss of business assets.
14. ________ basically means the comparison of the actual work
performed against the standards set.
N
15. Which of the following is termed as the time required to repair

the broken hardware?
a. MBTR b. MTTR
c. MR d. MTIR
Activity
Taking an example of financial institution, prepare a report to show

how it can be worstly affected by the network outages.
5.7 OverView of Risk

Any event that causes a threat to the normal working of the organi-
sation is considered to be a risk for the organisation. Hence, the or-
ganisations must identify the risk and devised proper strategies to
combat the risk of the organisation. There are various risks that the

n o t e s
organisation may have to face and there are various ways to identify
the risk and to devise the strategy to tackle the risk in the best possi-
ble manner. Given below is the detailed discussion on how to identify
the risk, what are the various categories of the risk and the various
ways through which a proper strategy can be developed to mitigate
the losses caused in event of occurrence of risk.
5.7.1 Risk Assessment Methodology
Risk assessment methodology is the way through which a risk can

be assessed and presented in the quantitative and qualitative ways.
Quantitative evaluation of risk does not include only the magnitude of
the loss that would occur in the event of occurrence of the risk but also
the probability of the occurrence of loss.
S
Many engineering systems use sophisticated risk assessment methods
and that is done within the norms of safety engineering and reliability
engineering in case the risk poses a threat to the life of the people.
Some of the examples of industries using this kind of risk assessment
IM
methodology are nuclear, aerospace, medical, hospital, food industry.
But the methods of the risk assessment can be tailor made according
to the needs and the legal obligations of the industry. The environ-
ment of the industry also plays a role in the risk assessment strategy
of the company.
M
5.7.2 Risk Identification
After the risk assessment strategy has been devised, the next step is to
put the strategy into play and identify the risk that is being posed to
the industry. The process of risk identification, hence, goes as follows:
N
Source analysis: First, the source of the risk must be defined as to

whether the risk is an internal risk or external risk so that proper
mitigation strategy can be formulated.
Problem analysis: Then the next step is to define the problem that
the risk poses. For example, theft of confidential information or
the threat of losing money in any of the business venture under-
taken, or threat of losing the customer on account of misconduct
of employees.
There are various methods to identify the risk and the selection of the
method is done on the basis of the cultural environment, the indus-
trial practices. Some of the most common risk identification methods
are as follows:
Objectives-based risk identification: The risk can be identified
on the basis of the events that cause hindrance in the achievement
of the organisational goals and objectives.
Scenario-based risk identification: Under this system a risk is in-
dentified as the event that triggers the undesired scenario to come

n o t e s
into play that would result in incapability to reach the organisa-

tional goals.
Common-risk checking: Some of the industries have a list of
the risks that may be posed to the organisations of that industry.
Hence, the organisation can assess the risk by the application of
each of the risk in the list to various situations, and hence, a plan
should be devised accordingly.
5.7.3 Risk Evaluation
Before devising a plan on how to mitigate the risk, we first need to

evaluate the risk and the damage that the risk could cause. Risk as-
sessment is a process of quantitative evaluation and assessment of the
amount of risk involved in a situation. Quantitative assessment of risk
mainly includes the assessment of the magnitude of the loss that could
S
be caused and the probability of the occurrence of the event. An ac-
ceptable risk is a risk in which the cost of implementation of a defen-
sive strategy would be more than the loss caused by the occurrence of
IM
the risky event.
Once the risk has been identified and evaluated and also the loss that
the occurrence of the event has been judged, then the next step is to
make a defensive plan. But in order to make a correct and a full-proof
plan, the risk evaluation should be done to the best of the abilities of
the evaluator so that there is no scope of any error and the situations
M
can be prioritised accordingly so that the best risk management plan

can be devised and put into play. A risk assessor has to analyse a lot
of factors so as to evaluate the severity and chances of occurrence of a
risky event. Improper valuation of the assets is another problem that
N
is being faced at the time of risk assessment. Hence, the best educated
method of risk assessment would rely on the statistics and the primary
sources of information. There are several theories and numerous for-
mulas that have been developed over a period of time to help in the
assessment of the risk but so far, the best formula of risk assessment
is that
Risk intensity = Ro × Ie
Here, Ro is the rate of occurrence and Ie is the impact of the event.
5.7.4 Risk Categorisation
History has provided us with the evidence that not all types of risks
can be dealt with the same strategy just like not all kind of people can
be dealt with the same behaviour. Hence in order to combat the risk,
it is important to understand what type of risk it is and what kind of
solution is best suited for it.

n o t e s
Hence for a better understanding of the risk, the risks can be classi-
fied into following three broad categories:
Internal risks: Internal risks are the risks that are faced inside the
organisation and to tackle such risks, the established set of rules
are enough to tackle this problem. For example, in case of the risk
of employee misconduct, the set rules of code of conduct may be
sufficient for the employer to tackle the problem of employee mis-
conduct and to help in maintaining protocol in the organisation.
Strategic risks: Strategic risks are the risks that are of strategic
importance to the organisation and hence needs a specialised ap-
proach to face these risks and mitigate the loss that could be de-
rived due to the risks. There are three risk management structures
in place in the organisation that challenge the decision made of
about the risk inside the organisation. They are as follows:
S
1. An external risk advisory board.
2. Internal, centralised risk management group.
IM
3. Internal network of risk managers distributed all over the or-
ganisation.
External risks: These are the risks that are completely out of the
control of an organisation but there are still some ways through
which these risks can be managed. For example, by generating
ideas about the external situations that could happen and that
M
would cause a loss to the enterprise and the magnitude of the risk
imposed by the occurrence of the event, developing a plan in ad-
vance to combat the risk in case it actually occurs and the tools
to be used to help in the combat. There are three analytical tools
N
available in the organisation that would greatly help in analysing

the external risks. They are as follows:
1. Stress testing: It is a form of testing which is used to determine
the stability of a system.
2. Scenario analysis: A process to analyse possible future events
by considering alternative possible outcomes.
3. War-gaming: It is strategy specially design to predict the im-
pact of the change of the competitive strategies in the market.
5.7.5 Risk Registers
A risk register is a document that maintains a record of identified

risk factors and plays a significant role in risk management. It is also
known as risk log because it is used to keep track of risks involved in
a project by maintain a log or record file. There are is a list of things
that are recommended to be included in the stock register. These rec-
ommendations are made by the project management institute body of

n o t e s
knowledge. The success of the risk registers does not depend upon the
type of software used but upon the implementation of the stock reg-
ister methods and the organisation’s culture. The stock register must
contain the following:
The risk should be given a name so that the discussion about the
risk in easier.
The special category should be given to all the similar types of risk.
The scale of impact of the occurrence of an event.

The scale of the probability of occurrence of event.
Risk rating or risk score.
A company may add more fields according to its needs and the organ-
isational structure.
S
5.7.6 Risk Matrix
A risk is the amount of harm or damage done to the damaged area

IM
due to occurrence of a harmful event whereas risk matrix refers to
the matrix that categorises the harm caused or the risk into various
levels on the basis of the probability of harm and the severity of the
harm caused. This helps in the decision making process of the man-
agement by improving the visibility of the risk in an organisation. But
the matrix of risk is not a universal matrix and can be altered accord-
M
ing to the needs of the user and the project on which it is to be applied.
Hence, the risk matrix is custom made matrices.
The classification of the risk can either be done on the basis of se-
verity, such as catastrophic, critical, marginal and negligible or could
N
be done on the basis of occurrence of harm, such as certain, likely,

possible, unlikely and rare. Hence, the resultant matrix would look
something like Table 5.1:
Table 5.1: Resultant Matrix

Negligible Marginal Critical Catastrophic
Certain High High Extreme Extreme
Likely Moderate High High Extreme
Possible Low Moderate High Extreme
Unlikely Low Low Moderate Extreme
Rare Low Low Moderate High
Then the company, on the basis of its risk taking capabilities would
classify the risk associated with different classes into the above given
different classes and hence devise a plan accordingly to minimise the
cost of production and also reduce the loss caused due to any risk.

n o t e s
16. ____________ is a process of quantitative evaluation and

assessment of the amount of risk involved in a situation.
17. __________ refers to the matrix that categorises the harm
caused or the risk into various levels on the basis of the
probability of harm and the severity of the harm caused.
18. _________ are the risks that are faced inside the organisation
and to tackle such risks, the established set of rules are enough
to tackle this problem.
Activity
S
Prepare a report analysing the risk associated with online market-
ing and e-commerce web sites.
IM
5.8 Summary
An asset class is a group of securities that are bound by similar le-
gal regulations and bear resemblance in financial characteristics.
There are various kinds of assets available in an organisation and
organisational assets are one of such kind of assets. The organisa-
tional asset includes all the employees of the organisation, infor-
M
mation available, technology used and facilities provided.

IT assets could be defined as the information system or the hard-
ware that is owned by the company to carry on the business pro-
cesses of the company.
N
Anything that has a tangible existence, anything which can be

touched or felt, and anything that has a commercial value will be
classified under the head of physical asset.
A proper asset tracking management system is of utmost impor-
tance so that the company is able to keep track of all its assets and
know the true value of the assets owned by them.
An asset continuity plan (also known as business continuity plan)
is implemented in case a business suffers from a disaster resulting
in loss of business assets.
One of the important decisions to be taken at the time when the
company has to buy new machinery is to whether repair the ma-
chinery or to replace the machinery.
MTTR or better known as Mean Time To Repair is the time re-
quired to repair the broken hardware.
MTBF means Mean Time Between Failures.

n o t e s
Internal risks are the risks that are faced inside the organisation
and to tackle such risks, the established set of rules are enough to
tackle this problem.
Strategic risks are the risks that are of strategic importance to the
organisation and hence needs a specialised approach to face these
risks and mitigate the loss that could be derived due to the risks.
These are the risks that are completely out of the control of an or-
ganisation but there are still some ways through which these risks
can be managed.
Risk assessment is a process of quantitative evaluation and assess-
ment of the amount of risk involved in a situation. Quantitative
assessment of risk mainly includes the assessment of the magni-
tude of the loss that could be caused and the probability of the
occurrence of the event.
S
A risk register is a document that maintains a record of identified
risk factors and plays a significant role in risk management. It is
also known as risk log because it is used to keep track of risks in-
IM
volved in a project by maintain a log or record file.
Risk matrix refers to the matrix that categorises the harm caused
or the risk into various levels on the basis of the probability of
harm and the severity of the harm caused.
M
key words
Asset class: An asset class is a group of securities that are bound

by similar legal regulations and bear resemblance in financial
characteristics.
N
Equivalent unit: Equivalent unit is a measure of work done by

a manufacturer out of the total work to be finished at the end of
an accounting period.
Gap analysis: Gap analysis means the comparison of the actual
work performed against the standards set.
Risk register: A risk register is a document that maintains a
record of identified risk factors and plays a significant role in
risk management.

1. Explain different types of asset classes.
2. What is an organisational asset?
3. Discuss the use of assets in business.
4. What do you understand by the term ‘risk register’?
5. Discuss risk assessment methodology.

n o t e s
6. Define the term ‘downtime’.

7. Discuss the approaches followed at the time of valuation of the
business.
8. Explain some of the methods used for risk identification.

Asset Classes 1. True
2. IT asset
3. Asset class
S
4. False
Use of Assets in Business 5. Market, Income
6. False
IM
7. market
Asset Capture Methods 8. True
9. Asset tracking management
Concepts of Stock Registers 10. Stock register
11. Share Certificate
12. True
M
Asset Continuity Planning 13. Asset continuity plan

14. Gap analysis
15. b. MTTR
N
Overview of Risk 16. Risk assessment

17. Risk matrix
18. Internal risks

1. Asset classes can be categorised into three different types namely,
fixed income, money market instruments, and stocks. Refer to
Section 5.2 Asset Classes.
2. The organisational asset includes all the employees of the
organisation, information available, technology used and
facilities provided. Refer to Section 5.2 Asset Classes.
3. The businesses owning tangible assets has an edge over those
who do not own tangible assets as the ownership of tangible
assets helps in the procurement of the finance at the time of
need. Refer to Section 5.3 Use of Assets in Business.
4. A risk register is a document that maintains a record of identified
risk factors and plays a significant role in risk management.
Refer to Section 5.7 Overview of Risk.

n o t e s
5. Risk assessment methodology is the ways through which a risk

can be assessed and presented in the quantitative and qualitative
ways. Refer to Section 5.7 Overview of Risk.
6. Downtime or the outage duration is the time for which the system
is unable to or is incapable of performing the basic functions.
Refer to Section 5.6 Asset Continuity Planning.
7. There are three main approaches followed at the time of valuation
of the business. Refer to Section 5.3 Use of Assets in Business.
8. There are various methods to identify the risk and the selection
of the method is done on the basis of the cultural environment,
the industrial practices. Refer to Section 5.7 Overview of Risk.
S
Suggested Readings
Crouhy, Michel, Dan Galai, and Robert Mark. Risk management.
New York: McGraw Hill, 2000. Print.
IM
Holmes, Andrew. Risk management. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.,
2002. Print.
Hiles, Andrew, and Peter Barnes. The definitive handbook of busi-
ness continuity management. Chichester: Wiley, 1999. Print.
M
E-References
Technet.microsoft.com, 'Risk Management Process Overview'.
N.p., 2015. Web. 16 July 2015. From https://technet.microsoft.com/
en-us/library/cc535304.aspx
N
Www2.mitre.org, 'Risk Management - Standard Process/Steps Of

Process'. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 July 2015. From http://www2.mitre.
org/work/sepo/toolkits/risk/StandardProcess/steps.html
Scu.edu.au, 'The Risk Management Process - Risk Management
- SCU'. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 July 2015.From http://scu.edu.au/risk_
management/index.php/8/

C h a
6 p t e r
CLOUD COMPUTING
CONTENTS
S
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Cloud Basics
6.2.1
IM
Cloud Environment
6.2.2 Types of Cloud
6.2.3 Cloud Computing Services
6.2.4 Open Source Cloud Stack
Activity
M
6.3 Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for Cloud Applications

6.3.1 Amazon Web Services
Activity
6.4 Cloud Application Architecture
N

Activity
6.5 Windows Azure Platform
6.5.1 Enabling the Windows Azure Tools
6.5.2 Configuring the Windows Azure Storage Emulator Environment
6.5.3 Creating a Cloud Application Using the Windows Azure Platform
Activity
6.6 Summary

n o t e s
SECURE SSO FOR MIGRATION THE CLOUD FOR SOUTHERN

SHIPYARDS
Southern Shipyards owns and operates a few docks in the south

ern cities of Australia. They have a diverse work force of 300 em
ployees across various cities in South Australia. To facilitate easy,
access to applications and keep costs low, they decided to adopt
the services of a cloud.
First, they moved to a cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP) to track inventory, manpower, and expenses at the docks.
Second, they got a cloud-based Customer Relationship Manag-
er (CRM) for keeping track of customer orders and status. Third,
they went for a cloud based e-mail.
S
Tom Albright, the IT manager, faces the following challenges:
To get more users to use the three cloud services: Users
IMcomplain of remembering many passwords and learning new
applications. Tom Albright started looking for an enterprise
grade SSO product that enables users to easily authenticate
once and then access all SaaS services without any more pass-
words.
To easily manage user accounts from the three saas ser
M
vices: They had internal Microsoft AD (Active Directory) user

accounts. Tom Albright wanted the cloud accounts to use the
AD database for user access and user attributes. The cloud
SaaS should be able to know when a user is added or deleted
from the AD and use that for access.
N
Compliance: They had to follow PCI-DSS-like compliance for

Australia. The compliance required having a two-factor au
thentication to confirm that the user, besides having log-on
credentials, has physical possession of a phone number or an
other device that has been detailed when creating the account.
Tom Albright knew he needed a secure SSO environment to ad

minister and monitor SaaS access, where user credentials can be
taken from an internal AD server. The IT team evaluated the fol
lowing options:
Building and managing a solution: While Southern Ship
yards can build a solution easily, it will take a lot of effort for
them to maintain it; and the solution had to be expanded in fu
ture to include other SaaS services. They will need to hire staff
with knowledge of developing connectors to support SAML
(Security Assertion Markup Language), which is a standard
for managing SSO-to-cloud applications.

CLOUD COMPUTING 129
n o t e s
Using an off-the-shelf directory application: This required

upfront expenses in capital purchases, training, and ongoing
management of the application. The risk was that the solution
may not scale up to all SaaS services and future growth plans;
and Southern Shipyards may find it too difficult to transition
out of it.
Cloud-based SSO service: Southern Shipyards found a cloud-
based SSO-service provider, which could synchronise the user
accounts from their internal AD server. There were no upfront
expenses. The monthly fee was tied to the number of user ac-
counts for each SaaS application.
Southern Shipyards used the cloud-based SSO solution. The

users used a secure internal portal to access the SSO, and once
S
authenticated, they could access the three SaaS services. South
ern Shipyards implemented a strong, two-factor authentication,
where the users had to type in an OTP, delivered to their cell
phone or corporate e-mail server.
IM
M
N

n o t e s
learning objectives

>> Explain the basics of cloud
>> Describe cloud computing services
>> Discuss service-oriented architecture for cloud applications
>> Describe cloud application architecture
>> Discuss about Windows Azure platform
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Cloud is a model where users have a convenient, on-demand access to
S
a shared pool of resources, such as servers, storage, and applications,
over the Internet. Cloud Computing is said to be the biggest inven
tion since the advent of Internet. Generally, cloud computing can be
classified either on the basis of location or the type of service being
IM
provided. Cloud computing comprises a virtualised pool of infrastruc
ture resources with applications and services that can be used directly
through a self-service portal. For the end user, cloud computing con
sists of Client, Cloud network, and Cloud Application programming
Interfaces (APIs).
Cloud Computing has become a disrupting technology that is replac

M
ing the IT infrastructure used by small and large enterprises. By us

ing Cloud Computing, enterprises can do away with many captive
datacenters and server-storage infrastructure owned and managed
by them. There are three high-level cloud models in cloud comput
N
ing, such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service

(PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Business Process as a Ser
vice (BPaaS).
SOA refers to developing, hosting, and integrating applications and

resources to make them easily available in a distributed and heteroge
neous environment. It improves the service model using secure com
munication channels, quality of services, and maintenance.
Cloud application architecture is based on requirements. The archi

tecture is used as a blueprint by developers. Architecture for cloud
applications exists at multiple levels. At the conceptual level, it must
evolve in an effective manner in coordination with other forms of en
terprise solutions such as business offerings, market products, tech
nology growth, etc. At a detailed level, it includes designing, reuse of
existing software services and design of user interfaces.
In this chapter, you will study the basics of cloud and cloud computing
services. In addition, you will study service-oriented architecture for
cloud applications. Next, you will study about the cloud application
architecture Finally, you will study about the windows Azure platform.

CLOUD COMPUTING 131
n o t e s
6.2 CLOUD BASICS

The two most common IT-related terms currently in use are Internet
and Cloud Computing. If you go back a hundred years, the word In
dustrial Revolution had become a common term. Each of these terms
had an immense impact on how business was conducted. While none
of them created an overnight change in the way companies steered
their businesses; the change came in a series of waves, spread over
decades. The development of Internet and Cloud Computing have
spawned startups in various new industry verticals, forcing the exist
ing conglomerates to acclimatise and adapt quickly to survive in the
innovative environment.
Cloud is a model where users have a convenient, on-demand access to

a shared pool of resources, such as servers, storage, and applications,
S
over the Internet. Users don’t have a control of underlying hardware
infrastructure that is owned and managed by the provider. They ac
cess the services or allocated resources by using a Web browser.
IM
Exhibit
Characteristics of Cloud Computing by NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), US,

has defined Cloud Computing as:
M
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient,

on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable com-
puting resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
N
management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud mod-

el is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models,
and four deployment models.”
As per the NIST definition, Cloud Computing contains the follow-

ing five essential characteristics:
On-demand self-service: Allows a consumer to use computing
facilities, such as server time and network storage, automatical-
ly without involving the human effort with any service provider.
Broad network access: Provides all the facilities that are avail-
able on a network. These facilities can be accessed by using
standard mechanisms that promote the use of heterogeneous
thin or thick client platforms, such as mobile phones, tablets,
and laptops.
Resource pooling: Allows service providers to make pools of
computing resources, which allow them to serve multiple con
sumers through the multi-tenant model. This model allows a
resource pool to have physical and virtual resources that can
be assigned or reassigned to consumers, as per their demands.

n o t e s
Some examples of resource pools are storage, memory, and

network bandwidth. As consumers are not aware of resource
pooling locations, they can specify the location of their choice at
macro level by specifying country, state, or datacenter.
Rapid elasticity: Provides uninterrupted supply of services to
consumers automatically as per their demands.
Measured service: Allows computer systems to automatically
control and optimize resources by providing metering facility to
different types of services, such as storage, bandwidth, or active
user accounts. This type of resource usage is based on a pay-
per-use or charge-per-use basis. In addition, the resource usage
can be monitored, controlled, and reported at the end of provid-
ers as well as consumers, who take the benefits of facilities.
Source: http://www.service-architecture.com/articles/cloud-computing/cloud_computing_
S
definition.html
Adopting cloud computing for any business is a complex decision that

IM
involves many aspects. The key factors are security of data, privacy,
compliance to regulatory requirements, performance in a multitenant
environment, and 24/7 availability when hosting at a third-party facility.
The word cloud was used in the early days of the telecom to represent
the telephone network. Later, it was used to represent the Local Area
Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs). It was also used
M
as a metaphor for the Internet as an abstraction of the various inter

connected underlying infrastructure. With the advent of Storage Area
Networks (SANs) in 1990s, the cloud was used in storage diagrams to
represent SANs. Cloud computing derives its features from several
older technologies. Figure 6.1 shows the various milestones that the
N
IT industry has undergone since the early 1970s:
Cloud Computing
PaaS
IaaS
SaaS
Mobile ASPs
computing
Web
Client-Server
PCs
Minicomputers
Mainframes
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Figure 6.1: Computing Evolution and Migration of

IT toward Hosted Clouds

CLOUD COMPUTING 133
n o t e s
6.2.1 CLOUD ENVIRONMENT
Service providers, software and hardware vendors, and consumers

constitute a cloud environment. This environment also includes var
ious roles that are similar to those in Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA). Common types of roles in a cloud environment are as follows:
Cloud providers: Provide clouds through various cloud comput
ing service models, such as APIs as PaaS model and direct access
as IaaS model. Cloud providers are on the top of the cloud environ
ment hierarchy and are typically different from service providers
that host the cloud services.
Cloud resellers: Provide a global cloud infrastructure according to
the business requirements of organizations. They enhance a cloud
by developing high quality services and providing vital resource
S
infrastructure. Cloud resellers also provide customised, enhanced,
and user-centric cloud services to both Small and Medium Enter
prises (SMEs) and large organizations.
Cloud
IM
adopters: Enhance cloud platforms that are provided by
cloud providers or resellers. This empowers the cloud adopters to
cater dynamic business requirements. Cloud adopters convert the
cloud-enhanced systems into the user-specific software services.
Cloud tool providers: Offer essential tools and services to run and
manage the cloud services. They also offer hardware, virtual ma
M
chines, network infrastructure, and programming environment.
6.2.2 TYPES OF CLOUD
Generally, cloud computing can be classified either on the basis of lo

N
cation or the type of service being provided. On the basis of location,

cloud computing can be classified as public cloud, private cloud, hy
brid cloud, and community cloud.
Let’s first start up with the discussion on public clouds.
THE PUBLIC CLOUDS
The clouds, accessed or used by general masses and hosted, are main
tained as well as managed by cloud service providers, such as Ama
zon, Google, and Microsoft. In this type of cloud, the service providers
charge the companies according to their usage.
Due to this, initially, small organizations can start using the cloud ser
vices and then can expand by acquiring more resources according to
their requirements. During expansion, there is no need for the orga
nization to invest in the infrastructure and can pay just according to
what is being used. In the public cloud, there is no need for the or
ganizations (customers) to control or manage the resources; instead,
they are being administered by a third party. Some examples of public

n o t e s
cloud providers are Savvis, Verizon, Amazon Web Services, and Rack
space. You should understand that in case of public cloud, the resourc
es are owned or hosted by the cloud service providers (a company)
and the services are sold to other companies. Figure 6.2 demonstrates
the use of public cloud:
Company X
Cloud Services
Public Cloud (IaaS/ PaaS/ Company Y
SaaS)
Company Z
S
Figure 6.2: Showing the Level of Accessibility in Case of Public
Clouds
IM
THE PRIVATE CLOUDS
In the private cloud, the cloud computing infrastructure is solely de

signed for a single organization and cannot be accessed or shared
with other organizations. As compared to public clouds, the private
clouds are more costly as well as secure. A private cloud can be either
M
on-premise or hosted externally. In case of on-premise private clouds,

the service is exclusively used and hosted by a single organization.
However, the private clouds that are hosted externally are used by a
single organization and are not shared with other organizations. More-
N
over, the cloud services are hosted by a third party that specialises in
cloud infrastructure. Note that on-premise private clouds are costlier
as compared to the externally hosted private clouds. In case of private
cloud, security is kept in mind at every level of design. The general
objective of private cloud is not to sell the cloud services (IaaS/ PaaS/
SaaS) to the external organizations, but to get the advantages of cloud
architecture by not providing the privilege to manage your own data
center. Figure 6.3 demonstrates the accessibility of private clouds:
Private Cloud
Cloud Services
(IaaS/PaaS/
SaaS)
Figure 6.3: Showing the Level of Accessibility of Private Clouds

CLOUD COMPUTING 135
n o t e s
THE COMMUNITY CLOUDS
The community cloud is a type of cloud that is shared among various

organizations with a common tie. This type of cloud is generally man
aged by a third party offering the cloud service and can be made avail
able on or off premises. To make the concept of community cloud clear
and to explain when community clouds can be designed, let’s take
up an example. In any state or country, say England, the community
cloud can be provided so that almost all government organizations of
that state can share resources available on the cloud. Due to the shar-
ing of cloud resources on community cloud, the data of all citizens of
that state can be easily managed by the government organizations.
Figure 6.4 shows the level of accessibility in case of community clouds:
S
Community Cloud Community Cloud
for Level A for Level B
IM
Cloud Services Cloud Services
(IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)
M
Organizations having common Organizations having common

tie to share resources tie to share resources
Figure 6.4: Showing the Level of Accessibility for Community Clouds

N
Finally, let’s now move over and learn about hybrid clouds.
THE HYBRID CLOUD
The cloud environment in which various internal or external service

providers provide services to many organizations is known as hybrid
cloud. Generally, it is observed that an organization hosts applica
tions, which require high level of security and are critical, on private
cloud. It is also possible that the applications requiring less usage can
be hosted on the public cloud. In hybrid clouds, an organization can
use both types of cloud, i.e., public and private together. Such type of
cloud is generally used in situations such as cloud bursting. In case
of cloud bursting, an organization generally uses its own computing
infrastructure; however, in high load requirements, the organization
can access c louds. In other words, the organization using the hybrid
cloud can manage an internal private cloud for general usage and mi
grate the entire or a part of an application to the public cloud during
the peak periods.

n o t e s
Figure 6.5 shows the implementation of the hybrid cloud:
Public Cloud
Migrated Application
Private
Cloud
S
Organization X Organization Y
IM Cloud Services
(IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)
Figure 6.5: Displaying the Implementation of the Hybrid Clouds

M
6.2.3 Cloud Computing Services
Cloud makes it convenient to set up a new environment. In the cloud,

it takes a short time (for example, a few hours) to set up servers with
N
required storage, OS, database, and development tools that you want
to use. On the other hand, to set up an internal, non-cloud server and
storage system for a new development project or application, the roll-
out will take weeks or months. In order to set up a new environment,
you will have to go through various phases, namely, architecture, ap-
proval, negotiation, procurement, setup, installation, testing, and go-
live. Each of these phases can take several weeks to complete.
The cloud services have been in use for years before the term “cloud
computing” was coined. In fact, all services available in the cloud have
been available since the dawn of computing. But now, the cost of set-
ting up cloud infrastructure has become cheaper, the cloud delivery
mechanisms have become more convenient to use, and the related
bandwidth has become more widespread and affordable.
For larger businesses, several of their internal business units will move
towards the cloud, unless compelled by government regulations to
keep the data and applications within their internal premises. There
are 3 key types of cloud-based service mechanisms:

CLOUD COMPUTING 137
n o t e s
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS is a model in which you, as a customer, pay for the resources

(such as compute power, memory, storage, bandwidth, security devic-
es, load balancers, etc) kept at the provider’s facility or wherever the
provider keeps its hardware. The provider owns the equipment and
maintains it at a level specified in the previously-agreed upon Service
Level Agreement (SLA). As a customer, all you need to do is to pay for
the part of the resources dedicated permanently to your account or re-
sources that you provision temporarily to meet the short-term needs.
S
The customer can install OS, applications, libraries, and other soft-
ware within the virtual machine and has limited control on networking
and security equipment, such as host firewalls. Since the early 1980s,
IM
various offerings such as mainframes and thin computing (which are
similar to today’s IaaS and private clouds) have been built.
In late 1990s, a storage provider and a pioneer of IaaS called Storage

Networks used pay-per-billing for marketing the storage-as-a-utility.
A variety of services such as data archiving, backups, and replication
are provided by the storage provider. The user community was; how-
M
ever, not ready for the services and they were unfortunately far ahead
of their times to be commercially successful.
In July 2003, its Board of Directors announced the closure of the busi-
ness and approved a plan to liquidate the company. The company ter-
N
minated the services of all the remaining employees, except a small

team to oversee the winding up of the business. In December 2003,
a company called Rocket Software (http://www.rocketsoftware.com/)
of Newton, Massachusetts bought some of the technical assets of the
company. That was in early 2000s, when server virtualization or pay-
per-use for hardware resources was uncommon as a marketable utili-
ty. Even the term cloud computing had not been coined. Fast forward
it to the scenario today. Today with robust virtualization technologies
(such as Xen from Citrix, Hyper-V from Microsoft, vSphere from VM
ware and open source software), high-speed broadband, and shrink-
ing corporate budgets for IT, businesses are looking to buy or rent
only what they need for the day. IaaS is the solution for them.
To be commercially successful, the IaaS service must include the fol-

lowing features:
Supply of computing services as utilities along with pay-per-use
billing feature
Support of top class IT infrastructure

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Shared pool of resources of virtualized servers, storage, and net-

work
Full real-time support to meet user needs with the availability of
dynamic scalability of memory, bandwidth, storage, and servers
Support for automation of administrative tasks
Management and optimal utilisation of available resources
As a user, you need to be sure that your IaaS provider has the
above-mentioned attributes. Here is a list of questions to ask your
provider:
1. What does the provider have in place to protect non-IT
infrastructure, such as its datacenter, UPS, diesel generator,
racks, and air-conditioners, and IT infrastructure, such as
servers and storage?
S
2. How does it configure the security of the virtual machines?
3. How does the provider validate the integrity of the Virtual
IM Machine Images (VMIs)?
4. How does it protect customer data, applications, and
infrastructure from attacks by other tenants in the same cloud?
5. What tools does the provider use to detect security flaws?
6. What are the physical locations where data will be stored? This
is required for compliance with certain regulations that need
M
data to be in the same country.

7. How and at what frequency are the backups provided? Is backup
data encrypted?
8. What are the DR and BCP plans?
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Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS is a cloud service where the customer gets a set of application

and product development tool hosted on the provider’s infrastructure.
The customer can deploy acquired applications or those created us-
ing programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The
consumers are not allowed to control or manage the underlying cloud
infrastructure, which includes servers, operating systems, storage,
etc. However, a consumer has control over the deployed application
and can configure the hosting environment for the application.
Developers on the PaaS platform create applications on the cloud plat-

form using APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the
cloud servers. Force.com (a part of Salesforce.com), Microsoft Azure
and Google AppEngine are a few leading PaaS providers.
Despite the advancement in this area, PaaS suffers from absence of

widely-adopted standards for application portability between clouds.

CLOUD COMPUTING 139
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Table 6.1 shows a comparison between a traditional development en-

vironment and PaaS on the basis of the features offered:
TABLE 6.1: FEATURES OF AN INTERNAL, TRADITIONAL

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT AND PaaS
Feature In-House Application PaaS for Application
Development Development
Multi-Tenancy Intended for a single or a Supports hundreds to
small group of users. thousands of users, each
with multiple active
projects. Partition of data
is must to protect several
users.
User End-Points Application-based tools, Web browser-based tools.
browsers.
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Deployment Deployment and scalabil- Scalability, failover, and
ity are left for installation load-balancing are the
and go-live phases. basic building blocks.
Runtime Monitor-
IM
Development solutions Built-in monitoring
ing are usually not associated available with the devel-
with runtime monitoring. opment platform.
Virtual Machines, Multiple options are Need to work with the
Servers, Storage, available and can be cus- infrastructure offered by
Databases tomized to meet any user PaaS providers.
requirement.
M
Integrated Devel- May have separate envi- Same environment for all
opment Environ- ronment and infrastruc- phases.
ment (IDE) ture for development,
test, debugging, and
production.
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Table 6.2 shows the list of various categories of PaaS:
TABLE 6.2: PaaS CATEGORIES AND EXAMPLES

Category Description Examples
I These are PaaS offerings where Force.com, Google,
software developers can use cur- LongJump, Magic
rent tools, which they prefer to Software, Microsoft,
locally develop the software. Once NetSuite, TIBCO, and
they compile and test the appli- Wavemaker.
cation, they can upload it on the
cloud.
II The PaaS vendors provide a cloud- Force.com, Intuit,
based development environment, Trackvia, and Wolf
which includes stages, such as Frameworks
design, coding, debugging, testing,
staging, and deployment. All phases
provide browser-based access. The
developers build and test applica-
tions at the PaaS provider’s site.

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Category Description Examples

III These PaaS vendors target business Caspio, Cordys, Men-
experts, not coders or developers. dix, WorkXpress, and
The vendors provide tools, tem- Zoho.
plates that can be easily custom-
ized to build applications. There
is no need to write original code,
it speeds up application delivery
timeline.
IV These PaaS vendors enable devel- Amazon, CloudBees,
opers to use tools for building the Engine Yard, Gigaspac-
applications, either locally or in the es, IBM, Joyent, Micro-
cloud. The developers can use the soft, Red Hat, Stand-
cloud to stage, deploy, scale, and ing Cloud, and Cloud
manage the applications. Foundry (VMWae).
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Despite the availability of various PaaS vendors, consumers need to be
cautious. Small, start-up vendors may not be in business a few years
down the line and large established PaaS vendors may be slow to keep
IM
up with new offerings and attempt to sell their traditional products.
There are a few well-established PaaS providers, such as Force.com,
Google, and Microsoft.
The existing development user community must be familiar with the

technologies and offerings within the selected PaaS service.
M
Leveraging PaaS for Productivity
The following key features will increase a developer’s productivity if

they are effectively implemented on a PaaS site:
N
Ubiquitous access and quick deployment: This is particularly

important for organizations whose developers are geographically
spread out, mobile, and always changing in number. PaaS enables
rapid implementation, scalability, and collaboration.
Caching: A PaaS environment that supports caching for cloud
resources will boost application performance. Developers would
need an API to put an object or resource in the cache and to flush
the cache.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE): A PaaS environ-
ment must have a browser-based development studio with an IDE
for development, test, and debugging of applications. PaaS must
provide the same development and production environment and
the capability to build apps in various languages, such as Java,
Python, C#, Ruby, or PHP.
Database: Each PaaS must provide a database for developers to
store and access data. For example, for PaaS cloud, Force.com
has a service called database.com that enables you to build ta-
bles, fields, and relationships. It includes file storage, user man-

CLOUD COMPUTING 141
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agement, authentication and development tools that make it easy

to build applications. The database and APIs must support open
standards, such as REST, OAuth, SAML, and SOAP.
Integration: Integration with external databases and Web services
and their compatibility is ensured with leading cloud providers,
such as Google AppEngine, Microsoft Azure, Amazon or Force.
com.
Logging: A common requirement for all developers, regardless of
the application they are developing. The PaaS environment must
have APIs to open and close log files, write event logs, examine
entries, and send alerts for certain events detected in the log files.
Identity management: Developers in a PaaS or traditional envi-
ronment need to authenticate and manage users within their ap-
plications. Each user has a set of privileges managed by a role-
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based access mechanism. The PaaS cloud must support federated
identity management system where a user once authenticated is
given credentials to access services within the application as well
as on other clouds. APIs with the PaaS should cache, use, and de-
IM
lete credentials as needed.
Messaging: The PaaS cloud must provide ability to APIs to man-
age messages, such as the ability to post messages to any queue,
consume messages, and examine message content without con-
suming them. It must support a highly-secured and on-demand
collaboration throughout the Software Development LifeCycle
M
(SDLC) with phases, such as design, development, testing, deploy-

ment, production, and support.
Job processing: The PaaS cloud enables the developers to use
APIs for starting, monitoring, pausing, or stopping large process-
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ing jobs, as is done while data mining in Hadoop. Hadoop is a soft-

ware framework that enables applications to conveniently work
with thousands of nodes and petabytes of data and is based on
Java programming language.
Session management: PaaS must provide the ability to view ac-
cess or change user sessions. When a user session migrates from
one node to another in the cloud (say to server failure, for exam-
ple) the PaaS environment must maintain the user session.
Service discovery: PaaS platform must give developers a conve-
nient way to discover available services and the ability to search
the cloud by service types. It must provide a range of search crite-
ria for different service categories offered by the provider.
Besides the above-mentioned features, you must make sure that the
PaaS environment meets your specific programming needs. Here is a
list of questions you need to ask a potential PaaS provider:
What development environments does the vendor provide?

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Can your existing and read-for-market applications be hosted from

the PaaS cloud? This will prove the readiness of the provider.
What is the security responsibility (for user authentication, data,
etc.) of the provider and the consumer?
Does the provider have the expertise and willingness to work di-
rectly with you for porting, customization, and deployment, as of-
ten as required?
What facilities are there for logging of security events and user ac-
tivity? Do they use log servers, independent of the PaaS platform?
What tools are available to detect security flaws in applications?
Does the provider have sound intrusion detection or prevention
systems?
What about change management? Does the provider have a ro-
S
bust, centralized mechanism for maintenance without incurring
downtime or performance degradations?
What are the provisions for backups and DR?
IM
How does the cloud vendor ensure that application flaws of one
customer do not impact the shared infrastructure or someone
else’s data?
Can the public PaaS provider offer the services within a hybrid
cloud model? This will assure enhanced security and flexibility.
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Out of all the applications you have to develop, some will not be suit-
able for PaaS. For example, if you need to develop and test on a main-
frame or Unix system, that is not offered by PaaS provider, you will
need to set up and use an internal environment. For other applica-
N
tions, you can use environments offered by PaaS providers.
Guidelines for Selecting a PaaS Provider
There are two categories of PaaS providers. The first are large IT op-
erating system and software vendors, who offer PaaS because it is a
natural extension of what they have traditionally sold. The second are
small, independent vendors for whom PaaS is the sole or key offering.
Here are a few guidelines for choosing a suitable PaaS provider:
Compatibility with other clouds: PaaS providers will claim porta-
bility to all other clouds. This cannot be true as the cloud environ-
ments are unique and standards are still evolving. However, you
need to be aware of providers who claim they have everything for
everyone.
Target customers: PaaS providers have certain target customers
and architect their environment to appeal to particular group of
users. For example, Microsoft focuses on .NET and PHP develop-
ers. Oracle focusses on Java developers. Make sure that the PaaS

CLOUD COMPUTING 143
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provider you select offers and supports the development environ-

ment you need.
Avoid vendor lock-in: You must select a provider who facilitates
cloud interoperability for your application. It must be easily ported
to another public or hybrid cloud or even to a non-virtualized in-
ternal infrastructure. For this reason, the provider must abstract
application runtime, data handling, and middleware from the un-
derlying infrastructure.
Platform management: Make sure that the PaaS provider can
manage and maintain the environment. Many PaaS platforms are
built using open-source projects and applications for which the
provider may not have skills or control.
The test of time: Make sure that the cloud vendor will be in busi-
ness in the times to come.
S
With the ephemeral nature of cloud businesses, make sure that the
provider has a reliable set of partners, satisfied customers, and a
IM
sound financial base and can continue to survive even in harsh times.
Concerns with PaaS
The convenience attained with PaaS (as per the above points) leads to
a great loss of control over the environment and security. The follow-
ing are the drawbacks of using PaaS:
M
Lack of visibility: It is difficult to know if you are running in a se-

cure, robust environment. There is no standard way to determine
the patch levels, view, and analyze the activity logs, or perform
a vulnerability audit on the platform. Remote tests are usually
N
banned.
Portability/interoperabilitywith applications on another cloud:
Unlike IaaS, where OS images can be moved between clouds, ap-
plications developed on a PaaS involve cloud-provider’s APIs and
customized language extensions. This makes porting of applica-
tions difficult.
Security: Some PaaS providers include built-in security services,
but the end-user has no information on the implemented security
mechanisms. The customers cannot install host-level security ap-
plications for antivirus, WAF (python-based framework for config-
uring, compiling, and installing applications), host-based firewalls
or disable services or ports.
Security for development code: Since the development code re-
sides on a third-party, shared infrastructure, the customers are
wary of security and privacy of the code, which is the prime In
tellectual Property (IP) for the Independent Software Vendors
(ISVs).

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Language and PaaS
Select a PaaS provider with the right type of orientation and support
for various software languages that will help to build a flexible and
portable application:
Programming-language specific PaaS: These were common in
the early 2000s but are now less in number. They support one
language, be it Java, Ruby on Rails, Python or .NET or any an-
other language. The advantages they provide are the use of lan-
guage-specific tools, customized support, extensive libraries, and
specific code to run compute-intensive tasks in the clouds. It allows
scientists and analysts to access extensive compute requirements
they are comfortable with and need from, within a development
and test environment.
S
Language-agnostic providers: They were designed for developers
working with multiple programming languages, databases, and
frameworks. For example, they offer support for various languag-
es, such as Python, Java, .NET, and Ruby, and databases, such as
IM
MS SQL, MySQL, Postgres, and MongoDB. Potential drawbacks
are that you may not find the same degree of language-specific
customizations or libraries to distribute your code to several other
clouds.
Hybrid PaaS: It is a cloud service that gives you the freedom to
M
work with a complex mix of off-premises and on-premises applica-

tions and data. They abstract the infrastructure layer and on-prem-
ise resources. For example, if you have a large, on-premise Oracle
database that you do not want to replicate to a public cloud for its
size, security or cost reasons, you can access it from applications
N
in a hybrid PaaS. However, a potential drawback of hybrid PaaS

is the need to set up and manage the hardware abstraction layer,
which requires in-house expertise and management efforts.
The PaaS market is fast maturing with several commercial PaaS pro-
viders. Your selection would depend on your need for a single lan-
guage, mix of stack component and several languages or a PaaS that
would allow you to access in-house data or applications.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS allows the service providers to use the applications running on

a cloud infrastructure. These applications can be accessed anytime
from anywhere in the world through a Web browser at the client’s de-
vice. As in the case of PaaS, the customer does not manage or control
the underlying cloud infrastructure (servers, storage, OS, network)
or the application features. The customer can, however, configure us-
er-specific application parameters and settings.

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The use of SaaS provides several benefits to its users. For example,
users can use an application over the Internet, without actually imple-
menting or managing the software. As similar to IaaS and PaaS, the
fee of using an application is priced on the usage-basis, which means
the customer buys the rights to use some specific or all the modules of
an application as per their requirement.
It should be noted that SaaS appears almost similar to ASP, but the
two are different from each other.
Table 6.3 lists the differences between ASP and SaaS:
TABLE 6.3: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN APPLICATION

SERVICE PROVIDER (ASP) AND SaaS
Feature ASP SaaS
S
Ownership ASP applications are Multi-tenant, appli-
generally single-user cation hosted by the
IM
applications hosted on application developer,
the client-server archi- with regular updates
tecture by an HTML- directly from the devel-
front end of the third oper.
party for remote use.
Infrastructure May be a non-virtual- Shared, virtualized

M
ized environment with servers, network and

direct attached storage; storage systems form
with server and storage a resource pool; server
dedicated to the appli- and storage are shared
cation. with other services.
N
Web-based Not originally written Built to be Web-based

to be Web-based and and used over the pub-
used over the Internet; lic Internet.
hence, there is perfor-
mance degradation.
There are a large number of SaaS providers, such as Microsoft

LiveCRM, Google Apps, Trend Micro, Symantec, and Zoho. In Sep-
tember 2007, SAP launched Business ByDesign – an online version of
ERP service targeted at small and medium-sized businesses who do
not want to invest in a large IT deployment. It enables a preconfigured
suite for managing financials, customer relationships, HR, projects,
procurement and supply chain. About a year later, in October 2008,
Infor (based in Alpharetta, Georgia) entered the cloud market with
the launch of a SaaS version of ERP SyteLine, a very unique offering
that allows the user to move seamlessly between on-premises deploy-
ment and public cloud-based SaaS or vice-versa.

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Microsoft Dynamics introduced CRMLive in 2007 and entered the

SaaS market. CRMLive is executed at Microsoft datacenters around
the world along with other “Live” products, such as Live Small Busi-
ness Office. In 2009, Oracle introduced services comprising of Oracle
Sourcing and Oracle Sourcing Optimization products. In addition,
Oracle also offers CRMOnDemand, a CRM as a SaaS.
But SaaS needs cautious thinking and a well-planned deployment.

There must be a tested confidence that organizational data is secure
in the remote site. The issue of confidentiality, integrity, and service
availability has to be addressed by the provider. Authentication to the
application needs to be tightly protected using tested Identity Access
Management (IdAM) applications. Here is a list of questions you need
to ask your SaaS provider:
S
How does the provider make sure that the users who sign up are
not fraudsters and will not start malicious activity?
How and to what extent is security integrated with the SDLC at
IMdifferent phases, such as architecture, coding, testing, and deploy-
ment?
What are the design and coding standards?
What Web security standards are being followed?
How is customers’ data protected from attacks by other tenants?
M
How is data at-rest and in-motion protected from other application

users in the cloud?
The customer selected an IaaS provider and deployed VMs and exter-
nal storage (See Figure 6.6). The HR application used 3 VMs, running
N
the Redhat Linux operating system. The applications are provided

by an ISV but had been internally customized. The SQL database is
hosted on a fourth VM. Alternatively, the customer could have used
a database–as-a-service but that would have required rewriting and
porting the application to the cloud provider’s database. The HR data
is maintained on a cloud storage device offered by the cloud service
provider. Essential security requirements are:
1. The company must make sure that the HR applications are
accessed by authorized users only. It must also implement Role-
Based Access Control (RBAC) so users are limited to certain
privileges related to their business role and responsibility.
2. Similarly, the customer must ensure that if a VM is shut down or
deleted, it has the option to either move the data to another VM
or delete all the data related to services on the VM.

CLOUD COMPUTING 147
n o t e s
Figure 6.6 shows the use of VMs for hosting applications and databas-
es at a datacenter:
Identity Management-as-a-
Service Provider
Public Cloud
Remote Users
HR App HR App HR App Database
VM1 OS VM2 OS VM3 OS VM4 OS
VPN to Public
cloud
Corporate
Network
S
Provider’s Physical Infrastructure
Corporate Security-as-a-
Users
IM Service provider
Figure 6.6: HR Applications and Database Hosted on VMs at a Public

Cloud Provider’s Datacenter
The advantages include scalability to increase the compute resources

so as to meet peak load requirement and reduce them during low-use
M
periods to save on operational expenses. The customization includes

subscribing to backup and DR services. This eliminates the need for
imminent and substantial capital expense for data replication to a re-
mote datacenter. The customer created a set of best practices that are
meant for pending projects to use a public cloud:
N
Determine which aspects of your business (backups, replications,

infrastructure applications, ERP, emails, software development)
could be moved to the cloud.
Prepare a tender or RFP and send it to several cloud service pro-
viders. Compare technical strengths, offerings and prices of the
providers.
Research the cloud market and compare available options. Con-
tact customer references as part of the research.
Devise a cost-effective, non-disruptive, phased project plan to mi-
grate applications to the cloud.
Negotiate and execute a primary contract, a service level agree-
ment, and a maintenance contract.
Keep a period aside for overlap during which your internal, tradi-
tional infrastructure is available when a need arises.

n o t e s
After diligent deliberations, the company chose the third option, ini-
tially motivated by economic reasons. The company decided on the
deployment roadmap, which was divided into various phases.
Table 6.4 lists these phases along with their brief description:
TABLE 6.4: MIGRATION TO A CLOUD-BASED DR SITE

Phases Description
1. Cloud service provider This stage is probably the most important.
selection You need to ask if the provider throttles
the speed of uploads. Most Internet service
providers provide a higher speed for down-
loads than for uploads. Also, check if your
cloud provider blocks certain file types (such
as videos, compressed files, database files,
and OS files) from being backed up. If the
S
provider has free trails, take advantage of
it. They have an option of using a full-ser-
vice DR provider with backup and recovery
IM assets as standby at the DR site.
2. Backup and restore for Test if the cloud provider is suitable for you
non-critical data by backing up non-critical data. Try file-lev-
el, partial, and full restores. Also, see if you
can make application-level backups, such as
for databases or messaging. Try bare-metal
restores of the OS.
M
3. Asynchronous Data Set up scripts to automatically backup in-

Replication to Meet cremental updates to the cloud. It is advis-
RPO requirements able that your traditional in-house backup
infrastructure should not be removed. Some
cloud providers do not allow several applica-
N
tion-level or snapshot-based backups.

4. DR Tests for Applica- Once you are able to backup most file types,
tions you must test file-level, application-level,
and bare-metal restores. Also, test the time
it takes for services to be restored after
retrieving the applications and associated
user data from the cloud to your corporate
datacenter. All relevant documentation must
be updated to reflect the new DR plans.
Perform a dry run of the DR test every 3
months.
Over time and with due diligence and planning, backup and DR has
become a valuable cloud use case for the pharmaceutical company.
The cloud has solved the problem of having one or more remote sites
with a data copy. The cloud vendor maintains at least two data copies
at different sites. It has proven to be a cost-effective way to have a
backup of all critical data, applications, and a few operating systems
supported by the provider. The cloud data is easily accessible for res-
toration from any site that the customer selects, to use it as an alter-

CLOUD COMPUTING 149
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nate location to run his/her services. The pharmaceutical company

has two options to create a back up of data:
Cloud backup services: It can replicate its data to a provider’s da-
tacenter and configure servers for use in the event of a disaster.
Full-service DR Services: The second option is to take service of a
full-service DR provider and pay fee each month to them to man-
age the replications and maintain warm-standby servers for use
in the event of a disaster. The customer has found several public
DR-as-a-service providers:
Double-take cloud services from vision solutions (http://
www.visionsolutions.com/): System state, applications, and
data at a customer site are replicated at a byte-level to a cloud-
based repository. If the primary site is down, Double-Take Cloud
creates servers on the basis of the information in the reposito-
S
ry. These servers have identities that the end-users are familiar
with.
EVault
IM
services (http://www.evault.com/ from seagate): It en-
ables you to efficiently backup your physical or virtual systems
and data and extend IT infrastructure to the cloud.
Sungard’s availability services (http://www.sungardas.com/):
It offers multi-site facilities and infrastructure to mitigate di-
sasters. They have a Secure2Disk solution that is an online,
M
disk-based service for rapid backups, increased reliability, and

shorter recovery time objective (RTO).
There are numerous benefits of a cloud DR, which are given as fol-
lows:
N
No upfront investment on deployment

Access to seemingly-unlimited amount of resources
Pay for what you use and predictable operating costs
Reliable, multi-location replication
Higher availability and uptime
Available uniformly to users in all geographical locations
Seamless upgrade to latest versions for all users
Compliance to all regulatory requirements
Database as a service (DBaaS)
Databases are an essential component for all enterprise applications.

Database services for on-premise applications are configured using
internal, purchased servers and database. Large organizations have
a shared infrastructure for internal teams, where the database may
be a shared service and used for different applications. Thus, several

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applications can simultaneously access a single database running on

clustered servers and centralized SAN or NAS storage. The applica-
tions are; however, isolated from each other. Organizations can use a
shared database on a private or public cloud. In either case, the data
for each application is explicitly protected by the centralized service
called Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS).
Cloud providers, especially PaaS, offer a database based on commer-

cial products, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle or Microsoft SQL.
Nowadays, there are several available database service providers.
Here are a few factors to consider before selecting one for your re-
quirement:
Research: Find the available options and scrutinize the SLA, the
offered services, commitments and support.
S
Estimate your needs: Calculate what you will really need. It is ex-
pensive to add resources incrementally in real-time to meet load
spikes.
IM
Vendor and community support: Ask the cloud provider for refer-
ences and take time to speak with them. Check if the provider has
a capable team, which is willing to help you with technical issues
on a 24/7 basis. Make sure that the database has support from an
active user community and user forums.
API support for databases: Make sure that your provider supports
M
and that you use APIs that will work on other clouds. This lets you
focus on your application without worrying about infrastructure
and compatibility.
Price: Cost for cloud databases run from free versions to variable
pay-per-use to fixed monthly fee option. Open-source solutions are
N
inexpensive (and have good community support).

Tuned for the cloud: Make sure that the database configuration,
scalability, reliability, and performance are all tuned to work in a
cloud environment where it may be subjected to immense load
spikes and large number of concurrent users.
Compatibility with on-premise databases: Vendors offer pub-
lic cloud database that is different from their on-premise edition.
Understand the differences and try to use features that are sup-
ported on-premise to ease your migration to a hybrid cloud when
required.
Sharding a database helps in improving performance. It is a process

of breaking a large database into a number of smaller databases that
are located on one or more servers.
The goal of database profiling is to highlight any predictable issues

that may arise. This helps in avoiding any erratic problems that may
come up during implementation or run-time.

CLOUD COMPUTING 151
n o t e s
Specialized Cloud Services
There are other specialized cloud services, such as Distributed Com-

puting as a Service (DCaaS) and Parallelism as a Service. Distributed
Computing as a Service (DCaaS) is a method of performing a single,
common job by engaging various geographically-dispersed resources.
It is a Web-based service that makes it easy and convenient to process
massive amounts of data and perform compute-intensive tasks. The
service check for available resources across the network splits a job
to run on different servers and later collects and assembles the re-
sults. It helps reduce processing time, improves the performance of
the system, allows use of multiple resources and reduces the cost of
computation.
In distributed computing environment, each processor or server has
its own private memory for its work. Information is exchanged by
S
passing messages between the processors. Examples include wire-
less-sensor network, telephone networks, network file systems, dis-
tributed databases, etc. On the other hand, in Parallelism as a Service,
all system and user processors have access to a shared memory space
IM
to enable efficient inter-process communication. It improves perfor-
mance by eliminating or reducing communication. Examples include
cluster computing and volunteer computing. Parallelism as a Service
enables multiple tasks or actions to be performed simultaneously. A
cloud is a convenient platform for Parallelism as a Service, as it made
up of various virtual resources that can do multiple actions or run
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multiple applications in parallel. In a cloud, you can leverage its mul-

tiple resources to execute and process multiple tasks simultaneously,
without any variation, instability or interruption in the speed or qual-
ity of the service.
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6.2.4 OPEN SOURCE CLOUD STACK
Over the years, open source technologies are gaining popularity in

the field of Information Technology (IT). Their association with cloud
computing infrastructure has made it possible for cloud users, admin
istrators, and developers to take advantage of cloud services. Open
Stack and Eucalyptus are two most common open-source architec
tures being used by cloud service provider organizations worldwide.
These organizations also provide the necessary integration support
for various technologies of the open-source cloud services.
OpenStack is one among several open-source cloud building software

through which various organizations offer their cloud service to cli
ents. An OpenStack cloud leverages the pre-existing infrastructure of
the organization. The cloud can run on the commodity hardware that
are available at economical costs. It also provides a facility of scaling
the cloud resources so that whenever organizations need to add more
computing and storage resources, it could be done easily without in

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terrupting the operations or hampering the performance. OpenStack

based public cloud is implemented by some top-level organizations
including Hewlett Packard and Rackspace.
The OpenStack cloud follows two distinct architectures: conceptual

architecture and logical architecture.
The conceptual architecture of a typical OpenStack cloud environ

ment is shown in Figure 6.7:
Heat
Orchestrates
cloud
Provides
Horizon
S
UI
Provides network
connectivity for
Neutron
IM
VM
Provides images
Provides
volumes for
Provisions
Cinder Stores
Nova Glance images Swift
in
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Ceilometer
Monitors
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Keystone
Provides
Auth for
Backups volumes in
Figure 6.7: Conceptual OpenStack Architecture
FEATURES OF OPENSTACK
OpenStack software provides you the flexibility of integrating various

technologies with it that helps you in building the cloud environment
according to your choice and needs. OpenStack cloud has several fea
tures that stand out from the competitors. Some of the features are
explained as follows:
Live upgrades: OpenStack previously did not have any support
for live upgrades. Any upgrades would require you to shut the en-
tire cloud down. Now, you can upgrade your cloud by first upgrad-
ing the controller infrastructure and then upgrading the compute

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nodes one by one in a sequence. This will keep your cloud system
running and will require only individual components to be shut.
Federated identity: OpenStack provides you a federated identi-
ty system, called Shibboleth, which can be used for logging into
multiple OpenStack nodes through a single user ID. OpenStack
included this feature on special request by the European Organi-
zation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Trove: The original term used for this feature is “Project Red
Dwarf”. You can use this feature to manage database resources.
For example, you can manage MySQL system for manipulating
users and schemas defined in MySQL. The manipulation is done
through Trove APIs. OpenStack is expected to provide support for
newer database technologies also, such as MongoDB and Cassan-
dra.
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Object storage replication: A new mechanism for replication of
the object storage has been included with OpenStack’s object stor-
age system, Swift. This mechanism is known as ssync and is used
IM
for intercepting requests that are forwarded to Swift or are coming
out of Swift. This mechanism syncs the requests more intelligently
than the earlier mechanism, rsync.
Some other remarkable features of OpenStack include compute ser

vices, networking, dashboard, identity services, image management
services, orchestration, etc.
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COMPONENTS OF OPENSTACK
The OpenStack software consists of various components. Each of

these components is provided with a specific code name. Table 6.5
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lists the components of OpenStack software with their code names:
TABLE 6.5: COMPONENTS OF OPENSTACK SOFTWARE

WITH THEIR CODE NAMES
Component Code Name
Compute Nova
Object Storage Swift
Block Storage Cinder
Networking Neutron
Dashboard Horizon
Identity Service Keystone
Image Service Glance
COMPUTE (NOVA)
OpenStack software facilitates large virtual computer networks to be

utilized and managed by enterprises and service providers to offer
computing resources as per consumer demands. Developers who are

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building cloud applications get access to the resources through APIs.

The compute resource can be accessed by the administrators and us-
ers through the Web-based interfaces provided to them. You can scale
the compute architecture in a horizontal direction on the standard
hardware.
The OpenStack Compute is code named as nova and works as the fab
ric controller in the cloud computing environment. Fabric controller
is the primary part in the construction of an IaaS system. The nova is
coded in Python language, but various external libraries are also used.
Some of the important libraries are Eventlet, Kombu, and SQLAlche

my. These libraries add concurrent programming, AMQP commu
nication, database access, and several other remarkable features to
the OpenStack Compute component. You can horizontally scale the
nova architecture on your standard hardware without any proprietary
S
hardware or software needed. You can also integrate nova with your
legacy systems and with third-party technologies.
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The objective of designing nova is to automate and manage pools of
compute resources. Nova can be used efficiently with virtualization
technologies, bare-metal configurations, and high-performance com
puting (HPC) configurations. The example of hypervisor technologies
that can be used with nova include KVM and XenServer. Apart from
various hypervisors, OpenStack Compute also runs on ARM.
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OBJECT STORAGE (SWIFT)
Today, organizations not only require the storage technology tradi

tionally used in the enterprises but also various other options for data
storage that could fulfill the varying needs for performance and price.
N
Both block storage and object storage support are provided from
OpenStack. OpenStack also provides a number of options for the de
ployment of each storage system. The deployment options depend on
the use case.
The code name given to the OpenStack Object Storage is Swift. It

stores data redundantly. You can scale your data storage both up and
down in Swift as per the requirements. You store your data on mul-
tiple disk drives that are distributed across data-center servers. The
OpenStack software ensures replication and integrity of data through-
out the cluster. You can add new servers to your data center for scaling
the storage cluster in the horizontal direction. In case of a server (or a
hard drive) failure, the content from other active nodes in the cluster
is replicated to new locations by the OpenStack software. OpenStack
software uses software logic to ensure the replication and distribution
of data across all connected devices. This enables you to use econom-
ical hard drives and servers for storing data.
If you require a storage system that provides scaling facility within

economical cost, Swift is the ideal solution for you. The Swift storage

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platform is completely distributed and can be accessed through APIs.

You can directly integrate it into your applications for backing up, ar
chiving, and retaining data.
The Block Storage facility permits you to expose block devices. You
can then connect these devices to the compute instances for expand
ing the storage, enhancing the performance, and integrating with the
storage platforms traditionally used in the enterprise. These platforms
include NetApp, Nexenta, and SolidFire.
BLOCK STORAGE (CINDER)
In OpenStack system, the block storage or code named as Cinder pro-

vides persistent devices to the users that allow them to use data at the
block level. The devices can be used with compute instances of Open
S
Stack. The devices being created on, attached to, or detached from the
servers are managed by Cinder. The users are allowed to manage the
storage requirements on their own by integrating Cinder volumes into
OpenStack Compute and Dashboard.
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You can use Cinder with storage platforms, such as Ceph, CloudByte,
Coraid, GlusterFS, various IBM Storage options, Linux LIO, NetApp,
etc., apart from using it with the local storage of the Linux server. You
will find Cinder appropriate for use in the scenarios that are perfor
mance sensitive, for example, database storage, expandable file sys
tems, or servers being provided with raw access at the block level.
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A powerful data backup facility for data stored on Cinder volumes is

provided by the snapshot management service. You can restore or use
these snapshots for creating a new volume for block storage.
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NETWORKING (NEUTRON)
The increasing number of devices in the data-center networks is mak

ing it difficult for traditional techniques of network management to
provide an approach that is truly scalable and automated. Also, a more
flexible system that could provide better control and faster access is
expected by users. OpenStack networking, code named as Neutron,
is a system to manage networks and IP addresses that can be scaled
and is driven through APIs. You can start it by just plugging into the
system. Whether you are an administrator or a user, you can use it for
increasing the value of existing assets of the data center.
Networking models for different groups of users or for various ap

plications are provided by Neutron. The standard Neutron-provid
ed models include VLAN or flat networks that are used to separate
servers and traffic. You can manage your IP addresses through the
OpenStack networking. This permits creation of static, dedicated IPs
or DHCP. You can change the route of your traffic dynamically to your
compute resources with the help of Floating IPs.

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The dynamic rerouting of traffic helps in redirecting the traffic during

the maintenance or if any failure occurs. Networks can be controlled
by the users on their own. Controlling the traffic or connecting servers
and devices to networks can also be done by users. Software-Defined
Networking (SDN) technologies, for example, OpenFlow, can be uti
lised by administrators for permitting multitenant infrastructures and
massive scaling.
Additional network services are allowed by the Neutron extension

framework. These services include load balancing, Intrusion Detec-
tion System (IDS), Virtual Private Networks (VPN), etc.
DASHBOARD (HORIZON)
Dashboard is another component of the OpenStack cloud environ
S
ment. The code name given to the OpenStack dashboard is horizon.
The administrators or users are provided with a graphical interface
by the OpenStack dashboard. This interface is used for accessing, pro
visioning, and automating your cloud-based resources. Products and
IM
services from the third parties can also be incorporated with dash
board. These third-party services or products include billing, monitor
ing, or additional management tools.
Customizing the horizon with one’s own brands is possible for the ser
vice providers and other commercial vendors. Horizon is a technique
through which interaction with OpenStack resources is done. Open
M
Stack native APIs can be used by developers for building tools or au
tomating access to manage their resources.
IDENTITY SERVICE (KEYSTONE)

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The identity service of OpenStack, code named as keystone, maps a

central directory of users to the services of OpenStack that are acces
sible by them. It is an authentication system that works commonly
throughout the OS and integrates itself with the backend directory
services, which are already in existence. Different types of mecha
nisms are used by OpenStack keystone for authentication. These in
clude the standard system of using username and password creden
tials, token-based systems, AWS login credentials, etc.
In addition to this, a single registry that includes a list of all the ser
vices deployed in the cloud is provided by the catalog. You can pro
grammatically determine the resources accessible for you.
IMAGE SERVICE (GLANCE)
The code name given to the image services provided by the Open
Stack cloud environment is glance. Disk and server images can be
discovered, registered, or delivered by using glance. You can use the
stored images as templates. Unlimited number of backups can also

CLOUD COMPUTING 157
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be catalogued and stored by using those images. You can store the
images of servers and disks in a variety of back-ends with the help of a
glance. These back-ends can be the object storage service OpenStack.
A standard REST interface is provided by APIs of the image service
so that the information about disk images can be queried. The clients
can also stream images to new servers by using glance.
1. Which of the followings are layers of cloud?

a. Infrastructure as a service
b. Platform as a service
c. Software as a service
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d. All of the above
2. _______ provide clouds through various cloud computing
service models, such as APIs as PaaS model and direct access
as IaaS model.
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3. Which of the following is not a type of cloud?
a. The public cloud
b. The private cloud
c. The hybrid cloud
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d. The network cloud

4. ________ components of openstack software are coded as
Horizon.
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5. SLA stands for _____________.

6. _______ is a model in which you, as a customer, pay for the
resources kept at the provider’s facility.
7. ISV stands for _______.
8. Which of the following SaaS provides the capability to use the
provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure?
a. SaaS b. IaaS
c. PaaS d. None of these
9. _______ is a method of performing a single, common job by
engaging various geographically-dispersed resources.
Activity
Find out at least 10 public clouds available on internet.

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SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE
6.3
(SOA) FOR CLOUD APPLICATIONS
SOA refers to developing, hosting, and integrating applications and
resources to make them easily available in a distributed and heteroge
neous environment. It improves the service model using secure com
munication channels, quality of services, and maintenance. There is a
strong relationship between a grid and SOA. This relationship leads to
the misunderstanding that one is built on top of the other or both can
be used interchangeably. This misconception is more common while
implementing SOA and grid over a wide scope. The scope of e-Busi
ness grids and SOA can be used indistinguishably. The technologies,
such as .NET Framework and Globus Toolkit 4 are Web services, but
where GT4 is referred as the grid, .NET Framework is referred as a
Web service based on SOA. However, both these technologies possess
S
the same features.
The concept of cloud computing is based on the principles of SOA. In
the scope of resource virtualization in cloud systems, almost all the
IM
technological issues must be considered at the lower level of service
development. Therefore, the underlying concept of SOA can be useful
for services and applications build for and hosted on the cloud sys
tems. It also provides some extra features to enhance the capabilities
of the base cloud systems.
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6.3.1 AMAZON WEB SERVICES
Amazon EC2 has a simple Web interface, enabling you to configure

the capacity according to your requirements. You are allowed to not
only have a complete control over the resources you use for comput
N
ing purposes, but also run your applications on the proven environ
ment of Amazon’s computing services.
Obtaining and booting new servers require very less time (within min
utes). This makes it possible for you to scale your capacity very fast by
using Amazon EC2. The biggest advantage, though, of using Amazon
EC2 is that you save money by requiring to pay only for the capacity
that you are actually using. Moreover, with Amazon EC2, you are of
fered tools for building applications that are resilient and capable of
separating themselves from common scenarios of failure. Following
are the benefits of Amazon EC2:
1. Up and down scalability of Web services
2. Complete control over computing resources
3. Flexibility of services for cloud hosting
4. Support for other Amazon Web services, such as Amazon Simple
Storage Service (S3), Elastic Block Store (EBS), and SimpleDB
5. High reliability and security
6. Cost efficiency

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Let us now learn about the other Web services offered by Amazon.
The next sections discuss Amazon S3, EBS, and SimpleDB.
AMAZON S3
Amazon’s cloud storage service S3 is abbreviated from Simple Storage

Service. It contains lesser number of features as compared to some
popular distributed file storage systems in order to offer simplicity.
You can store data and scale your storage in S3, which may range
from one Byte of space to five TBs, while offering excellent durability
feature. You have options to store any number of objects that can be
read, written, or deleted from the S3 system. The developer assigns a
key to each object through which you can read or write data from/to
single object or bucket concurrently.
While Amazon S3 is ideally suited for static Web content, which uses
S
CloudFront content delivery network (CDN) with it in maximum cas
es; it is also suitable for source and working storage with computation
al data at a large scale; and live storage, such as backup, archive, or
IM
disaster recovery storage, you can use it to store any type of data. An
other important point about S3 is that you need to pay only for those
services (or storage space) that you are actually using. The primary
characteristics of Amazon S3 can be described as follows:
1. Buckets and objects are used in the double-layer hierarchy of
Amazon S3.
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2. A unique URL is assigned to each of the objects (or buckets) by

the developer so that the stored data is easily accessible.
3. Simple APIs are provided for Get, Put, and Delete operations
that are performed through HTTP.
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4. Extreme durability level is offered, in which automatic replication

of stored data to various locations in a single region is possible.
According to the Amazon S3 Service Level Agreement (SLA), the
users of Amazon S3 services are provided with 99.999999999%
of durability and 99.99% of availability. However, if you find it
difficult to pay for these services, Amazon S3 also offers a lower
cost option that provides storage with reduced redundancy as
well as lower durability.
5. Scaling of data is offered to an extreme level, where you can store
objects in a bucket without limits on their number and scale your
Web application through concurrent read and write operations.
6. Various support services are offered, such as different mechanisms
for controlling access to the stored data, encryption services in
the transition state and in the state of rest, and versioning of
storage.
In S3, up to 5TB arbitrary computer files associated with approxi

mately 2KB of metadata are stored as objects in the buckets. These

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buckets are owned by accounts created with AWS. A unique key that
is defined by the user is used for the identification of each bucket.
S3 also allows you to export the Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) as
bundles from EC2 to S3. The Web interface (REST, HTTP, or SOAP) is
used for creating, listing, and retrieving buckets and objects in S3. In
addition to these features, you can download objects by using the GET
HTTP interface and BitTorrent protocol. Each bucket and object has
an access control list that is used for authorizing the requests. Names
for buckets and keys are selected in such a manner that the Uniform
Resource Locators (URLs) can easily address the objects. The follow-
ing were the design requirements for Amazon S3:
1. Security: The first and foremost requirement for designing
the Amazon S3 storage service had been the matter of security.
Amazon provides full control to the client who is authorised for
the access of stored data, hence making it a preferable storage
S
option in the cloud.
2. Reliability: The data storage had to be reliable and persistent.
You are offered extreme durability feature with Amazon S3 so
IM
that you can get benefits in storing data for any duration you
desire.
3. Scalability: The scaling of data up and down was required. You
have the possibility of scaling the data up and down up to 99.99%
in Amazon S3 that enables you to store as much data as you
require.
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4. Speed: Support for high-performance systems required the

Amazon S3 storage to be fast enough for meeting the demands
of speed and accuracy.
5. Cost: The cost had to be kept economical for more users to take
N
advantage of the services. Amazon S3 provides pay-as-you-go

option that lets you reduce the cost of your storage.
6. Simplicity: Many features were excluded intentionally by
Amazon Web Services in S3 to provide simplicity. So, Amazon
S3 had to be very simple and efficient for every customer to get
benefitted from its services.
ELASTIC BLOCK STORE (EBS)

All kinds of programming techniques require efficient and persistent
data storage options. The requirements become more prominent in
the context of today’s large data processing needs. Amazon provid
ed EBS as its persistent data storage solution for cloud computing.
High performance and high availability for storing data at the level
of blocks are the other attractive features of Amazon’s EBS. It can be
attached to an Amazon EC2 that is already in running state.
An important characteristic of EBS is that it can be formatted and

mounted as a file system or can be used for directly accessing the raw
storage. EBS can also be used as a host for database systems, where

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the sizes may vary between 1GB and 1TB, the same instance can have
multiple volumes mounted on it. Striping the data across volumes is al-
lowed for enhancing the performance of the system. A single available
EC2 zone might have a single EBS instance mounted with multiple
volumes that are also replicated automatically within the zone. The
snapshot facility allows volumes to be snapshotted to Amazon S3 eas-
ily. Also, on requirement, new volumes of various sizes can be created
where the snapshot works as a base. However, if the new volumes do
not match the size of the volume where the snapshot was taken, the file
system must be resized. The data loading is very slow when a volume
is created on the basis of S3 snapshot. However, you need not wait for
the snapshot loading the data. The usage charges for EBS are taken
on the basis of I/O requests and storage volume. The cost of storage is
$0.10 per GB in a month and that of I/O requests is $0.10 per million.
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EC2 command line tools, ElasticFox, or numerous third-party tools
and libraries are made available with the EBS for accessing each of
the functionalities of Amazon EC2. For example, you can use a simple
dialog box for creating new volumes and attaching them to running
IM
instances. For this, you just require clicking once, and it will enable
you to create a snapshot, whereas clicking another time will enable
you to create a new volume from the snapshot.
Amazon EBS addresses some of the common patterns. The three top
patterns are as follows:
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1. Storing key-value: Amazon’s most of the data was stored on

the basis of primary key access that, in turn, resulted into the
creation of Amazon S3.
2. Storing data in simple and structured form: Simple query
interface requirements led to the creation of Amazon SimpleDB.
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The secondary keys to S3 objects are stored in SimpleDB, where

you get a set of S3 (primary) keys from lookup.
3. Storing data in blocks: EBS resulted from the remaining bucket
that holds no certain patterns for storing data, but numerous
data storage patterns are followed by distinct applications.
Amazon EBS serves the following benefits:

1. It is a reliable, secure, consistent storage system.
2. It has high performance and low latency.
3. It allows quick scaling of data storage capacity, both up and down.
4. It provides backup facilities in addition to restoration and
innovation possibilities.
Amazon EBS is utilised in various ways to render the above benefits.
Some of the use cases are as follows:
1. EBS usage as database: We can use EBS as a base for deploying
relational databases, such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server,
MySQL, etc. This is possible through its scaling capacity.

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2. EBS usage in applications developed for enterprises: With

features that meet various specific needs of your organization,
EBS can be used in enterprises for obtaining a reliable block
storage service.
3. EBS usage as NoSQL systems: Consistent and high performance
and low-latency services of EBS helps you to use it as a NoSQL
system. Also, the scaling of storage facility makes it more
beneficial.
4. EBS usage in development and test environments:
Organizations could be more responsive and agile in serving the
customers if they take advantage of provisioning, duplication,
scaling, and archive facilities in their development and test
environments.
5. EBS usage in continuing businesses: Regular data backup
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facility helps organizations to minimise the loss of data and
recovery time so that businesses processes can be conducted
well.
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6. EBS usage in file workloads: The file system creation facility
provided with Amazon EBS makes it suitable for handling large
workloads of files.
EBS contains storage volumes arranged in a massive array and pro

vides a zone of availability. Therefore, Amazon EBS is one service that
you can use for your benefits in multiple ways. What is unique about
M
EBS is that it allows you to create new scenarios, permitting the man
agement of storage volumes. New scenarios help in creating Amazon
S3 snapshots that can be used as a starting point to create new vol
umes in any zone of availability.
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These features are used mainly for the purpose of having long-term
backups, strategising the rollback, and recreating volumes. Snap
shots, combined with Availability Zones and Elastic IP addresses,
help vastly in fault-tolerant scenario development. All of this makes
Amazon EBS a wonderful tool that helps in further enhancement of
the cloud technology.
AMAZON SIMPLEDB
Database systems have evolved very much over the years. However,
the scalability, speed, and accuracy requirements have increased so
much, along with the need for reducing the cost, that almost all con
ventional database systems have become inefficient. The idea behind
creating Amazon SimpleDB was to develop a fast, scalable system
that would provide fully managed database services. Any amount of
data can be stored, retrieved, and managed easily through SimpleDB
in a cost-effective manner. SimpleDB can handle any level of traffic of
requests and serve them efficiently. It is most suited for applications
such as gaming, advertising technology, mobiles, etc.

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The core database functionalities are served by SimpleDB for storing

the text data and querying it. Benefit of using SimpleDB is that you
do not require performing the joins or complex transactions as the
system offers non-relational structure. SimpleDB supports SQL-like
querying with Select statements and therefore, it easily suits all kinds
of core database requirements.
The low-touch features of SimpleDB need no schema, no modelling for

data, and no database administrator. As the system is fully managed,
therefore, it overcomes the database management requirements. You
need not to pay any cost for storing 1GB-month data in SimpleDB and
for querying approximately 2 million requests. Amazon SimpleDB
provides the following uses:
1. Storing the metadata mostly in combination with S3
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2. Querying for structured, fine-grained data requirements
3. Requiring data with flexible schema
AMAZON SIMPLEDB CHARACTERISTICS

IM
Amazon SimpleDB is a data storage and management system that
has a structure similar to the relational database management sys
tems. Both the systems, however, use different terminologies. Table
6.6 shows both the systems’ terminologies:
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TABLE 6.6: SYSTEMS’ TERMINOLOGIES

SimpleDB RDBMS
Domains Table
Item Row
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Attributes Column
Values Values
From Table 6.6, we observe that RDBMS tables are known as domains
in SimpleDB, rows as items, columns as attributes, and values as val
ues. The following are the characteristics of Amazon SimpleDB:
1. Scalable: The Amazon SimpleDB systems provide a seamless
throughput and scaling for storage. The scaling features can be
a. Scaling the storage automatically: You can store any amount
of data in SimpleDB domains and more storage will be allo-
cated automatically to you by the service as you continue to
store more data through the right APIs provided with Ama-
zon SimpleDB.
b. Provisioning of throughput: The required request capacity
needs to be specified by the user during the time of creating
domains. This enables allocation of dedicated resources to
the user domains for meeting the performance requirements.

n o t e s
Also, for meeting the request capacity, the data is automati

cally partitioned by the SimpleDB services over a sufficient
number of servers.
c. Fully distributed architecture without sharing: Amazon
SimpleDB supports a horizontal scaling that can be extended
up to scaling a single domain over hundreds of servers.
2. Easy administration: With a service that is fully managed on
its own, SimpleDB just requires you to simply create database
domains and leave the rest of the handling for the service to
do on its own. You have to take no care for the provisioning of
the hardware or software. Configuring the setup, patching the
software, handling of a database cluster that is reliable and
distributed, or even data partitioning over multiple instances is
all left for the SimpleDB service to take care.
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3. Flexible: You can use secondary indexes for querying on any
attribute flexibly, without sacrificing the performance, scalability,
and fault-tolerance characteristics.
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4. Fast, predictable performance: Usually, on an average, the
latency for Amazon SimpleDB at service side is less than or at
max equal to 9 milliseconds. Fast and consistent latencies are
maintained by running the services on solid state drives for any
scale of the workload.
5. Built-in fault tolerance: The recovery from failure is
M
automatically performed in Amazon SimpleDB, which comes

as a built-in facility. The data is replicated in a synchronous
manner over the three zones of availability in a region so that the
data always remains available and protected against individual
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machine failures.
6. Schemaless: No fixed schema is provided with Amazon SimpleDB.
The data items may have different number of attributes, instead.
Also, the data model is enhanced by the existence of multiple
data types that involve strings, numbers, binary data, and sets.
7. Strong consistency, atomic counters: The permission for
consistent read operations, which makes the development
practices easier, ensures that the latest values are always read by
the user of Amazon SimpleDB. With support for various native
data types, Amazon SimpleDB services also support Atomic
Counters. You can use these counters to automatically increment
or decrement the numerical attributes with a single call for APIs.
8. Cost effective: The cost efficiency of Amazon SimpleDB is
unaffected by the workload that can be scaled up to any level.
You are allowed to start using Amazon SimpleDB services with a
free tier, with no money payment required for performing up to
40 million data operations. However, consumption of resources
requires low rates to be paid on an hourly basis. The easy
administration and efficient request pricing facilities offered

CLOUD COMPUTING 165
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by SimpleDB permit users to lower the total cost of ownership

(TCO) by a significant margin for the workloads they have.
9. Secure: The use of cryptographic methods by Amazon SimpleDB
for authentication of users and prevention of unauthorised
access to data makes SimpleDB systems very secure. The
integration of Identity and Access Management (IAM) services
of the AWS with Amazon SimpleDB allows a fine-grained access
control mechanism to be applied for user authentication in
organizations.
10. Integrated monitoring: The management console of AWS has
key operational metrics for the domains of Amazon SimpleDB
users. The integration of Amazon CloudWatch with the SimpleDB
services lets the user see the throughput and latency of their
requests for each domain of SimpleDB. This also lets the user
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track the consumption of resources by them.
With all the above features and their benefits, Amazon SimpleDB is a
data management platform that you can use for storing, querying, and
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managing structured data at a very low cost.
10. The concept of cloud computing are not based on the principles
of SOA. (True/False)
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11. Amazon S3 is ideally suited for static Web content. What does
S3 stands for?
12. ______is a data storage and management system that has a
structure similar to the relational database management
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systems.
13. SOA improves the service model using secure communication
channels, quality of services, and maintenance. (True/False)
Activity
Study and prepare a report on service oriented architecture of

Google.
6.4 CLOUD APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE

Without a documented design and plan, cloud developers will fail to
capitalise on the advantages of cloud over traditional environments
and on cloud practices and patterns. The new applications must be
able to coexist with and use other cloud services, such as a cloud-
based authentication, security and replication.
While working with cloud applications, requirements and architecture

must be the first two documents to be written and reviewed. There

n o t e s
are two types of requirements: functional and non-functional. Func

tional requirements list the purpose and objectives of the application.
Non-functional requirements include performance, response time,
built-in security, replication, ease of use, productivity, agility, backups,
business continuity, scalability and modularity. These requirements
are shown in Figure 6.8:
Application Requirements &

Constraints
zz Business Needs
zz Required Outcome
zz Enterprise Vision
zz Legal Limitations when hosting in cloud
zz Regulatory Requirements
zz Cloud Standards
zz Use of Existing Templates
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zz Corporate Policies for Cloud Use
IMDunctional Requirements Non-functional Requirements
zz Required Features zz Performance & Response Time
zz Business Goals zz Security
zz User Requirements zz Service Availability in the Cloud
zz Backup to Other Clouds
zz Extension to Hybrid Clouds
zz Localization
zz Compatibility with Other Cloud Platforms
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zz Support for End-user Devices
Figure 6.8: Cloud Application Requirements

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Cloud application architecture is based on requirements. The archi

tecture details various sections within the application and how they
will communicate with each other. Each section helps to meet certain
functions outlined in the requirements document. The architecture is
used as a blueprint by developers. Architecture for cloud applications
exists at multiple levels. At the conceptual level, it must evolve in an
effective manner in coordination with other forms of enterprise solu
tions, such as business offerings, market products, technology growth,
etc. At a detailed level, it includes designing, reuse of existing software
services and design of user interfaces.
When defining a cloud application’s architecture, it is also critical

to define certain aspects or requirements on the private or public
cloud, where the application will be hosted. Some of these require
ments include the server architecture for an IaaS cloud, backups,
fault tolerance from hardware failures, data replication technique to
other remote clouds, security, etc. The server architecture covers the
hardware design that will facilitate the deployment of the application.
Good application server architectures should support both horizontal
and vertical scalability offered by the cloud.

CLOUD COMPUTING 167
n o t e s
14. While working with cloud applications, requirements and

architecture must be the first two documents to be written
and reviewed. (True/False)
15. When defining a cloud application’s __________________, it is
also critical to define certain aspects or requirements on the
private or public cloud, where the application will be hosted.
16. Good application server architectures should support only
horizontal scalability offered by the cloud. (True/False)
17. What are the functional requirements of cloud applications?
18. Which of the following is not an application requirement and
constraint of cloud applications?
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a. Business need b. Require outcome
c. Enterprise vision d. Security
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Activity
Using the Internet, find out the various functional and non-func-
tional requirements of the cloud application. Prepare a report on
your findings.
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6.5 WINDOWS AZURE PLATFORM

The Windows Azure platform is a platform that is used for the devel
opment and deployment of cloud services. This platform is built of
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components that provide specific functionality to various cloud ser

vices. The Windows Azure platform has brought significant change in
the architecture, development and deployment of cloud services. This
platform supports different types of applications, such as rich client
and Internet applications, Web services applications, server applica
tions and mobile applications. The developers of the different types
of applications include Windows Azure platform for the architecture
and deployment of the applications on the cloud. This is basically a set
of building blocks of platform, middleware, enterprise and consum
er services for building cloud services. This platform provides Win
dows Azure, which is a cloud operating system; SQL Azure, which
is a cloud database; .NET services and Live services. The motive of
the Windows Azure platform is to help developers in building cloud
services according to the requirements. This platform also provides
Internet-scale infrastructure for deploying distributed applications
and services. Visual Studio 2012 can be used to develop cloud services
and can deploy it on the Azure platform. This helps critical project re
sources to emphasise on solution design and delivery in spite of man
aging dependencies present in the internal infrastructure.

n o t e s
Figure 6.9 shows the three main components of the Windows Azure
platform:
Windows Azure Platform
SQL AZURE AppFabric
Windows Azure
Figure 6.9: Windows Azure Platform Components
Let us learn how to enable the Windows Azure tools in Visual Studio
2012.
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6.5.1 ENABLING THE WINDOWS AZURE TOOLS
The Windows Azure tools for Visual Studio 2012 help developers to
create, build, debug, run and deploy Web applications and services
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from Visual Studio 2012 IDE on Windows Azure. Initially, the Windows
Azure tools in Visual Studio 2012 are not available. You can download
and install the Windows Azure tools by performing the following steps:
1. Open the New Project dialog box.
2. Select the Cloud option in the New Project dialog box. The Get
Windows Azure SDK for .NET template appears in the middle
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pane.
3. Enter the name of the application in the Name text box and
location in the Location combo box and click the OK button, as
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Figure 6.10: Displaying the Azure Platform

CLOUD COMPUTING 169
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As you are using the Windows Azure platform for the first
time, the .NET framework prompts you to first download the
Windows Azure SDK for .NET, as shown in Figure 6.11:
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Figure 6.11: Downloading Windows Azure SDK for.NET
4. Download the vwdorvs11azurepack.exe file and save it on the
computer hard drive.
5. Close VS 2012 IDE; otherwise, the installation wizard will not
execute properly.
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6. Double click the vwdorvs11azurepack.exe file to initiate the

installation.
7. Click the Install button to install Windows Azure SDK, as shown
in Figure 6.12:
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Figure 6.12: Starting the Installation Wizard

8. Click the I Accept button in the PREREQUISITES page of the
Web Platform Installer 4.0 wizard to accept the installation of

n o t e s
Windows Azure SDK and other required software as listed, as

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Figure 6.13: Displaying the List of Software to be Installed
The wizard displays the progress bars during the installation of
the software, as shown in Figure 6.14:
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Figure 6.14: Installing the Software

9. Click the Finish button to complete the installation, as shown in
Figure 6.15:
Figure 6.15: Completing the Installation

CLOUD COMPUTING 171
n o t e s
After successfully installing Windows Azure SDK for .NET, let us now
learn how to configure the Windows Azure Storage Emulator environ
ment.
6.5.2 CONFIGURING THE WINDOWS AZURE STORAGE

EMULATOR ENVIRONMENT
The Windows Azure Storage Emulator environment is used for the

storage of cloud services on a local machine that allows developers to
build and test cloud applications on the machine without extra cost.
When you run a cloud application for the first time on the Windows
Azure platform, an initialisation process starts to configure the stor
age environment that creates the database in SQL Server Express. If
you want to use a local SQL Server, you can use the DSInit command-
line tool on Windows Azure Command Prompt.
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Perform the following steps to configure the Windows Azure Storage
Emulator environment on a local SQL Server:
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1. Select Start → All Programs → Windows Azure → Windows Azure
SDK for .NET October 2012. Open Windows Azure Command
Prompt as an administrator.
2. Type the following command on the command prompt:
DSInit /SQLInstance:<SQLServerInstance>
However, to use the default SQL Server instance, you can type
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the following command:

DSInit /SQLInstance:.
In our case, we have used the default instance of the local SQL
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Server, as shown in Figure 6.16:
Figure 6.16: Showing Windows Azure Command Prompt

When you run the command, the Storage Emulator Initialization
window appears (Figure 6.17).

n o t e s
3. Click the OK button to complete the initialisation process for

Windows Azure Storage Emulator, as shown in Figure 6.17:
Figure 6.17: Showing the Storage Emulator Initialization Window
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The Windows Azure Storage Emulator environment is configured for
the Windows Azure applications.
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Now, let us create a simple cloud application using the Windows Azure
platform.
6.5.3 CREATING A CLOUD APPLICATION USING THE

WINDOWS AZURE PLATFORM
After completing the installation of Windows Azure tools and config
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uring the Windows Azure Storage Emulator environment, open Visu

al Studio 2012 as an administrator to create a cloud application.
Perform the following steps for creating a cloud application using Vi
sual Studio 2012 IDE:
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1. Select FILE→New→Project in Visual Studio 2012 IDE. The New

Project dialog box appears.
2. Select the Cloud node from the left pane and the Windows Azure
Cloud Service template from the middle pane of the dialog box.
3. Click the OK button in the dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.18:
Figure 6.18: Opening the Windows Azure Cloud Service

CLOUD COMPUTING 173
n o t e s
The New Windows Azure Cloud Service dialog box appears

(Figure 6.19). In this dialog box, you need to select roles for
creating your application. For example, the ASP.NET Web Role
creates an application with a Web user interface. Similarly, the
Worker Role creates the background processing application.
4. Select the ASP.NET Web Role and Worker Role options from the
.NET Framework 4.5 roles group and click the forward arrow
button to add the roles in the Windows Azure Cloud Service
solution group.
5. Rename ASP.NET Web Role to WebRole and Worker Role to
WorkerRole.
6. Click the OK button, as shown in Figure 6.19:
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Figure 6.19: Selecting Roles for Creating the Application

The cloud application opens, as shown in Figure 6.20:
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Figure 6.20: Displaying the WorkerRole Page of the Cloud Application

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7. Open the Default.aspx page in the Source view and add the
following code, as shown in Figure 6.21:
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Figure 6.21: Adding Code in the Default.aspx Page
8. Open the Design View and double-click the Button control and
add the following code, as shown in Figure 6.22:
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Figure 6.22: Displaying the Code of the Default.aspx.cs Page

CLOUD COMPUTING 175
n o t e s
9. Open the ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg file and set the

Instances count to 3 in the WebRole, as shown in Figure 6.23:
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Figure 6.23: Modifying the ServiceConfiguration.Local.cscfg File
10. Now, press F5 to run the application, the output appears.
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11. Click the Click Here button, as shown in Figure 6.24:

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Figure 6.24: Displaying the Output of the Application

n o t e s
12. Click the Show hidden icons arrow in the taskbar to view the
hidden icons.
13. Right-click the Windows Azure icon and select the Show
Compute Emulator UI option in the context menu, as shown in
Figure 6.25:
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Figure 6.25: Opening the Compute Emulator UI
The Windows Azure Compute Emulator window is displayed
(Figure 6.26).
14. Click the WebRole node to view the instances created in the
application, as shown in Figure 6.26:
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Figure 6.26: Displaying the Nodes in the

Windows Azure Compute Emulator

CLOUD COMPUTING 177
n o t e s
After creating the application, you need to publish it for deployment.

The Publish process compiles and builds the solution. It creates a new
service package that includes a zip file and configuration files for the
solution. Visual Studio opens the directory where the service package
is created after the completion of the publish process. It also opens the
browser and navigates to the Azure services developer portal. Now,
you have to login to the Azure Services management portal using your
Live ID.
19. Windows Azure Storage Emulator environment is used for

the storage of _______________ services.
20. What are the three main components of the Windows Azure
S
platform?
Activity
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Using the Internet, find out how Microsoft Azure helps in maintain-
ing and securing businesses data. Prepare a report on your find-
ings.
6.6 SUMMARY
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Cloud computing can be classified either on the basis of location or

the type of service being provided.
The clouds, accessed or used by general masses and hosted, are
N
maintained as well as managed by cloud service providers, such as

Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
In the private cloud, the cloud computing infrastructure is sole-
ly designed for a single organisation and cannot be accessed or
shared with other organisations.
The community cloud is a type of cloud that is shared among vari-
ous organisations with a common tie.
The cloud environment in which various internal or external ser-
vice providers provide services to many organisations is known as
the hybrid cloud.
Cloud computing is the computing that is based on the Internet.
It can also be defined as the next stage in the evolution of the In-
ternet.
Cloud computing comprises a virtualised pool of infrastructure re-
sources with applications and services that can be used directly
through a self-service portal.

n o t e s
A network is the connecting link between the user and cloud

services. The Internet is the most straightforward and common
choice for accessing the cloud. Employing advanced network ser-
vices, such as encryption and compression, during transit will ben-
efit both the service provider and the user.
Cloud computing has become a disrupting technology that is re-
placing the IT infrastructure used by small and large enterpris-
es. By using cloud computing, enterprises can do away with many
captive data centres and server-storage infrastructure owned and
managed by them.
A cloud service can be public, private or a hybrid of the two. A pub-
lic cloud offers services to anyone on the Internet. Amazon Web
Services, Google and Salesforce.com are some of the leading pub-
lic cloud providers. A private cloud is an internal IT infrastructure,
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usually located within the user’s data centre.
Cloud services offer infrastructure resources, platform or software
applications as a service.
IM
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) allows you to set up a ded-
icated server with compute power, storage, memory, and net-
work bandwidth from resources at a provider’s datacenter. You
do not have to purchase, set up or maintain IT hardware, OS
or datacenter space within your organization. You just have
to pay for the resources you actually used or are reserved for
M
your use.
Platform-as-a-Service allows users to develop, test, and deploy
applications from the cloud service provider’s location. The pro-
gramming environment (compilers, debuggers, etc.), OS, and un-
N
derlying hardware are owned and managed by the provider. It is

ideal for small and medium businesses.
Software-as-a-Service allows you to use applications over the
Internet in a one-to-many architecture where a single, generic
instance is used by several customers. It has advantages of cen-
tralized updates and ability to quickly add new users. Several pro-
viders offer various other services, such as Identity Management
as a Service (IdMaaS) and Security as a Service.
SOA refers to developing, hosting and integrating applications and
resources to make them easily available in a distributed and het-
erogeneous environment.
Functional requirements list the purpose and objectives of the ap-
plication. Non-functional requirements include performance, re-
sponse time, built-in security, replication, ease of use, productivity,
agility, backups, business continuity, scalability and modularity.

CLOUD COMPUTING 179
n o t e s
key words
Cloud Application Programming Interface (API): Refers to

a set of programming instructions and tools that provide ab-
strac-tions over a specific provider cloud.
Community cloud: Refers to a type of cloud that is shared
among various organisations with a common tie.
Hybrid cloud: Refers to the cloud environment in which var-
ious internal or external service providers provide services to
many organisations.
Private cloud: Refers to the cloud in which the cloud com-
put-ing infrastructure is solely designed for a single organisa-
tion and cannot be accessed or shared with other organisations.
S
Public cloud: Refers to the cloud in which there is no need for
the organizations (customers) to control or manage the resourc-
es; instead, they are being administered by a third party.
IM
1. Explain the five salient features of a cloud.
2. Discuss the various types of clouds.
3. What are the common types of roles in a cloud environment?
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4. Describe the features of an openstack cloud.

5. Write a note on PaaS.
6. Write a note on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for cloud
N
applications.
7. Explain the cloud application architecture.
8. Write a note on the Windows Azure platform.

Cloud Basics 1. d. All of the above
2. Cloud providers
3. d. The network cloud
4. Dashboard
5. Service level agreement

n o t e s

6. IaaS
7. Independent Software Vendors
8. a. SaaS
9. DCaaS
Service-Oriented Archi- 10. False
tecture (SOA) for Cloud
Applications
11. Simple Storage Service
12. Amazon SimpleDB
13. True
Cloud Application Archi- 14. True
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tecture
15. Architecture
16. False
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17. Requiered features, Business
goals, and User requirements
18. d. Security
Windows Azure Platform 19. Cloud
20. SQLAzure, AppFabric and
M
Windows Azure

1. The five salient features of a cloud are on-demand self-service,
N
broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and

measured service. Refer to Section 6.2 Cloud Basics.
2. Cloud computing can be classified either on the basis of location
or the type of service being provided. Refer to section 6.2 Cloud
Basics.
3. Service providers, software and hardware vendors, and
consumers constitute a cloud environment. This environment
also includes various roles that are similar to those in Service-
Oriented Architecture (SOA). Refer to Section 6.2 Cloud Basics.
4. OpenStack software provides you the flexibility of integrating
various technologies with it that helps you in building the cloud
environment according to your choice and needs. OpenStack
cloud has several features that stand out from the competitors.
Refer to Section 6.2 Cloud Basics.
5. PaaS is a cloud service where the customer gets a set of
applications and product development tools hosted on the
provider’s infrastructure. The consumers are not allowed to

CLOUD COMPUTING 181
n o t e s
control or manage the underlying cloud infrastructure, which

includes servers, operating systems, storage, etc. However, a
consumer has the control over the deployed application and can
configure the hosting environment for the application. Refer to
Section 6.2 Cloud Basics.
6. SOA refers to developing, hosting and integrating applications
and resources to make them easily available in a distributed
and heterogeneous environment. Refer to Section 6.3 Service-
Oriented Architecture (SOA) for Cloud Applications.
7. Cloud application architecture is based on requirements. Refer
to Section 6.4 Cloud Application Architecture.
8. The Windows Azure platform is a platform that is used for the
development and deployment of cloud services. Refer to Section
6.5 Windows Azure Platform.
S
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SUGGESTED READINGS
Sosinsky, B. (2011). Cloud computing bible. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.
Rountree, D., & Castrillo, I. (2013). The basics of cloud computing.
Burlington: Elsevier Science.
Furht,B., & Escalante, A. (2010). Handbook of cloud computing.
M
New York: Springer.

Rountree, D., & Castrillo, I. (2013). The basics of cloud computing.
Burlington: Elsevier Science.
N
E-REFERENCES
SearchCloudComputing,. (2015). What is cloud computing? - Defi
nition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://search
cloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing
Strickland, J. (2015). How Cloud Computing Works. HowStuffWorks.
Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/
cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm
WhatIs.com,. (2015). What is Amazon Web Services (AWS)? - Defi
nition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://wha
tis.techtarget.com/definition/Amazon-Web-Services-AWS

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C h a
7 p t e r
VirtualiSation
CONTENTS
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7.1 Introduction
7.2 Virtualisation Concepts
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Activity
7.3 Server Virtualisation
Activity
7.4 Server Virtualisation Implementations
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Activity
7.5 Managing Virtual Server Environments
7.5.1 Physical Partitioning
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7.5.2 Logical Partitioning

7.5.3 Host Machines
7.5.4 Virtual Machines
7.5.5 Guest Operating Systems
Activity
7.6 Platforms
7.6.1 Hypervisor
7.6.2 ESX Platform
7.6.3 VMkernel
7.6.4 COS
7.6.5 VMFS
Activity
7.7 ESX Architecture
Activity

CONTENTS
7.8 Summary
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VirtualiSation 185
n o t e s
Server Virtualisation Implementation at Shelco
Shelco is a well-known organisation in the construction domain.

It provides a number of construction services including plan-
ning, new construction, and renovation, to its clients from sever-
al types of industries, such as educational, office, medical, retail,
and bio-technology, etc. The company is known for completing
its construction project on-time and within budget and is also
included in the annual listing of Top 400 General Contractors in
Engineering News Record. To meet the demands of its huge clien-
tele, Shelco had installed a number of servers; however, they were
becoming old and needed replacement or some other alternative.
Shelco wanted to implement a cost effective approach to tackle
this problem without compromising on the users’ experience.
S
Therefore, the organisation planned to implement virtualisation
on a Storage Area Network (SAN) instead of replacing the hard-
ware. To do this task, Shelco signs an agreement with AT-NET
Services.
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AT-NET Services was founded in 1999 with its headquarters in
Southern Pine Blvd in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. It is one of
the premier risk management and technology integration indus-
try. It offers complete engineering services of systems from the
designing phase to management phase.
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As a solution to Shelco, a server virtualisation solution containing

Cisco UCS Servers, VMware, and a NetApp SAN was installed
and implemented by AT-NET Services. The implementation in-
cluded:
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Physical placement of servers and SAN

Configuration of the local network, servers, and SAN
Virtualisation of seven servers
Configuring backups
Doing administrative training
The implementation of virtualisation in Shelco provided serveral

advanatges, including the following:
Physical servers are replaced with virtual machines
Theuser experience has been enhanced with SAN perfor-
mance
The ability of backup and disaster recovery planning has been
enhanced

n o t e s
learning objectives

>> Explain the concept of virtualisation
>> Discuss server virtualisation and its different approaches
>> Describe the steps of implementing server virtualisation
>> Manage virtual server environments
>> Discuss virtual platforms and the terms associated with them
>> Explore architecture of ESX server
7.1 INTRODUCTION
S
In the computing scenario, virtualisation allows the creation of virtual
machines that can run on different operating systems. These virtual
machines are hosted on a single physical server containing hardware
resources, and are capable of running different applications and act as
IM
they are physical machines. The physical server that hosts the virtual
machines is called the host server and the virtual servers are known
as guest servers. Similarly, the operating system running on the host
server is called the host operating system while the operating system
running on the guest server is called the guest operating system. The
resources of the physical server are shared by each virtual machine
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hosted on the physical server. Virtualisation has added a new dimen-

sion to the field of Information Technology (IT). It has made things
simple for the organisations by eleminating the need for more phys-
ical servers and space required for arranging them. Due to such ad-
vantages, most organisations are implementing virtualisation in their
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environment.
In this chapter, you will learn about virtualisation. You will also get
familiar to different types of virtualisation. Next, you learn about the
concept of server virtualisation and how to implement it in an organ-
isation. You will also become familiar to the management of virtual
server environment and ESX architecture.
7.2 VIRTUALIsATION CONCEPTs

Usually, the word virtualisation refers to “an abstraction of resources”.
In other words, you can say that it deals with separation of a service
request from the original physical delivery of the specified service.
For intended purposes, it may be treated as a shortened version of x86
server hardware virtualisation. This terminology can be broken down
into the following terms:
X86: Refers to a processor having 32-bit instruction set. It must be
noted that operating systems such as Windows and Linux run on
x86 processors.

VirtualiSation 187
n o t e s
Server: Refers to a physical computer hardware on which the ap-

plications and operating systems can execute.
Hardware Virtualisation: Refers to a condition where multiple
operating systems run on same physical hardware machine and
thinks individually that it is the only one that runs on this machine.
The virtualisation or virtual environment puts an abstraction layer

between computing, storage and networking hardware, and the appli-
cations running on it, as shown in Figure 7.1:
Application Application
Application Operating Operating

System System
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Operating System VMware Virtualization Layer
X86 Architecture X86 Architecture

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CPU Memory NIC Disk CPU Memory NIC Disk
Figure 7.1: Displaying the PCs Before and After Virtualisation

Source: https://yoyoclouds.wordpress.com/tag/virtualization/
In organisations, virtualisation plays an effective role in reducing the

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costs related to IT, and also helps in boosting the efficiency of a busi-
ness. Some of the benefits of virtualisation are as follows:
Several
operating systems and applications can be run on a single
computer simultaneously.
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A few servers can be used to get high productivity.

The IT cost is reduced to a large extent especially about 50%.
It
requires minimal maintenance after setting up an IT environ-
ment.
Ithelps in setting up new applications more easily and faster than
the one done in non-virtual infrastructure.
It helps in setting up a strong, inexpensive and open IT infrastruc-
ture.
Itreduces the number of hardware resources required for setting
up an IT infrastructure to a large extent.
TYPES OF VIRTULIsATION
Virtualisation can be classifed into several types depending on the the

elements on which it is based. Some of the types of virtualisation are
as follows:

n o t e s
Server virtualisation: Refers to a virtualisation technique where

a physical server is distributed among multiple isolated virtual
servers using virtualisation software and these virtual servers run
a different instance of operating system simultaneously. As each
virtual server runs its own operating system and application, the
resource utilisation is improved.
Hardware virtualisation: Refers to a virtualisation technique
where the virtual sessions of computers and operating systems are
created by the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), a hypervisor (vir-
tualisation software). After creating them, the VMM merges the
sessions into one physical server to make the proper utilisation of
hardware resources.
Desktop virtualisation: Refers to a virtualisation technique that
creates virtual desktops and hosts them on a central remote serv-
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er from where they can be accessed anytime and from anywhere
without the requirement of your personal computer. The virtual-
ised desktops are not stored on the hard drive of the personal com-
puter. In this virtualisation technique, the client/server approach
IM
is used for the virtualisation of desktops; therefore, it is also called
client virtualisation.
Network virtualisation: Refers to a virtualisation technique that
monitors a single network formed by joining all the physical net-
working devices. It divides the network bandwidth into small dis-
tinct channels that are distributed to servers and network devices
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associated with the network, thereby, optimising the network per-

formance as well as reliability, scalability, data transfer rate, and
security. It is primarily used where the number of users is large
and they want to keep all the systems running at all the times.
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Storage virtualisation: Refers to a virtualisation technique that

combines the physical storage of different storage devices. SAN
uses the concept of storage virtualisation and allows the sharing
of storage devices across the network. Also, it allows the adminis-
trators to perform back up, archive, copy, and recovery in an easy
and timely manner. The storage virtualisation provides various
benefits like increasing the utilisation and flexibility of storage re-
source, solving the need for OS patching and drivers, improving
application uptime and controlling the storage infrastructure.
1. SAN stands for_________.

2. _________ refers to an abstraction of resources.
Activity
Search the Internet and find the advantages of virtualisation.

VirtualiSation 189
n o t e s
7.3 SErver virtualisation

Usually, when you talk about virtualisation, it simply means server
virtualisation. Server virtualisation refers to the masking of server re-
sources such as processors and operating systems from users of the
server. In this virtualisation technique, several virtual environments
are created from a single physical server with the help of a virtualisa-
tion software. These distributed virtual environments are also known
as virtual private servers. You must not confuse with guests, instances,
containers or emulations as they are distributed virtual environments.
There are three common approaches for server virtualisation includ-

ing the following:
Full virtualisation (also known as virtual machine model)
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Para-virtualisation (also known as paravirtual machine model)
OS-level virtualisation
All the above specified approaches share some common qualities/

IM
properties. The physical server is known as the host, while the virtu-
al servers are known as guests. A distinct approach is used by each
virtual server to allocate physical server resources and to behave as a
physical machine.
FULL VIRTUALIsATION
M
Full virtualisation is a server virtulisation method that uses the host/

guest paradigm where each guest operates on a virtual imitation of the
hardware layer. In this model, the guest operating system is allowed
to run without any variations. This approach enables the administra-
N
tor to create guests, which are using different operating systems. The
guest is not aware of the host’s operating system. However, it needs
real computing resources from the host. For this purpose, a special
type of software is used, which is known as hypervisor. The hypervi-
sor cooperates with the CPU of the physical server and functions as
a platform for the operating system of the virtual server. Each virtual
server runs independently and does not know about the other virtual
server running on the same physical machine.
The resources of the physical server are monitored by the hypervisor.

When a virtual server runs applications, it may require to use some
resources of the physical server. This is the responsibility of the hy-
pervisor to communicate with the desired resource required by the
virtual servers. As the communication between physical server and
virtual servers is done by the hypervisor, there is requirement of some
space to be reserved on the physical server to run the hypervisor ap-
plication.

n o t e s
In the full virtualisation model, each guest can run on a different op-
erating system such that one is running on Linux and other is running
on Windows. It is also known as a virtual machine model. This model
is usually used by VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server. Figure 7.2
shows the concept of full virtualisation:
S
Figure 7.2: Concept of Full Virtualisation
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/mahbubnoor/virtualization-and-cloud-computing-34998595
IM
PARA-VIRTUALIsATION
As similar to full virtualisation, para-virtualisation also uses the host/

guest paradigm. Usually, it uses a virtual machine monitor or hyper-
visor to modify the guest operating system’s code. The modification
made by the hypervisor is known as porting. As the hypervisor is sup-
M
ported by porting, therefore, the privileged system calls needs to be

utilised carefully. As each operating system is aware of the demands of
the other operating system running on the physical server, there is no
need for much processing power by the para-virtualisation hypervisor
N
to manage the guest operating systems. Multiple operating systems

can be run on para-virtualisation methods as similar to full virtuali-
sation. The para-virtualisation method is commonly used by the Xen
and UML. Para-virtualisation reduces the overhead but its mainte-
nance cost is high. Figure 7.3 shows the concept of para-virtualisation:
Figrue 7.3: Concept of Para-Virtualisation

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/mahbubnoor/virtualization-and-cloud-computing-34998595

VirtualiSation 191
n o t e s
OS-LEVEL VIRTUALIsATION
OS-level virtualisation refers to a method in which hypervisor is not

used. This approach does not work on host/guest paradigm. The func-
tionality of a virtualised hypervisor is conducted by the virtualisation
capability, which is a part of the host OS. In this approach, a single
operating system kernel is run by the host and OS functionality is
exported by the host to each of the guests. Therefore, all the virtu-
al servers run the same OS. The environment is known as homoge-
neous environment as all the guest operating systems are same. In
this approach, all the virtual servers are independent from one an-
other and the operating system running on these servers cannot be
mix and match. The CPU usage overhead can be reduced by using
this homogeneous architecture. As virtual servers are independent of
each other, the failure of one server can not affect other servers. How-
S
ever, common libraries can be shared that allows an OS-level virtual
server to host a lot of guests concurrently. The OS-level virtualisation
approach is used by Virtuozzo and Solaris Zones. Figure 7.4 shows the
concept of OS-level virtualisation:
IM
Container Container
App process
App process
App process
User Apps
App process App process

M
App process App process
OS File system
OS Kernel
N
Hardware
Figure 7.4: Concept of OS-Level Virtualisation
Exhibit
Selecting the virtualisation method

The selection of the virtualisation method depends on the require-
ments of the network administrator. The following selections can be
made depending on the requirement of the network administrator:
When all the operating systems are same, OS-level virtualisa-
tion method can be selected as it is the fastest and efficient than
other virtualisation methods.
When the operting systems running on servers are different,
the para-virtualisation method can be selected. However, the
full virtualisation method is used by most of the organisations
for this context.

n o t e s
NEED OF SERVER VIRTUALIsATION
Nowadays, server virtualisation is adopted by most of the organisa-

tions. It not only reduces hardware costs but also provides several
benefits to the organisations. Server virtualisation is needed because
of the reasons shown in Figure 7.5:
Resource Optimization
Consolidation
Maximize Uptime
S
Implement Redundancy
Easy Migration
IM
Save Investment
Figure 7.5: Need of Server Virtualisation

M
The points listed in the above figure are explained as follows:

Resource optimisation: It implies that virtualising the hardware
helps in using the computing power, storage space and network
N
bandwidth more effectively and efficiently. Virtual servers can be

implemented instead of physical servers and programmers can
run any software application on the virtual server without affect-
ing other applications.
Consolidation: It refers to the process of freeing some space by
combining the functionality of multiple servers into one. Server
virtualisation helps in performing this task by allowing adminis-
trators to build one physical machine containing several virtual
environments. It decreases the physical space required for setting
up hundreds or thousands of servers in an organisation.
Maximise uptime: It implies that virtualisation provides assured
uptime of servers and applications and faster disaster recovery ir-
respective of any migration of servers. Server virtualisation also
ensures that the new virtual machines are deployed easily and in-
stantly. It also ensures reconfiguration of computers without af-
fecting the users.
Implement redundancy: Redundancy refers to the act of running
the same application on multiple servers. The server virtualisa-
tion ensures redundancy without requiring to purchase any addi-

VirtualiSation 193
n o t e s
tional hardware. Redundancy helps in making the servers active

irrespective of any server failure. In the context of virtual servers,
redundancy ensures that failure of one virtual system is accompa-
nied by other virtual system.
Easy migration: Migration is the process of moving a server from
one environment to another. In case of physical servers, migration
was only possible when both the physical systems had same hard-
ware, operating system and processor. However, in a virtualised
environment, the migration can be done between physical hosts
having different hardware configurations. Usually, the migration
is used for enhancing reliability and availability of server system.
In the virtual environment, a guest can be migrated to a physical
server easily when the server on which it was running, is failed.
Save investment: Server virtualisation can save the investment to
S
be made on exchanging legacy systems. These systems can be run
on virtual machines installed over the new hardware, thereby con-
tinuing the services running on legacy systems. It also saves the
cost required for exchanging the legacy systems with new ones.
IM
limitations of server virtualisation
Although most of the organisations are implementing server virtuali-

sation, there are some limitations of it where it is not a better choice to
implement. The various limitations of server virtualisation are shown
M
in Figure 7.6:
Degraded Performance
N
Software Licensing
Processing Power
Security
Figure 7.6: Limitations of Server Virtualisation
The discussion of the above listed limitations is given as follows:

Degraded performance: Virtualisation degrades the performance
of a server system as it cannot be analysed in advance that how
many resources would be required as some applications behave
differently on different environments including physical and vir-
tualised and require more resources on a virtualised environment.
Software licensing: Some software vendors set license fees on
CPU cores that may result in increasing the cost of licensing when

n o t e s
we move an application from a two-way server to four-way virtu-

alised server irrespective of the processors used in the virtualised
environment.
Processing power: Virtualisation fails when servers require high
processing power as it divides the processing power of the physi-
cal server into several virtual servers that results in slowing down
the system when an application running on the physical system re-
quires more processing power. It may result in crashing the server
system when the processing power demand of the applications is
not fulfilled. Therefore, to avoid such an issue, a network admin-
istrator is required to check and analyse the CPU usage before
deploying virtual servers on a physical server.
Security: One of the major limitations of a virtualised environ-
ment is security. The security between the hardware and software
S
is broken when a virtualised environment is deployed. So, addi-
tional security tools may be required for securing the virtualised
environment from any type of threats.
IM
3. In OS-level virtualisation, hypervisor is not used. (True/False)

4. Which of the following server virtualisation approaches is also
called virtual machine model?
M
a. OS-level virtualisation
b. Full virtualisation
c. Para-virtualisation
N
d. All of these
Activity
Select an organisation of your choice and decide which virtualis-

ation approach is suitable for the organisation depending on its re-
quirements.
Server Virtualisation
7.4
Implementations
Each organisation has its own set of rules for implementing server
virtualisation. There are several risks associated with server virtuali-
sation; therefore, its implementation requires more planning and con-
sideration. It should also be considered by each organisation about
necessary infrastructure required for implementing virtualisation.
Therefore, a common approach can be defined for the implementa-

VirtualiSation 195
n o t e s
tion of server virtualisation. This approach contains five steps, as de-

picted in Figure 7.7:
• Infrastructure Discovery
Process of • Server Resources
Inventory • Application Resources
• Resource Allocation
Nature of • Selection of Vendor

Virtualization • Type of Virtualization
Hardware • Server Consolidation

Maximization • Physical to Virtual Migration
S
Physical • Move to 64-bit Architecture
IM
Infrastructure • Shared Storage
Virtualization • Resource Pool

Management • Virtual Service Offering (VSO)
M
Figure 7.7: Steps of Implementing Virtualisation
The steps of the implementation of virtualisation shown in Figure 7.7

N
are discussed in the following subsections.
Inventory Process
The primary step in the process of implementing virtualisation is cre-

ating an inventory. The inventory contains all the resources whether
hardware or software. It also determines the following information:
Vendor and type of the processor
Memory size
Type of network including number of ports and speed of each port
Storage including its capacity, type and number of disk drives

Operating system
Installed applications
Running applications and services

n o t e s
The phases of inventory process are discussed as follows:

Infrastructure discovery: The major step in the process of im-
plementation of virtualisation is collecting information about its
infrastructure. To perform initial analysis of an organisation, dif-
ferent tools are provided by different vendors. One of such tools
is Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool. The MBSA
tool provides information about each system including its IP ad-
dressing, supported operating system, running applications and
weaknesses. Once the analysis of the organisation is complete, an
inventory diagram is generated by connecting the generated val-
ues to MS Visio.
Server resources: The next step in the process of implementing
server virtualisation is categorising servers and their related re-
sources. The categorisation is performed to escape any privacy
S
and security concern between servers. Server roles can be catego-
rised into the following types:
Network infrastructure servers
IM
Identity Management servers
Terminal servers
File and print servers
Application servers
M
Dedicated web servers

Collaboration servers
Web servers
N
Database servers
Application resources: After categorising servers, application re-
sources can also be categorised into different types, as follows:
Commercial versus in-house
Custom applications
Legacy versus updated applications
Infrastructure applications
Support to business applications
Line of business applications
Mission critical applications
Resource allocation: The next step after creating the workloads is
assigning computing resources to different workloads as per their
requirements. These resources should be arranged in the nor-

VirtualiSation 197
n o t e s
malised form. Normalised workloads help in acquiring maximum

efficiency. The normalisation is the product of maximum proces-
sor efficiency to the number of processors and number of cores.
Nature of virtualisation
The nature of virtualisation step is the second step in the process of

implementing server virtualisation. This step examines the selection
and identification of vendor. The vendor selection should be keen such
that the products of the vendor meet all criteria of collected data. For
better analysis of the vendor, you should use some specialised tools.
One of such tools is VMware Capacity Planner (VCP) tool that is used
for identifying potential virtualisation candidates by generating a re-
port on the utilisation of server processor including its CPU, memory
and disk. This tool is basically used when the network size is large
S
containing more than 100 physical servers.
Hardware Maximisation
IM
During the implementation process of server virtualisation, the hard-
ware maximisation or usage acts as an important step as it becomes
difficult to maintain high availability of virtual workloads with the
available hardware that causes hardware issues. Therefore, there is a
requirement of installing new hardware that provides the best price
and performance.
M
The hardware maximisation step of the server virtualisation imple-

mentation process ensures the high availability of virtual workloads.
To get hardware maximisation, you can buy new quad core proces-
sors.
N
physical infrastructure
Physical infrastructure defines the infrastructure where Information

Technology and telecommunication network can be put together. It
describes the main structure of the components used for implement-
ing server virtualisation. It is also called the backbone of the organ-
isation. It allows the working of information technology by putting
the elements including power, cooling, physical housing, security, fire
protection and cablings into right place and structure. The physical
infrastructure helps in designing and integrating a whole system for
gaining desired objectives. The phases of physical infrastructure are
64-Bit architecture: The physical architecture of the entire sys-
tem should be properly designed and revised many times for prop-
er hardware utilisation. It is better to link x-64 systems to shared
storage and arrange them in the form of high availability clusters
so that system failure at any point can be minimised to a large

n o t e s
extent and virtual workloads can be protected. You should always

implement 64-bit architecture for better utilisation and availability
of RAM to all virtual machines.
Shared storage: As one server holds the responsibility of multiple
servers, it is better to look for any single point of failure as it can
lead to failure of the entire process of virtualisation. You should
use redundancy and clustering services for protecting virtual
workloads thereby eliminating the risks of single point of failure.
The redundancy and clustering services are provided by Microsoft
and Citrix. However, a custom configuration technique is used by
VMware, called High Availability (HA).
virtualisation management
The virtualisation management is the most important and final step
S
in the process of the implementation of server virtualisation. It allows
the end users and administrators to decide whether they want to im-
plement the virtualisation or not. The decision of the implementation
IM
of virtualisation depends on several factors including cost, return on
investment, security, and service level agreements.
While managing virtualised environment in an organisation, it is bet-

ter to examine the available resources and the resources required for
implementation of virtualisation. In case servers are offline for pro-
tecting services and maintaining Service Level Agreements (SLA),
M
you should always prefer conversion.

N
5. VCP stands for________.

6. What does SLA stand for?
a. Service Level Agreement
b. Source Level Agreement
c. System Level Acknowledgement
d. Service Level Acknowledgement
7. For shared storage, the custom configuration technique used
by VMware is________.
Activity
Visit any two organisations of same size and same functionalities

where one has implemented virtualisation and the other has not.
Enlist the differences between the two.

VirtualiSation 199
n o t e s
Managing Virtual Server

7.5
Environments
After implementation of virtualisation, it is better to manage virtual
server environments. You should be known to all the terms and their
functionalities related to virtual server and virtualisation. The man-
agement of virtual servers include knowledge about partitioning tech-
niques, host machines, virtual machines, and guest operating systems.
In this section, you will learn about all these elements.
7.5.1 Physical partitioning
Physical partitioning refers to a partitioning technique in which the

physical environments are partitioned on the basis of the one of the
two schemes including physical hardware separation and hardware
S
partitioning. A discussion of these physical partition schemes is as fol-
lows:
Physical hardware separation: Refers to a physical partitioning
IM
scheme where multiple physical servers are deployed, each con-
taining its own operating system and each having its own function-
ality. For example, an organisation can deploy different servers for
different requirements including file server for file sharing pur-
poses, database server for database purposes, application server
for running applications and print server for printing jobs. Such
M
implementation is desired when mutual exclusion of hardware de-

vices or operating system is required or when applications require
high resource utilisation. Some applications require a dedicated
server as they need control of complete operating system and re-
sources of the server system. The requirement of a dedicated serv-
N
er also arises as some applications also need high resource utili-

sation including processor, memory, storage, or bandwidth of the
network adapter.
Hardware partitioning: Refers to a physical partitioning scheme
in which a single physical computer is divided into several parti-
tions, known as hard partitions. Each hard partition hosts its own
operating system. Some of the advantages of hardware partition-
ing are as follows:
Efficient resource sharing and management abilities: As
hardware components are used for handling resource man-
agement activities between hard partitions, the hardware par-
titioning systems are more efficient than software partitioning
systems. The resource management hardware components
also hold the software, known as microcode, which is responsi-
ble for accomplishing the resource management.
Electrical isolation: It implies that the occurrence of a hard-
ware fault affects only one hard partition not others.

n o t e s
Other than the advantages, a hardware partitioning system also

has some disadvantages, including the following:
The proprietary hardware and software required for setting up
hardware partitioning system are costly.
The proprietary hardware requires more support and mainte-
nance that yields to additional costs.
The hardware partitioning system provides a limited support
for several operating systems used in it.
It provides limited hardware portability of available hard par-
titions.
7.5.2 Logical partitioning
S
Logical partitioning is a partitioning technique in which physical hard-
ware devices are separated into different groups of resources. Each
separate group can function independently and run its own operating
IM
system. It entirely depends on the model of the system processor and
available resources to create the number of logical partitions.
Logical partitioning can also be defined as the separation of virtual

environments using the specialised software. There are several parti-
tioning technologies associated with the logical partitioning that are
used for managing and sharing the resources of the computer system,
M
as shown in Figure 7.8:

N
Software Resource Service

partitioning partitioning partitioning
Figure 7.8: Partitioning Technologies Associated with Logical Parti-

tioning
Figure 7.8 shows the following partitioning technologies:

Software partitioning: Makes several partitions, known as soft
partitions or virtual machines of a physical computer where each
partition has its own operating system instance. There are two
ways of implementing software partitioning systems, which are as
follows:
Hosted as an application on a physical computer having an
operating system: In this condition, the software partitioning
systems take the benefits of resource management abilities of

VirtualiSation 201
n o t e s
the operating system and their Application Programming In-

terfaces (APIs) thereby making it smaller and easier to support.
Installed on a physical computer without an operating sys-
tem: In this condition, the computer resources are managed ef-
ficiently as resources are completely under control of software
partitioning system.
Software partitioning systems offer the following advantages:
These systems are less expensive than hardware partitioning
systems as they run on standardised server hardware instead
of proprietary hardware.
These systems provide hardware portability which means that
each soft partition can be moved easily from one physical com-
puter to another having software partitioning system installed.
S
These systems are vendor independent which means that these
systems can be installed on any vendor’s hardware.
IM
Resource partitioning: Refers to a logical partitioning scheme
that specifies the way the resources are allotted to the instances of
applications running in the operating system. The main function-
ality of this partitioning scheme is resource management. Figure
7.9 shows resource partitioning:
M
Operating System
Partitioning
Resource
CPU
N
Figure 7.9: Resource Partitioning

Source: http://www.ittoday.info/Articles/Server_Virtualization_Technologies/Server_Virtualiza-
tion_Technologies.htm
Some parameters can be specified for application instances that

help in managing and controlling the proper utilisation of resourc-
es including CPU, memory, and disk I/O. You should note that the
resource partitioning system controls and manages only those ap-
plications that are running on the operating system.
Service partitioning: Refers to a logical partitioning scheme in
which one application instance is divided into several service in-
stances where each service instance appears as a dedicated server
instance to the service consumers requiring the service. There is
no need of abstraction between service application and the oper-
ating system. Commonly used applications with the service parti-

n o t e s
tioning systems are database applications and Web server applica-

tions. Figure 7.10 shows service partitioning:
Database Instance 1
Database Instance 2
Database Instance 3
Database Instance 4
Operating System
Partitioning
Service
Figure 7.10: Service Partitioning
S
Source: http://www.ittoday.info/Articles/Server_Virtualization_Technologies/Server_Virtualiza-
tion_Technologies.htm
7.5.3 Host machines
IM
The host machine or host server is the main component of a virtual-
ised environment. It is the physical server or physical implementation
of the server computer that hosts the virtualisation layer. Virtualisa-
tion layer is the common term used interchangeably with the term
virtualisation and can be defined as the implementation of software
partitioning system. This layer is responsible for creating abstraction
M
between physical hardware and virtual environments. The host serv-

er can also be referred as physical server or physical host server or
host due to its functionality of hosting virtualisation layer and guest
servers or virtual machines. The operating system installed on the
N
host server is called host operating system.
7.5.4 Virtual machines
A Virtual Machine (VM) can be defined as the software implementa-
tion of a computing environment to which operating system and other
applications can be installed and executed. A physical computing en-
vironment is followed by the virtual machine by requesting for hard-
ware resources such as CPU, memory, hard disk, and network. A vir-
tualisation layer is used to manage these hardware resources requests
by translating them into essential physical hardware.
A virtualisation software known as a hypervisor or a virtualisation
platform runs on a client or server operating system which creates vir-
tual machines within a virtualisation layer. The operating system run-
ning on this virtualisation platform is known as the host OS. There-
fore, from the above perspective, you can say that the multiple VM
environments can be created using virtualisation layer.
However, it must be noted that you cannot define virtual machine ex-
actly as VM is not an instance of a guest operating system. VM can be

VirtualiSation 203
n o t e s
defined by the perspective of inside or outside the VM. From the view-
point of software running inside a VM, it can be defined as a collection
of virtual hardware which is used to run the guest operating system
instance. Also, from the viewpoint of the ESXi host running the VM,
a VM contains various types of files which are stored on a storage de-
vice. A virtual machine is created using two common files such as the
configuration file and the virtual hard disk file. The configuration file
is identified by a .vmx extension, therefore sometimes known as VMX
file. This configuration file defines the VM’s virtual hardware such as
number of processors, amount of RAM, number of network adapters,
MAC address, the networks connected, and number, name, and loca-
tions of virtual hard drives. The virtual hard disk file is identified by
the .vmdk extension, therefore known as VMDK file. The VMDK file
contains the actual data stored by a VM.
S
There are various advantages of virtual machines, which are as fol-
lows:
Allows multiple operating system environments on a single ma-
chine isolated to each other
IM
Provides an instruction set architecture that is distinct from real
machine
Provides easy maintenance, application provisioning, and useful
recovery
M
The major disadvantages of virtual machines are as follows:

Accessing the hardware through virtual machine is not efficient as
with the real machine
The performance gets volatile when a single host computer runs
N
multiple virtual machines
In addition to these specified advantages and disadvantages of virtual

machines, you can copy and move these VMs from one host server to
another host server.
Similar to physical machine that has a certain amount of memory, a

number of network adapters, or a particular number of disk drives, a
virtual machine needs various types and numbers of virtual hardware
devices. The virtual hardware devices included in a virtual machine
are as follows:
Processor: Refers to the processing unit that governs tasks. Usual-
ly, a virtual machine needs 1 to 32 processors. However, the num-
ber of processors in a virtual machine depends on server licenses.
Memory: Refers to the main memory required for storing pro-
grams or data. A virtual machine requires a maximum of 1 TB of
RAM.
SCSI adapter: Refers to a connecting device which is used to con-
nect one or more SCSI drives to a computer. A virtual machine

n o t e s
requires a maximum of four SCSI adapters, where one adapter

contains 15 SCSI devices.
Network adapter: Refers to a device which is used to connect
computer to the network. A virtual machine requires a maximum
of 10 network adapters.
Parallel port: Refers to a type of interface which is used to connect
peripherals on the computer. A virtual machine requires a maxi-
mum of 3 parallel ports.
Serial port: Refers to a serial communication interface which is
used to transfer information in and out one bit at a time. A maxi-
mum of four serial ports are required in a virtual machine.
CD/DVD: Refers to a storage device that uses light to read and
write information to and from the disk. A virtual machine needs a
S
maximum of four CD/DVD drives.
USB controller: Refers to a device which is used to connect USB
to the computer. A virtual machine needs a single USB controller
IMhaving 20 USBs connected to it.
Keyboard: Refers to an input device which is used to provide in-
formation to the computer.
Video card: Refers to a device which is used to provide visual in-
formation to the monitor.
M
Mouse: Refers to a pointing device which is used to point some

information on a computer system.
7.5.5 Guest operating systems

N
Guest Operating System (Guest OS) refers to an operating system in-

stalled on the guest server. The guest server is also known as the vir-
tual machine. The operating system installed on the guest server must
be compatible with the hardware associated with the virtual machine
as well as the host server. You should note that the guest operating sys-
tem should be different from the host operating system. As the guest
servers are inaccessible from each other, they do not have information
about the virtualisation layer resides between them and other guest
servers. Such isolation between the guest servers is called host/guest
isolation.
Guest operating systems offer several advantages to administrators.

Some of the advantages are as follows:
The programs not compatible with the host OS can be run on a
guest operating system.
There is no need to purchase additional hardware for running ap-
plications that require a different operating system.

VirtualiSation 205
n o t e s
8. Virtualisation layer is defined as the implementation of

software partitioning system. (True/False)
9. The extension of virtual hard disk file is ______.
10. Write any one advantage of the hardware partitioning system.
11. List any two virtual hardware devices.
12. What do you mean by service partitioning?
Activity
Take help of the Internet and create a table containing the advan-
S
tages and disadvantages of different types of partitioning schemes.
7.6 Platforms
IM
A platform allows you to create virtual machines and virtual environ-
ments. Different platforms are introduced by different vendors where
each platform acquires some unique features. You can install any plat-
form according to your organisation requirement. One of the com-
monly used platforms is VMware ESX. Some common terms are asso-
ciated with different platforms including hypervisor, COS, VMkernel
M
and VMFS. These terms are discussed in the following subsections.
7.6.1 Hypervisor
A hypervisor refers to the specialised software used in virtualisation

N
environment for running several operating systems on single physical

computer or host computer. The major functionalities of the hypervi-
sor includes the following:
Providing isolated environment for virtual machines
Handling access between guest operating systems and hardware
resources available on the physical computer
The term “hypervisor” was first coined in 1972 when an update in the
control program of System/370 mainframe computing platform was
made by IBM for providing virtualisation support. It has several ad-
vantages over mainframe computers. Some of the advantages are as
follows:
Itoverwhelms the architectural limitations of mainframe comput-
ers.
It costs less than mainframe computers.

n o t e s
Hypervisors can be classified depending on the platform they run on

or on the basis of design. On the basis of type of environment they run
on, hypervisors can be classified into following two types:
Type 1 (Run directly on physical hardware)
Type 2 (Run within an operating system environment)
On the basis of design, hypervisors can be classified into the following

types:
Monolithic
Microkernel
In this section, we will discuss hypervisors only on the basis of the

type of environment they run on. Let us discuss Type 1 and Type 2
hypervisors in the following subsections.
S
TYPE 1 HYPERVISOR
IM
Type 1 hypervisor refers to a type of hypervisor that executes directly
on the host computer’s hardware and works as a control program.
Each virtual machine runs its own guest operating system and lies
above the hypervisor layer, as shown in Figure 7.11:
M
VM1 VM2 VM3

N
Hypervisor
Hardware
Figure 7.11: Type 1 Hypervisor
Type 1 hypervisors provide several advantages including best perfor-

mance, availability, and security. Some virtualisation servers who im-
plement Type 1 hypervisors are as follows:
Microsoft Hyper-V
Citrix XenServer
VMware ESX Server

VirtualiSation 207
n o t e s
TYPE 2 HYPERVISOR
Type 2 hypervisor refers to a type of hypervisor that runs on the host

operating system instead of host hardware. However, the virtual ma-
chines with the guest operating systems lie above the hypervisor, as
VM1 VM2 VM3
S
Hypervisor
IM
Operating System
Hardware
M
Figure 7.12: Type 2 Hypervisor
You should note that the Type 2 hypervisor is also called hosted vir-
N
tualisation. The following server virtualisation products use Type 2

hypervisor:
Microsoft Virtual Server
VMware Server
7.6.2 ESX platform
ESX platform, commonly known as VMware ESX, is the commonly

used server virtualisation platform. It is enriched with a lot of enter-
prise features and possesses small overhead due to its hypervisor de-
sign implementation. VMware ESX is followed by VMware server and
VMware workstation where VMware server was developed to provide
simple administration while VMware workstation provided desktop
virtualisation. ESX platform is installed on the host system to over-
come the difficulties of both VMware server and VMware workstation
that had performance loss due to high overload. In the prior setup of
VMware ESX, administrators were required to install Red Hat Linux
and then replace kernel with a custom kernel of VMware.

n o t e s
VMware ESX is a virtualisation platform that contains the hypervisor

support. The hypervisor is responsible for providing efficient resource
utilisation due to its functionality of minimising resource overhead
and the feature of not relying on host operating system. Over the time,
VMware has introduced several versions of ESX with additional func-
tionalities, as follows:
ESX server 1.5: Provides support for virtual machines contain-
ing single processor, SAN integration, and resource control. It was
launched in May 2002.
ESX server 2.0: Provides support for two processors with VMware
Virtual SMP. It was launched in July 2003.
ESX server 2.5: Allows direct booting from SAN and contains the
ability to script hypervisor’s installation. It also provides addition-
al support for clustered virtual machines. It was launched in 2004.
S
ESX server 3.0: Contains additional features and was launched in
2005.
IM
VMware infrastructure 3 (VI3): Contains advanced features in-
cluding VMware High Availability, Distributed Resource Schedul-
ing, VMware vMotion, and VMware Consolidated Backup. It was
launched in 2006.
ESX server 3.5: Provides additional functionalities including high
level of automation, increased overall infrastructure, and high per-
M
formance.
7.6.3 VMkernel
VMkernel refers to the VMware operating system that runs directly

N
on the ESX host server. It is a high performance operating system.

There are some similarities between Linux kernel and VMkernel. It
contains several system modules. However, the ability to store mod-
ules has been changed from one version of ESX to another version.
More enhancements has been made to the VMkernel in the ESX 3.0.
In this version, new devices can be added without requiring the re-
compilation of VMkernel. Also, a distinct module, vmkapimod, is also
added that allows third-party solution providers to use the common
Application Programming Interface (API) for creating new tools.
The major functionality of VMkernel is to manage and control the

usage of physical hardware resources including processors, memory
and network controllers.
7.6.4 COS
Console Operating System (COS) refers to an operating system that is

a variant of Red Hat Linux operating system with limited functional-

VirtualiSation 209
n o t e s
ities. It has been upgraded with the upgrade in the Red Hat Linux ver-
sion. The major functionality of the COS is creating an environment
used for managing and administrating the ESX system. As COS is
used for managing the ESX system, it can also be referred as manage-
ment application. COS usually runs on the virtual machine. It should
be noted that the COS is a variant of Red Hat Linux operating system,
it is not the Red Hat Linux operating system itself. Therefore, it is rec-
ommended to apply only those updates to COS that have only come
from VMware, not the updates of Red Hat Linux.
7.6.5 VMFS
VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) refers to a cluster file

system which provides support for large files and is used for solving
performance related issues. VMFS facilitates storage virtualisation
S
for a hypervisor, which divides a physical server into various virtual
machines. In other words, you can say that VMFS is a high perfor-
mance cluster file system which is usually considered for abstracting
the storage infrastructure’s complexities.
IM
This file system states control, security, and management issues that
were related to virtual hard disk files. VMFS have been optimised for
a number of SCSI drives as well as for Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN
equipment. In comparison to conventional file systems, a VMFS al-
lows multiple instances of VMware ESX to read and write to the same
M
storage simultaneously.
VMFS allows administrators to create new virtual machines without

the need for a storage administration. Also, using VMFS, the volume’s
size can be altered without having any change in the network opera-
N
tions. As it was stated earlier, multiple installations of VMware ESX

Server are used for writing and reading data to and from a single
storage location simultaneously. Therefore, using VFMS, the admin-
istrator can add or remove VMware ESX servers to or from a VMFS
volume without disturbing other hosts. However, for improving the
I/O functionality of every virtual machine, you can modify the file and
block sizes. This type of file system is more beneficial in the condition
of server failure. When the server fails, this file system allows fast sys-
tem recovery and avoids loss of data.
VMFS offers various advantages over conventional file system. Us-

ing VMFS, various instances of VMware vSphere servers can access
shared virtual machine storage simultaneously. VMFS allows virtu-
alisation-based distributed infrastructure services such as VMware
DRS, vSphere HA, vMotion, and Storage vMotion to function through
a collection of vSphere servers. In other words, you can say that VMFS
delivers the base which facilitates the scaling of virtualisation away

n o t e s
from the boundaries of a single system. Figure 7.13 shows how VFMS
is used in a virtual environment:
App App App App

OS OS OS OS
VMWare vSphere VMWare vSphere

x86 Architecture x86 Architecture
VMFS
S
Figure 7.13: The VMFS File System
IM
The VMFS provides an enhanced feature known as on-disk locking
which specifies that a single virtual machine cannot run on multiple
vSphere hosts simultaneously. It must be noted that while enabling
vSphere HA, if a server fails, then on-disk lock is broadcasted for each
virtual machine under the supervision of vSphere HA which restarts
the virtual machines on other vSphere hosts.
M
13. VMFS stands for________.

14. Define the term hypervisor.
N
15. COS is a variant of Windows operating system. (True/False)

16. _________ is a type of hypervisor that runs on host operating
system instead of host hardware.
17. _________ version of ESX server was launched in 2003 and
provided support for two processors.
Activity
Using Internet, search for different virtualisation platforms and

make a list of their unique features.
7.7 ESX Architecture

ESX server refers to an enterprise level virtualisation platform that
is responsible for managing several virtual machines with the help of
associated services. The virtual machines handled by the ESX server

VirtualiSation 211
n o t e s
are more reliable and efficient as ESX server can be installed directly
on the physical hardware and an additional operating system is not
required. For running directly on the physical hardware, the ESX
server requires to enable I/O operations and resource management
feature. The architecture of ESX server differs from one version to
another. For example, the ESX Server 2 contains four major compo-
nents including virtualisation layer, resource manager, hardware in-
terface components and service console. On the other hand, the ESXi
contains Direct Console User Interface (DCUI), Virtual Machine Mon-
itor (VMM), agents and Common Information Model (CIM) system.
In this chapter, we are dealing with ESX Server components and its
architecture. ESX Server 2 contains several components, as shown in
Figure 7.14:
S
Virtualization Layer
IM
Resource Manager
Hardware Interface
Components
Service Console
M
Figure 7.14: ESX Server Components

N
A discussion of the server components listed in Figure 7.14 is as fol-

lows:
Virtualisation layer: It is responsible for creating hardware envi-
ronment in which physical hardware devices such as CPU, mem-
ory, network controllers etc., are virtualised and are administered
in such a way that each created virtual machine will not be able
to see other virtual machines running on the same physical hard-
ware.
Resource manager: It is responsible for dividing a physical ma-
chine into several virtual machines and allocating the physical re-
sources including CPU, memory, and disk to each virtual machine.
Hardware interface components: It contains the components
such as device drivers and VMFS. These components provide an
interface between hardware and virtual machines.
Service console: It is the main component of the ESX server that
is responsible for booting the computer system, running virtuali-
sation layer and resource manager, and controlling them. It is also

n o t e s
responsible for running applications that are used for providing

administration and management support to virtual machines.
The basic structure of ESX server is shown in Figure 7.15:
S
IM
Figure 7.15: ESX Architecture
M
Source: http://igm.univ-mlv.fr/~dr/XPOSE2006/KELLER/Ressources/ESX2.jpg
From Figure 7.15, it can be analysed that each virtual machine runs
on its own operating system, known as guest operating system, and
contains its own set of applications. The virtualisation layer is made
N
by the combination of the VMkernel and Virtual Machine Monitor

(VMM) where the VMkernel is responsible for controlling and man-
aging the physical hardware resources of the server system while the
VMM is responsible for assigning virtual CPUs for each virtual ma-
chine. The VMkernel also holds the Resource Manager and hardware
interface components.
In this section, we will discuss the implementation characteristics of

each component of ESX server architecture.
Virtualisation Layer
As discussed earlier, virtualisation layer is responsible for virtualising

hardware resources including CPU, memory, disk and network.
CPU Virtualisation
Virtual CPUs are the CPUs running inside the virtual machines. In
ESX server architecture, each virtual machine requires one or two vir-

VirtualiSation 213
n o t e s
tual CPUs. If a virtual machine has more than one virtual CPU, then it
will be called Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) virtual machine. You
should note that the CPU virtualisation is done by the Virtual Machine
Monitor (VMM). Whenever a virtual machine is executed, control is
transferred to the VMM who starts execution of instructions.
The overhead created by CPU virtualisation depends on the percent-

age of the workload of the virtual machine and the costs of virtualising
instructions. In overall performance scenario, the CPU virtualisation
overhead reduces the performance of the CPU for those applications
that are bounded closely to the CPU. In such scenario, there is a need
of execution of additional instructions by the CPU virtualisation over-
head that utilises the processing time of the CPU to be used by the
running applications. On the other hand, for the applications that are
not bounded to the CPU, CPU virtualisation results in an increase in
S
CPU utilisation. However, there is a CPU available for capturing the
overhead, thereby, providing the comparable performance.
Memory Virtualisation
IM
In ESX server, all the machine memory is managed by the VMkernel.
However, it does not control or manage the memory assigned to the
service console. The managed memory is available for use by the VM-
kernel. On the other hand, the remaining memory (unmanaged mem-
ory) is dedicated for virtual machines. The machine memory is used
M
by the virtual machines for the following two reasons:

Some memory is required by the VMM for its own data
Each virtual machine requires some memory for its own
N
Nowadays, all the operating systems are equipped with virtual memo-
ry support thereby allowing applications to use more memory than the
physical memory possessed by physical machine. The complete mem-
ory block is divided into smaller size blocks possessing a data storage
capacity of 4 KB, which are also known as pages. A page table is used
to map and translate virtual memory addresses into physical mem-
ory addresses on native systems. Similarly, page tables of the guest
opearting systems contain mapping from guest virtual pages to guest
physical pages. An additional level of address translation is added by
the ESX server during the virtualisation of guest physical memory.
It is the responsibility of the ESX Server to maintain the virtual-to-ma-

chine page mappings in a shadow page table which remains up to date
and contains all the necessary entries. Once the shadow page table
contains all the required entries, it is used by the processor’s paging
hardware for allowing virtual machine to access normal memory with-
out adding address translation overhead.

n o t e s
Figure 7.16 shows the ESX server implementaion of memory virtual-

isation:
Virtual Machine 1 Virtual Machine 2
Guest
a b c b Virtual
Memory
Guest
a b b c Physical
Memory
S
Machine
a b b c Memory
IM
Figure 7.16: ESX Server Implementaion of Memory Virtualisation
Memory can be efficiently managed by the ESX server among all the
virtual machines due to the feature of virtualisation that is extra level
of memory mapping. The virtual memory management is done by the
ESX server without dealing with the guest operating system.
M
Resource Management
The resource management of the ESX Server deals with allocating

N
physical resources to different virtual machines. Under this section,

we will discuss CPU scheduling, memory management and device
management.
CPU Scheduling
ESX Server allows administrators to manage and control CPU utili-

sation and processor assignments for each virtual machine. The pro-
cessor scheduling or CPU scheduling refers to a scheduling technique
that controls and manages the CPU time assigned to each virtual ma-
chine.
ESX Server runs more virtual machines than the number of physi-
cal processors and therefore, the physical processors are shared by
the virtual machines such that each virtual machine gets the required
CPU time. The work of allocation of proper CPU time to each virtual
machine is done by the scheduler. However, you should note that only
one virtual processor can run on a physical processor at a time.

VirtualiSation 215
n o t e s
Figure 7.17 shows ESX server scheduling:
Virtual Virtual Virtual Virtual Virtual

Machine A Machine B Machine C Machine D Machine E
(4000 shares) (2000 shares) (2000 shares) (2000 shares) (2000 shares)
0 Virtual
0 1 0 0 1 0 1
Machines
(2000 for each (1000 for each (1000 for each
Virtual CPU) Virtual CPU) Virtual CPU)
A0 A1 B0 E0 Time 1
Physical
C0 C1 D0 D1 Time 2 Processors
S
A0 A1 B0 E0 Time 3
IM
Figure 7.17: ESX Server Scheduling
The guaranted minimum and maximum CPU utilisation can be spec-

ified for each virtual machine by the administrators and can be ex-
M
pressed as a percentage of availability of physical CPU’s time. An ad-

mission control policy is adopted by the ESX Server that specifies that
the virtual machine cannot be started if minimum CPU utilisation is
not specified for the virtual machine.
N
Memory Management
ESX server allows administrators to allocate the physical memory to

all the running virtual machines in such a way that total memory of all
the virtual machines is greater than the total available physical mem-
ory. ESX server allocates physical memory to virtual machines on the
basis of three parameters including minimum, maximum, and shares.
The absolute guarantees can be specified for minimum memory util-

isation. If not specified, the size of minimum memory tends to half of
the maximum memory that depends on the availability of unreserved
RAM. However, you should always set a minimum memory size for
each virtual machine to avail its consistent performance.
If you want to specify maximum memory, you need to set it in the

configuration file of each virtual machine. The maximum memory is
specified for each virtual machine when the memory is not overcom-
mitted. In case, the memory is overcommitted, a memory size between
minimum and maximum size is assigned to each virtual machine.

n o t e s
If a virtual machine is allocated a memory size greater than the min-

imum size, the size would vary with the memory load on the virtual
machine. It should be noted that the memory allocation for each virual
machine is determined by the ESX server on the basis of the number
of memory shares given to each virtual machine.
The proportional share memory allocation is done by the ESX server

for manging and allocating the physical memory to each virtual ma-
chine. Memory shares specify that each virtual machine will get a pro-
portional share of the availble physical memory.
The admission control functionality of the ESX Server specifies that

there is a need of unreserved memory and some swap space before the
virtual machine is powered on. You must analyse that the minimum
memory size is reserved for virtual machine and overhead memory
space is reserved for virtualisation purposes. In addition to this mem-
S
ory allocation, ESX Server requires some free memory, approximate-
ly six percent of the total memory for handling dynamic allocation
requests. There is also a need of some swap space memory on disk
IM
for saving virtual machine’s memory under any circumstances. This
swap space memory is the amount of memory between maximum and
minimum memory.
Device Management
Similar to the configuration options used for controlling and manag-

M
ing CPU and memory allocation, some configuration options are also
provided by the ESX server for controlling the disk and network band-
width allocation for each virtual machine. In the context of network
management, a traffic-shaping module is used by the ESX server that
controls the outbound traffic of the network for each virtual machine.
N
On the other hand, a proportional share algorithm is implemented by

the ESX server for controlling disk bandwidth among all the virtual
machines.
Hardware Interface
As discussed earlier, hardware interface components provide an inter-

face between hardware and virtual machines. This section explores
hardware interface components and their performance effects. Com-
mon hardware interface components used in the ESX server archi-
tecture include device drivers and VMFS file system. Let us explore
these components one by one.
Device Drivers
The VMkernel is responsible for running device drivers who gets ac-
cess to the physical devices including network interface card, SCSI
adapters, and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) on a server machine. During
the installation process of the ESX server, if any device allocated to

VirtualiSation 217
n o t e s
the VMkernel is detected, the appropirate driver modules are loaded

into the VMkernel.
The Linux device drivers are used by the ESX server that are ported
to run in the VMkernel with the help of Linux compatibility layer. The
main functionality of the Linux compatibility layer is providing an in-
terface between the VMkernel and the Linux drivers.
VMFS File System
Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) is the file system implement-

ed by the ESX server and can be defined as a distributed file system
where multiple hosts can access the files located on the same VMFS
volume simultaneously. VMFS allows virtual machines to provide
high performance I/O and has the ability to store large files including
virtual disks and memory images.
S
A large file system block is implemented by the VMFS for keeping
metadata small of virtual disk files so that all of the metadata can be
placed in the main memory and the requirement to access the disk for
IM
reading and writing the metadata can be eliminated. You should al-
ways note that data from virtual machine I/O operations is not cached
in any case by the VMFS, it is just only to provide stable performance
and maintain consistency.
VMware Service Console

M
As discussed earlier, the main functionality of the service console is

booting the physical server machines and administering or managing
the virtual machines. The VMkernel loads to the server machine and
gets its control once it is booted in the service console. The devices
N
including mouse, keyboard, screen, and floppy drives etc. are not per-
formance critical and are supported by the service console.
The feature of the service console to run always on physical CPU 0

makes it different from others as it cannot run on other physical CPUs.
When a virtual machine is connected to a remote console, the VM-

ware application executing on the service console directs the display
to the client’s remote console application. The remote consoles run-
ning on the client machines use the resources of the service console.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to manage and monitor the resource
utilisation of the service console when several remote consoles are
connected for ensuring the proper utilisation of available resources.
You should note that the performance of the virtual machine is degrad-
ed when the performance of the remote console is poor. Therefore, for
the consistent performance, the CPU minimum should be increased if
the service console requires more CPU time.
The service console should always be assigned a suitable amount of

memory, swap, and disk space for running it effectively. You should

n o t e s
assign some additional memory to the service console so that any ap-
plication that runs directly on the service console can be accomodat-
ed easily. You should note that the performance of virtual machines
executing on the server machine is badly affected when the service
console has a little amount of memory and starts swapping; thereby,
causing the applications to slow down.
18. What is the functionality of a resource manager?

19. The _______ is a scheduling technique that controls and
manages the CPU time assigned to each virtual machine.
20. What do you mean by SMP virtual machine?
S
Activity
Collect information about ESX server 3.0 architecture. List the

IM
components and their functionalities.
7.8 SUMMARY
Virtualisation refers to “an abstraction of resources” that means it
deals with separation of a service request from the original physi-
M
cal delivery of the specified service.

Server virtualisation refers to a virtualisation technique where a
physical server is distributed among multiple isolated virtual serv-
ers using the virtualisation software and these virtual servers run
N
a different instance of operating system simultaneously.

In hardware virtualisation, the virtual sessions of computers and
operating systems are created by the Virtual Machine Manager
(VMM), a hypervisor (virtualisation software).
In desktop virtualisation, virtual desktops are created and hosted
on a central remote server from where they can be accessed any-
time and from anywhere without the requirement of your personal
computer.
Network virtualisation monitors a single network formed by join-
ing all the physical networking devices.
Storage virtualisation combines the physical storage of different
storage devices and is used in a storage area network which pro-
vides the sharing of storage devices across the network.
Full virtualisation is a server virtualisation method that uses the
host/guest paradigm where each guest operates on a virtual imita-
tion of the hardware layer.

VirtualiSation 219
n o t e s
Para-virtualisation method uses a virtual machine monitor or hy-

pervisor to modify the guest operating system’s code.
OS-level virtualisation refers to a method in which hypervisor is
not used.
Server virtualisation is needed because of the several reasons in-
cluding resource optimisation, consolidation, maximise uptime,
implement redundancy, easy migration, and save investment.
Some limitations of server virtualisation include degraded perfor-
mance, requirement of software licensing and more processing
power, and less security.
Inventory process determines the information including vendor
and type of the processor, memory size, type of network includ-
ing number of ports and speed of each port, storage including its
S
capacity, type and number of disk drives, operating system, and
running applications and services.
The hardware maximisation step of the server virtualisation im-
IM
plementation process ensures the high availability of virtual work-
loads.
Physical infrastructure defines the infrastructure where Informa-
tion Technology and telecommunication network can be put to-
gether.
Physicalpartitioning refers to a partitioning technique where the
M
environments are separated either through physical separation of

hardware devices or through hardware partitioning.
Logical partitioning refers to a type of partitioning where physical
hardware devices including processors, memory, and storage are
N
divided logically into several sets of resources in such a way that

each set can operate its own and run on its operating system and
run applications.
The host machine or host server is the physical server or physical
implementation of server computer that hosts the virtualisation
layer.
A Virtual Machine (VM) can be defined as the software implemen-
tation of a computing environment to which operating system and
other applications can be installed and executed. A physical com-
puting environment is followed by the virtual machine by request-
ing for hardware resources such as CPU, memory, hard disk, and
network. A virtualisation layer is used to manage these hardware
resources requests by translating them into essential physical
hardware.
A virtualisation software known as a hypervisor or a virtualisation
platform runs on a client or server operating system and creates
virtual machines within a virtualisation layer.

n o t e s
Similar to physical machine which have a certain amount of mem-

ory, a number of network adapters, or a particular number of disk
drives, a virtual machine needs various types and numbers of vir-
tual hardware devices including processor, memory, SCSI adapter,
network adapter, parallel port, serial port, CD/DVD, USB control-
ler, keyboard, video card and mouse.
Guest Operating System (Guest OS) refers to an operating system
installed on the guest server, also called virtual machine. This op-
erating system must be compatible with the hardware associated
with the virtual machine as well as the host server.
A hypervisor refers to the specialised software used in virtualisa-
tion environment for running several operating systems on single
physical computer or host computer.
S
Type 1 hypervisor refers to a type of hypervisor that executes di-
rectly on the host computer’s hardware and works as a control
program such that each virtual machine runs its own guest oper-
ating system and lies above the hypervisor layer.
IM
Type 2 hypervisor refers to a type of hypervisor that runs on host
operating system instead of host hardware and the virtual ma-
chines with the guest operating systems lies above the hypervisor.
ESX platform, commonly known as VMware ESX, is the common-
ly used server virtualisation platform that has a lot of enterprise
M
features and possesses small overhead due to its hypervisor design

implementation.
VMkernel refers to the VMware operating system that runs direct-
ly on the ESX host server and is a high performance operating
N
system.
Console Operating System (COS) refers to an operating system
that is a variant of Red Hat Linux operating system with limited
functionalities.
Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) refers to a cluster file sys-
tem which provides support for large files and is used for solving
performance related issues. VMFS facilitates storage virtualisa-
tion for a hypervisor, which divides a physical server into various
virtual machines. In other words, you can say that VMFS is a high
performance cluster file system which is usually considered for ab-
stracting the storage infrastructure’s complexities.
ESX server is an enterprise level virtualisation platform that is
responsible for managing several virtual machines with the help
of associated services.
Virtualisationlayer is responsible for creating hardware environ-
ment in which physical hardware devices such as CPU, memory,

VirtualiSation 221
n o t e s
network controllers etc., are virtualised and are administered in

such a way that each created virtual machine will not be able to see
other virtual machines running on the same physical hardware.
Resource manager is responsible for dividing a physical machine
into several virtual machines and allocating the physical resources
including CPU, memory, and disk to each virtual machine.
Hardware interface components contain device drivers and VMFS
and provide an interface between hardware and virtual machines.
Service console is the main component of the ESX server that is
responsible for booting the computer system, running virtualisa-
tion layer and resource manager, and controlling them.
key words
S
Virtualisation: An abstraction of resources
VMM: A hypervisor that merges the sessions into one physical
IM
server to make the proper utilisation of hardware resources
Virtual machine model: A virtualisation model in which each
guest runs on different operating system that is one is running
on Linux and other is running on Windows
VMware Capacity Planner (VCP): A tool used for identifying
potential virtualisation candidates by generating a report on the
M
utilisation of server processor including its CPU, memory and

disk
N

1. Define the term virtualisation and discuss its advantages.
2. Describe the different types of virtualisation.
3. Why is server virtualisation required?
4. What do you mean by physical partitioning? Describe different
types of physical partitioning schemes.
5. Explain the concept of software partitioning. Discuss its
advantages.
6. Write a short note on virtual machine. List some advantages and
disadvantages of virtual machines.
7. Define the term hypervisor. Classify different types of hypervisors
on the basis of type of environment they run on.
8. Discuss the components of ESX server architecture.

n o t e s

Virtualisation Concepts 1. Storage Area Network
2. Virtualisation
Server Virtualisation 3. True
4. b. Full virtualisation
Server Virtualisation Im- 5. VMware Capacity Planner
plementations
6. a. Service Level Agreement
S
7. High Availability
Managing Virtual Server 8. True
Environments
IM
9. .vmdk
10. It provides efficient resource shar-
ing and management abilities
11. Processor and memory
12. Service partitioning is a logical
partitioning scheme in which one
M
application instance is divided into

several service instances where
each service instance is appeared
as a dedicated server instance to
the service consumers requiring
N
the service
Platforms 13. Virtual Machine File System
14. A hypervisor refers to the special-
ised software used in virtualisation
environment for running several
operating systems on single physi-
cal computer or host computer.
15. False
16. Type 2 hypervisor
17. ESX Server 2.0
ESX Architecture 18. Resource manager is responsible
for dividing a physical machine
into several virtual machines and
allocating the physical resources
including CPU, memory, and disk
to each virtual machine.

VirtualiSation 223
n o t e s

19. CPU scheduling
20. A virtual machine having more
than one virtual CPU is called
symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
virtual machine.

1. Virtualisation refers to “an abstraction of resources” or deals
with separation of a service request from the original physical
delivery of the specified service. Some of the advantages include
the capability of a computer to run multiple operating system,
reduced IT cost, etc. Refer to Section 7.2 Virtualisation Concepts.
S
2. Different types of virtualisation include server virtualisation,
hardware virtualisation, desktop virtualisation, network
virtualisation, and storage virtualisation. Refer to Section
7.2 Virtualisation Concepts.
IM
3. Server virtualisation is needed because of the several reasons
including resource optimisation, consolidation, uptime
maximisation, redundancy implementation, easy migration, and
less investment, etc. Refer to Section 7.3 Server Virtualisation.
4. Physical partitioning refers to a partitioning technique where the
M
environments are separated either through physical separation

of hardware devices or through hardware partitioning. Refer to
Section 7.5 Managing Virtual Server Environments.
5. Software partitioning makes several partitions, known as soft
N
partitions or virtual machines of a physical computer where each

partition has its own operating system instance. Refer to Section
7.5 Managing Virtual Server Environments.
6. A virtual machine (VM) can be defined as the software
implementation of a computing environment to which operating
system and other applications can be installed and executed.
Refer to Section 7.5 Managing Virtual Server Environments.
7. A hypervisor refers to a specialised software used in virtualisation
environment for running several operating systems on single
physical computer or host computer. On the basis of type of
environment they run on, hypervisors can be classified into
two types including Type 1 and Type 2. Refer to Section 7.6
Platforms.
8. Some components of ESX server architecture include
virtualisation layer, resource manager, hardware interface
components and service console. Refer to Section 7.7 ESX
Architecture.

n o t e s
SUGGESTED READINGS
Virtualization for dummies. (2007). Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Portnoy, M. (2016). Virtualization Essentials. Wiley & Sons, Incor-
porated, John.
E-REFERENCES
Virtualization with VMware ESX Server. (2005). doi:10.1016/b978-
1-59749-019-1.x5040-1
Data Center Virtualization | Dell United States. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 8, 2017, from http://www.bing.com/
S
cr?IG=B968111E47514F58B3BA34EA0D290C50&CID=3CBD-
B10C14C46EE9245DBB3315F56FB0&rd=1&h=GAd-
l A 2 6 b v G b 0 n N S h w Z R V u 1 R 5 _ 0 s I 0 P AO i 7 Y L -
b i T V k- 4 & v = 1 & r = h t t p % 3 a % 2 f % 2 f w w w. d e l l .
IM
com%2fen-us%2fwork%2flearn%2fdc-virt&p=DevEx,5146.1.
Server Virtualization Architecture and Implementation. (n.d.). Re-
trieved March 8, 2017, from http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=24D2F-
D55960644A3ADE3329042627F68&CID=37B18B250F44691A2
801811A0E7568A3&rd=1&h=hpIjARR0CWyBqJxwqimmzbh-
dCfm_5hsmpvU3rVTI6x8&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2f1.800.gay%3a443%2fhttp%2fcs.smith.
M
edu%2fdftwiki%2fimages%2f7%2f7f%2fServerVirtualizationAr-
chitectureAndImplementation2009.pdf&p=DevEx,5088.1.
N

C h a
8 p t e r
Green Computing
CONTENTS
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8.1 Introduction
8.2 What is Green Computing?
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8.2.1 Objectives of Green Computing
Activity
8.3 Regulations and Initiatives in Green Computing
8.3.1 Government initiatives
8.3.2 Industry initiatives
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Activity
8.4 Approaches to Green Computing
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Activity
8.5 Energy Efficient Networking and Communication
Activity
8.6 Greening Data Centres and Servers
Activity
8.7 Summary

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Google’s Green Computing: Efficiency at Scale
Although data centers consume large amounts of energy, the

services provided by the cloud are very useful for small and big
organisations. These services help in the growth of business by
managing resources, providing cloud data centers, maximising
the server utilisation and prioritising the power usage efficiency
for hardware and software developers.
This caselet compares the energy savings and carbon footprint

of using Gmail via Google Apps (Google’s cloud-based messaging
and collaboration suite) versus housing local servers used to man-
age emails. When a user opens his/her e-mail account to check
e-mails, energy is consumed in three different areas:
S
In the PC, laptop, phone or other device on which the user can
directly access their emails
In the networking devices, such as wireless routers, network
IM
switches
In the email servers (computer or group of computers) that is
used for receiving, sending and storing email. The servers re-
main constantly on, and therefore; consume lots of electricity.
The shifting from local or in-house servers to cloud based envi-

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ronment for e-mail services would certainly save a large amount

of energy that is consumed while sending, receiving and checking
emails. In this caselet, we will mainly focus on the consumption of
energy in a server.
N
Generally, servers installed or deployed in-house by companies

for various services are not optimised for power efficiencies. On
the other hand, servers located in cloud data centers for different
services are optimised for power efficiencies and can be provi-
sioned as per the requirement. For example, a cloud-based e-mail
system can be optimised to save significant amount of per-user
energy costs after considering cooling costs of servers.
Consider a hypothetical case of small sized, mid-sized and large

organisation, which wants to deploy e-mail servers. The small
sized organisation wants to deploy a server for 50 users, mid-sized
organisation needs the server for 500 users and the large organ-
isation needs to deploy an e-mail server for 10,000 users. In this
case, the power efficiency for servers would be 200 watt, 450 watt
and 450 watt for small, medium and large organisations, respec-
tively. Now, the small organisation will be more affected as it has
to purchase a multi-core server which can handle e-mails of 300
users despite their current requirement which is 50 users. More-
over, the power consumption of the half utilised server and fully
utilised server is almost the same.

Green Computing 227
n o t e s
In addition, as per the current business environment, the organi-

sations rely on the servers that can provide services 365 days and
24 hours in a week. For this purpose, you need the following re-
sources:
Additional backup email servers
Redundant email storage servers
Backup networking links
Co-locating email servers at different physical locations
Storing redundant e-mails require additional servers which in-

creases the consumption of electrical energy. Suppose “N” de-
notes the number of the redundant servers required for handling
e-mails of an organisation. If N servers are required to handle an
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organisation’s users, then “N+1” redundancy means there is one
spare server for handling e-mails. For example, if an organisation
requires two servers for hosting their emails, then, they require
IM
one additional server or third server in case of failure of either of
these two servers. The redundant server provides reliability but
the consumption of electricity gets higher significantly. Not only
this, the electrical energy is also required to cool the servers.
Generally, the medium and large organisations perform much

more in case of managing servers efficiency as compared to small
M
organisations as their powering and cooling systems are designed

to manage server efficiencies. The small organisations have both
high per-user energy costs and carbon footprint. Considering
both cooling and housing costs, the total power per user for a
large organisation can be 1/20th that of a small organisation ap-
N
proximately. Cloud providers enhance organisational efficiencies

by providing high scalability to millions of users which maximis-
es the utilisation of machines by reducing the number of servers
when not required.
Consider the case of Google, which can optimise the servers irre-
spective of the geographical location of the user. The size, focus,
and ability of Google for optimising across barriers provide sever-
al distinct advantages for their servers used for providing cloud-
based email services are as follows:
Customised and highly efficient servers: The servers provid-
ed by Google are mainly designed to host cloud-based services
having components that are essential for them to perform and
function.
Customised and high-efficiency in power supplies: These
days servers use power supplies that provide 80% efficiency
which means for every 100 Watts the server requires, almost

n o t e s
20 Watts gets converted to heat energy. But, Google’s servers

are more than 90% efficient, thus waste less amount of energy.
Custom-built software: The infrastructure of Google has
been designed to provide innovative Web services. The soft-
ware used in servers is created to harness the maximum effi-
ciency of servers. The whole process used for storing, hosting
and serving e-mail in case of Gmail service requires less than
250 MW per user.
Since 2007, Google has been engaged in reducing their carbon

footprint, performing energy efficient improvements and using
green power. The company’s motive is to bring its carbon foot-
print down to zero so that users of Gmail can enjoy the benefits of
zero carbon emission e-mail service.
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M
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Green Computing 229
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learning objectives

>> Explain the concept of green computing
>> Describe the regulations and initiatives in green computing
>> Explain the various approaches to green Computing
>> Discuss the energy efficient networking and communication
>> Describe greening data centers and servers
8.1 INTRODUCTION
Due to the high demand of energy consuming resources by different
S
types of organisations, power consumption has become a key factor.
In case of data centers, the power is not only required to run the serv-
ers but also to cool them. Managing consumption of power in organ-
isations by computers and cooling systems have become a matter of
IM
great challenge and concern. Various organisations are working hard
on reducing the power consumption of computers or other power con-
suming devices such as cooling systems.
In order to promote the energy efficient devices, the U.S. Environ-

mental Protection Agency (USEPA) has launched an Energy Star pro-
gram in 1992. This was a labeling program in which the energy-ef-
M
ficiency equipment like monitors or other technological devices are

labeled depicting their consumption of electricity. This program was
successfully adopted by consumers purchasing electronic products.
The term “green computing” was coined by the Energy Star program
N
which promotes less power consumption in elecronic goods.
In this chapter, we will study about the green computing and the rea-
sons for going green.
Next we will study about the regulations and initiatives in green com-
puting followed by the various approaches to green computing. We
will also learn about the energy efficient networking and communica-
tion. Lastly, we will study about the greening data centres and servers.
8.2 What is Green Computing?

Green computing is not a mathematical formula, this is just a practice
of using computing devices so that they can be used efficiently and
without causing any harm to human beings by creating noise or air
pollution. The purpose for promoting the green computing is reduc-
ing the consumption of energy as well as reducing the use of harmful
electronic equipments or machines while performing any task. These
machines allows you to work faster and makes our life easy.

n o t e s
Nowadays, almost all fields, such as information technology, medica-

tion, transportation, horticulture use large numbers of computers and
related components that consume significant amount of electricity.
Power consumption is also high in case of data centers, where a large
number of servers and networking devices are placed for providing
different services to users or organisations, irrespective of their phys-
ical location. Moreover, as data centers release excessive heat, power-
ful cooling systems are deployed to maintain the temperature. Need-
less to say, these cooling systems also require power to run; thereby,
further increasing the power consumption in data centers. All this
power consumption and release of energy cause significant amount
of various types of pollution that is increasingly becoming a cause of
alarm for the health of living beings.
Green computing is seen as a viable option to deal with this situation.
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Going green helps us to deal effectively with the following:
1. Release of harmful heat from the electronic devices
2. More use of power energy which indirectly involves more cost
IM
3. Improper removal of e-waste
According to Harmon and Auseklis (2009), “Research shows that power

costs of IT departments can account for up to 50% of an organisation’s
overall energy costs.”
To fulfill high computing power demands efficiently, we need some

M
method that can help to save energy by coupling with the existing
technologies and methods. Green computing is all about reducing the
power consumption of computers, which leads to the reduced costs
and reduced use of hazardous material (pollutants) that cause harm
N
to our environment. The following are some advantages of the green

computing:
Reduces the emission of carbon dioxide
Reduces the use of fossil fuel in data centres
Conserves computing resources and consumes less energy
Saves energy, which also means saving costs
Allows recycling of products, thus promoting energy conservation
Protects computing devices from failing due to excessive heat
8.2.1 Objectives of Green Computing
In the past few years, green computing emerged as an innovative

method which is used for the convergence of technology and ecology.
Now, let’s discuss some objectives of implementing green computing
in organisations.

Green Computing 231
n o t e s
Figure 8.1 shows the main objectives of green computing:
Preserve
environment
Ensure Objectives
Reduce
reliability of of Green
costs
power Computing
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Reduce power
consumption
IM
Figure 8.1: Objectives of Green Computing
Let us study these objectives in detail.

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Preserve environment: Research shows that the carbon dioxide

and other gases from the electronic devices are changing the glob-
al atmosphere and damaging the environment. Adopting green
computing helps to check the use of harmful pollutants.
Reduce costs: Implementation of green computing in organisa-
N
tions leads to cost savings over time by reductions in energy costs.

Nowadays, many organisations are reducing the energy cost of
servers, cooling devices and lighting and this is making a huge dif-
ference in their annual profits.
Reduce power consumption: Technological advancement in ev-
ery field led to high demand of energy, and energy efficient sys-
tems are required to ensure a continuous power supply. Moreover,
a lot of organisations are generating their own energy supply to
meet their energy demands and keep control on the use of energy.
Ensure reliability of power: It refers to ensuring continuous sup-
ply of power in data centres. To do this, organisations need to in-
stall healthy power systems that consume less electricity and thus
save power.
To achieve the preceding objectives of the green computing in the

organisation, the following different steps can be taken, as shown in
Figure 8.2:

n o t e s
Roads to Green Computing
Use of
Use of the Use of the
Use of the the green
green green disposal
green design manufacturing
equipment techniques
concepts
Figure 8.2: Road to Green Computing
Let us study how to achieve the objectives of green computing in de-

tail.
Use of the green equipment: Organisations can use energy effi-
cient equipment which consumes less power, and therefore are
S
environment friendly.
Use of the green disposal techniques: Organisations refurbish
and reuse the existing computing and electronic devices and prop-
IM
erly recycle them using the take back policy of IT vendors. The IT
vendors take the full responsibility of the life cycle of the electronic
product they manufacture.
Use of the green design: Organisations can design their processes
in an environment friendly way to enhance the economic develop-
ment.
M
Use of the green manufacturing concepts: Organisations involved

in manufacturing of electronic equipment must follow the green
manufacturing concepts and use biodegradable components. The
proper manufacturing approaches may lead to long term cost ben-
N
efits and improvement in business processes.
1. Which of the following is not an objective of green computing?

a. Preserving environment
b. Reducing Power Consumption
c. Saving costs
d. Earning Money
2. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) launched
an Energy ____ program in 1992.
a. Star b. Moon
c. Earth d. None
3. Research shows that the _________and other gases from the
electronic devices are changing the global atmosphere.
a. carbon dioxide b. carbon monoxide
c. methane d. nitrous oxide

Green Computing 233
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Activity
Search information about the concept of green cloud computing

and discuss with your friends.
Regulations and initiatives in

8.3
Green computing
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
has surveyed more than 90 government and industry initiatives on
Green ICTs (information and communication technologies) related to
environment and change in the climate. They published a report of
the survey containing the information of the initiatives that are taken
on greening ICTs. Today, not only the government organisations but
S
also private industries acknowledge the needs of green computing to
minimise the environmental changes and take initiatives accordingly.
IM
8.3.1 Government initiatives
Several governmental bodies encourage companies and individuals to

implement the rules, regulations, and standards for using green com-
puting. For example, the Energy Star program has been revised in Oc-
tober 2006 to incorporate stricter proficiency requisites for computing
devices. The energy star program is adopted by many countries across
M
the world as it describes the energy efficiency of products by placing

the energy star service mark on them.
In 2008, around 26 states of USA started a recycling program for the

outdated old PCs and consumer electronic components. This program
N
either imposed a heavy advance recovery fee for every unit sold by
retailers or compelled the manufactures of the electrical devices to
reclaim the electronic components for disposal after use.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed

into legislation by President Obama in 2010. This act invested $90
billion in green initiatives such as the use of renewable energy, en-
ergy efficiency devices, smart grids, etc. Moreover, the U.S. Energy
Department invested $47 million in the projects provided by ARPA to
enhance the energy efficiency of data centers. These energy efficient
projects focus on optimising hardware and software, cooling technol-
ogies and power supply management used in data centers for better
performance of data centers in an environment friendly manner.
8.3.2 Industry initiatives
The private sector and industries have also taken initiatives like the
government organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and go
green.

n o t e s
Some of the industry initiatives are:

Green electronics council: In U.S., the Green Electronics Coun-
cil offers the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool
(EPEAT). This tool is used during the purchase of green comput-
ing systems. This council evaluates personal computer equipment
on the basis of 51 different criteria out of which 23 are mandato-
ry and 28 are optional. These criteria evaluate the efficiency and
sustainability of products, which are then rated as Gold, Silver or
bronze on the basis of number of the optional criterion they met.
Green Computing Impact Organisation (GCIO) Inc: This is a
non-profit organisation that assists the users of computing prod-
ucts to be environmentally responsible by cooperative programs,
educational events, and subsidised auditing services. This organ-
isation basically contacts with IT leaders, who can give their pre-
S
cious time, resources and educate the consumer to improve the
efficiency of green computing.
Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI): This is an initia-
IM
tive started in June 2012 to reduce the electric power consump-
tion in personal computers. The organisation provides a catalog
that provides information about the green products. The catalog is
prepared by the member organisations of CSCI. The catalog also
holds the information on how to reduce the power consumption of
personal computers when they are in active or inactive state.
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The green grid: It is a consortium, founded in February 2007, and

its work is to do research and development by advancing energy
efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. It
was founded by Microsoft, Dell, IBM, HP, Intel, APC, AMD, Rack-
able Systems, SprayCool, Sun Microsystems and VMware. It has
N
thousands of members from various different industries such as

end users, government organisations, manufacturers, etc. and
their focus is based on enhancing the efficiency of data centers.
4. Which of the following organisations is not associated with

green computing initiatives?
a. EPEAT b. GCIO
c. CSCI d. GIS
5. According to _______, the products are rated as Gold, Silver or
bronze on the basis of number of optional criterion they met
6. In which year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA) were signed into legislation by President Obama?
a. 2008 b. 2009
c. 2010 d. 2011
7. Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) is started in June
2012. (True/False)

Green Computing 235
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Activity
Using the Internet, search and enlist the initiatives taken by the
government bodies for green computing.
8.4 Approaches to Green Computing

In the previous sections, you have learned about different types of ini-
tiatives taken by both private and government organisations to im-
plement and promote green computing. Figure 8.3 shows different
approaches used by IT organisations to implement green computing:
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Virtualisation
Algorithm
Telecommuting
IM
Efficiency
Approaches
Materials Power
to Green
Recycling Management
Computing
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Power
Display Supply
N
Storage
Figure 8.3: Approaches to Green Computing
Let us now study about these approaches to green computing in de-

tail.
Virtualisation: In the computer science and technology, virtuali-
sation means two or more logical computer systems running over
a set of physical hardware. Also, virtualisation denotes a virtual
machine that is a combination of several physical sub-systems,
which makes it a more powerful system. In both the cases, the sys-
tem’s operating power gets reduced and the available resources
are used efficiently. In the longer run, it gives better profit with
small expenses.

n o t e s
Some advantages of virtualisation are as follows:

Reducing the number of components of hardware
Reducing energy costs for cooling hardware
Reducing energy costs for running hardware
Conserving energy
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions
Algorithm efficiency: With efficient algorithms, we can also re-
duce the amount of computer resources for performing some spe-
cific computing functions. A well-developed computer software
application increases the life of the hardware, which means that
the cost of changing the hardware due to failure gets reduced sig-
S
nificantly. Moreover, the consumption and cost of energy for an
organisation also gets reduced. For example, the EDF algorithm
achieves higher energy saving over the non-DVS scheduling and
has much lower complexity compared to the existing algorithm.
IM
Power management: Advanced Configuration and Power Inter-
face (ACPI) is an open industry standard and a successor of In-
tel-Microsoft standard called Advanced Power Management. By
following the ACPI standard, an OS directly controls the compo-
nents of a system to reduce the power consumption. This standard
provides the facility of turning off computer system’s components
M
automatically, if they are inactive for a specified time period.

Power supply: In the desktop computer, the power supply is man-
aged by Power Supply Unit (PSU), which is not so efficient, and
dissipates a lot of energy as heat. 80 PLUS is a certification pro-
N
gram that promotes energy saving in the PSUs. It certifies those

PSUs that save energy up to 80% or more.
Storage: As a fact, we easily understand that a small hard disk
drive often consumes less power per gigabyte than a physically
larger drive. Thus, the smaller size factor is also important to be
green.
Display: CRT monitors consume large amounts of power and pro-
duces lots of heat. Therefore, newer displays like light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) replaced the CRT monitors because they use less
amount of electricity in comparison to CRT monitors.
Materials recycling: When we consider our computer system use-
less after fulfilling our purpose then we can donate it to various
charities and non-profit organisations. Moreover, we can also give
it to the certain retail outlets and municipal or private recycling
centres.
Telecommuting: Telepresence and teleconferencing technologies
are also helpful in green computing initiatives. It has many advan-
tages:

Green Computing 237
n o t e s
Increased profit margins by reducing the overhead costs for

office space, heat, lighting, etc.
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to travel.
Increased worker satisfaction.
8. Virtualisation means
a. Two or more logical computer system running over a set of
physical hardware.
b. A machine that is a combination of several physical
sub-systems,
S
c. Both a. and b.
d. None
9. In the desktop computer, the power supplies are known as
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____________.
10. Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an
open industry standard and a successor of Advanced Power
Management. (True/False)
11. Which of the following is not an advantage of virtualisation?
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a. Reducing the number of components of hardware

b. Reducing energy costs for cooling hardware
c. Conserving energy
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d. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions
Activity
Using the Internet, search the name of three recyclers involved in

recycling of electronic equipment.
Energy Efficient Networking and

8.5
Communication
The structure of a network is very important for facilitating easy in-
flow and outflow of data traffic, accessing applications on the server
and promoting correspondence among users. The networking equip-
ment requires power for efficient functioning on a 24x7 basis. Even a
simple network in an organisation requires a server, client computers
and network equipment to function. With the growth of the network,
the number of devices increases, and so does the consumption of elec-
tricity and a lot of heat is dissipated in the environment. To reduce the

n o t e s
dissipation of heat, organisations are working on how to implement

green networking.
The organisations worldwide are working on the objective of energy

conservation in which communication networks are designed and op-
erated in such a way that they save energy and go green. The aim of
going green can be achieved by implementing infrastructure for en-
ergy-efficient networking or green networking. In other words, green
networking makes networks more efficient by applying the highly
optimised networking principles. In green networking, networks are
designed to consume less amount of bandwidth to reduce the energy
utilisation and indirectly reduce the cost.
Organisations need to find out the areas for implementing green net-
working in order to improve energy efficiency of network. Some of the
possible areas are as follows:
S
Energy efficiency areas for mobile networking, wired and wireless
Energy efficiency areas for the center of network which includes

IMswitches, routers and gateways
Energy efficiency for information centers
Measurements and models for energy consumption of networks
and networks’ elements such as towers, servers, systems, etc.
Zero grid-electricity networks
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Use of renewal energy in the networks

Life-cycle assessment of networks and network components
N
12. _______________ refers to the way where the networking

principles are optimised and are made more efficient to attain
green computing.
Activity
Search information about power aware hybrid deployment and dis-

cuss in your class.
Greening Data Centres and

8.6
Servers
Green data centre and server is a storehouse which is used to store,
manage and diffuse data. It is operated on the principle of green com-
puting. There are three main principles of green computing – to re-
duce the use of hazardous materials, to maximise the energy efficien-

Green Computing 239
n o t e s
cy at product’s lifetime, to recycle the waste and obsolete products

of factory. Green data centre is used with an aim to have minimum
effects on natural environment.
The following are some features of green data centre:

It is built in an environment friendly facility
It uses minimum power resources for operation and maintenance
It operates with green or renewal energy
It uses low power and carbon footprint
It uses recyclable or reusable equipment
Green data centers and servers use advanced technologies and strat-
egies to perform its operation. Creating a green data center may be
S
costly but in the long run, it saves money and proves economical.
Moreover, it also offers healthy and comfortable work environment.

IM
13. ______________ is a storehouse which is used to store, manage
and diffuse data.
14. Which of the following is not a feature of green data center?
a. It is built in an environment friendly facility.
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b. It uses maximum power resources for operation.

c. It operates with green or renewal energy.
d. It uses low power and carbon footprint.
N
Activity
Visit a data center and meet the concerned manager to find out the
different ways of implementing green networking.
8.7 SUMMARY
Green computing is not a mathematical formula, this is just a prac-
tice of using computing devices so that they can be used efficiently
and is not harmful for human beings.
Green computing is all about reducing the power consumption of
the computers.
Green computing reduces the emission of carbon dioxide.
Green computing reduces the use of fossil fuel in a data center.
Green computing saves energy which means it saves cost indirect-
ly.

n o t e s
Green data center and server is a storehouse which is used to

store, manage and diffuse data. It is operated on the principle of
green computing.
There are three main principles of green computing—reducing
the use of hazardous materials, maximising the energy efficiency
at product’s lifetime, recycling the waste and obsoleting products
of factory.
key words
Green computing: It is a practice of using computing devices

so that they can be used efficiently and do not prove harmful to
human beings.
Green data center: It is a storehouse used to store, manage and
S
diffuse data.
Green networking: It refers to the way networking principles
are optimised and are made more efficient to attain green com-
IM
puting.

1. What do you understand by green computing? Enlist the
advantages of green computing.
M
2. Discuss the various objectives of green computing.

3. List some initiatives taken by the government to promote green
computing.
N
4. Describe various types approaches used in green computing.

5. Explain the concept of green networking in detail.
6. Discuss about greening data centres and servers. List down
some features of a green data centre.
answers for Self Assessment Questions

What is Green Comput- 1. d. Earning Money
ing?
2. a. Star
3. a. Carbon dioxide
Regulations and Initiatives 4. d. GIS
in Green Computing

Green Computing 241
n o t e s

5. a. Green Electronics Council
6. b. 2010
7. True
Approaches to Green 8. a. Two or more logical computer
Computing system running over a set of
physical hardware
9. PSU
10. True
11. d. Increasing carbon dioxide
emissions
Energy Efficient Network- 12. Green networking
S
ing and Communication
Greening Data Centres 13. Green data centre and server
and Servers
14. b. It uses maximum power re-
IM
sources for operation
hints for Descriptive Questions

1. Green computing is not a mathematical formula. It is just a
practice of using computing devices so that they can be used
M
efficiently. Refer to Section 8.2 What is Green Computing?

2. In the past few years, green computing became an innovative
method which is used for convergence of technology and ecology
together. Refer to Section 8.2 What is Green Computing?
N
3. Several governmental bodies encourage companies and

individuals to have implemented the rules, regulations, and
standards that encourage companies and individuals for using
to use green computing. Refer to Section 8.3 Regulations and
Initiatives in Green Computing.
4. In the computer science and technology, virtualisation means
two or more logical computer system running over a set of
physical hardware. Refer to Section 8.4 Approaches to Green
Computing.
5. Green networking refers to the way where the networking
principles are optimised and are made more efficient to
attain green computing. Refer to Section 8.5 Energy Efficient
Networking and Communication.
6. Green data centre and server is a storehouse which is used to
store, manage and diffuse data. Refer to Section 8.6 Greening
Data Centres and Servers.

n o t e s
8.10 SUGGESTED Readings & References
SUGGESTED READINGS
Smith, B. E. (2014). Green computing tools and techniques for sav-
ing energy, money, and resources. Boca Raton: Auerbach Publica-
tions.
Feng, W. (2014). The green computing: tackling energy efficiency at
large scale. Boca Raton, FL: CRC.
Nguemaleu, R. C., & Montheu, L. (2014). Roadmap to greener
computing. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Kawahara, T., & Mizuno, H. (2013). Green Computing with Emerg-
ing Memory Low-Power Computation for Social Innovation. New
S
York, NY: Springer New York.
E-REFERENCES
IM
Vikram, S. (2015). Green computing. 2015 International Confer-
ence on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCIoT).
doi:10.1109/icgciot.2015.7380566.
Computing Noise Pollution. (2014). Roadmap to Greener Comput-
ing, 95-148. doi:10.1201/b16913-5
“Green Computing | CoSN.” Green Computing | CoSN. N.p., 03
M
Mar. 2017. Web. 02 Mar. 2017. <http://www.cosn.org/greencomput-

ing>.
Green Computing Initiative. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2017,
from http://www.greenci.org/
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C h a
9 p t e r
CASE STUDIES
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CONTENTS
Case Study 1 Security Management by Beyond Trust

Case Study 2 Enhancement of Data Quality and Streamlining
IM
Regulatory Reporting
Case Study 3 Expansion of Server Farms to End Problem
of Terminal Server Printing
Case Study 4 Hsbc Achieves Operational Efficiency with
Effective Service Management
Case Study 5 Eskom Distribution – Asset Management
M
Assessments
Case Study 6 Citygate Car Dealership Ditches Legacy
Telephony for Cloud
Case Study 7 Volkswagen India: Uses Virtualisation in its
Core Manufacturing Systems
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Case Study 8 The Potential of Green Computing

Case Study 9 Clarity’s Infrastructure Management Solution
Case Study 10 Rigel Capital, Llc: Implementing Vmware
Infrastructure
Case Study 11 Implementation of PaaS Reference Architecture
and Cloud Adoption Strategy
Case Study 12 Earthlink Deploys Cloud-Ready Infrastructure

244 IT Infrastructure Management
Case study 1
n o t e s
SECURITY MANAGEMENT BY BEYOND TRUST
This Case Study discusses the security management by Beyond

Trust. It is with respect to Chapter 1 of the book.
Beyond Trust, a cyber security solutions company, provides se-

curity solutions to its clients against cyber threats such as hack-
ing, information leak, data theft, etc. The company uses a unified
risk intelligence platform of Privileged Account Management and
Vulnerability Management Solutions system, which offers the IT
security management solutions against hacking, internal securi-
ty threats, and maintains compliance with customers across the
world.
Recently, Beyond Trust got a contract from an IT company to pro-
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vide solutions to challenges faced by it. These challenges were as
follows:
Risk from security breaches
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Compliance issues
Access to strictly private and confidential data
In order to address these challenges, Beyond Trust applied the

Power Broker Privileged Account Management solutions that
helped its client company by securing and automating the pro-
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cess of managing and cycling privileged passwords and eliminat-

ing sharing. This was enabled by ‘Power Broker Password Safe’,
which prevented unauthorised user access to sensitive data, avoid
password and security breaches and adhere to compliance regu-
N
lations.
The client company obtained some of the additional benefits from

Beyond Trust, which were different from its competitors. These
benefits were as follows:
Privilege account capabilities
Reporting and analytics
Proper security context
Low cost of ownership
Flexible deployment options

Case study 1: SECURITY MANAGEMENT BY BEYOND TRUST 245
Case study 1
n o t e s
questions
1. What were some of the challenges that Beyond Trust

needed to address for its client company?
(Hint: One of the challenges that Beyond Trust needed to
address was the risk from security breaches.)
2. How did the Power Broker Privileged Account
Management solutions help the client company?
(Hint: The Power Broker Privileged Account
Management solutions helped the client company by
securing and automating the process of managing and
cycling privileged passwords and eliminating sharing.)
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Case study 2
n o t e s
ENHANCEMENT OF DATA QUALITY AND STREAMLINING

REGULATORY REPORTING
This Case Study explains the enhancement of data quality and

streamlining regulatory reporting. It is with respect to Chapter 2 of
the book.
The Organisation
National Australia Bank (NAB), a financial organisation, has

40,000 people working in its 1,800 branches, and it has 460,000
shareholders. It provides retail, business and institutional bank-
ing services to its 10.93 million customers worldwide.
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Challenges
NAB needed to reduce inconsistencies of data storage in 34 differ-

ent financial and operational systems. There was inconsistency
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in the maintained data about cost centres, branches and general
ledgers for different business units.
Solutions
In order to address the aforesaid challenges, NAB wanted to

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create a master data repository in which any updates or modi-

fications to data elements in one system could be implemented
throughout the IT infrastructure. Further, it could avoid unjusti-
fied and erroneous data updates by setting up a standard change
control process. NAB needed to ensure that all finance systems
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stored data and produced results in a consistent way.
NAB came up with a plan to change the existing inflexible main-

frame system (used as a pseudo master data management tool)
with a more sophisticated, true master data management solution
from Oracle Consulting. With the help of Oracle Consulting, NAB
implemented Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management to
manage master data assets in 34 applications including human
resources, general ledger, planning and finance. Before its imple-
mentation, NAB took a certain amount of time to collect system
requirements for interface designs. A consultant from Oracle was
hired to impart initial training on Oracle Hyperion Data Rela-
tionship Management to the concerned bank officials. The bank
adopted the centralised maintenance and governance approach,
which involved one team managing the master data. The imple-
mentation team comprised one project manager, two NAB team
members and a consultant from Oracle Consulting.

Case study 2: ENHANCEMENT OF DATA QUALITY AND STREAMLINING
REGULATORY REPORTING 247
Case study 2
n o t e s
Results
Although the total time taken to implement the Oracle Hyperion

Data Relationship Management was three months, the outcome
was extremely effective for NAB as the new system ensured data
consistency by setting up a formal, automated change control
process where updates to the master data system are provided as
input to various finance and operational systems. On transfer of
master data from NAB’s mainframe and other systems to Oracle
Hyperion Data Relationship Management, results showed that
the overall data quality got enhanced from 90 per cent to 99 per
cent by cleansing the source data and minimising the number of
duplicate records.
Further, enhancement of data quality significantly improved data
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accuracy in regulatory reports designed to increase supervision,
transparency and disclosure while enhancing risk management
and governance practices in the Australian banking sector. Man-
IM
agers have greater insight into the state of the bank’s global fi-
nancial operations, especially by having a single, master view of
financial data.
questions
1. What were the challenges faced by NAB?

M
(Hint: The challenges faced by NAB were inconsistencies

of data storage in 34 different financial and operational
systems.)
2. What was the result of implementation of Oracle Hyperion
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Data Relationship Management?

(Hint: Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management
was extremely effective for NAB as the new system ensured
data consistency by setting up a formal, automated change
control process where updates to the master data system
are provided as input to various finance and operational
systems.)

Case study 3
n o t e s
EXPANSION OF SERVER FARMS TO END PROBLEM

OF TERMINAL SERVER PRINTING
This Case Study discusses about the expansion of server farms. It is

with respect to Chapter 3 of the book.
Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) is a big public hospital

and academic medical center which is located at Minnesota, USA.
This hospital was declared as one of the America’s best hospital
by world report and local news. HCMC has set high standards
for treatment of patients and for running several educational pro-
grams for medical students.
For supporting and providing various services to patients and stu-
S
dents, the hospital uses two Citrix Server farms in Minneapolis
which is their central location. Of the two farms, one farm stores
information regarding the training programs to medical students.
On the other hand, another farm provides the data related to in-
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patient/outpatient, support for publishing various applications
programs, portals and specialty applications. Apart from this,
the server farm also manages more than forty departmental pro-
grams which monitors and records daily activities which occur
among different units of hospital using the medical applications
hosted on them.
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HCMC also provides support to its own three clinics remotely

and also to three affiliated clinics through their Web based portal
hosted on the server farm. These clinics provide data to HCMC
either by accessing the Web based portal or the medical applica-
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tions present on the servers. The portal also supports number of

remote employees which include 20 to 25 insurance coders work-
ing from home.
HCMC started implementation of their Citrix farms by providing

essential access rights to medical data and applications for all of
their employees. Approximately, 400 people rely on HCMC’s Ci-
trix infrastructure, but they are still finding technical problems in
printing documents which are related to different phases of pa-
tient care, administrative tasks, scheduling of employees respon-
sibilities, payroll, e-medical records and radiology images.
Inability of printing these documents on requirement, patient’s

satisfaction and overall productivity would have been reduced
significantly. Being one of the America’s best hospitals, presence
of printing problems was a huge setback for HCMC.
Therefore, Brian Anderson, Senior Network Administrator at

HCMC has decided has decided to solve this printing problem
before they started. He approached to Tricerat which is a well-

Case study 3: EXPANSION OF SERVER FARMS TO END PROBLEM OF TERMINAL
SERVER PRINTING 249
Case study 3
n o t e s
known organisation for providing terminal server printing solu-

tions. The HCMC implemented Tricerat’s approach to terminal
server printing with Citrix server farms. Because of this, the in-
stallation of drivers on each server is not required which signifi-
cantly reduced the effort of IT department.
Simplify Printing has minimised the possibility of server down-

time, but was also implemented effortlessly, enables users to print
perfectly. Moreover, the HCMC has increased the size the of their
server farms by adding 30 new servers to it. With this expansion of
server farm, the printing problem at HCMC gets eliminated com-
pletely. Moreover, HCMC can also increase the size of their server
farms by just adding the Tricerat Simplify Printing licenses in its
budget.
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questions
1. Explain various advantages of using Server farms.

IM
(Hint: Server farms can store and manage large amount
of data, etc.)
2. Enlist some cases where you may need to expand server
farms.
(Hint: To end terminal server printing problems, etc.)
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Case study 4
n o t e s
HSBC ACHIEVES OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY WITH

EFFECTIVE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
This Case Study discusses how HSBC achieves operational

efficiency. It is with respect to Chapter 4 of the book.
BACKGROUND
HSBC Africa, located in Sandton, South Africa, provides global

banking solutions to its clients along with in-depth local knowl-
edge. The main hub of the company is situated in Johannesburg
from where the entire business is managed through regional rep-
resentative offices, which have local relationships with product
specialists and managers, who provide international products
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and services to their African-based clients. In addition, their com-
mercial banking solutions offer the same services to local and in-
ternational corporates at a larger level. Another activity included
in HSBC African company’s portfolio is the representative office
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of their off-shore personal bank that provides services to Afri-
can-based premier clients.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Prior to the installation of FrontRange HEAT® Service & Sup-

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port™ in November 2005, the company was facing many challeng-

es. For instance, all the tasks were managed manually and their
related data was saved in an excel spreadsheet.
Graham Reid, Manager, IT Infrastructure and Procurement ex-
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plained that the biggest challenge that they were facing was ac-
curate measurement, tracking, and reporting of the incidences
logged with the department. “We needed accurate, measurable
reporting to identify where improvements could be made in our in-
ternal processes and to enable evaluation of service levels against
internal SLAs.”
In addition, all the IT departments of the company across South
Africa were merged in a single centralised department, located
in Johannesburg, which required the capability of managing and
monitoring the work of other branches remotely. Hence, HSBC
Africa required a self-help facility that would allow their custom-
ers to log incidences which could be quickly measured, assigned,
monitored, and resolved.
Mr. Reid declared and confirmed that HSBC Africa runs on a
different product from rest of the HSBC Group. “We needed a
solution that included a self-service module and business monitor
and the product selected by the rest of the group didn’t offer us that
option.”

Case study 4: HSBC ACHIEVES OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY WITH EFFECTIVE
SERVICE MANAGEMENT 251
Case study 4
n o t e s
SOLUTIONS
The HSBC Africa company first analysed the product used by HSBC
globally, then took the decision to look for an alternative solution.
The company then chose to implement FrontRange HEAT® Service
& Support™, which provided them an automated ITSM (IT Service
Management) solution along with included self-service and business
monitoring facilities for operational activities.
RESULTS
Graham Reid accepted that as HSBC did not have an automated
solution prior to the installation of FrontRange HEAT® Service
& Support™, the company found it difficult to quantify specific
cost savings and reductions in call time and status enquiries. With
manual handling of work, there was room for human error. Some-
S
times, tickets and other important information got lost as there
was no audit trail and little accountability.
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However, after the implementation of FrontRange HEAT® Service
& Support™, the IT department is able to accurately monitor and
report on all incidences and activities. Now, the team members work
in an error-free processing environment. There is an equivalent and
efficient distribution of resources, improved monitoring, and escala-
tion of incidences. Further, the change management process is also
greatly enhanced. This process starts with a change request that is
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entered in the system. At each stage, now, there is a requirement

of authorisation. The automated process keeps everyone updated
regarding the status of the change request. Mr. Reid and his team
identified that accurate and measurable generated reports have im-
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proved decision-making capabilities that very well justify the com-

pany’s expenditure. Now, HSBC Africa, can effectively evaluate the
department’s activities against internal service level agreements,
which have increased customer satisfaction and presented IT de-
partment as an enabler of business success.
questions
1. What was the biggest challenge of HSBC?

(Hint: The biggest challenge faced by HSBC was
accurately measuring, tracking and reporting on the
incidences logged with the department.)
2. How did HSBC overcome their service management
challenges?
(Hint: HSBC chose to implement FrontRange HEAT®
Service & Support™ as it offered them a fully automated
ITSM solution that included the self-service and business
monitoring facilities for operational efficiency.)

Case study 5
n o t e s
Eskom Distribution – Asset Management

Assessments
This Case Study discusses asset management. It is with respect to

Chapter 5 of the book.
Eskom is one of the top 10 electricity distributors in South Afri-

ca. In 2007, the company set a target to provide electricity to all
the people of the country till 2012. The South African government
has given Eskom the consignment of building an infrastructure
that will allow all South Africans to access electricity. The nation-
al government also stated that electricity should be supplied at a
uniform rate regardless of the location of the customer.
The economy of South Africa was expected to grow at 6% in the
S
foreseeable future. But, the challenge is that the existing infra-
structure for electrical supply was not capable enough to support
this growth. Moreover, most electrical infrastructure assets have
IM
also reached at an age, where their replacement became neces-
sary. Reliability and service quality have become the main con-
cerns in the replacement and maintenance of the present assets.
Eskom started looking for practices or methods that were used

by leading organisations to overcome similar type of challenges.
After some research, Eskom decided to work with Eon consult-
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ing and Woodhouse Partnership Limited (TWPL), as they offer

a source of expertise in the optimal, sustainable management of
physical assets.
The task of current asset management was performed as a re-

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search and development project to develop a structured business

improvement plan to determine practical solutions for asset man-
agement.
The present assets of Eskom Distribution came under a lot of

strain resulting in the downgrade of its network performance.
Some reasons of increasing the strain on the assets of Eskom Dis-
tribution were:
The increasing demands of South Africa’s electricity require-
ments need rapid growth in the company’s electrical distribu-
tion network expansion.
There was a limitation of available resources (in terms of mon-
ey, people and information) to manage network assets.
Aging of electrical infrastructure assets.
With the above listed points, it is obvious that the available as-
sets needed to be managed properly to improve the performance
of the electrical distribution network, and for this Eskom and its

Case study 5: Eskom Distribution – Asset Management Assessments 253
Case study 5
n o t e s
allies zeroed in on Publicly Available Specification 55 (PAS 55),

the only recognised standard for physical asset management
published by the British Standards Institution (BSI). John Wood-
house, the managing director of The Woodhouse Partnership
Limited (TWPL), drafted the specification on behalf of the Insti-
tute of Asset Management and BSI. The publication of PAS 55
has been welcomed internationally, specifically in UK, as it spec-
ifies the ways to efficiently manage physical infrastructure assets
along with optimising cost, risk and performance.
questions
1. What were the challenges faced by Eskom in 2007?

(Hint: Most electrical infrastructure assets has reached
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an age, where their replacement was necessary.)
2. Why Eskom decided to implement PAS 55 to streamline
its asset management?
IM
(Hint: Publicly Available Specification 55 (PAS 55) is the
only recognised standard for physical asset management,
which was published by the British Standards Institution
(BSI)).
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Case study 6
n o t e s
CITYGATE CAR DEALERSHIP DITCHES LEGACY

TELEPHONY FOR CLOUD
This Case Study discusses why Citygate Car dealership switched

from legacy telephony to cloud. It is with respect to Chapter 6 of the
book.
Citygate, a car dealership of Volkswagen, decided to transform

its legacy infrastructure to cloud, as it wanted to quickly expand
through new sites. The Citygate company had around 11 branches
that were spread across West London, and wanted to connect the
data of these branches for exchanging technical details of cars,
their images, and other information efficiently. In addition, the
company also wanted to centralize some of their essential busi-
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ness functionalities like book keeping, administration, and call
centre activity.
The commercial director of Citygate, Peter Dickey, declared that

IM
the telephony infrastructure was not fit and lacked the required
bandwidth to support its business requirements.
According to Dickey, “We had a virtual private network [VPN]

across the group which was carrying voice and data. With the growth
in our business volumes, the growth in application and showrooms
that relied on connection to various web portals, the growth in pho-
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tography and moving images in and out of the business meant that
[our] bandwidth was just hopeless.”
“You would end up with, typically, voice priority over data so you’d
have applications locking up; just the whole thing was grinding to
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a halt.”
One of the solutions to solve this was to increase the bandwidth

with the current vendor. However, this would have increased the
cost to a great extent.Dickey pointed out, “It just wasn’t worth do-
ing anything with that old network. It was at the end of its economic
life really.” Instead, he decided to transform the entire infrasture
into a cloud-based network that would give double benefits of
flexibility and cost efficiencies.
Dickey initiated a discussion with other Volkswagen dealers to

know if any of them had done such an infrastructure transforma-
tion. He got to know that one of dealers in Derby did the similar
type of transition. That dealer provided the reference of his IT
partner, Node4, to Dickey, but he also wanted to evaluate poten-
tial suppliers for himself. Dicky was interested to make use of the
latest fibre technology, as its price was beginning to come down.

Case study 6: CITYGATE CAR DEALERSHIP DITCHES LEGACY TELEPHONY FOR CLOUD 255
Case study 6
n o t e s
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Node4 started the project in 2011 along with a detailed plan and
structure. It gave the top most priority to centralise the telephone
systems of Citygate. According to Dickey, “One strand of this stage
was to move to a hosted telephony switch, hosted by Node4, based
on a Cisco platform.” He also declared that this was a complete
replacement and then moved to IP phones across the group.
The second step was to keep in place the physical network in-
frastructure that supported the telephony, before replacing the
existing infrastructure with the centralized hosted telephony
switch Node4’s Northampton data centre. The final implemen-
tation completed in September 2011. It took around three to four
months to cover all sites. The main implementation of the project
S
were related to civil engi-neering works carried out by BT Open-
reach and Virgin. One of the issues they faced was related to the
use of fibres into building. Another issue was about connections
IM
with Volkswagen during the implementation of project. Dickey
admitted “There were a lot of issues in terms of the network design
and the configuration of the IP ranges.” As Volkswagen was inter-
sted in the dealership and Node4 was going to work on a given
range of IP 172.x.x.x addresses, the new network was set up with
a 10.x.x.x IP range.
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Hence, Citygate shifted its many branches to a common standard

IP range that fully integrated with the Volkswagen range. More-
over, a call management software was also installed by dealers at
their call centre site to handle inbound and outbound customer
queries.
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BENEFITS
With the implementation of centralised telephone systems with

hosted switch at Node4’s Northampton data centre, the work of
the IT team at Citygate is streamlined. In fact, Node4 also tran-
formed Citygate’s email server and all other critical equipment.
The cloud-based system provided by Node4 proved to be more

useful than the previous one, as the dealership had to open band-
width at some sites to accommodate higher volumes of traffic.
Node4 also took up to manage the infrastructure, and address any
faults, if and when they occur.

Case study 6
n o t e s
questions
1. Discuss the problems faced by Citygate that forced it to

transform its legacy infrastructure and move to cloud.
(Hint: Replacing old telephony infrastructure, which was
unable to cope with traffic volumes.)
2. Discuss the option selected by Citygate to overcome the
problems.
(Hint: A centralised cloud-based management system to
monitor new hosted fibre infrastructure.)
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IM
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Case study 7: Volkswagen India: Uses Virtualisation in its Core
Manufacturing Systems 257
Case study 7
n o t e s
Volkswagen India: Uses Virtualisation in its

Core Manufacturing Systems
This Case Study discusses how Volkswagen India improved the re-
liability and performance of business related application with VM-
ware vSphere. It is with respect to Chapter 7 of the book.
Volkswagen India Private Ltd is a leading passenger car manufac-
turer and part of the global Volkswagen AG group. The company’s
headquarter is located in western India at Pune in Maharashtra.
This organisation employs about 3,500 people. It has a produc-
tion capacity of building up to 200,000 vehicles each year. It took
around 17 months to build the plant in Pune by Volkswagen India
Private Ltd. The cost of building this plant was too large around
S
` 3,800 Crores (580 million Euros). This was the largest investment
made by a German company in the Indian market.
The new plant was inaugurated on March 31, 2009, in the pres-
IM
ence of nearly 500 international guests by the Honourable Gover-
nor of Maharashtra, His Excellency Shri. S. C. Jamir and Prof. Dr.
Jochem Heizmann.
The Pune plant is known for its most modern nature in the Volk-
swagen Group as it is the only production plant in India that en-
tails the entire production process and possesses a high level of
M
vertical integration and has a large number of local suppliers.

It has the facility of the state-of-the-art equipment which means
that Diode Laser Brazing (DLB) technology is used for body shop
while for roof welding, the Roof & Side Framer laser technology is
used. It is one of the environment-friendly manufacturing plants
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as the exhaust of the paint shop can be re-burnt and heat and en-
ergy can be reused.
The company implemented VMware vSphere to run busi-
ness-supporting applications used for manufacturing a car every
two minutes. The implementation of virtualisation provided reli-
ability and performance requirements of the application.
CHALLENGES
In 2010, Volkswagen India required to enhance the reliability and

availability of business-critical applications that were required
for manufacturing of some popular passenger cars.
In an interview, the Assistant Manager – Information Technology
& Process, Volkswagen India Private Ltd., Mr. Rajat Kapoor high-
lighted:
“We needed to make sure that we could continue to deliver these

vehicles to meet the demand from the market”.

Case study 7
n o t e s
He also stated that upgrading its IT architecture will help the

company to protect its core business systems in case of any disas-
ter and will get the required value from its datacentre hardware.
SOLUTION
To overcome the challenges faced by the organisation, the IT

team of Volkswagen India Private Ltd decided to implement vir-
tualisation solution to provide the availability and flexibility for
the business supporting applications of the organisation. After a
deep analysis, the IT team decided to deploy VMware vSphere®.
VMware vSphere provides several products that are useful for the
organisation, including the following:
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VMware vSphere vMotion removes application downtime
caused at the time of marinating the server
VMware vSphere High Availability feature helps organisa-
IM
tions to protect against failure of server or operating system
The virtualisation also eliminates the need of purchasing a
new physical machine for the other works of the organisation
as it could deploy several virtual machines on demand. The
number of host machines gets reduced because of the use of
large number of virtual machines, thereby, enhancing server
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utilisation and reducing investment on hardware resources.
The implementation was made after a testing and assessment of

six months when the IT team was sure about the technology and
was confirmed about its support for the plant’s critical systems.
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Thereafter, the company engaged with the MIEL, a VMware Pre-

mier Partner, for providing business continuity solution with the
objectives of near-zero recovery point and recovery time.
MIEL worked together with VMware and other hardware ven-

dors to examine the smoother closure of the project with time and
budget considerations.
Nowadays, the IT infrastructure of Volkswagen India Private Ltd

contains more than 60 virtual machines that are running on six
IBM System x3650 2U servers that are linked to a NetApp Metro-
Cluster storage system. All the business-supporting applications
of the Volkswagen India Private Ltd run on this infrastructure.
RESULTS & BENEFITS
The virtualisation made the Volkswagen India IT team confident

by providing a reliable and scalable platform that can support all

Case study 7: Volkswagen India: Uses Virtualisation in its Core
Manufacturing Systems 259
Case study 7
n o t e s
the operations of the organisation. The organisation has benefited

from high availability feature as business supporting applications
were moved to the virtualised environment in 2010.
According to Mr. Kapoor “Volkswagen India have both hard-

ware-level and datacentre-level redundancy”. The implementation
of virtualisation has provided several benefits to the company, as
follows:
The company has received more returns on the investments
on the hardware devices.
The company has acquired a server consolidation ratio of 1:8.
The utilisation rates of the server resources have been im-
proved from 10 percent to more than 80 percent.
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The provisioning time for new servers has been reduced to a
large extent.
The operating costs including power and cooling costs are re-
IM
duced to a large extent about approximately 86 percent.
The recovery point and recovery time has been reduced to a
large extent through the usage of continuous replication given
by VMware virtualisation and NetApp storage.
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questions
1. Explain the common challenges faced by Volkswagen

India Private Ltd.
(Hint: Reliability, availability, and performance of
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business-supporting applications)
2. Discuss the benefits incurred by Volkswagen India Private
Ltd on implementing a virtualisation solution.
(Hint: Server consolidation ratio of 1:8, more returns
on hardware investments, improved utilisation rates,
reduced provisioning time, reduced operating costs, and
reduced recovery point and recovery time.)

Case study 8
n o t e s
THE POTENTIAL OF GREEN COMPUTING
This Case Study discusses about the potential of the green comput-
ing in different organisations. It is with respect to Chapter 8 of the
book.
More than 50% of the world’s population uses the Internet daily.
By 2020, it is projected that anywhere from 20 billion to 50 billion
devices will be connected to the Internet. These devices would
be performing myriad unique functions, such as processing code,
sharing data and choking up servers.
We, as a society, have already generated 90 percent of all the data

that has ever existed. This will only increase in the future and
would result in the Internet becoming the largest source of car-
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bon emissions on Earth.
Understanding green computing

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Green computing is a new concept which has recently emerged to
combat the rapid Internet growth and scale the rising demands of
social media and smart devices. Green code (also known as clean
code) is the most unique feature of green computing.
Green code refers to a code that is written with the purpose of

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reducing the relative energy consumption needed by a particular

algorithm. The code is written in such a manner to reduce the en-
ergy output and strain that is put on physical servers and systems.
Green code has several uses such as increasing battery life for
N
mobile devices, maximisation of power, reducing consumption

of energy, or pooling resources for a more effective approach to
solve a task.
“Despite its increasing popularity as a research topic, little is known

about practitioners’ perspectives on green software engineering,”
Motherboard editor Michael Byrne noted last year. “Even basic
questions such as ‘What types of software commonly have require-
ments about energy usage?’, ‘How does the importance of reducing
energy usage compare to other requirements?’, and ‘How do devel-
opers find and correct energy usage issues?’ do not have clear an-
swers.”
The future of green computing
It is believed that the green code will play a vital role in offset-
ting the growing burden of data as we move forward in future. It
would be easier to transition to green code in the coming years, if
businesses started reducing their digital footprint.

Case study 8: THE POTENTIAL OF GREEN COMPUTING 261
Case study 8
n o t e s
questions
1. What is the correlation between computing and

environment?
(Hint: More than 50% of the world’s population uses the
Internet daily.)
2. What is green code?
(Hint: Green code (also known as clean code) is the most
unique feature of green computing.)
S
IM
M
N

Case study 9
n o t e s
CLARITY’S INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
This Case Study discusses the functions provided by Clarity’s In-

frastructure Management Solution. It is with respect to Chapter 1
of the book.
Background
Clarity Infrastructure Management helps mobile network operators

to plan and manage their networks efficiently. It provides manage-
ment tools to execute network projects by using a centralised reposi-
tory and workflows in a timely manner. Clarity, established in 1994, is
an Infrastructure Management Solutions providing company, which
manages over 250 million subscribers globally. It provides Internet
Service Provider (ISP) solutions, inventory, fulfilment and assurance
S
application services to its clients. These services help in enabling the
real-time operational and executive visibility of the network’s impact
on revenues and customer experience.
IM
The company’s objective is focused on various modules that are
designed to address customers’ requirements related to network
project rollout and upgrade logistics, outside plant infrastructure
inventory management, network estate management, network
asset tracking and network asset maintenance.
M
Clarity Infrastructure Management enables mobile network op-

erators to automate the management of legal, commercial and
regulatory requirements of their sites and estates, track asset
movement and utilisation, and efficiently manage network main-
tenance activities. It provides robust cost control and check points
N
at different levels to carry out all processes.

According to Tony Kalcina, Chief Product Officer of Clarity, “Mo-
bile network operators constantly adapt their networks; expanding
coverage as demographics and requirements change, optimizing ca-
pacity and introducing new technology”.
Customer Vision and Requirements
A mobile network operator who also happens to be a customer

of Clarity Infrastructure Management required some improve-
ments in its management of commercial agreements and related
payments with landlord, services suppliers and utilities provid-
ers. This network operator had thousands of basestations, related
leased estates, and hundreds of staff members to manage the work
of commercial agreements and payments. The operator wanted
to consolidate and standardise its contracts, centralise storage,
and automatic access controls, wherever possible. In short, the
customer wanted an efficient contracts management process to
be implemented in the existing system. In addition, the customer

Case study 9: CLARITY’S INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION 263
Case study 9
n o t e s
wanted to retain healthy relationship with suppliers without dis-

ruptions related to payments or service operations. Finally, the
customer required that the automation in control access could
help to reduce financial irregularities and lower legal costs.
In brief, the customer’s requirements were:
Proactive management of commercial relationships with land-
lords, services providers and utilities providers
Reduction in operational expenditures associated with site leasing
Enhancement in terms of accuracy, traceability and control of
payments for commercial agreements
The customer initiated a new project to deploy Clarity’s Estates

Management module with the following objectives:
S
The management of renewals process to achieve better.
The management of renewal process to maintain better rela-
tions with their landlord.
IM
Alignment of all agreements in a standard contract structure,
reducing the legal costs of managing unique contracts and re-
ducing the resultant financial irregularities.
Maintaining a secure and centralized location to store all their
commercial agreements within the access of their staff.
M
There should be an increase in the accuracy of payments

against the commercial terms, reduction in overpaying and in
terminating the landlord and supplier relationships by unin-
tentionally underpaying them.
N
Automation required at the level of calculating annual pay-

ments by following contractual payment terms and reducing
the dependency of related staff.
Availability of structured and managed workflow related to
the notices to quit issued by landlords for ensuring replace-
ments at site quickly and efficiently.
Tracking of expected utilities usage by equipment at site and
cross checking of expected versus actual utilities usage. This
type of tracking is also helpful in managing utilities informa-
tion in case of sharable site, where a utilities bill has to be
managed across the companies sharing a site.
Deliverables
Clarity delivered the Estates Management module with the fol-

lowing facilities:
A secure and accessible system provided to manage commer-
cial agreements.

Case study 9
n o t e s
Automation introduced to calculate the annual increase, main-

tain accuracy in contract terms, reduce human errors, reduce
over-pays and un-intentional under-payments to suppliers.
Standardization implemented in their contracts and annual
calculation to improve the efficiency of their contracts man-
agement teams.
Result
Clarity’s Estates Management module helped the customer to

achieve its business requirements. It has improved the efficiency
of contracts management teams, and implemented more accura-
cy in payments. It has implemented a process containing lease
charges leading to the reduction in estates leasing charges. The
deployed system came out with the following outcomes:
S
It has centralised all the contracts and agreements, maintained
the financial terms, and allowed the derivation of payment in-
formation accurately and without human interference.
IM
It has implemented a standard structure in commercial agree-
ments, and reduced the legal costs associated with contract
negotiation and renewal.
It has implemented a robust approval process that ensures
payment approvals to landlords, or service and utilities pro-
viders are given by right individuals in the organisation.
M
It has improved the quality of forecast reporting by present-

ing the customer with automatically calculated payment pro-
cedures on the basis of providing Consumer Price Index (CPI)
for months and years.
N
It has reduced the customer’s dependency on a few highly

knowledgeable individuals and encapsulated their experience
about business rules in the system.
questions
1. What were the mobile network operator’s requirements?

(Hint: Proactive management of commercial relationships,
reduction in operational expenditures associated with site
leasing, and enhancement in terms of accuracy, traceability
and control of payments for commercial agreements)
2. What were the Clarity’s deliverables to the mobile network
operator?
(Hint: A secure and accessible system to manage
commercial agreements, automation of processes, and
standardization of contracts.)

Case study 10: RIGEL CAPITAL, LLC: Implementing VMware Infrastructure 265
Case study 10
n o t e s
RIGEL CAPITAL, LLC: Implementing VMware

Infrastructure
This Case Study discusses the implementation of VMware technolo-

gy for IT administration. It is with respect to Chapter 7 of the book.
Rigel Capital, LLC, established in 1998, is an investment man-

agement firm with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The
company has approximately 25 employees and around $2.3 bil-
lion of assets under management. According to John Cassidy, the
manager of IT services at Rigel, “You could lose out on thousands
of dollars if you fail to execute a trade within a certain window of
opportunity. As a result, we need to make sure our IT systems have
a high degree of availability and reliability.”
S
The main challenge for Rigel was to provide high degree of avail-
ability of critical systems to financial services firms. Rigel asso-
ciated with All Covered, an IT solutions provider to provide full
IM
range of IT services and technology support to its clients.
Solution
All Covered used VMware technology to create a virtual infra-

structure that handles IT administration tasks by providing great-
er availability and redundancy. This virtual infrastructure behind
M
the IT infrastructure has allowed Rigel to combine the workload

of multiple single-use physical servers onto two VMware ESX
hypervisors. The implementation of VMware technology also
provides the features like VMware HA and VMware Virtual Con-
solidated Backup, which in turn give the higher availability and
N
stronger disaster recovery capabilities.
All Covered has implemented the VMware Infrastructure 3 plat-

form, which provides various features like ESX Server 3 with
VMFS, VirtualCenter 2, VMotion, Distributed Resource Schedul-
er (DRS), and High Availability (HA).
Result
According to Cassidy, the implementation of VMware Infrastruc-

ture 3 has provided the following outputs:
Reduced the disaster recovery time from hours to minutes:
“Prior to VMware, it was quite an effort to get three or four serv-
ers reinstalled from the ground up—it could easily take six to
eight hours. With VMware, it’s just a matter of uploading virtual
disk images in a fraction of that amount of time.”

Case study 10
n o t e s
Saved hardware costs: “If we need a new server, we can just

create a new virtual machine instead of having to go and spend
another $4,000 on a physical server.”
Eliminated cooling issues for the server room: “VMware In-
frastructure 3 allowed us to consolidate seven of our physical
servers down to just two”.
“It was very important to us to have high availability and to have

the ability to recover quickly in the event of a disaster. VMware In-
frastructure 3 made a lot of sense to us on both those counts.”
—John Cassidy, Manager of IT Services, Rigel Capital
questions
S
1. What solution was adopted by Rigel Capital IT systems to
have a high degree of availability and reliability in their
systems?
IM
(Hint: Rigel Capital IT systems used the solutions
provided by All Covered, which implemented the
VMware Infrastructure 3 platform to provide the features
like ESX Server 3 with VMFS, VirtualCenter 2, VMotion,
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and High
Availability (HA).)
M
2. What were the results of VMware Infrastructure

implementation?
(Hint: Reduction of disaster recovery time, elimination of
N
cooling issues in server room)

Case study 11: IMPLEMENTATION OF PAAS REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE AND CLOUD
ADOPTION STRATEGY 267
Case study 11
n o t e s
IMPLEMENTATION OF PAAS REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE

AND CLOUD ADOPTION STRATEGY
This Case Study discusses how PaaS reference architecture and

cloud adoption strategy enabled a global insurance provider to
leverage cloud-based application development in Azure. It is with
respect to Chapter 6 of the book.
One of the world’s largest insurance providers that serves near-

ly a 100 million customers around the world needed a strategy
and roadmap for its next-generation Platform as a Service (PaaS).
This platform would enable the company to support its continued
global expansion and complete the integration of several signifi-
cant acquisitions. To be successful, the platform required a flex-
S
ible architecture for migrating applications to the cloud, which
would allow the company to rapidly define optimal landing areas
for its diverse portfolio. The company also required a PaaS-fo-
cused reference architecture and a vendor assessment of the most
IM
relevant PaaS providers in the enterprise market.
CHALLENGES
From ad-hock sales force implementations to a stalled early cloud

adoption initiative, the company’s IT department faced signif-
M
icant challenges in articulating a clear cloud vision and gover-

nance model for the entire company. Added challenges includ-
ed the company’s geographic distribution across more than 60
countries, and the lack of consistent alignment and procedures
on architecture, governance, methodology and the use of shared
N
services among the company’s many disparate business units.

In addition, industry-specific security and compliance concerns
were of critical importance given the company’s asset value and
market positioning based on security and trust.
To address these challenges, the company’s Chief Information

Officer (CIO) mobilised an internal task force to create an enter-
prise-wide cloud development strategy that would explore options
for a sweeping replacement of its existing development platforms.
The new platform needed to take advantage of the elasticity, ef-
ficiency and flexibility of cloud architectures, yet have a robust
set of tools to meet the business demands for rapid application
development. The company engaged Cloud Technology Partners
for its expertise in enterprise cloud infrastructure, portfolio man-
agement and software development processes.

Case study 11
n o t e s
SOLUTION
The solution included six interrelated deliverables, each address-

ing key strategic business and technical objectives:
PaaS Reference Architecture: A PaaS conceptual cloud ar-
chitecture focused on setting the tools in context.
Application Decision Framework (ADF): A methodology
that identified endpoints and decision criteria based on appli-
cation metadata used to sort the client’s application portfolio
into basic migrate, convert and replace scenarios.
PaaS Vendor Assessment: Overview of the PaaS marketplace
and recommendations for vendors that best matched the cli-
ent’s requirements. After a thorough vendor selection process
S
managed by Cloud Technology Partners, the client ultimately
decided on Window’s Azure.
PaaS Rollout Roadmap: A comprehensive strategy and adop-
IMtion plan for a global federated PaaS rollout to the entire com-
pany.
PaaSLaneTM: The team employed PaaSLane, Cloud Tech-
nology Partners’ proprietary cloud compliance tool, to test ap-
plications against cloud coding standards and determine the
level of effort required to migrate the applications.
M
Sales Force Integration: Cloud Technology Partners incorpo-

rated a standardised sales force integration approach into the
global federated PaaS plan.
N
RESULTS
The team presented final deliverables to project managers, ar-

chitects and senior management to validate findings and steer
planned projects into recommended approaches and architectur-
al patterns. As a result, the Application Development Framework
(ADF) was successfully piloted in a mature business unit to vali-
date the endpoints and criteria against known migration plans. A
VMware-based PaaS platform was also validated on a sample set
of applications. The PaaS reference architecture was integrated
into the existing sales force account and on-going development
efforts as a guide to delivering new applications on emerging
cloud solutions. Based on the PaaS platform recommendations,
the company initiated a large-scale rollout of Azure.

Case study 11: IMPLEMENTATION OF PAAS REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE AND CLOUD
ADOPTION STRATEGY 269
Case study 11
n o t e s
questions
1. What were the challenges faced by the insurance

organisation in implementing the PaaS platform?
(Hint: Extensive geographical distribution across more
than 60 countries, lack of consistent alignment and
procedures on architecture, governance, etc.)
2. Write a short note on the impact of cloud computing on
businesses.
(Hint: Cloud computing has become a disrupting
technology that is replacing the IT infrastructure used by
small and large enterprises. By using cloud computing,
enterprises can do away with many captive datacentres
S
and server-storage infrastructure owned and managed by
them.)
IM
M
N

Case study 12
n o t e s
EARTHLINK DEPLOYS CLOUD-READY INFRASTRUCTURE
This Case Study discusses how EarthLink Business minimized the

operational costs and improved its network performance by taking
the help of Cisco Cloud Enablement Services. It is with respect to
Chapter 6 of the book.
Background
EarthLink Business, established in 1994, is an IT services, net-

work, and communication provider located at Atlanta, Georgia.
It has more than 3000 employees to handle an extensive network
spanning over around 29,421 fibre route miles. The company has
started as a residential Internet Service Provider (ISP) to deliver
S
broad range online services in the United States.
Challenge
IM
Recently, EarthLink has expanded its operation model and in-
cluded IT services for small size business to medium size by creat-
ing a separate division called EarthLink Business. The company
management has realized that as per market demands, it is nec-
essary to provide a feasible cloud offering to remain competitive
with other IT service providers. According to Joe Reazor, director
M
of product engineering at EarthLink Business, “We had acquired

a small cloud provider and we were using their infrastructure to
deliver cloud services. The infrastructure wasn’t robust or agile
enough to easily scale, and the hardware was all housed in a single
region, so our failover capabilities were very limited. We knew that
N
we needed a much more dependable, scalable solution to keep pace

with the rest of the industry.”
Some obvious challenges for the company as as follows:

To expand IT services set and include cloud offering for small
to medium-size businesses
To achieve greatest scalability from the available cloud infra-
structure
To provide better redundancy by building infrastructure
across multiple regions
Solution
Out of many vendors, who provided cloud offerings, EarthLink

Business selected Cisco. According to Stephen Currie, the Direc-
tor of Product Management at EarthLink Business,

Case study 12: EARTHLINK DEPLOYS CLOUD-READY INFRASTRUCTURE 271
Case study 12
n o t e s
“Cisco had the next-generation approach, with the Unified Comput-

ing System (Cisco® UCS®) blending network and compute in a single
environment.” He also says, “We also liked the FlexPod offering,
which is Cisco UCS coupled with NetApp for storage and VMware
for virtualization. The whole package was more intelligently de-
signed and more mature than anything else we considered.”
EarthLink Business now has designed and implemented a cloud-

ready environment with the help of Cisco Cloud Enablement Ser-
vices that can support the company’s infrastructure as a service
offering.
The company first established five data centers in different re-

gions of the United States, along with high-performance hard-
ware. This high-performance hardware included Cisco UCS B200
S
M3 Blade Servers, along with Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects
connecting into Cisco Nexus® switches. A Cisco ASR 9000 Series
Aggregation Services Router was also used through which all net-
IM
work connections are made to pass. Now, the EarthLink Business
IT team can monitor and manage all the five data center environ-
ments from a single location.
In short, the final solution consists of the following outcomes:

Cisco UCS has combined the networks of EarthLink Business
and provides easy-to-manage environment.
M
CiscoCloud Enablement Services support cloud-ready envi-

ronment by determining the required infrastructure.
Cisco Data Center Optimization Services provides the transi-
N
tion of cloud infrastructure as a service.
Results
By migrating to the Cisco UCS platform, the EarthLink Business

gets the following results:
The time of hardware deployment and replacement is re-
duced by 25 percent. Currie says, “UCS is just so easy to man-
age, for example, we can create service profiles that enable us
to respond to hardware issues much more quickly. With that one
feature, we cut 25 percent of the time necessary to deploy, re-
place, or upgrade hardware.”
The time of firmware upgrade is also reduced from days to
hours. Currie says, “Firmware upgrades are much easier, too.
In our old environment, a firmware upgrade would take several
days to complete. With UCS, we can finish one in a single night.
Since we do that roughly once per quarter, we’re saving about a
week’s worth of time every year on that one task alone.”

Case study 12
n o t e s
Services are delivered on time so that reliability is increased

and customer experience is significantly improved. Reazor
says, “We have better uptime, and we can deliver a more consis-
tently reliable experience, as long as everything is up and run-
ning, customers are happy. They may not care who’s responsible
for the improvements, but we care. Better performance is the
single biggest benefit we’ve seen from working with Cisco.”
questions
1. Discuss the challenges faced by EarthLink Business that

compelled it to deploy cloud-ready infrastructure.
(Hint: The challenges faced by EarthLink Business
included expanding its service set to include cloud
S
offering for small to medium-size businesses and
inability to achieve greater scalability with legacy cloud
infrastructure)
IM
2. Discuss the consequences of deploying cloud-ready
infrastructure by EarthLink.
(Hint: After deploying cloud-ready infrastructure,
EarthLink witnessed reduction in the time to deploy,
replace and upgrade hardware by 25 percent, decrease
in firmware upgrade time from days to hours and
M
deliverance of more reliable uptime and significantly

improved customer experience.)
N

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Reviewed By: Dr. R. Vijaylakshmi

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

CHAPTER NO. CHAPTER NAME PAGE NO.

1 Overview of Infrastructure Management 1

2 Preparing for Infrastructure Management 33

5 Asset Management 103

8 Green Computing 225

9 Case Studies 243

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

Infrastructure Management Overview: Definitions, Evolutions of Systems - Mainframes-to-Mid-

Preparing for Infrastructure Management: IT infrastructure - Design Factors -Determine cus-

Service management processes: ITIL-Service-level management, financial management and cost-

Green Computing: Introduction, Regulations and initiatives in Green computing, Approaches to

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

Overview of Infrastructure Management

1.3.4 Challenges in IT Infrastructure Management

1.4 IT System Management Models

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

1.6 IT System Complexity

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

strategy for reducing IT complexity

Operating and managing a technology-driven management sys-

While cutting down on IT management costs, the company also

in the differentiation of process and hardware constraints.

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

providers is one of the reasons for high complexity. Hence, the

By applying the preceding approaches, the company succeeded

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

In this chapter, you will study the concept of management and IT

1.2 Understanding IT Management

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

The basic aim of IT management is to ease the various processes of

But, before we move any further with the concept of IT management,

The main objective of IT management is value creation with the help

tions of the organisation could be performed with greater speed and

self assessment Questions

1. The main functions of management include planning,

Using the Internet, find out the IT management practices followed

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

Infrastructure management can be divided into various categories,

The benefits of infrastructure management are so profound that we

 This type of management helps in the efficient utilisation of the

 It helps the organisation to deliver differentiated services.

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

1.3.2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

In today’s technology-driven world, IT infrastructure management

 The management also helps in conducting research and recom-

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

1.3.3 CURRENT BUSINESS DEMANDS

Because of this new emerging model of management, there has been

meet the business demand.

Despite the fact that infrastructure management is gaining popularity

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

model, and hence, they cannot afford to degrade their manage-

Response time, according to the definition, means the time taken by

sumer. If the software takes less time to respond to the enquiry, it is

self assessment Questions

5. The pricing strategy of infrastructure management helps to

NMIMS Global Access - School for Continuing Education

This type of management helps in the efficient utilisation of the

It helps the organisation to deliver differentiated services.

The management also helps in conducting research and recom-

The achievement of goals also creates transparency in the or-

Operational: Regulation, suppliers, contracts available for the

Compliance: Compliance with the various legal regulations

Hardware: The physical component of a computer system like

Platform architecture: It is forecasted that the use of application

Mobile application: This is already gaining popularity as the IT