Bridging the Gap - the Value of Integrated Asset and Service Management

Jon Hall, Product Management Lead – Enterprise ITAM

Bridging the Gap: The Value of Integrated Asset and Service Management

© Copyright 04/07/2023 BMC Software, Inc2 © Copyright 04/07/2023 BMC Software, Inc2

Just what is an IT Asset?


Separate Evolution of ITAM and ITSMHow did we get here?

IT Asset Management IT Service Management

Developed regionally in the 1980s and 1990s

Frequently driven by regulatory or tax obligations (e.g. In France)

Finance department sponsorship

Built around procurement and/or request fulfilment teams

ITIL – UK Civil Service, 1990sITSM platforms proliferated in enterprise, e.g. RemedyMaturity path built around CMDB......with little focus on asset financials and lifecycle


ITIL version 2 – “Asset”

“Literally, a valuable person or thing that is ‘owned’”

Assets will often appear on a balance sheet as items to be set against an organization’s

liabilities.


ITIL version 3 – “Service Asset”

“Any Capability or Resource of a Service Provider”

The ability of an Organization, person, Process, Application,

Configuration Item or IT Service to carry out an

Activity. Capabilities are intangible Assets of an

Organization

A generic term that includes IT Infrastructure, people,

money or anything else that might help to deliver an IT

Service. Resources are considered to be Assets of

an Organization


Evolution of IT Assets

1980s to mid 2000s...• The PC revolution• Physical devices• Install-based licensing

Mid 2000s to present...• Virtualization• Capacity licensing• Outsourcing

2014...• Cloud infrastructure and applications• Mass mobility• BYOD• Usage-based licensing• Multi-sourced IT

?

2015-2020• Hybrid Cloud• The Internet of Things• Consumerization• Digital Service Brokering


Where are we today?


ITAM’s Position in the Business

Within IT Service Management

Other

Within Finance

Direct report


What challenges are we facing?


Key CIO priorities

Better decision supportService brokeringTransformation of IT spendingCustomer-centric IT


Rising cost of “keeping the lights on”

$0

$50

$100

$150

$200

$250

SERVER SPENDING

POWER + COOLING

SERVER MANAGEMENT

(PHYSICAL)

SERVER MANAGEMENT

(VIRTUAL)


The Innovation Squeeze

Existing Maintenance

Budget

Innovation Budget


Budget

Innovation Budget

New Maintenance


Budget

Innovation Budget

New Maintenance


Budget

Innovation Budget

New Maintenance

Year n Year n+1 Year n+2 Year n+3


Virtualization keeps moving

28% 6% 66%

Private Cloud

Public Cloud

Physical Servers & Non-Cloud VMs

34% of enterprise servers already run in the cloud

Your Cloud Future Is Here - How IT Can Embrace The Business Demand For Cloud And Exceed Expectations. Forrester, June 2013

Percentage of servers operated in global enterprises:


Cloud services are accelerating sprawl


Cloud services are accelerating sprawl

• Average of 545 cloud services per company in large enterprises.

• Does your business have more cloud services than it needs?

• 70% feel that a fifth or more could be consolidated

48%34%

2010 2013

YES


License complexity and aggressive audit


Why does this matter to the Service Desk?


New connected technologies, increasingly critical

Environmental monitoring and controlWorkforce automationFactory control systemsRFID tagsVehicle trackersCustomer experience augmentation


New asset types drive new challenges

External Cloud servicesBring Your Own Device (BYOD)Highly mobile virtual instancesNew technologies become critical to businessDramatic changes in related processes (Change, Problem, etc)

New skills, new actors, new processes.


Why alignment of ITAM and ITSM is so important


In brief...

ITSM can’t fully understand the services it is providing without understanding the assets on which the service depends.

ITAM can’t optimise usage, support and spend without understanding what services the assets underpin.


What don’t we know about a service, without ITAM?

Purchase or instantiation costsIncidental support costsAssociated contracts Software license implicationsGeographical resilienceWho supports what?Who owns what?and much more...


What does ITSM-aligned ITAM look like?


Example of ITAM embedded in frontline ITSM

Line of Business, partners, customers

CUSTO

MER VIEW

Customer

IT, HR, Facilities

CatalogSolution

SUPPLIER VIEW

Service Org Internal Provider

+ + +ITSM PlatformNew Assets

Existing Assets

External ITSM Platform

External Provider

+ + ++

Supplier provided Assets

Private supplier assets


Integrated ITAM and ITSM as a supplier evaluation tool

Detailed oversight

Strategic / Top-Down

IT Asset Management

Operational

• Supplier assets• Software licenses• Asset contracts• Warranties, support and

maintenance agreements• Service costs

Supplier Management

• Enterprise licenses• Supply and lease contracts• Master maintenance and service

agreements• Customer and vendor obligations

Strategic

• Failure statistics• End user-satisfaction• SLA performance

IT Service Management


And the next generation service models?

PrivateCloud

Policies Capacity

LicensesAsset Base

Costs

Service GovernorService

Governor

PrivateCloud


There are still physical assets...

Private Cloud

Virtual server instances

Physical hosting layer


The Asset Lifecycle still applies to Cloud

Select & Procure

Provision & Record

Deploy

Discover & Reconcile

Audit & Monitor

Maintain & Support

Retire

Re-Harvest

Cloud Service Catalog

CLM Service Governor

CLM DataDependency MappingVendor Data

CLM DataVendor ReportsUsage based licensing

CLM DataDependency Mapping

Vendor Data

CLM Service Governor

Capacity Optimization


Core ITAM principles still apply

MOVE

ADD

DELETE

CHANGE

Transfer of Amazon instance to new Availability Zone

Instantiate new instance in Private Cloud

Decommission cloud instance and cancel

software subscription

Purchase more file storage allocation for

cloud instance

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnseb/3425464

Relocation of server to new Datacenter rack

Provision and deploy new physical server

Decommission and retire physical server and

recover software licenses

Add bigger hard drive to physical server

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aztlek/2357990839


Aligning ITAM with the IT Service Blueprint

ServiceOptions

InfrastructureModels

ApplicationModel

Offering


Aligning ITAM with the IT Service Blueprint

• Asset information is a fundamental building block of the service

Level Assets Cost type Cost

Application Server

Bronze Single Amazon Cloud VM

Opex $25 per month

Silver 4 private cloud VMs, 8 vCPUs, 16GB RAM

Opex $200 per month

Gold 4 dedicated servers, 8 CPUs, 24GB RAM

Capex $8000 per unit


Aligning Asset oversight to services

Type Location/ Provider

Licensed Software

Support End of Life

Server 1 Application Server

London Datacenter Private Cloud

Attachmate Covered under ACME support contract

Perpetual

Server 2 Failover Application Server

Amazon AWS

Attachmate (failover license)

Amazon Silver Support

2 years – auto deprovision

Server 3 Database Server

Internal Oracle Data Farm

Oracle Enterprise Edition (processor licensed

Oracle Premier Support

3 years – raise RFC with 3 months remaining

Deployed Assets for Sales Office FileShare instance, Production level, Failover Option


Case Study

The organisation: a large medical research charity in the UKDirectly involved in frontline scientific researchMedical research has significant and specialist technology requirementsIT needs to provide excellent capabilities in a cost-pressured environment


Case Study

A key requirement is Big DataThis requires specialist equipmentExternal cloud is not an option, primarily due to the volume of data transfer

“The problem we’d have for active data is the access speed: A single genome is 100Gb. Imagine downloading that from Google!”


Case Study

They need specialist data storage and retrieval equipment.Data growth is rapid.A frequent refresh cycle is expected.

“We buy kit that’ll fit our needs, front-loaded with 3 years support costs.

After that time, you’re invariably needing bigger, better, faster”


Case Study

The organisation spotted an opportunity to repurpose, rather than dispose of, the specialist hardware.

“We used the old system for second tier data: desktop backups, old data”


Case Study

This required good understanding of upcoming requirements of two very different user groupsA much cheaper support supplier was found for the older equipment: Backup does not need “gold-standard” support.Significant savings were made in not purchasing new equipment for PC backups.No new technology for the Service Desk and Support Teams to manage.


The result


Conclusion


Moving to Service-aligned ITAM

What is owned? Where is it?Who is it assigned to?How much did we spend on it?

ITFocused

Business Focused

Equipment Focused

ITAM MaturityWhat does it support?How can we control changes?How can we discover more?

What is its role in our key services?How can we optimize its use?


Summary

IT is increasingly expected to demonstrate cost effectiveness and value to the businessThere is wide adoption of service orientation and multi-sourcingThe range of assets in the organisation is rapidly broadeningITSM is better empowered to support its customers if ITAM is aligned.Without effective alignment of ITSM and ITAM, it is not possible to give the CIO a complete picture.


Questions?

@jonhall_

Technology

Bridging the Gap - the Value of Integrated Asset and Service Management