IT Infrastructure

IT Infrastructure management

It would seem strange if IT people themselves were not affected by the rapid expansion of information technology. Their work is far from being cheap and they know better than anyone else, how helpful computers can be. Besides, they are not afraid of loosing their jobs, because it is commonly known that computers generally do not throw out of employment computer specialists.

Thus, IT departments - and not only their heads - should understand the necessity of using systems supporting IT infrastructure management (whatever this could really mean).

IT people are generally interested in the problems that can be grouped as follows:

• Cataloguing hardware, software, licence and service agreements,
• Monitoring the activity of various devices, detecting damages and threats and analyzing their consequences,
• Help desk, fixing damages etc., as well as registering related contacts with users,
• System security problems,
• Building different reports concerning IT infrastructure, its functioning, efficiency and utilization,
• Various aspects of functioning of IT department.

Cataloguing

Actually, if the number of computers in a company is pretty large, it is not easy to say what one really possesses. Every machine has its own inner structure i.e., it constitutes of components, which can be exchanged or modified. The components come often from different vendors, they are subjected to different warranty or service agreements. Software looks more or less the same. Thus, it turns out that efficient cataloguing cannot be performed by means of a sheet of paper, of a spreadsheet, or even of a simple, dedicated program, developed ad hoc.

Monitoring

To get the necessary information, one installs special pieces of software on particular workstations or active network devices, the so called inteligent agents, who permanently control their configuration and activity. All information coming from the appropriate system elements to the central unit, independently how it is transferred, can be used both for current operations (e.g., an exchange of a malfunctioning processor cooling fan), and for strategic analyses.

Help desk

IT departments establish special help desk centers, which employes are called in to fix the damages and to restore the original state. For obvious reasons, all user claims and help desk reactions should be carefully registered and here a copybook is clearly not enough. One needs computer systems to enable the management the appropriate control and detailed analyses concerning e.g., hardware and software failure frequency, reaction time, work efficiency etc.

Security

The basic minimum of securing computer systems against intrusions is achieved by passive elements i.e., protected by passwords access to data and services, proxy servers, firewalls etc. However, in the case of large companies, and of the ones particularly liable to attacks, this is definitely not enough. Systems must defend actively i.e., permanently monitor and diagnose the situation, alert administrators and even disconnect some elements if any attempts of attack are spot. One has to monitor in real time the network traffic in order to detect intrusions and to analyze the activity of modems installed or duble network adapters in connection with untypical attempts to access databases or other events, looking innocent at first glance.

Report building

Strategic analyses, actually performed by company management, are based on various kinds of reports emerging from the gathered information. The reports should be very flexible when selecting data but at the same time they should have a clear, uniform, graphic form and their building should not be difficult.

Functioning of IT department

Last not least, there is a group of problems connected with the functioning of IT department itself, referring to a sort of inner control. It concerns user claims and help desk reactions, the entire system mortality, repairing damages, and services of external companies. IT management is often forced to perform various economic analyses and answer questions like: "What should I do in order to increase work efficiency, to decrease costs or to prove my expenses reasonable?".