Configuration Performance Security Management Relationships

Configuration performance security management relationships are varied, so I will give you an overview of each to give you an idea of the relationship. Remember this is the process view not the technical view!

Configuration Performance Security Management Relationships - Security Management

The Security Management function interfaces with IT Service Management processes where security issues are involved. Such issues relate to the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of data, as well as the security of hardware and software components, documentation and procedures.

For example, Security Management interfaces with Service Management to assess the impact of proposed Changes on security, to raise RFC’s in response to security problems; to ensure confidentiality and integrity of security data and to maintain the security when software is released into the live environment. Where it gets this information from is in the CMDB and performance management ensures the capacity is there when needed.

Configuration Performance Security Management Relationships - Performance Management

Performance management focuses on the iterative cycle of Monitoring, analyzing, Tuning and Implementation. It is important that the utilization of each resource and service is monitored on an on-going basis to ensure the optimum use of the hardware and software resources, that all agreed service levels can be achieved, and that business volumes are as expected.

The monitors should be specific to particular operating systems, hardware configurations, applications, etc. It is important that the monitors can collect all the data required by the Capacity Management process, for a specific component or service.

The data collected from the monitoring should be analyzed to identify trends from which the normal utilization and service level, or baseline, can be established. By regular monitoring and comparison with this baseline, exception conditions in the utilization of individual components or service thresholds can be defined, and breaches or near misses in the SLA’s can be reported upon. Also the data can be used to predict future resource usage, or to monitor actual business growth against predicted growth.

The analysis of the monitored data may identify areas of the configuration that could be tuned to better utilize the system resource or improve the performance of the particular service.

The implementation of any Changes arising from these activities must be undertaken through a strict, formal Change Management process. The impact of system tuning changes can have major implications on the Customers of the service. The impact and risk associated with these types of changes are likely to be greater than that of other different type of changes.

Configuration Performance Security Management Relationships - Configuration Management

The Configuration Management system identifies relationships between an item that is to be changed and any other components of the infrastructure, thus allowing the owners of these components to be involved in the impact assessment process. Whenever a Change is made to the infrastructure, associated Configuration Management records should be updated in the CMDB. Where possible, this is best accomplished by use of integrated tools that update records automatically as Changes are made.