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Service Level Management can be key to IT success

By Barb Goldworm
Network World on Network/Systems Management, 08/18/99

Service Level Management is one of today's buzzwords. It was also a hot topic in the late 1970s. At that time, IT was looking for a way to manage user expectations, justify the cost of data processing (as it was called at the time) and show what a good job it was doing. Sound familiar?

The data center looked very different back then, but the goal was the same. The typical system then was an IBM 370 mainframe, running MVS and VTAM, using a communications box running NCP talking to 3270 terminals. SLM meant commitments in availability and response time for hardware and software within the data center. Service level reporting was the way to communicate quality of service between IT and users.
Then came distributed computing. Users who got fed up with IT implementation delays went to standalone PCs, LANs and then WANs running communications servers, applications servers as well as mainframes, where necessary. Eventually, management of the distributed environment went back to IT. Today, once again, IT needs a way to manage user expectations, justify the costs of systems and network growth to keep up with user needs, and show that it is indeed doing its job. So here we are again - SLM, The Sequel.

So is anyone successfully doing it today? Does SLM help IT and users communicate effectively? The answer is yes and no. Late last year, Enterprise Management Associates conducted a study. Sixty percent of the companies surveyed had a strategy for SLM but 21% could not define what SLM was.

And what about the tools to back up the SLAs? At our last count, over 100 companies claim to have SLM product offerings. There are large, long-time vendors like BMC, Computer Associates, IBM/Tivoli and Hewlett-Packard. The midsize vendors include Concord, Desktalk, Luminate and Micromuse. And finally there are a large number of start-ups, including InfoVista, Response Networks and FirstSense.
Product offerings vary from a few added features in existing and stable products to new Version 1.0 products designed specifically for service level information gathering, reporting and/or management.
Network operations products for managing availability and performance are on the more mature end. The latest class of SLM products is in the application management arena, specifically, in end-to-end application response time.

For users looking for SLM as a real-world possibility, the news is good. The industry has started to understand distributed SLM, and many products are currently here. With smart planning, careful tool selection and good communications between IT and users, SLM can be a key component to IT's successful role in running a company's business.