Mark JonesSenior Product ManagerMark JonesSenior Product Manager

Run Book Automation: Why All Roads Lead to ItRun Book Automation: Why All Roads Lead to It

Our Vision For IT Process Automation3 Years In The Making

3 years ago NetIQ had a vision for converging our systems & security management products to support consolidated incident & event handling.

But customers said, help us connect to our other tools as well.

We’re the Noah’s Ark of tools –

we have two of everything.VP of Operations at a major Financial Institution

So we altered our plan to give customers greater control of the tools they’ve already invested in by creating a strategy for heterogeneous IT Process Automation (ITPA).

Process

People

Outsource

Technology

The Market NeedIT Operations At The “Cost-Roads”

4

But, tools are typically deployed in silos, are under-utilized and require customization & training, creating additional costs

People are the highest cost of IT operations, driving a desire for management tools or technology to better leverage scarce resources

Outside of outsourcing, process is the final frontier to control costs…But implementing process has proven difficult for many IT Operations teams

IT Operations Needs ProcessProcess Needs Control & Automation

• Process Controls Produce:– Consistent IT service delivery – Knowledge capture and sharing– A transparent audit trail– Quality metrics to support continuous improvement

• Process Automation Bolsters Efficiency By:– Offloading mundane or repetitive steps – Auto-routing data and events to the right operators– Shifting the process bias from “doing” to “approving”

through tool integration– Reducing the personnel training requirements

5

Database Management

Security Management

Network Management

Application Management

Service DeskService Desk

ManagedManaged

TechnologiesTechnologies

Best of BreedBest of Breed

ManagementManagement

ToolsTools

IT IT

FunctionsFunctions

IT ManagementIT ManagementAn Example ofInefficient Process

0: Poor service quality detected

1: Admin Notified

2: Ticket Created

4: Establish bridge line

5: Notify other groups

6: Commence finger-pointing

7: Isolate potential cause

8: Notify change management

11: Validate remediation

12: Close ticket

9: No requested change?

10: Guilty admin rolls back

3: Service Desk Receives Ticket

13: Review with management

Common Attempts to Automate IT Processes

• “Fly by the seat of your developers pants”– Utilizes job scheduling tools or custom scripts– High cost and high risk with the developer– Fragile as processes and infrastructure changes

• “The CMDB silver bullet”– Connect the CMDB to all other tools for centralized info– Doesn’t address process – only contains configuration data– Overly complex to populate and maintain CI data &

relationships

• “The top-down framework push”– The hope of using a single vendor to somehow deliver process– Tools designed for specific ITIL functions– Little process awareness – customer must provide

…ALL fail to deliver true IT Operations “process automation”

…ALL fail to deliver true IT Operations “process automation”

© 2007 NetIQ Corporation. All rights reserved.

A Better Approach:Run Book Automation

© 2007 NetIQ Corporation. All rights reserved.

Run Book Automation Defined:"IT operations RBA products automate, through workflows, IT operational tasks across different IT management disciplines in support of the IT management processes."

David WilliamsGartner

The Evolution of IT OperationsA need to integrate diverse tools is driving innovators

to look at RBA or IT Process Automation

RBA Architecture – According to Gartner

This is why all roads lead to RBA

Research Into the Benefits of RBA

Research Into the Benefits of RBA

Research Into the Benefits of RBA

© 2007 NetIQ Corporation. All rights reserved.

Introducing NetIQ Aegis

Introducing NetIQ® Aegis™The Control & Automation Platform for IT Processes

NetIQ Aegis is a software platform

that models, automates,

measures and improves run books

and ITIL-based processes, bringing

control and automation to IT

Operations

ITILProcess(macro)

Run Books(micro)

Automate

Model

Measure

Improve

NetIQ Aegis: An IT Process Automation Platform

• Delivers immediate benefits– Integrates and leverages existing

management tools such as AppManager

– Automates routine tasks, reducing admin workload

– Embedded correlation engine intelligently launches workflows while reducing noise

– Improves responsiveness and consistency for event handling

• Paves the way for long-term success– Provides a path to build process

maturity from the bottom-up– Provides specific process metrics for

continuous improvement

Process Variations

Database Management

Security Management

Network Management

Application Management

Service DeskService Desk

ManagedManaged

TechnologiesTechnologies

Best of BreedBest of Breed

ManagementManagement

ToolsTools

IT IT

FunctionsFunctions

IT ManagementIT Management

Run Books: • Micro-level • Tool-specific • Managed by IT experts • Single-silo• E.g. disk space cleanup

Processes: • Macro-level • Span disciplines• Coordinate across silos • Managed by Process

Owner• E.g. ITIL Processes

Aegis Architecture OverviewConfig Console Operations

ConsoleReporting

AdaptersBi-directional data collection & control

Activity LibrariesBuilding blocks to control tools

Process TemplatesProvides built-in knowledge

Presentation LayerConsoles tailored to specific users

Independent EnginesScalable data processing

Reconciliation Layer Normalizes data from diverse tools

Workflow Automation Engine

NetIQ Products

IQConnect Data Bus & IQCIM Object Model

IQRM Service Model

3rd Party Best-of-breed products

Run Books (micro)(Event Correlation, Fault Recovery, Routine

Server Restarts, etc.)

Processes (macro) (ITIL Incident Management, Change

Management, DR Testing, etc)

AM

SM

SC

M

DR

A

MO

M/

SC

OM

HP

OV

Rem

edy

SM

AR

TS

Correlation Engine

Note: Gray items are post-V1

NetIQ Aegis Configuration Console

Create Processes: From NetIQ-supplied wizard-driven templates, by importing a process shared by others, or start from a blank canvas

Create Processes: From NetIQ-supplied wizard-driven templates, by importing a process shared by others, or start from a blank canvas

Enterprise Ready: Integrated with Active Directory for security; Reconciles resource models from external management products

Enterprise Ready: Integrated with Active Directory for security; Reconciles resource models from external management products

NetIQ Aegis Workflow Designer

Activity Libraries: Provide “building blocks” that accelerate process design and can be customized, exported and imported to share knowledge

Activity Libraries: Provide “building blocks” that accelerate process design and can be customized, exported and imported to share knowledge

Model Workflow: Simply by dragging and dropping activities onto the workflow designer, with right click editing

Model Workflow: Simply by dragging and dropping activities onto the workflow designer, with right click editing

NetIQ Aegis Process Manager

Manage Process Lifecycle: Place processes in production, clone processes to make revisions or roll back to previous versions

Manage Process Lifecycle: Place processes in production, clone processes to make revisions or roll back to previous versions

NetIQ Aegis Operator Console – Related Events

User-friendly Web UI: Built with Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX to allow quick filtering and sorting

User-friendly Web UI: Built with Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX to allow quick filtering and sorting

Correlation Engine: Gather events from multiple tool sources and correlate them to eliminate sympathetic process triggers

Correlation Engine: Gather events from multiple tool sources and correlate them to eliminate sympathetic process triggers

Collaborate: Add comments to any work item for follow-up or to document steps

Collaborate: Add comments to any work item for follow-up or to document steps

NetIQ Aegis Operator Console – Real-time Workflow Status

Workflow Progress: Green checks show completed progress; red box highlights waiting for human input; green lines show path taken

Workflow Progress: Green checks show completed progress; red box highlights waiting for human input; green lines show path taken

Dynamic Display: Status updates automatically as workflow progresses

Dynamic Display: Status updates automatically as workflow progresses

NetIQ Aegis Report Console

Report Library: Out-of-the-box report templates that can be customized to identify process improvement candidates

Report Library: Out-of-the-box report templates that can be customized to identify process improvement candidates

Publish Reports: Automatically generate and distribute reports using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Publish Reports: Automatically generate and distribute reports using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Key Benefits of Aegis to IT Operations

• Aegis leverages existing software investments to increase their ROI and deploy rapidly– No rip & replace…get more out of your existing

infrastructure

• Aegis improves IT service levels & reduces costs– Faster time to resolution, outage prevention, provisioning,

etc.

• Aegis facilitates operational discipline and improves IT responsiveness– Greater control (compliance) & consistent service delivery

• Aegis enhances IT Operations maturity over time – Reports provide performance metrics to identify

bottlenecks and drive continuous improvement

Key Benefits to an AppManager User

• Aegis extends the capabilities of AppManager– Self-management such as start/stop jobs autonomically– Get more out of your AppManager investment

• Aegis correlates events from AppManager– Reduce the number of events you must address – Focus on those that need the attention

• Aegis connects AppManager with other tools– As part of a logical workflow – Use AppManager to support enterprise objectives

• Aegis automates routine activities – But provides the ability to maintain manual control at

specified points in the workflow