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Technical Infrastructure Management

TIM

The Technical Infrastructure Management (TIM) capability is the ability to manage an organization's IT infrastructure across the complete life cycle of:

  • Transitional activities including building, deploying, and decommissioning infrastructure.
  • Operational activities including operation, maintenance, and continual improvement of infrastructure.
  • IT infrastructure is comprised of:
  • Physical devices — for example, servers, storage, and mobile devices.
  • Virtual devices/resources — for example, virtual storage and virtual networks.
  • Infrastructure-related software — for example, middleware, operating systems, and firmware.
  • Communications components — for example, LAN/WAN, Wi-Fi, MPLS, and voice infrastructure.
  • Platform services — for example, content management and web services.
  • IT infrastructure governance — for example, asset management and configuration management.

Structure

TIM is made up of the following Categories and CBBs. Maturity and Planning are described at both the CC and the CBB level.

AOverarching Activities

Manages activities applicable or common to all IT infrastructure components — for example, integration, problem management, and change management.

A1IT Operations Management

Manage IT infrastructure activities in support of business activities — for example, the processing, storage, and transmission of data.

A2Infrastructure Integration

Develop skills, policies, and approaches to enable the infrastructure to work cohesively as a whole.

A3Incident and Problem Management

Implement workarounds, repairs, and root cause analysis (where needed), facilitated by appropriate diagnostic practices.

A4Infrastructure Performance Management

Manage infrastructure performance in support of service levels agreements (SLAs) — for example, in relation to availability and response time.

A5Asset Management

Manage the deployment and utilization of IT infrastructure assets, including software licenses, networks, physical devices, and virtual devices. Redeploy, retire, and acquire assets as needed.

A6Infrastructure Change Management

Manage major technology infrastructure changes — for example, the transition to cloud, major hardware refreshes, firmware upgrading, introduction of a bring-your-own-device policy, and so on.

A7Data Centre Environment

Manage all aspects of the data centre environment, including power efficiency and availability, network, cooling, fire-suppression, physical access controls, and security.

A8Business Continuity Planning

Manage IT infrastructure to support business continuity planning.

A9Configuration Management

Implement overarching policies, approaches, and tools for joined-up configuration management across the IT infrastructure — including, for example, allocation of CPU, memory, and storage to a virtual server, configuration of the laptop build image for a group of end customers, and so on.

BDecentralized Infrastructure

Manages IT infrastructure items that are not located in central IT facilities — for example, hardware, software, configuration switch settings, and firmware.

B1Support Infrastructure

Develop overarching approaches and policies for the life cycle management of decentralized infrastructure equipment.

B2User, Mobile, and Personal Devices

Implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of mobile and personal devices.

B3Peripherals

Implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of peripherals and consumables — including, for example, printers, scanners, monitors, and other devices.

B4Endpoint Devices

Implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of endpoint devices — including, for example, thin clients, POS terminals, and so on.

CCommunications Infrastructure

Manages all of the components that provide the telephony, computer, and wireless networks for voice, data, and audio-visual services.

C1Wide Area Networks (WAN)

Develop and implement policies and procedures for the life cycle management of in-house and vendor services and the associated equipment — including for example routers, firewalls, and so on.

C2Local Area Networks (LAN)

Develop and implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of local area networks, including Wi-Fi.

C3Voice, Video, and Convergent Services

Develop and implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of voice, video, and other services where technology convergence is a factor.

DData Centre Services

Plans, designs, integrates, and operates the IT data centre environment.

D1High Performance, Server, and General Purpose Computing

Develop and implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of the processing infrastructure.

D2Storage

Develop and implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of storage — including, for example, computer memory, disk drives, solid state disks, and so on.

D3Mainframe Computing

Develop and implement approaches and policies for the life cycle management of mainframe computers.

D4Infrastructure Related Software

Develop and implement approaches and policies for life cycle management of infrastructure-related software — for example, application integration and middleware software, information management software, storage management software, and IT operations management and security software.

Overview

Goal

The Technical Infrastructure Management (TIM) capability aims to holistically manage all physical and virtual components of the IT infrastructure to support the introduction, maintenance, and retirement of IT services.

Objectives

  • Provide technical infrastructure stability, availability, and reliability through effective operation, maintenance, and retirement of infrastructure components.
  • Provide technical infrastructure adaptability and flexibility through forward-planning when creating, acquiring, improving, and disposing of infrastructure components.
  • Provide seamless interoperability across different kinds of infrastructure components.
  • Protect technical infrastructure and the data that flows through it.
  • Make provision for effective infrastructure utilization.

Value

The Technical Infrastructure Management (TIM) capability provides a reliable, flexible, secure, and operationally efficient IT infrastructure to meet business requirements.

Relevance

Almost every aspect of modern business has come to rely on business capabilities enabled by IT services, which in turn run on IT infrastructure. Indirectly, IT infrastructure has become the backbone to supporting interactions across customers, suppliers, employees, and partners. Therefore, the management of the IT infrastructure will have significant impact on the success or failure of an organization.

By establishing an effective Technical Infrastructure Management (TIM) capability, an organization can provide appropriate infrastructure that will support current and future needs. In doing so, the capability helps organizations become more efficient, redefine their business models, and improve their customer experiences1.

Scope

Definition

The Technical Infrastructure Management (TIM) capability is the ability to manage an organization's IT infrastructure across the complete life cycle of:

  • Transitional activities including building, deploying, and decommissioning infrastructure.
  • Operational activities including operation, maintenance, and continual improvement of infrastructure.
  • IT infrastructure is comprised of:
  • Physical devices — for example, servers, storage, and mobile devices.
  • Virtual devices/resources — for example, virtual storage and virtual networks.
  • Infrastructure-related software — for example, middleware, operating systems, and firmware.
  • Communications components — for example, LAN/WAN, Wi-Fi, MPLS, and voice infrastructure.
  • Platform services — for example, content management and web services.
  • IT infrastructure governance — for example, asset management and configuration management.

Improvement Planning

Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)

Representative POMs are described for TIM at each level of maturity.

2Basic
  • Practice
    Develop standards and policies relating to IT infrastructure life cycle management and select appropriate tools to implement them.
    Outcome
    A consistent, repeatable, and reliable approach emerges to design, implement, and support the IT infrastructure across its various component categories.
    Metric
    Percentage of IT infrastructure component types whose life cycles are documented and are covered by standards and policies.
  • Practice
    Develop or join communities of practice to grow IT infrastructure competences.
    Outcome
    Skills and competences are consistently applied to develop and support a more responsive and cost-effective IT infrastructure.
    Metric
    Percentage of IT infrastructure personnel who are members of a community of practice.
  • Practice
    Define and plan IT infrastructure change management to reduce/minimize disruption to business operations.
    Outcome
    Changes to the IT infrastructure are planned, communicated to stakeholders, are generally predictable, and can be reversed if necessary.
    Metric
    Percentage of changes to the IT infrastructure that have to be temporarily rolled back.
  • Practice
    Work with the other relevant business units to improve the governance and budget control for IT infrastructure management.
    Outcome
    The design, support, and maintenance of the IT infrastructure become more predictable, and developers, support personnel, and customers have a clearer understanding of what is possible, and in what timeframes.
    Metric
    Percentage of IT infrastructure expenditure formally approved within agreed governance and budget control practices.
  • Practice
    Define IT infrastructure roles and the skills associated with them across IT infrastructure component categories.
    Outcome
    IT infrastructure personnel can increase their skill levels and plan their careers; and this in turn will improve the development and support of the IT infrastructure.
    Metrics
    • Number of IT infrastructure roles with defined skills/competences.
    • Percentage of IT infrastructure employees with training plans and career paths.
  • Practices
    • Divide IT services into those that are, and those that are not, business critical.
    • Standardize and optimize the business critical services and segment them into service tiers.
    Outcomes
    • Reduced cost, lower risk, and reduced management complexity are experienced.
    • This prepares the groundwork for automation, and to take advantage of emerging technologies such as social, mobile, data analytics, and cloud computing.
    Metrics
    • Percentage of IT services that are business critical.
    • Percentage of IT services that are standardized.
3Intermediate
  • Practice
    Audit the IT infrastructure against agreed policies, approaches, and life cycle management protocols.
    Outcome
    Assurance increases on the design, implementation, and support of the IT infrastructure.
    Metric
    Number of IT infrastructure non-compliance incidents identified.
  • Practice
    Standardize practices for incident management and problem resolution.
    Outcome
    Incidents and problems are handled correctly and cause minimum disruption.
    Metrics
    • Number and percentage of incidents resolved per day.
    • Incident mean time to repair (MTTR).
    • Number and percentage of problems resolved per month.
  • Practice
    Standardize targets for the IT infrastructure (relating, for example, to availability, utilization, and response times), and measure and report on them in both technical and business service terms.
    Outcome
    SLAs are in place that track the effectiveness and efficiency of the IT infrastructure.
    Metric
    Percentage coverage of SLAs across the IT infrastructure.
  • Practice
    Promote IT infrastructure management for environmental sustainability.
    Outcome
    The IT infrastructure is managed for triple bottom-line impact — that is, its social, environmental, and financial impact.
    Metrics
    • Power usage effectiveness (PUE).
    • Percentage of IT infrastructure components disposed of in a compliant manner.
  • Practice
    Use IT infrastructure technology roadmaps to discuss, agree, and plan the future IT infrastructure.
    Outcome
    The planning of IT infrastructure is transparent and takes account of enterprise architecture requirements.
    Metric
    Number and availability of approved IT infrastructure roadmaps.
  • Practice
    Analyse and rationalize the organization's IT services and workloads to consolidate and virtualize the underlying infrastructure.
    Outcome
    IT services are optimized to save on energy, costs, space, and resources, and asset utilization is improved.
    Metric
    Percentage of IT services that are rationalized and virtualized.
4Advanced
  • Practice
    Prioritize the utilization and availability of the IT infrastructure.
    Outcome
    The IT infrastructure scales to match the business needs of the organization.
    Metrics
    • Percentage total downtime broken down by service.
    • Frequency of SLAs being broken.
    • Utilization rates across IT infrastructure components.
  • Practice
    Automate, where appropriate, IT infrastructure process execution (for example account provisioning, software distribution, and intrusion detection).
    Outcome
    Higher levels of automation makes real-time IT infrastructure provisioning increasingly viable.
    Metric
    Percentage of relevant IT infrastructure processes that are automated.
  • Practice
    Ensure that feedback from business units and users informs the development, improvement, and utilization of the IT infrastructure.
    Outcome
    The IT infrastructure can be proactively planned to meet the operational, tactical, and strategic objectives of the business.
    Metrics
    • The frequency of meetings relating to IT infrastructure between IT and other business units.
    • The level of agreement that the IT infrastructure can meet business objectives.
  • Practice
    Create and use a standard catalogue of IT infrastructure services and make it accessible to users through a self-service portal.
    Outcome
    Users can access IT infrastructure resources more efficiently.
    Metrics
    • Percentage of IT infrastructure services that are available via a standard catalogue.
    • Percentage of IT services that are available via a self-service portal.
5Optimized
  • Practice
    Continually improve the architecture of all IT infrastructure components to enhance agility and integration.
    Outcome
    The IT infrastructure continues to be modular, agile, lean, and sustainable.
    Metrics
    • IT infrastructure modularity (coupling effort across components).
    • IT infrastructure agility/flexibility across component configurations.
    • Sustainability (power usage effectiveness (PUE) across components).
  • Practice
    Manage the IT infrastructure to support optimal availability and utilization.
    Outcome
    The IT infrastructure complies with SLAs, and any breaches are immediately reported and corrected.
    Metric
    Number of SLA breaches by service.
  • Practice
    Implement automatic monitoring of the IT infrastructure, supported by a self-healing capability.
    Outcome
    Very high service quality arises from automatic response to alerts and self-healing.
    Metrics
    • System uptime.
    • Mean time to recover (MTTR).
  • Practice
    Continually investigate and take advantage of new technologies that improve levels of automatic infrastructure orchestration, such as Intelligent Infrastructure Management Systems or Software Defined Infrastructure.
    Outcome
    The complete infrastructure can be automatically controlled and managed.
    Metric
    Percentage of the IT infrastructure that is automatically managed.

Reference

History

This capability was introduced in Revision 16 as a new critical capability.

It was deprecated in Revision 18.04, being updated by Technical Infrastructure Management (18.04).