Lead:
The digital transformation of the banking data center is a systematic project, which involves transformation at the management level—including digital transformation strategy, transformation of infrastructure and technology architecture, technological innovation and transformation of knowledge systems, and transformation at the execution level—including personnel management ( P), process management (P), technology management (T), resource management (R), etc. As a grand systematic project, the digital transformation of data centers must be planned, followed by steps, and carried out in stages based on a model or standardized management system, in order to ensure successful implementation. This article analyzes and interprets the digital transformation model and shares it with readers.
In Part 01 of the Model of Banking Data Center Digital Transformation, we introduced to you in detail what is the ITIL management system, and the characteristics and differences of the three versions of ITIL V2, ITIL V3 and ITIL 4. In today's article, we will elaborate on the innovative concepts, thinking models, and guiding principles of the ITIL 4 system around the reference value of the ITIL 4 system to the digital transformation of the data center.
The Reference Value of ITIL 4 System to Data Center Digital Transformation
The ITIL 4 system is not a standard digital transformation model, but it contains innovative ideas, four-dimensional models, guiding principles, and management practices, all of which point out the direction for the digital transformation of the data center. very important reference.
1. Innovative ideas
In the previous article, we talked about the innovative concepts of suppliers and value, agile and lean proposed by ITIL 4. Similar to the distributed development framework mentioned, the generation of services requires a server and a consumer, and services without consumers cannot generate value. , and the value of the service requires clear measurement and billing standards. The service provider needs to transform itself into a supplier, and the supplier needs to satisfy the customer. Only when the customer is satisfied can the supplier's service show value.
Within the enterprise, IT services are firstly to support business development, so that the business can create greater value for the enterprise, so that IT services can show value. In fact, the ultimate goal of digital transformation is to achieve operations. ITIL 4 has also been advocating the realization of service operations, because services can upgrade internal services to external operations through operations, directly making value explicit. Let the service no longer indirectly create value by supporting the business.
2. Four-dimensional model
ITIL 4 defines a four-dimensional model, which includes organizations and personnel, information and technology, partners and suppliers, value streams and processes, and is a qualitative improvement and change on the three-dimensional models of ITIL V2 and ITIL V3.
The four-dimensional model can be used to plan and evaluate every operation and maintenance and operation activity, and ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the activity, as well as the value generated by the activity. When some of the four dimensions are missing or cannot be guaranteed, the service cannot meet the expectations of quality or efficiency, and the value it generates will be greatly reduced.
The four-dimensional model emphasizes information and technology, because for the current data center management, not only technology is needed, but also the data that generates information is needed. Through the management of operating data, standardized operating data can be generated for intelligent operation and maintenance, operation and maintenance. provide useful information for dimensional decision-making.
The four-dimensional model draws out partners and suppliers to further guarantee service quality. The current work cannot be done without the support of the ecology, and the operation of the data center is no exception. Any service includes service providers and consumers. Without partners and suppliers, in most cases it cannot constitute a complete service, nor can it guarantee the quality of the service. When operation and maintenance are turned to operations, partners and suppliers become more important. The selection and evaluation of suppliers directly determines the continuity and quality of services provided.
The value flow in the four-dimensional model runs through each process, and the execution results of the process are directly measured and evaluated by the value. A process without value is an ineffective process, which will not only waste the cost of the enterprise, but also reduce the overall operating efficiency of the enterprise.
3. Guiding principles
The value-based guiding principles in ITIL 4 are universal and persistent. Even though the goals, strategies, and management structures of each enterprise data center are different, they are also of reference and reference for the digital transformation of the data center.
■ Principle One: Focus on Value
Everything you do needs to have measurable value, design processes based on value, and carry out digital transformation work based on value.
■ Principle 2: Start with one step
Fully assess the status quo, identify gaps, use existing resources to carry out digital transformation work, and assess the cost of process refactoring.
■ Principle 3: Continuous iteration
Carry out digital transformation work in stages and steps. Don't try to use one-off changes to solve all problems. More often, continuous and rapid iteration is a better choice.
■ Principle Four: Collaborate and Improve Visualization
To carry out digital transformation work, it is necessary to ensure the transparency of information between departments, and to promote cross-departmental collaboration through visualized processes and information synchronization.
■ Principle 5: Carry out work in a holistic manner
Each job does not exist independently. When carrying out digital transformation work, it is necessary to fully consider the impact on service providers and consumers, and work from the perspective of overall service benefits.
■ Principle Six: Keep It Simple and Practical
Work processes and work manuals should be kept simple and practical, formulate the most streamlined work steps for the completion of work goals, and formulate work plans based on results.
■ Principle Seven: Continuous Automation
Using technology to automate operation and maintenance work is the most reliable way to eliminate operational risks in work, and it is also the most effective means to improve work efficiency. Human intervention should only occur in truly valuable work links.
4. Management Practices
ITIL 4 contains 34 application explanations of management practices, basically covering all the work scenarios of current digital transformation. Except for service management practice, which is an area that everyone has paid attention to or is relatively familiar with, other general management and technical management Practice is relatively new content, and it is also a very important content of digital transformation.
■ Common management practices can be used for reference
Management knowledge is general, but general knowledge needs to be mastered as a whole before it can be used in the digital transformation of data centers. This section focuses on the content "marked in blue" in general management practices.
Strategic management is first applied in the digital transformation of the data center. Under the guidance of the organizational strategy, the transformation strategy of the data center is formulated. Every subsequent work of the digital transformation of the data center needs to be carried out under the guidance of the transformation strategy.
Digital transformation is firstly the transformation of the architecture, including the transformation of the basic architecture, technical architecture, and application architecture. According to the transformation strategy, the architecture standards and architecture usage specifications are formulated. Architecture management has gradually become an essential capability of the data center. It not only requires in-depth participation in architecture planning work , and with the process of digital transformation, architecture management will gradually become one of the leading capabilities of the data center.
Digital transformation inevitably involves the adjustment of organizational structure, and it is necessary to use related practices of organizational change management to improve the work efficiency of the transformed organization. In the adjustment of organizational structure, the management of talents is involved. In the era of rapid development of existing technologies, higher requirements are put forward for the management of talent knowledge transformation. Job transfer, training, and elimination have become the normal state of talent management. very big challenge.
Portfolio management and project management involve knowledge in agile and lean related fields. Project management reform under digital transformation requires optimization of organizational processes, optimization of related tools, and adjustment of relevant personnel positions. It is necessary for multiple heads to improve organizational work efficiency and promote Digital transformation process.
■ What can be used for reference in service management practice
In the service management practice, we will focus on explaining the two practices of business analysis, service verification and testing.
Business analysis is mainly oriented to two scenarios. One scenario is the support of the data center to the business department and the provision of business analysis data to the business department. At the same time, the business analysis is used to predict the capacity of the data center and the ability of the infrastructure to support the business; the second scenario is The scenario is that the data center itself has turned to operation, and directly analyzes business data on business operations to improve the quality of business operations and expand revenue.
Service verification and testing involve two aspects in digital transformation. One is that with the distributed architecture and agile development, application availability is reduced. Before the application goes online, non-functional testing of the application needs to be carried out, and it needs to be gradually transformed into automated means to complete the verification. and testing; second, with the transformation of the infrastructure, both application performance and application security need to be verified and tested to ensure information security and service quality through verification and testing.
■ What can be used for reference in technology management practice
The content related to technology management practice is the top priority of data center digitalization, and it is also a necessary content in the process of digital transformation.
First of all, deployment management is an important part of the digital transformation of the data center. From the script-based automated release of traditional applications to the release of microservice containers, deployment management has been undergoing technological innovation. In addition, application deployment is also the source of data center failures, so quality control in deployment management is the lifeblood of data center management. Operational risk control during deployment and comparison and monitoring of application performance before and after deployment are important contents of the digital transformation of data centers. It is also one of the important directions of research in the field of intelligent operation and maintenance.
Secondly, infrastructure and platform management is the unlimited responsibility of data center management. It involves the rapid supply of resources and the realization of flexible resource scaling required in the digital transformation of the data center. Improving the efficiency of resource management is one of the important contents of the digital transformation of the data center.
Finally, the digital transformation of the data center involves the development of resource management and operation and maintenance platforms and supporting tools. Development management has become a routine management content of the data center. Important elements of digital transformation.
The service value system (SVS) in ITIL4 is the reflection on the essence of IT data center management since the development of ITIL, rather than a collection of methodology and tools. The service value system (SVS) will guide IT practitioners to think about the value of IT services from a higher perspective, and guide data center managers to re-examine the positioning and existence value of data centers. (to be continued)