Root-cause categories include hardware problems, software problems, link or carrier problems, power or environment problems, change failures, and user error. For LAN networks, a conservative estimate is approximately 99.9999-percent availability, or about 30 seconds per year. True performance and capacity management includes exception management, baselining and trending, and what-if analysis. Track-It! These numbers can now be used as a service level goal for the networking organization. You want to increase your productivity, efficiency, performance, flexibility, capacity, and standardization. From time to time, it you may also need to adjust availability numbers because of add/move/change errors, undetected errors, or availability measurement problems. Perform the service level management review in a monthly meeting with individuals responsible for measuring and providing defined service levels. Some critical sites or links may be added if necessary. You can add specific event definitions to the service level definition if the need arises. This may be higher in other environments because of the number of redundant devices in the network where switchover is a potential. Application profiling helps you better understand these issues; the next section covers this feature. Like network errors, developing a service level definition for capacity and performance starts with a general understanding of how these problem conditions will be detected, who will look at them, and what will happen when they occur. Service-provider SLAs do not normally include user input because they are created for the sole purpose of gaining a competitive edge on other service providers. If they don't help create a SLA for a specific service and communicate business impact with the network group, then they may actually be accountable for the problem. By measuring availability, the company found the major problem to be a few WAN sites. Network design is then limited to a measurable value based on software and hardware failure in the network causing traffic re-routing. For measurement purposes, Cisco defines software failures as device coldstarts due to software error. The site would have two routers configured so that if any T1 or router failed the site would not experience an outage. Try to understand the cost of downtime for the customer's service. Maximum throughput, minimum bandwidth commitment, jitter, acceptable error rates, and scalability capabilities may also be included as needed. The estimates are: Hardware path availability between two end points = 99.99 percent availability, Software availability using GD software reliability as reference = 99.9999 percent availability, Environmental and power availability with backup systems = 99.999 percent availability, Link failure in LAN environment = 99.9999 percent availability, System switchover time not factored = 100 percent availability, User error and process availability assumed perfect = 100 percent availability. The document also provides significant detail for SLAs that follow best practice guidelines identified by the high availability service team. If the customer in this example had been told the calculation for availability would be based on 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, totaled during the last year, then he or she would probably have rejected it. A replacement outcome-based metric SLA could be Redundant telecommunications services will allow uninterrupted user access between 6:00 AM and Midnight EST. Create an SLA that stops tracking time to resolution while you’re waiting for a … We generally recommend that any major component of an SLA be measurable and that a measurement methodology be put in place prior to SLA implementation. Create separate SLAs for each IT service you need to measure. The organization should then investigate constraints to achieving those goals given the available resources. The root cause was found and the organization resolved the problem. This value is typically called "system switchover time" and is a factor of the self-healing protocol capabilities within the system. Little work has been done in this area. Step 8: Determine the Parties Involved in the SLA, Step 10: Understand Customer Business Needs and Goals, Step 11: Define the SLA Required for Each Group, Step 14: Hold Workgroup Meetings and Draft the SLA, Step 16: Measure and Monitor SLA Conformance. The information can be used by network planners in determining the availability of the system to help ensure the design will meet business requirements. Define availability and performance standards and define common terms. The following worksheet uses the above goal/constraint method for the example goal of preventing a security attack or denial-of-service (DoS) attack. Calculate non-availability due to system switchover time by looking at the theoretical software and hardware availability along redundant paths, because switchover will occur in this area. To qualify as a critical success factor, a process or process step must improve the quality of the SLA and benefit network availability in general. Unfortunately, organizations that do not meet these objectives can expect problems with the SLA process and should consider the potential problems involved with the SLA process. Different operating units may have different support requirements, so an umbrella SLA may not adequately support each location. The next table shows how an organization may wish to measure proactive support capabilities and proactive support overall. The silver solution would have only one router and one carrier service. The way the application was written may also create constraints. The service level definition simply defines performance and capacity exception thresholds and average thresholds that will initiate investigation or upgrade. In some cases, these networks also publish availability statistics that appear extremely good. This may seem like an impossible task given the sheer number of Management Information Base (MIB) variables and the amount of network management information available that is pertinent to network health. One goal of the network SLA should be agreement on one overall format that accommodates different service levels. One major factor of hardware reliability is the MTTR. Create application profiles any time you introduce new applications to the network. This leads to unclear requirements for proactive service definitions and unclear benefits, especially because additional resources may be needed. Technical assistance can much more closely approximate the availability and performance capabilities of the network and what would be needed to reach specific objectives. You must commit to the SLA process and contract. Sometimes it helps to invite other IT technical counterparts into this discussion because these individuals have specific goals related to their services. Service Level Management (SLM) is one of the well-defined main processes under Service Design process group of the ITIL best practice framework. The meeting helps target individual problems and determine solutions based on root cause. This sets goals for how quickly problems are resolved, including hardware replacement. Since users may be traversing either path, the result is then doubled to 15 seconds per year. We took one of the world’s most popular help desk software... BMC Exchange 2020: Build Your Own Chatbot, The Incident Commander (IC) Role Explained, Impact, Urgency & Priority: Understanding the Matrix. Joe has produced over 1,000 articles and other IT-related content for various publications and tech companies over the last 15 years. This is the basis for providing proactive support and making quality improvements. The charter should express the goals, initiatives, and time frames for the SLA. Note: For the purposes of this document, non-scalable design or design errors are included in the following section. The format for the SLA can vary according to group wishes or organizational requirements. Application profiles can also serve as a documented baseline for network service support when application or server groups point to the network as the problem. This section contains examples for reactive service definitions and proactive service definitions to consider for many service-provider and enterprise organizations. Proactive definitions describe how the organization will identify and resolve potential network problems, including repair of broken "standby" network components, error detection, and capacity thresholds and upgrades. If we use 30 seconds as a switchover time, we can then assume that each device will experience, on average, 7.5 seconds per year of non-availability due to switchover. These guarantee levels are sometimes simply marketing and sales methods used to promote the carrier. Business applications may include e-mail, file transfer, Web browsing, medical imaging, or manufacturing. This helps identify the necessary bandwidth, maximum delay for application usability, and jitter requirements. You may also need additional work in the following areas to ensure success: A clear understanding of application performance requirements, In-depth technical investigation on threshold values that make sense for the organization based on business requirements and overall costs, Budgetary cycle and out-of-cycle upgrade requirements, Priority and criticality of the network management information balanced with the amount of proactive work that the operations group can effectively handle, Training requirements to ensure that support staff understand the messages or alerts and can effectively deal with the defined condition, Event correlation methodologies or processes to ensure that multiple trouble tickets are not generated for the same root-cause problem, Documentation on specific messages or alerts that helps with event identification at the tier 1 support level. Then start prioritizing the goals or lowering expectations that can still meet business requirements. When you complete the application profile, you can compare overall network capabilities and help to align network service levels with business and application requirements. In this case, be sure to help the customer understand the availability and performance risks that may occur so that the organization better understands the level of service it needs. Learn how leading companies are monitoring vendor performance, gathering metrics, and enforcing SLAs. Developing a service level definition starts with a general understanding of how these problem conditions will be detected, who will look at them, and what will happen when they occur. Many organizations have been able to create low-cost, low-overhead metrics that may not provide complete accuracy, but do satisfy these primary goals. The following table shows how an organization might create a service definition for link/device-down conditions. The relationship and common overall focus on meeting corporate goals are present and all groups execute as a team. The organization then set service level goals for availability and made agreements with user groups. The other category of proactive service level definitions applies to performance and capacity. A Practical Approach to Implementing Service Level Management Page 8 of 9 SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT KEY ACTIVITIES & QUICK WINS Most organizations have the ability to identify and implement some quick wins associated with Service Level Management key activities. You may also need additional work in the following areas to ensure success: Tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 support responsibilities, Balancing the priority of the network management information with the amount of proactive work that the operations group can effectively handle, Training requirements to ensure support staff can effectively deal with the defined alerts, Event correlation methodologies to ensure that multiple trouble tickets are not generated for the same root-cause problem, Documentation on specific messages or alerts that helps with event identification at tier 1 support level, The following table shows an example service level definition for network errors that provide a clear understanding of who is responsible for proactive network error alerts, how the problem will be identified, and what will happen when the problem occurs. The following are prerequisites for the SLA process: Your business must have a service-oriented culture. You must also consider event correlation management or processes to ensure that multiple proactive trouble tickets are not generated for the same problem. Future measurements identified problems quickly because of non-conformance to the SLA. The service culture is important because the SLA process is fundamentally about making improvements based on customer needs and business requirements. They just want you to help them. Overall, the final document should: Describe the reactive and proactive process used to achieve the service level goal. If switchover time is not acceptable, then you must add it to the calculations. Service Level management is also the most important management component for proactive network management. If we apply this value to a completely redundant system, we can assume that WAN availability will be close to 99.9999-percent available. Include the first area of proactive service definitions in all operations support plans. You should closely evaluate each of these parameters when evaluating the overall availability budget for the network. Outcome-based SLAs manage to the customer’s desired outcome rather than managing to a number. Only generate those alerts that have serious potential impact to availability or performance. Problem resolution times should also be aligned with the availability budget. In this example, the availability budget is done for a hierarchical modular LAN environment. A network analyst and an application or server support application should create the application profile. The following quick wins can add immediate value without implementing an entire process. For instance, you can create solution categories for WAN site connectivity. Secondary goals are important because they help define how the availability or performance levels will be achieved. Operations organizations have created operational support plans with information similar to the above for years. Company X was getting numerous user complaints that the network was frequently down for extended periods of time. This helps to ensure that the network supports individual application requirements and network services overall. For a conservative evaluation, we can say that an organization with backup generators, uninterruptible-power-supply (UPS) systems, and quality power implementation processes may experience six 9s of availability, or 99.9999 percent, whereas organizations without these systems may experience availability at 99.99 percent, or approximately 36 minutes of downtime annually. Since you cannot theoretically calculate the amount of non-availability due to user error and process, we recommend you remove this removed from the availability budget and that organizations strive for perfection. Pay Attention to SLA Management Features of a Help Desk System Second, you must honor the service requirements of the contract. It may be more difficult to keep that 4-hour response in rural areas, where there are fewer technicians living farther apart. Measuring the service level determines whether the organization is meeting objectives and also identifies the root cause of availability or performance issues. Many organizations set up a flag in help desk software to identify proactive cases versus reactive cases for this purpose. Determine the parties involved in the SLA. Nobody will call saying the service is working great, but many users will call saying the service in not meeting their requirements. This method tabulates the number of users that have been affected by an outage and multiplies it by the number of minutes of the outage. Investigating current availability, traffic, capacity, and performance overall also helps network managers to understand current service-level expectations and risks. Measuring proactive support processes is more difficult because it requires you to monitor proactive work and calculate some measurement of its effectiveness. Additional days will be needed when a holiday falls within a delivery period. Available DoS detection tools cannot detect all types of DoS attacks. If large numbers of high severity problems are not accounted for in the availability budget, the organization can then work to understand the source of these problems and a potential remedy. Do not create SLAs that cover all your organization’s divisions. The following table provides an example of a tiered support organization with problem resolution guidelines. This should be done whether or not SLAs are in place. User error and process availability issues are the major causes of non-availability in enterprise and carrier networks. The best way to start analyzing technical goals and constraints is to brainstorm or research technical goals and requirements. The distribution for the non-availability is also fairly wide, meaning that customers could experience either significant non-availability or availability close to a general deployment release. Understand customer business needs and goals. The escalation matrix helps ensure that available resources are focused on problems that severely affect service. A new user will be created within one day of receiving an approved new user request form. These end-to-end performance issues may also be caught in link or device capacity thresholds. The following section provides additional detail on how management within an organization can evaluate its SLAs and its overall service level management. There are numerous constraints to achieving this goal, such as single points of failure in hardware, mean time to repair (MTTR) broken hardware in remote locations, carrier reliability, proactive fault-detection capabilities, high change rates, and current network capacity limitations. Ensure you create thresholds that are meaningful and useful in preventing network problems or availability issues. The critical success factor should also be measurable so the organization can determine how successful it has been relative to the defined procedure. Also consider the goal when choosing a method to measure the service level definition. This table shows example of problem severity for an organization. An SLA only makes sense if both sides gear to a mutual agreement. This is not uncommon because IT organizations are now critically linked to overall organization success. To define the support process, it helps to define the goals of each support tier in the organization and their roles and responsibilities. Another service indicator may be that the organization states service or support satisfaction as a corporate goal. Other service providers will concentrate on the technical aspects of improving availability by creating strong service level definitions that are measured and managed internally. From the network manager's perspective, it is important to negotiate achievable results that can be measured. Try to back up performance and availability agreements with those from other related organizations. This helps the organization prioritize network improvement initiatives and determine how easily the constraint can be addressed. You need a top-down priority commitment to service, resulting in a complete understanding of customer needs and perceptions. This scenario works well when the organization is building basic reactive support SLAs. If an organization has multiple building entrance facilities, redundant local-loop providers, Synchronous-Optical-Network (SONET) local access, and redundant long-distance carriers with geographic diversity, WAN availability will be considerably enhanced. This may include quality definitions, measurement definitions, and quality goals. Bandwidth requirements and capabilities for burst, Availability requirements and redundancy to build solution matrix, Monitoring and reporting requirements, methodology, and procedures, Upgrade criteria for application/service elements, Funding out-of-budget requirements or cross-charging methodology. Whenever there is a mention of IT Service Management best practices, most people assume it is about the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Some work may also be done using availability modeling and the proactive cases to determine the effect in availability achieved by implementing proactive service definitions. (866) 856 - 3117 X Service elements for high-availability environments should include proactive service definitions as well as reactive goals. At this point, the networking organization should have a clear understanding of the current risks and constraints in the network, an understanding of application behavior, and a theoretical availability analysis or availability baseline. For this reason, service level management is highly recommended in any network planning and design phase and should start with any newly defined network architecture. Developing service level definitions in these areas requires in-depth technical knowledge regarding specific aspects of device capacity, media capacity, QoS characteristics, and application requirements. The following table defines service level definitions for device capacity and performance thresholds. You can create worksheets for each goal with an explanation of constraints. In other cases, both efforts occur simultaneously but not necessarily together or with the same goals. After you define the service areas and service parameters, use the information from previous steps to build a matrix of service standards. This then helps distinguish between network problems and application or server problems. The following is a recommended example outline for the network SLA: Problem severity definitions based on business impact for MTTR definitions, Business-critical service priorities for QoS definitions, Defined solution categories based on availability and performance requirements, First-level response and call repair ratio, Problem diagnosis and call-closure requirements, Network management problem detection and service response, Problem resolution categories or definitions, Mean time to initiate problem resolution by problem priority, Mean time to resolve problem by problem priority, Mean time to replace hardware by problem priority. Largest contributors to non-availability all devices with the same methods for system calculations week... 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