IT Operations

The success of any business in today’s technology driven world rests upon the ability of its IT functioning. Companies are becoming increasingly dependent on IT Operations for its business to remain competitive and generate profits. IT Operations Management can be defined as the function responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of an organization’s IT structure. This also ensures agreed level of IT services is delivered to the business. They are the set of activities responsible for running day to day IT operations. IT Operations are part of the process that adds value to business and are aimed at finding simpler and better ways of doing the same thing. The Important objectives of IT Operations management include monitoring and identifying issues regarding IT, promptly resolving IT failures that occur and achieving organizations stability for day to day IT activities.

Why IT Operations ?

For organizations to be successful, they need to manage their risks related to IT Operations very effectively. IT operation risk usually result from inadequate managing of processes and technologies. IT Operations have become critical to every aspect of business, resulting in a fact that IT risk, once a minor component of operational risk, is now emerging as a major hazard for organizations to identify and manage. The fact is that, of all different types of risks that can occur in an organization, operational risks can be among the most difficult to predict and also the most destructive hence they need to be handled with paramount concern. Risks associated for not having IT Operations process in place can be classified among three major categories.

Security Risk: 

The information can be altered, accessed, or used by unauthorized parties.

Likely impacts:

• Corruption of information  and external fraud
• Identity theft and theft of financial assets
• Damage to reputation of the company and damage to asset
• Employee confidence, interruption or delay of business critical processes and reduced IT staff productivity

Performance Risk: 

Underperformance of systems, applications, personnel or IT as a whole will diminish business productivity or value.

Likely impacts:

• Reduced client satisfaction and loyalty
• Interruptions or delays of business critical process
• Lost IT productivity

Conformity Risk: 

Information handling or processing will fail to meet regulatory, IT or business policy requirements. Usually it involves penalties, fines, or loss of reputation for failure to comply with laws or regulations, or consequences of non-compliance with IT policies.

Likely impacts:

• Damage to reputation
• Breach of client confidentiality and Litigation

How it helps: 

The objective of IT Operations management process is to execute ongoing activities and procedures needed to manage the IT infrastructure in effectively manner to deliver support and services at agreed upon levels. It provides an understanding of how technology is used to provide IT services. It defines roles and responsibilities of each and every person involved in the process. In addition to performing all the IT related routine activities, it also executes tasks such as job scheduling, backup and restoration activities etc.

As IT solution providers, Manage IT offers ITIL compliant process to provide practical solution that all IT activities are scheduled and executed as per business requirements, considering the consequences on other systems as well as to make sure those tasks are controlled in the most efficient approach. It makes sure that access to sensitive data and application from equipment or media is prevented when they are disposed of or transferred to another use. Such ITIL management processes ensure that data marked as deleted or to be disposed cannot be retrieved. It also defines procedures for backup and restoration of systems, data and documentation in line with business requirements and the continuity plan.
For example  if there is a system failure in the organization and all the data is either lost or is not accessible in such cases having an IT operations process helps, as it takes care of backup and recovery of data which would help to get the data back in place as soon as possible without interrupting the business. Having an IT Operations procedure in place will ensure that operation staffs are familiar with all tasks relevant to them. It also provides accurate information on IT assets and service asset providers that make up an organization’s IT infrastructure.

All in all IT Operations process will help organizations manage their day to day activities effectively by keeping risks associated with it at bay.

About Author:
Harish Mani is senior consultant and is important part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Think Tank. He in Systems Plus actively contributes to technology and information security. He can be contacted at: harish.m@spluspl.com