Information system paper
Double Zhuang
Week10ComputingTechnologyManagementAndAdministration1.pptxComputing Technology Management and Administration
Maureen P. Kinkela
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Learning Objectives
A student who successfully completes this section will be able to:
Discuss the current forces affecting IT service delivery.
Discuss the importance of Service Level Management.
Describe a Service Level Agreement.
Explain the importance of Reporting to Service Level Management.
Describe various types of Computing Technology Administration
Above is the list of objectives for this lecture. We will take a look at IT Service Delivery Management and examine some of the different activities involved in Computing Technology Administration.
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Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Service Level Management
Forces Affecting IT
The accounting department: Pressure on IT to reduce costs.
IT is being asked to live with smaller budgets
In the name of cost saving...
Reductions are being made in the size of the IT staff.
Salary increases and training for the IT staff is being reduced.
IT clients have become less ignorant and increasingly sophisticated and technically savvy in the ways of computing.
They are no longer as accepting of excuses or explanations from IT as they once were.
The users know what they want and believe they know what is possible.
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Reflect for a few minutes on the forces affecting IT in today’s environment. There are many of them, and the economy is chief among them. Companies are reducing costs wherever possible, and the IT group is expected to contribute to this effort, at a time when computer systems are more critical to the business and being used in greater numbers than ever before.
Forces Affecting IT
On the other hand...
Reliance on computer systems is at an all time high.
The number of mission-critical systems— essential to the operation of the business and, ultimately, its very survival—continues to grow daily.
IT’s level of responsibility within the corporation has risen significantly.
IT has gone from a facilitator of the business process to becoming part of the process and from supporting staff functions to becoming a key element of the business.
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The early years of modern computing were marked by enormous spending in corporations, as they rushed to adopt a brand new technology. Billions were spent on hardware, software, and the new personnel to use these new tools. At the end of this spending orgy, due in part to the fact that it didn’t make sense for it to continue and in part to a long period of recession, companies began to feel the need to cut back on spending. At the same time, computer use in corporations continued to explode, and companies became increasingly dependent on the new technology to conduct daily business. These two conflicting situations have put enormous pressure on IT departments. To add to the problem, modern technology has matured to the point where corporations make increasingly greater demands for excellence on their IT groups.
How To Measure IT?
Historically, IT managers have measured the effectiveness of their organizations by looking at the individual hardware and software components.
Today, analyzing individual components does not provide a perspective on the overall service being provided to the end user.
Sometimes IT’s effectiveness depends on who you ask.
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If you are going to track something and assign value to it, it follows that you will need a way to measure it. Think about any work you may have done as an IT professional. Did you provide services for any clients or users? If so, how was your performance measured? If you think about it, you may start to realize that there are differences in perceived value of a service between that of the recipient and that of the provider of the service.
What is Service Level Management?
SLM is the process of setting, measuring, and ensuring the maintenance of service goals.
SLM helps enterprises make sure that the key targets for service success ( speed, reliability, predictability, quality) are being met.
SLM
defines the metrics for measuring service success,
a means for monitoring those metrics, and
a process for responding when the metrics are not being met or are at risk of not being met.
SLM is a set of disciplined, proactive methods and procedures used to ensure that adequate levels of service are delivered to users in accordance with business priorities and at acceptable cost.
Lisa Erickson-Harris, “Implementing an SLM Solution”, Bus. Mgmt. Asia
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Read these definitions of Service Level Management. The quality of the service that we offer is too important to our IT clients to be simply taken for granted or to be random in nature. This is the purpose for SLM. It provides a framework and a set of best practices for the performance of service delivery.
SLM has wide application
SLM can be applied to IT services or virtually any business process that exists within an organization.
It is just as valid to use SLM for measuring the satisfaction of customers receiving timely delivery of their retail orders as it is for employees having 99 percent availability for e-mail during the day.
SLM practices are often associated with enterprise IT services since SLM can demonstrate business impact in financial terms as well as according to business objectives.
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Service Level Management is not just an IT concept. It applies equally well to any entity that delivers service of any kind.
SLM Process
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As with everything else in our industry, Service Level Management has a life cycle. This is the life cycle of an SLM process.
Pro’s and Con’s of SLM
Pro’s
Client Satisfaction
Managing Expectations
Resource Regulation
Internal Marketing
Cost Control
Con’s
Just another fad?
Time and Effort
Client Abuse
Perceived IT Failures
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Just the fact that you set out to do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you know the best way to do it. Service Level Management is a set of best practices that give you tools for success in delivery of services. On the other hand, Service Level Management has associated costs and issues which you have to be aware of as well.
What is an SLA?
An SLA sets the expectations between the consumer and provider. It helps define the relationship between the two parties.
It is the cornerstone of how the service-provider sets and maintains commitments to the service consumer.
A good SLA addresses five key aspects:
What the provider is promising.
How the provider will deliver on those promises.
Who will measure delivery, and how.
What happens if the provider fails to deliver as promised.
How the SLA will change over time.
In the definition of an SLA, realistic and measurable commitments are important.
Performing as promised is important, but swift and well communicated resolution of issues is even more important.
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The Service Level agreement is a primary tool in assuring that your Service Level Management plans work. A Service Level Agreement is a document created by a service provider and the provider’s client that lays out the exact parameters of the service delivery. An SLA can be set up as a legally binding contract, or a more simple agreement between the service provider and the user.
Service Level Agreements (SLA)
It’s a part of a contract.
Might be legally enforceable, might not.
Needs to have teeth.
Should be multi-lateral.
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Here are some thoughts. If you want a legally binding SLA, the best way is to add it as an exhibit to the main contract being signed and have the lawyers review it.
The reason many SLA’s do not have teeth is that a vendor will usually not want to commit to something that has financial ramifications. Usually the most teeth an agreement will have is a token discount for an outage, or the ability to break a term contract with no penalty. Think about this. If the service provider is doing a lousy job, the last thing the client needs is a coupon for free additional lousy service. If the service provider is free to do a lousy job and then just cut and run, because all the SLA provides for is the ability to break the contract without penalty, then the service provider has little to lose, and the client has a lot to lose. This is why provisions for what should happen in the case of noncompliance must be carefully thought out. If the SLA provides for financial penalties in the case of lousy service, the vendor is probably more likely to pay attention if they perceive that their service is not cutting it.
Benefits of Measuring against an SLA
The first step is to set realistic expectations for both sides of the contract.
An SLA is a great vehicle to communicate the expectations and create a level of trust by adding conditions and penalties when the promises are not met.
The SLA defines a clear relationship between the customer and the provider by setting boundaries, conditions, penalties and expectations.
Because an SLA links the customer requirements to infrastructure requirements, it creates the ability to link service levels to service cost and, as a result, profitable pricing can be set. Moreover, by spending wisely on well defined requirements rather than rules of thumb or gut feeling, more efficient cost management can be achieved.
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An SLA is important to both parties. It protects both parties and protects the relationship between them by eliminating areas that can potentially cause confusion. It is a great idea for anyone who does detail work to have some sort of schedule or outline for doing the work, and the SLA can be used for this purpose as well.
Function of SLAs
The SLA defines what levels of service are considered acceptable by users and are attainable by the service provider.
This is particularly beneficial to the service provider - It guards against expectation creep.
A well-written Service Level Agreement will define not only the expectations (how good is good enough), but it will also define a mutually acceptable and agreed upon set of indicators of the quality of service.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Principles of Expectation Creep
As expectations are met, expectations will rise. People are never satisfied.
People become upset when their expectations are violated.
In the absence of contradictory facts, expectations will be based on what is desirable, rather than what is possible.
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I have had a lot of experience with expectation creep. It is a very real phenomenon in the consulting world. Clients often hire a consultant when budget is limited. They pay a certain amount for a temporary service, and then try to get as much as they possibly can out of the money paid.
Expectation creep is also often a result of confusion or miscommunication regarding what the real scope of the work was supposed to be. I once had the task of creating a basic set of Word macros for a client and then teaching one of their employees to maintain the macros. In the week that I was supposed to be teaching him to maintain the macros, he spent the whole time going through and changing the scope of the macros themselves. Then I was expected to support his learning efforts remotely from home. Finally, I was expected to solve some issues with Word (the one that I remember especially is the quirky nature of Word numbering, which was even worse back then and still isn’t that great now!) Since the only scope that was discussed was “build basic macros” and “teach client to maintain them,” almost any amount of work could have been justified by this scope. It was a disappointing experience, but I learned a lot from it.
As with any agreement, whether legally binding or not, the task is to make everything perfectly clear to all parties involved, up front.
Function of SLAs
Six primary benefits that can be expected from Service Level Agreements:
Provides permanence
Provides clarity
Serves as communications vehicle
Guards against expectation creep
Sets mutual standards for service
Defines how level of service will be measured
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There are a lot of reasons why you might not do this critical task properly. You may feel that you have a great relationship with the Client and not want to hurt feelings or make waves. You may be in too much of a hurry or you may just not think things through properly or you may not have the experience to know what should be in an agreement. I have often seen service providers who are so desperate to get the job that they don’t want to jeopardize their chances by concentrating too much on scope. Whatever the reason, once the job begins, anything you leave out will come back to haunt you. The best way to maintain good relations with your Client is to have a complete and clear understanding of what the agreement should be. And the unfortunate part about trying to be complete is that you can often destroy clarity in the process, as anyone who reads legal documents can tell you. But still, the rule has to be, never take anything for granted in entering into an agreement.
Service Level Objectives
Availability
Performance
Workload Levels
Security
Affordability
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Before entering into a Service Level Agreement, you need to have a good definition of what aspects of the service you will be agreeing upon. Note the different types of Service Level measurement criteria, which we can call Service Level Objectives. Availability belongs at the top of this list, since if the system is not available, all the other considerations are null and void. Performance, or speed, is an appropriate second item on the list. It doesn’t do any good to offer enormous processing capability if using these capabilities slows the system down to a crawl. In addition to causing the schedule to slip, a slow system can be devastating to employee morale. Workload levels are growing all the time, and I would think that since this book came out, Security has probably moved up in terms of criticality and importance to clients. Finally, there is the issue of Affordability, which as we all know has become even more critical lately than in the past.
Availability
Availability can be defined as the percentage of time a service is “up” and can be used.
Usually Availability is the most important criterion.
If a service isn’t available, nothing else matters.
Availability should be viewed from the perspective of the end-user or the business function for the service.
This can be a controversial measure of service quality because of the number of different measurement mechanisms and the job function of the individual doing the measuring.
network manager typically sees the service as the network connectivity;
system manager views the service as the server being operational;
database administrator sees the service as available access to data held in the database.
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Once again, no one will be surprised if I say that Availability is the most critical of the Service Level Objectives, since if the service isn’t available, nothing else matters.
Availability
Availability is an aggregate value
Can be difficult to measure directly
May have to be derived by combining the availability of all the components traversed.
The reality of a business-oriented IT service might be more complex, involving multiple applications, extranets, and Internet connections, etc.
Therefore, you must consider end-to-end availability rather than availability of the individual parts or services.
As a user, if you can’t get to the part of the network you need, it is irrelevant that other portions of the network are available.
It doesn’t matter that a web server is available if name services are down and you have to use an IP number to reach the server.
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If you have multiple devices linked together, the availability of your overall service is an aggregate of the availabilities of all of the devices, since a break anywhere in the chain can mean that the whole service becomes unavailable.
Availability
True availability must be measured end-to-end from the end user through all the technology layers and components to the desired business application and data, and back to the end user.
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Service Level Measurement Criteria
Availability
Performance
Workload Levels
Security
Affordability
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Performance – Second in Importance only to Availability
Must be measured from the end users’ perspective and also relate to the business goals of IT.
The performance of a service is measured by the responsiveness of the application to interactive users and the time required to complete each batch job to be processed
The responsiveness of the application and batch job processing times will be affected directly by the amount of work to be processed .
There is a direct correlation between how fast the application responds to online users and their productivity.
Consistency of the interactive response times experienced by the end users is vital.
Erratic and unpredictable response times that vary from exceptionally fast to extremely slow will be perceived by the users as unacceptable and far worse than consistent response times that might be merely adequate.
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Another very interesting point here! Users need to be able to plan for how long something is going to take. If the system is consistent, they can work around the performance problem to a certain extent but if it is erratic they find themselves just sitting and staring at the screen. This is incredibly bad for morale and for productivity.
User Perception of Performance
Usability studies have identified the relationship between response times and user satisfaction for various user and work profiles.
Varies tremendously by
the nature of the work involved,
the perceived difficulty of the task being performed by the automated process, and
the relationship between response time and user “think” time.
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In planning for performance issues, you want to take into account what the nature of the task is. If the user has to move rapidly from screen to screen or load large amounts of data for immediate use, the situation is different then if the user is inputting data into large forms where the form might sit on the screen for long minutes and the transition from screen to screen occurs infrequently.
Service Level Measurement Criteria
Availability
Performance
Workload Levels
Security
Affordability
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Availability and Performance are very importance to the Client, but the amount of work that gets done in a given time is also something that will be constantly in the forefront of your Client’s attention.
Workload Levels
The volume of processing performed by a particular service.
Includes:
the rate of processing interactive transactions,
the number of completed batch jobs within a given time period.
These service workloads generally relate to specific applications; however, workload processing might span multiple applications and generate work on multiple systems.
A service workload uses all the components involved in delivering the service, including using network, system, database, and middleware resources.
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Workload levels are often measured by the rate of transaction processing or the number of batch jobs that can be completed within a given time period.
Service Level Measurement Criteria
Availability
Performance
Workload Levels
Security
Affordability
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Security
Defining the security of a service includes
the definition of who can access the service,
the nature of the access,
the mechanisms used to detect, prevent, and report unauthorized access.
As applications span multiple platforms and users require access to data across multiple databases, the complexity of the security environment increases tremendously, and multiple security management systems will be employed.
Coordinating actions and administration across these multiple security systems becomes critical for ensuring consistency of access privileges and reducing the administrative overhead and potential for errors.
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Security is everyone’s job, but the service provider bears an enormous burden which has grown incrementally over the years as the threat to our systems and data increases. If we are not secure, then our Client is not secure either. Whatever stops the service provider, will cause a problem for the Clients as well.
Affordability
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Increasing a single web site from 99% to 99.9990% can require millions of dollars
A 99.999% availability data center costs 3 or 4 times more than one capable of 99 to 99.9 availability.
Sometimes very high availability is not critical, such as during non-working hours.
There are some services for which Performance is not an issue. For example, batch files that will never take the whole night to run, may not need to be fast.
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In defining criteria for Service Level Management, one thing that always must be kept in mind is the cost of the criteria. Sometimes Affordability must be measured against other criteria, and sometimes Availability or Performance can be sacrificed to save money without causing a significant disadvantage to the Client.
Service Level Reporting
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Service Level Reporting
INFO 415
TJ Smith
Maureen P. Kinkela
Service Level Reporting
Service level reporting is an important communication vehicle between the IT department, the user community, and the lines of business.
A means for demonstrating the value of IT services and a way to promote the quality of the services provided by the IT department.
Providing the reports in a format that aligns with the goals of the lines of business, and that is easily understood by business managers as well as corporate executives, demonstrates the IT department’s understanding and support for key business initiatives.
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Just the presence of the word “Management” in the term “Service Level Management” is a giveaway that there is going to be reporting involved. The trick to reporting in all business endeavors is knowing what types of reports work best for all the different types of recipients. Anyone who has ever given a detailed technical report to an upper level executive knows that this is true!
Report Audience
Each report audience category requires different information that varies in focus and granularity
Executive Management
Want to know that the IT department is providing value to the business overall and contributing to business success
Reports aimed at the executive management team must be highly summarized and outline the quality of service experienced by the company’s personnel, customers, and business partners.
Lines of Business
The lines of business are interested in knowing how the quality of services provided by IT help them to drive more business.
Reports should relate service levels to business transaction volumes, personnel productivity, and, where possible, customer satisfaction.
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One point that should seem obvious, is that the report should be geared to the particular interests of the recipient. Also, the level of detail in the report should reflect both the time available and the need for detail of each recipient. An upper-level executive has neither the time nor the need for absorbing huge amounts of daily detail. This recipient will tend to be interested in summary reports. On the other hand, there is an argument for giving the detail version of all reports to a recipient who is internal to IT. Detail is their business.
Audience
Internal to IT
IT wants to know how they are doing, in their own estimation and that of their client.
They must be service oriented in order to provide better support for the business.
The same service level reports provided to the lines of business should be available to and reviewed by all levels of IT management
Additional reports showing all underlying technology outages and
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You will note that in the estimation of Sturm, what the audience is interested in knowing is the main formula for mapping the audience to any given report. While this may seem like common sense, anyone who has ever worked for a big company and been the recipient of dozens and dozens of reports coming in from all over the place, knows that it isn’t always followed. Reporters who have been burned by being accused of not including someone on a report, often compensate by starting to include everyone. This just annoys people and makes it more likely that someone who needs to see the report will miss it because it is buried in a pile of other reports from other unfortunate reporters. In reality, most of these problems can be avoided by just putting some thought into who the proper audience for the reports should be.
Audience
Outside Customers
Customers very generally want to know only what is absolutely necessary to understand their role in the service setting.
Summarized reports should be available to the customers of IT services who are outside the corporation. These should provide information on the quality of the services delivered to them, and should also outline the steps taken to improve service quality, particularly if customer expectations have not been met.
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Types of Reports
Executive Summary
Service Availability Reporting
Performance Reporting
Workload Volumes
Security Intrusion
Recoveries
Cost Allocation
Report Card
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On this slide is a list of all the different types of reports discussed by Sturm. Can you match these reports to their reporting audience?
Frequency of Reporting
Daily Reports
Weekly Summaries
Monthly Overviews
Quarterly Business Summaries
Real-Time Reporting
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Frequency of reporting, like type of report, needs to be tailored to the audience of the report. Also, desired frequency is probably likely to change with whatever the recipient has going on. A recipient might request daily reports while they are focusing on some particular thing, and then drop back to weekly, monthly or quarterly reports when they move on to some other topic.
Quantification
Quantifying the service is vital.
“what can’t be measured doesn’t exist”.
Quantification of various aspects of the service places assessment of its quality on an objective basis.
Gets away from vague, emotive words like “slow” and “poor.”
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Measuring performance is central to the whole concept of an SLA. Without it, we are right back to relying on our own opinion of how well we are doing.
The development of service metrics for service measurement purposes is the analytical part of the SLM process. It requires us to analyze the service being offered (or proposed) and to work together with stakeholders to create a list of service metrics that are capable of monitoring and reporting the customer’s desired quality of service against quantifiable service level targets.
When negotiating with the customer, you should be prepared to present, with the relevant detail, the service levels and service targets, including their calculations and metric collection methods.
Metrics and Measurement
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Once we have established our Service Level Objectives, we have to figure out mechanisms for measuring our performance and comparing it against the promises we have made the Client in our SLA.
Metrics and Measurement
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Fortunately for Service Providers, there are many tools available to help us measure and record the Availability, Performance, Workload Volumes and Security of our processes.
Minimum Service Level
The service specification should be the minimum service level that the user is prepared to accept.
The end users’ requirement will be examined to establish what the benefits of various levels of service are and what level is cost justified.
There is probably no benefit in over-providing quality: it just costs more money.
Over-provision of quality may just raise expectations to a level that becomes unsupportable later when the workload increases and that initial quality cannot be maintained.
Some IT departments build in latency for this reason.
Quality must also be consistent since inconsistent quality is equated to poor quality by the customer.
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Study the following slides regarding the concept of minimum service level. This should be the level that we specify to. Can you understand why?
What is “Minimum?”
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A consideration that must be foremost in everyone’s mind is cost: the lower the risk, the higher the cost is a rule of thumb.
What An SLA Cannot Do.
A SLA cannot
compensate for inadequate definition of business objectives,
compensate for lack of standards
substitute for poor customer or IT management.
obviate the need for other service management disciplines and tools.
be implemented without cost, nor be implemented without resource.
be effective without commitment from both customer and service provider.
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SLA’s cannot be looked upon as panaceas. If there are serious underlying problems in communication, implementation or commitment, no amount of paper is going to solve this. The SLA might be useful in bringing these underlying problems to light though.
Job Description:
1) Coordinates physical changes to computer data bases; and codes, tests, and implements physical data base, applying knowledge of data base management system: Designs logical and physical data bases or reviews description of changes to data base design to understand how changes to be made affect physical data base.
2) Establishes physical data base parameters.
3) Codes data base descriptions and specifies identifiers of data base to data base management system or directs others in coding data base descriptions.
4) Calculates optimum values for data base parameters, such as amount of computer memory to be used by data base, following manuals and using calculator.
5) Specifies user access level for each segment of one or more data items, such as insert, replace, retrieve, or delete data.
6) Specifies which users can access data bases and what data can be accessed by user.
7) Tests and corrects errors, and refines changes to data base.
8) Enters codes to create production data base.
9) Selects and enters codes of utility program to monitor data base performance, such as distribution of records and amount of available memory.
10) Directs programmers and analysts to make changes to data base management system.
11) Reviews and corrects programs.
12) Answers user questions.
13) Confers with coworkers to determine impact of data base changes on other systems and staff cost for making changes to data base.
14) Modifies data base programs to increase processing performance, referred to as performance tuning.
15) Workers typically specialize in one or more types of data base management systems.
16) May train users.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
What do you want to do in the Industry?
In the first part of this lecture, we have begun the examination of something that is very important to all IT personnel, no matter what their function is. This is the topic of Service Levels: how to manage them, improve on them, and come to an agreement with our clients as to what they should be and how we will be expected to attain them. We have also looked at the document which is used to formalize these concepts.
Now is a great time to review the past ten weeks and think about what you want to do with your degree. Check out each of our topics from the quarter – what types of job opportunities does each of them suggest to you?
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Week 1 – Introduction to Computing and Security Technology
Week 1: Introduction to Computing and Security Technology
The slides that follow show the topics we will be discussing this quarter. This week, we will look at some of the earliest adventures in automation – they may surprise you!
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Week 2 – The Internet and the Web
Week 2 The Internet and the Web
In week 2, we will examine some of the fundamentals of the Internet and the World Wide Web. This innovation has changed every aspect about the ways we do computing.
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Week 3 – Components of Computing Devices
Week 3: Components of Computing Devices
Do you know what is inside your computer? (P.S., if you are a gamer, the answer may be “Yes!”) Most people who worked with PC’s used to have some knowledge of this, but in past years it has become possible to use a computer without ever looking inside of it.
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Week 4 – Servers, Clients, Virtual Machines, and Other Devices
Week 4: Servers, Clients, Virtual Machines and Other Devices:
When I first started working with PC’s, there would be one stand-alone IBM PC in every department – if you were lucky. Eventually there was an IBM PC on every desk, pretty much, but they still stood alone. If you wanted to share a file, you put it on a disk and walked it over to the recipient- or put it in a padded envelope and mailed or overnighted it. To say that this situation has changed is a pretty dramatic understatement! This week we will look at the various forms that computing can take – and trace the history of how they came into being.
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Week 5 – Databases and Data Management
Week 5: Databases and Data Management:
There are few non-trivial computer applications that don’t involve some sort of a database. Data has become an invaluable resource, with importance that is difficult to calculate. Data is power and data is how everything in our computing environment works – so, it helps to know some things about databases. I was a database programmer for many years, and I can tell you that data is a fascinating way to make a living. In Week 5, we will examine these topics.
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Week 6 – Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare
Week 6: Cyber Security and Cyber Warfare
Here is a timely topic! The ubiquity of the Internet and the increasing reality that everything we do in modern times is based on some sort of electronics, makes it seem naïve to believe that electronics and the Internet are not dangerous weapons that can be used against us in truly horrifying ways. In Week6, we will examine some of these ways in which we are vulnerable.
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Week 7 – Identity Theft and Individual Cyber Security
Week 7: Identity Theft and Individual Cyber Security
Our vulnerability to cyber harm is clearly not limited to what can happen to our power plants, control towers and communication networks. Our personal resources are also at risk – and not only from American criminals.
In week 7 we will look at some of our personal vulnerabilities and examine what we can do about them.
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Week 8 – Linux and Open Source
Week 8: Linux and Open Source
Welcome to the wonderful world of Free and Open Source Software (otherwise known as “FOSS”)! The individuals in these pictures are some of the true pioneers in the world of Open Source software. In Week 8 we will talk about the Open Source adventure and play a little with one of FOSS’s most successful experiments - Linux
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Week 9 – Command line interface
Week 9: Command Line Interface
As I have observed computing over more years that I will admit to here, one of the things that has amazed me has been the way that we have moved in circles – from an interface that looked very much like the one above, through two and a half decades of primarily front end, point and click, interfaces where the user was truly working with a black box, and back again to command line interfaces. It is fascinating to me to think about the reasons for this circular motion within our industry.
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Week 10 – Computing technology management and administration
When I was putting a representative slide together for Week 10, this is the first slide I ended up with. Then I noticed that something was definitely wrong with it! Do you see what it is?
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Week 10 – Computing technology management and administration
This is better! Look closely at the pictures in this slide. What areas of Computing Technology Administration do you think are suggested by each picture?
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Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Job Descriptions
Salary Information
https://www.datamation.com/careers/it-salary-2018.html
https://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Descriptions-DOT/A.cfm
These links and the slides that follow will help you to understand what is involved in various aspects of IT Administration. Study the job descriptions – is there anything in there that sound especially interesting to you?
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Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Cloud Administrator
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Content Administrator
A web content manager is responsible for overseeing the content that appears on a website. They often manage a team of content producers and assign projects and tasks to employees. Many web content managers also keep track of a website's traffic statistics and search engine rankings.
Web content managers typically oversee the content presented on websites. They may also monitor website traffic, make sure the website is working properly and respond to website feedback. A career in this field usually requires education and experience in a computer-related field. In addition, employers may require knowledge of website development or content management systems.
A web content manager is typically responsible for the content that appears on a website. They are typically in charge of content producers, content placement and content quality. Content managers are often part of the creative team that designs and structures the website
Managers also work with the site's content producers, determining the type, quality and quantity of content needed for the website. They may assign projects, edit content and manage the employees who work with the website's content. Other duties may include monitoring the site's statistics, such as user demographics, traffic flow and search engine placement.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Database Administrator
1) Coordinates physical changes to computer data bases; and codes, tests, and implements physical data base, applying knowledge of data base management system: Designs logical and physical data bases or reviews description of changes to data base design to understand how changes to be made affect physical data base.
2) Establishes physical data base parameters.
3) Codes data base descriptions and specifies identifiers of data base to data base management system or directs others in coding data base descriptions.
4) Calculates optimum values for data base parameters, such as amount of computer memory to be used by data base, following manuals and using calculator.
5) Specifies user access level for each segment of one or more data items, such as insert, replace, retrieve, or delete data.
6) Specifies which users can access data bases and what data can be accessed by user.
7) Tests and corrects errors, and refines changes to data base.
8) Enters codes to create production data base.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Database Administrator
9) Selects and enters codes of utility program to monitor data base performance, such as distribution of records and amount of available memory.
10) Directs programmers and analysts to make changes to data base management system.
11) Reviews and corrects programs.
12) Answers user questions.
13) Confers with coworkers to determine impact of data base changes on other systems and staff cost for making changes to data base.
14) Modifies data base programs to increase processing performance, referred to as performance tuning.
15) Workers typically specialize in one or more types of data base management systems.
16) May train users.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Device Administrator
Provide expertise and direction in the development and modifications of mobile solutions (e.g. laptops, tablets, smart phones) to enhance performance and availability.
Monitor, track and update incidents and trouble calls in ticketing system in support of the incident and problem management process; recognize high priority tickets and escalations and take action within the expected response time, communicating with vendors and users as appropriate.
Support end users with mobile devices, mobile device training and issue management of mobile solutions.
Provide guidance and leadership to IS team and serve as a subject matter expert and technical knowledge source for NJH.
Troubleshoot and resolve mobile device wireless connectivity issues by using industry standard techniques such as spectrum analysis and network packet capturing technology and work in conjunction with appropriate vendors to assist in troubleshooting their wireless infrastructures to help ensure the best end-user experience.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Device Administrator
Distribute enterprise applications for mobile devices (for both mobile device management systems and managed encryption systems)
Plan, create, maintain (through inventory management) and deploy mobile security and mobile device management policies and conduct periodic security audits on mobile devices and infrastructure to ensure compliance to security standards.
Plan and manage BYOD (bring your own device) policies and security.
Research new mobile solutions and enhancements to our existing mobile solutions and tools; determine how those changes affect our strategies and bring potential benefits to our current mobile device environment.
Test updates and fixes for all mobile devices supported and deploy OS and application upgrades.
Manage and engineer the Mobile Device Management software by working with mobile device vendors.
Analyzes and tests smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices and associated applications to ensure that we are offering devices and software that match NJH practice and are supportable within our environment.
Performs all other duties as assigned.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Network Administrator
Network administrators are responsible for the management and maintenance of both the software and hardware infrastructure of a computer network system such as a LAN (local area network) or a WAN (wide area network). Networks may be as simple as a few peer-to-peer connections between user workstations or may encompass hundreds or even thousands of computers centrally managed through the use of server technology.
Because a network administrator is responsible for all software used on the network, he or she installs operating systems and updates them as needed to keep systems functioning efficiently. Network administrators also install end-user software, such as word processing or database applications. On large networks, administrators often use installation packages so that such software can be deployed remotely from a central server to many workstations at once.
Network administrators work with hardware such as switches and routers to expand or reconfigure the network as needed and are responsible for designing networks so that both wiring and internal software connections are consistently named and managed. Network administrators identify security concerns and provide solutions to keep both the network and individual workstations free of malicious code.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Network Administrator
A network administrator maintains a detailed inventory of all equipment used on the network and documents the existence of proper licenses for all software. Network administrators are responsible for keeping enough spare parts on hand that malfunctioning components can be swapped out in a manner that minimizes employee time lost.
Network administrators recommend programs and upgrades and advise management on which new technologies should be implemented on any given network. They also oversee all connections between a computer network and outside technology such as the internet. They may be responsible for maintaining an organization’s web site and for implementing internet-based tools and technologies that can enhance productivity and streamline the collection of data about both workstations and network utilization.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Project Administrator
A project administrator is a professional who organizes the necessary team members and specializes in facilitating, reporting and analyzing projects under the supervision of a project manager. This position requires great responsibility and proper time management because the job entails constant monitoring and control of all project variables.
Planning the financial budget necessary for the project
Coordinating with team members frequently for updates regarding the work in progress
Monitoring the progress of the project and acknowledging team suggestions
Supervising the team members and ensuring that guidelines are met
Initiating the project or contract and working until the project is completed
Discussing updates with senior officials and the client
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Software Applications Administrator
Primary responsibility for all licensed and developed software applications.
Assist managers with the evaluation and purchase of all new software (including establishing commercial and technical requirements), working with Cashman’s legal department to negotiate licensing and maintenance terms.
Coordinate and track the delivery, implementation and configuration of all new software applications, communicating status at each stage to end users and IT staff.
Track software updates and ensure that such updates are promptly incorporated.
Respond to requests to enhance and independently identify potential functionality of our current software applications.
Oversee all development requests, including associated programming, licensing and other related cost working with the requestor(s) to evaluate all options.
Maintain a safe and secure work environment.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Software Applications Administrator
Help support Cashman’s financial objectives by forecasting requirements; assisting with the annual budget; scheduling expenditures.
Contribute to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.
Work as business needs arise.
Adhere to company policies, procedures and regulations.
Enable Cashman to achieve its objective of Safely Home. Everyone. Every Day.™ by promoting a positive safety culture and adhering to all company safety policies, procedures and practices.
Report any unsafe acts or conditions.
Deliver Cashman’s “Best Customer Experience” for all internal and external customers on a consistent basis.
Other duties and special projects as assigned.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Software Deployment Administrator
The successful candidate will be providing essential software packaging, testing, and upgrade solutions to support a demanding customer mission need.
The administrator will be responsible for configuring and testing software licensing for new versions of software.
The administrator will test applications for more than just installation and launching, but for functionality and compatibility with mission need.
The administrator will be able to identify software packaging issues before software deployment to the production environment.
The administrator will also be required to perform Windows Administration work to support software deployment and maintenance on multiple machines across multiple domains.
The administrator will actively learn Geospatial software; developing skills in determining integration issues, making corrective recommendations, and evaluating software upgrade solutions.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Software Deployment Administrator
The Administrator will develop extensive knowledge of intelligence productions systems used by GEOINT analysts.
Assist the team with technical issues, analysis, troubleshooting, installation and configuration, and development responsibilities for all the functional areas under current contract for workstations and servers to include:
Support software transitions and installs
Troubleshooting and resolve integration issues
Maintains current knowledge of relevant technology as assigned
Other duties as assigned
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
Security Administrator
https://www.monster.com/jobs/q-security-administrator-jobs.aspx
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
System Administrator
Support LANs, WANs, network segments, Internet, and intranet systems.
Maintain system efficiency.
Ensure design of system allows all components to work properly together.
Troubleshoot problems reported by users.
Make recommendations for future upgrades.
Maintain network and system security.
Analyze and isolate issues.
Monitor networks to ensure security and availability to specific users.
Evaluate and modify system's performance.
Identify user needs.
Maintain integrity of the network, server deployment, and security.
Ensure network connectivity throughout a company's LAN/WAN infrastructure is on par with technical considerations.
Week 10 – Computing Technology Management and Administration
System Administrator
Design and deploy networks.
Perform network address assignment.
Assign routing protocols and routing table configuration.
Assign configuration of authentication and authorization of directory services.
Maintain network facilities in individual machines, such as drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers.
Maintain network servers such as file servers, VPNgateways, intrusion detection systems.
Administer servers, desktop computers, printers, routers, switches, firewalls, phones, personal digital assistants, smartphones, software deployment, security updates and patches
Fare Well, Good Luck and Thank You!
Dr. Mo
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This is me saying Good-bye! It has been a great pleasure working with you this quarter. I want to wish you all the best of luck as you continue to explore everything our industry has to offer. Thank you – have a wonderful Holiday and a good rest during the break!
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References
https://study.com/articles/Web_Content_Manager_Job_Description_and_Requirements.html
https://jobs.saic.com/search/?q=cloud+administrator
https://occupationalinfo.org/03/039162010.html
http://jobdescriptions.net/technology/network-administrator/
http://jobs.nationaljewish.org/mobile-device-administrator/job/4951520
http://www.americasjobexchange.com/system-administrator-job-description
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/672/project-administrator
http://lamp.intdec.com/cats/careers/index.php?m=careers&p=showJob&ID=3518&ref=indeed
TJ Smith
Sturm, R., et. al., “Foundations of Service Level Management”, SAMS (2000).
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