Data Center Automation Solution Brief Us

8/8/2019 Data Center Automation Solution Brief Us

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SOLUTION BRIEF: DATA CENTER AUTOMATION

How can Data Center Automation

increase data center agility, reducecosts, and increase service qualityand efficiency?


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Data Center Automation from CA increasesdata center agility, service quality andefficiency helping you control complexity,manage virtualization and reduce costswhile providing adaptive business servicesthat optimize utilization and proactivelyaccommodate demand fluctuations.

Copyright 2008 CA. All rights reserved. ITIL is a Registered Trademark and a Registered Community Trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All trademarks,trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document As Iswithout warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, fromthe use of this document including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised of such damages.


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Challenge

As the demand to improve andexpand IT services grows, you areunder unrelenting pressure tomanage an increasingly complexinfrastructure while alsocontrolling costs. Accomplishingthese divergent goals requires youto take steps to transform how IT

operates. Automation is the keyto this transformation. Theproblems you face include:effective management acrossvirtual and physical environments,inefficient and error-pronemanual processes, difficultymitigating the impact ofconfiguration changes, a limitedability to enforce compliance withasset configuration standards andpressure to reduce energy costs.

Solution

Data Center Automation fromCA increases data center agility,service quality and efficiencyusing informed automation forprovisioning and configurationmanagement. It also providesautomation of complex, high-volume workloads. This lets you

anticipate demand fluctuationsand adjust the infrastructurebefore applications or servicesare impacted. CA Data CenterAutomation also helps optimizeutilization of physical and virtualassets, supporting green ITinitiatives and improving staffefficiency so resources can focuson proactive management andplanned projects.

Benefits

CA Data Center Automationsolutions help IT mastercomplexity, lower operationalcosts, improve IT service, reduceerrors and inconsistencies, anduse staff more effectively.Automation of repetitive, manualtasks also ensures compliance

and accelerates processstandardization, while freeing ITresources for strategic projectsthat deliver greater value to thebusiness. Because CA DataCenter Automation automatescomplex processes across theservice lifecycle, you can alsooptimize utilization of physicaland virtual assets, thus gainingagility and reducing redundantcapital outlays and energy costs.

The CA AdvantageCAs Data Center Automation solutions allow flexible deployment across diverse and siloedenvironments while leveraging current investments in related management solutions. Integration acrossCAs comprehensive portfolio of Enterprise IT Management (EITM) solutions enhances the value andbusiness impact of your Data Center Automation investments. These advantages make CA Data CenterAutomation the most dynamic, comprehensive and strategic solution available. It provides cross-domain,data-driven automation that gives you the ability to optimize assets to meet the service demands of thebusiness while controlling complexity, improving efficiency, and reducing both costs and errors.

Next StepsIf you are under pressure to reduce operational costs while improving the delivery of IT services, andwant to leverage virtualization and automation while containing costs, CA can help. From configurationchange and detection management to multiplatform, policy-driven workload automation to compre -hensive physical and virtual systems management, CA solutions are designed to help you achieve yourData Center Automation goals. For more information about CAs approach to Data Center Automation,please visit us at ca.com/dca.

Overview



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CHALLENGE

2 SOLUTION BRIEF: DATA CENTER AUTOMATION

Increase Data Center Agility, Service Quality and Efficiency toReduce Complexity, Manage Change and Align IT Services withBusiness DemandsLike most IT organizations, you must deal with an ever-growing demand for business servicesacross an increasingly complex infrastructure. Yet, the quality of the services you deliver mustnot degrade, even as you strive to reduce costs. Challenges that are becoming more urgent asdemand and complexity escalate include:

INEFFICIENT AND EXPENSIVE MANUAL PROCESSES Many IT organizations manually performcomplex, time- consuming and repetitious tasks like new server and application provisioning.These practices inevitably introduce errors and inconsistencies that threaten service quality and that must, in turn, be manually diagnosed and repaired when service is affected. The abilityto automate these processes is often limited because the systems involved are managedseparately, and the relevant data cannot readily be consolidated.

UNDERUTILIZATION OF ASSETS To prevent service degradation due to inadequate capacity attimes of peak demand, many IT organizations massively overprovision assets, especially whenthey lack tools for fully leveraging virtualization. When assets cannot be dynamically provisionedand automatically allocated to ensure availability, this serves as a de facto strategy to ensureservice availability. However, the result for any gains in agility is higher capital and operatingcosts, including exorbitant energy costs and more resources required for administrative andmaintenance tasks.

CONFIGURATION CHANGE AND DETECTION MANAGEMENT A chronic lack of policy automationcoupled with a reliance on complex, manual processes results in a limited ability to enforce anddetect compliance with configuration standards. Lack of automation also limits your ability to

manage change without impacting business services again because change, configurationand provisioning activities for servers, etc., are manual and labor-intensive.

Automation Reduces Complexity, Improves Agility, and Accelerates Process StandardizationTo manage complexity, optimize physical and virtual asset utilization and improve the agilitywith which IT can deliver service to the business, you need comprehensive automation forprocesses that span intricate, multiplatform systems. These processes include configurationchange and detection management, application discovery, provisioning and workloadmanagement.

Many IT organizations have sought to streamline their operations by automating functions likebasic provisioning and software distribution. But these initiatives have often taken the form ofpoint solutions that cannot address the automation of complex tasks, initiate actions inresponse to changing demand, nor span todays diverse infrastructures. Hence, many of thehighest-value opportunities for automation still exist.

How can you best address the pressure to automate complex operations in a way that leveragescurrent investments and makes operations both more robust and more flexible? How can youuse automation as a starting point for strategic IT to business alignment? Data Center Automationinitiatives like CA Data Center Automation provide an opportunity to manage IT from thestandpoint of the services IT delivers to the business, rather than as a collection of assets.


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CA Data Center Automation Solutions Consolidate andAutomate Processes that Dynamically Supply Services andImprove Asset UtilizationCA Data Center Automation solutions enable IT to leverage business policies and bestpractices to implement intelligent, policy-driven automation of change, configuration,provisioning and IT processes. They also provide automation of complex, high-volumeworkloads. CA Data Center Automation solutions empower IT with the ability to automaticallyallocate available resources based on the business context; no longer do It organizations haveto guess what the impact or prioritization is of their automated processes and workflows onthe business. These capabilities reduce complexity and risk while helping IT provide adaptive,dynamic and optimized services to the business.

When you can automate service delivery with this high degree of agility and accuracy, you canbegin to anticipate service issues and adjust IT resources before service delivery is affected.You can also begin to optimize the utilization of physical and virtual assets, to reduce capitaloutlays for underutilized and redundant assets, and reduce energy costs and waste. Withoperating efficiency greatly improved, staff can shift their focus to proactive management andplanned projects that add business value (see Figure A).

CA DATA CENTER AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS HELP IT MANAGE COMPLEXITYAND IMPROVE SERVICE QUALITY

SOLUTION

FIGURE A

CA Data Center Automation solutionscentralize and automate key processesacross the data center.


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The Role of ITIL in Data Center AutomationIT best practices defined in ITIL, the IT Infrastructure Library, have consistently emphasizedthe importance of automation and process-driven practices, which go hand-in-hand. Figure Bshows how best-practice process coordination in line with ITIL guidelines enables the scope ofData Center Automation to encompass not only services and applications but also the entireIT infrastructure.

SPANNING INFRASTRUCTURE, APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES

Where Do You Start?Data Center Automation can help IT automate many stages of the IT service lifecycle. Thesecapabilities include:

Defining IT processes, workloads and workflows

Discovery of software assets and their dependencies

Managing configuration change and detection

Enabling virtual server management Assuring configuration compliance and auditing unauthorized changes

Provisioning servers, applications, services, etc.

Empowering resource self-service

Automating IT processes, workloads and workflows

FIGURE B

Best-practice process collaborationenables Data Center Automationsolutions to span the entire ITinfrastructure.


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The more mature the IT management environment, the more effectively you can automate especially complex processes that span the infrastructure and applications that supportservices. Commitment to a process-driven, best practices standard such as ITIL is of greatvalue when automating the data center. In particular, organizations can benefit greatly fromembracing ITILs emphases on assessing maturity levels, setting business goals and measurableobjectives in concert with changes to technology and committing to continuous improvement.

KEY FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF DATA CENTER AUTOMATION

CA Supporting Capabilities

CA Data Center Automation solutions deliver business value and return on investment withcapabilities for dynamically provisioning IT assets based on demand. These solutions automateworkload and workflow while minimizing the impacts of change, configuration and provisioningactivities on service availability and performance. As mentioned above, the foundation forintelligent automation across applications, services and infrastructure is a unified service modelthat governs configurations and changes for each service, based on federated data maintainedin a CMDB. Figure C depicts the key functional areas required for a successful automationstrategy.

The following CA capabilities automate key processes across platforms and managementtechnologies, enabling you to improve efficiency, reduce errors, maximize physical and virtualasset utilization and optimize services in line with demand. These enabling capabilities for CA

Data Center Automation can be implemented independently and integrated over time. Eachincludes products, services and education to help ensure successful implementation.

Employs visualization, self-management, resource self service and policy-driven automation to monitor,configure and provision critical system resources. This dynamically meets the load demands of complexand business-driven data center infrastructures. These capabilities enable you to optimize resources andimprove productivity while helping to reduce the costs associated with the management of data centerenvironments.

FIGURE C

Any Data Center Automation strategymust employ the three interdependentfunctional areas of Discover, Controland Automate for success.

CA System and ApplicationProvisioning


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Provides centralized and automated management of your diverse physical and virtual systemenvironments in a single point of control. This helps to ensure the availability and performance levels ofthe business-critical processes that rely on these systems. CAs vendor- and platform-neutral approach

gives you equivalent functionality across all platforms and manages the full server lifecycle. It is the onlyoffering that enables you to visualize virtual and clustered environments as clearly as their physicalcounterparts.

Creates configuration snapshots and quickly establishes baselines and gold standards throughout yourinfrastructure. It can detect configuration problems before they can affect availability or performance,while reporting any compliance violations. You can reduce downtime by avoiding availability andperformance problems due to configuration drift.

Dynamically automates workload in real time across multiplatform environments based on events,policies and schedules, allowing you to unify IT and simplify complex workloads and schedulesthroughout the data center. Through more efficient resource utilization and improved ability to manage toservice levels, CA Workload Automation enables organizations to improve the reliability of criticalbusiness services while reducing costs.

Discovers systems and applications including their configurations and dependencies and maintains aninventory of these assets. Only when you have this information can you align your IT inventory withapplication and business service it supports.

Because of the vital role Data Center Automation plays in enabling IT to deliver higher quality, moreagile service while lowering costs, CA Data Center Automation Manager is a core element of, andstarting point for automating tasks. CA Data Automation Manager enables IT to manage services basedon business priorities and strategic goals in other words, aligning business and IT. An automated andoptimized IT infrastructure that you can proactively manage is a key dimension of business-drivenservice delivery.

Automate Complex Processes to Reduce Complexity, Improveservice and Increase Policy ComplianceInformed intelligent automation made possible by CA Data Center Automation means thatyour organization has enhanced process efficiency across much of the service lifecycle evenacross traditional departmental boundaries such as the service desk and systemsmanagement. The benefits of CA Data Center Automation at this level include:

Improved ability to manage complexity and change across infrastructure and applications

Capability to fully leverage virtualization and dynamic provisioning

Ability to implement dynamic, adaptive processes that proactively optimize asset utilization

and reduce energy waste Reduced errors and improved efficiency across many routine processes

Enhanced ability to ensure and enforce compliance with configuration standards andmitigate configuration drift

Improved responsiveness and reduced Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) when incidents arise

Increased staff productivity, opening up more opportunities to execute planned tasks andstrategic projects

CA Virtualization Management

CA Application ConfigurationManagement

CA Workload Automation

CA System and Application Discovery


BENEFITS

CA Data Center Automation


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Reduced operational and capital costs, including reduced power consumption for a greenerdata center

Greater ability to balance service levels against operational efficiency in line with enterpriserequirements

Better ability to quantify service improvements for business stakeholders

By demonstrating greater IT agility in response to changing business demands, CA Data CenterAutomation not only increases ITs value to the business, but also changes how the businessviews IT: from a cost center to a trusted and valued provider of business services.

CA Data Center Automation is an important part of CAs overall approach to transformingIT management. With our unique capabilities, CA can help you unify IT and simplify the

management of complex computing environments across the enterprise for greater businessresults. Our Enterprise IT Management (EITM) vision, proven supporting capabilities andexpertise help customers govern, manage and secure IT. Customers gain the ability to managerisk, improve service, manage costs and align IT investments with the needs of the business.

Through CA Services and our partners, we can help you assess your current IT managementneeds, define your goals in terms of process improvement, and implement solutions to helpyou gain measurable results as quickly as possible. Our structured, proven, phased approachdraws on the expertise and best-practice knowledge developed during thousands of successfulprojects in large and diverse organizations.

Our CA Support global network of people, systems and services delivers unparalleledtechnical and customer support devoted to keeping your CA solutions operating at peakperformance. We also offer all levels of training around industry best practices and specificsolutions, and certification through CA Education. Our Unified Learning Approach helps youassess your training needs and develop a plan to address those needs to gain the most fromyour software investments.

You know that inefficiencies increase costs, introduce unnecessary risks, threaten theperformance of your systems and services and inhibit your ability to adapt to the changingneeds of the business. Your IT organization, like many others, might be facing the issues thatcan cause these inefficiencies. These issues include: the complexity of your infrastructure, theongoing inefficient, resource-intensive efforts needed to manage it, and the reduced number ofIT staff and resources available to do both maintenance and project work. If these are thechallenges that you wish to overcome, you can benefit from a comprehensive approach toautomating your data center processes.

To provide a foundation for effective and efficient IT service delivery, you need to define, refine,standardize and automate infrastructure management processes, while aligning with bestpractices, such as ITIL. It is no longer enough to simply guarantee server availability. You needto manage server performance, reduce manual efforts and provide flexible IT resourceallocation to meet the dynamic demands of business not just on one or two platforms, butacross the enterprise. You also need to replace overlapping products that do not integrate withone another and eliminate the need for IT administrators to manage multiple products that puta strain on resources, increase costs and threaten service level agreements.


THE CA ADVANTAGE


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CAs approach to Data Center Automation alleviates the challenges organizations face inmanaging complexity across their IT infrastructures and applications. It also provides thefoundation for effectively managing change, configurations and provisioning in a combinedphysical and virtual environment. Implementing CAs capability solutions can help you automateand streamline complex data center activities that must currently be performed manually.

CA is the only vendor that fully manages physical and virtual environments and is also theonly global vendor completely dedicated to IT management. CA provides a comprehensive,platform-neutral portfolio of products for diverse, multiplatform environments. Our productsinclude many best-in-class offerings and unique functionality. These capabilities ensure thatyou can build the Data Center Automation environment you need. The solutions youimplement today will work with the solutions that are added next year. CA is committed towork with you to create a long-term plan to achieve your goals and do so at your own pace,respecting your investments in other vendors products.

Creating a business-centered IT organization is a process of optimizing both your ITenvironment and the way you manage it. Superior CA Data Center Automation capabilitysolutions offer dynamic provisioning, virtualization management, workload automation andcomprehensive application mapping. These capabilities offer real-time visibility into the ITservice lifecycle, empowering end-to-end service management to control and automate keydata center activities. Our integrated workflows and policy packs accelerate time-to-valuewhile automating key policies and processes, including ITIL, in a manner that deliversquantifiable business value.

If youre asking:

How can Data Center Automation help me to reduce complexity, reduce the risk associatedwith human errors, improve service delivery, and lower costs?

How do I manage changes, configurations and provisioning to ensure compliance andstandardization and minimize impacts to services?

What options exist for automating complex workloads across my infrastructure?

What can I do to dynamically and proactively reallocate assets to meet fluctuating businessdemands in addition to meeting our service level agreements?

How can I get the most out of virtualization technologies and manage them along withphysical assets?

My infrastructure information is not centralized or fully correlated, and is not linked to thebusiness services it supports. What can I do?

How can I determine which applications are on which servers and what is the service impactof infrastructure outages or degradation?

How can I discover and track application and system configurations?

Are there ways to automate the reservation and creation of shared lab resources to driveefficiency and speed application development and launch?


NEXT STEPS


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For more information on data center automation visit the CA website at ca.com/dca. You alsocan learn about Enterprise IT Management and other CA solutions that can help you moreeffectively govern, manage and secure your enterprise

To learn more, and see how CA Data Center Automation solutions enable organizations tounify IT and simplify the management of complex computing environments for better businessresults, visit ca.com/dca .

http://ca.com/dcahttp://ca.com/dcahttp://ca.com/dcahttp://ca.com/dcahttp://ca.com/dca


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MP3275409

CA (NASDAQ: CA), one of the worlds leading independent,enterprise management software companies, unifies andsimplifies complex information technology (IT) managementacross the enterprise for greater business results. With ourEnterprise IT Management vision, solutions and expertise,we help customers effectively govern, manage and secure IT

Learn more about how CA can help youca.com

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