Managing information technology (IT) infrastructure of an enterprise using a centralized logistics and management (CLAM) tool

• US 20050159969A1
• Filed: 01/21/2004
• Published: 07/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sheppard, Robert F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,578 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources

Abstract

In one embodiment, a process for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure of an enterprise includes: (1) capturing and storing IT infrastructure information regarding the IT infrastructure of the enterprise; (2) defining a plurality of roles within the enterprise, each role specifying a particular job function within the enterprise; (3) associating items of IT infrastructure with roles within the enterprise such that each role is associated with one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure; (4) assigning roles to one or more employees of the enterprise such that each of the one or more employees is associated with one or more roles and is assigned the one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure associated with each of these one or more roles; (5) automatically modeling a change in the IT infrastructure for one or more impacted employees; and (6) automatically initiating deployment of one or more IT infrastructure assets for the one or more impacted employees by organizing delivery of the one or more IT infrastructure assets to the one or more impacted employees to implement the change modeled.

Claims

1. A system for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure of an enterprise, the system comprising a centralized logistics and management (CLAM) tool operable to:

in a capture phase;

capture and store IT infrastructure information regarding the IT infrastructure of the enterprise;

define a plurality of roles within the enterprise, each role specifying a particular job function within the enterprise;

associate items of IT infrastructure with roles within the enterprise such that each role within the enterprise is associated with one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure; and

assign roles to one or more employees of the enterprise such that each of the one or more employees is associated with one or more roles is assigned the one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure associated with each of these one or more roles;

in a modeling phase, automatically model a change in the IT infrastructure for one or more impacted employees of the enterprise; and

in a deployment phase, automatically initiate deployment of one or more IT infrastructure assets for the one or more impacted employees by organizing delivery of the one or more IT infrastructure assets to the one or more impacted employees to implement the change modeled in the modeling phase.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises one or more computer-related facilities, services, and installations used for operations of the enterprise, comprising one or more of:

computer hardware; and

computer software.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the capture phase comprises an existing IT assets area for capturing an existing view of IT infrastructure assets of the enterprise, the existing IT assets area comprising one or more of:

asset profiles for IT infrastructure assets of the enterprise;

employee profiles for employees of the enterprise;

location profiles for locations associated with the enterprise; and

division profiles for divisions of the enterprise.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the CLAM tool is further operable to, if a role assigned to a particular employee is changed to a different role, change the one or more items of IT infrastructure associated with the particular employee to reflect the different role.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein for a particular employee who is assigned one or more roles, the CLAM tool is further operable to assign one or more additional items of IT infrastructure to the particular employee such that the particular employee receives the one or more additional items of IT infrastructure in addition to the one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure associated with each of the one or more roles assigned to the particular employee.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises a technology refresh for one of:

a particular employee of the enterprise;

a particular group of employees of the enterprise;

all employees of a division of the enterprise; and

all employees of the enterprise.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises a technology refresh for one or more of:

a particular workspace of the enterprise;

a work area comprising a plurality of workspaces;

a building of the enterprise; and

all sites associated of the enterprise.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure comprises moving one or more employees between:

particular workspaces of the enterprise;

work areas of the enterprise, each work area comprising a plurality of workspaces;

or

buildings of the enterprise.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the modeling phase comprises modeling a change to the IT infrastructure of the enterprise according to one or more of:

network topology considerations; and

one or more business rules associated with the enterprise.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the deployment phase comprises user acceptance testing to determine whether one or more deployed changes in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise was successful and, if the changes were not successful, initiating a process to correct problems.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the capture, modeling, and deployment phases are implemented as part of a process for approving, managing, designing, and deploying change requests for changes in the IT infrastructure and for automatically collaborating and validating progress of change requests, the process comprising:

receiving a change request, the change request comprising one or more of a request for a change in the IT infrastructure or a request to resolve a problem associated with the IT infrastructure;

automatically creating an incident for the change request, the incident enabling the change request to be tracked and monitored;

determining whether to approve the change request; and

if the change request is approved;

automatically applying one or more business rules to the change request; and

automatically initiating deployment of IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises a scheduling procedure for scheduling deployment of the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request, the scheduling procedure comprising creating one or more milestones for delivery of the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the CLAM tool is further operable to if a particular milestone is not met, notify one or more appropriate individuals that the particular milestone was not met.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises one or more follow-up procedures for determining whether the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request were properly deployed and, if the IT infrastructure assets were not properly deployed, creating a new incident for resolving problems associated with the deployment of the IT infrastructure assets.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is implemented in software embodied in a computer-readable medium.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database operable to store the IT infrastructure information regarding the IT infrastructure of the enterprise

17. A process for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure of an enterprise, comprising:

capturing and storing IT infrastructure information regarding the IT infrastructure of the enterprise;

defining a plurality of roles within the enterprise, each role specifying a particular job function within the enterprise;

associating items of IT infrastructure with roles within the enterprise such that each role within the enterprise is associated with one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure;

assigning roles to one or more employees of the enterprise such that each of the one or more employees is associated with one or more roles and is assigned the one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure associated with each of these one or more roles;

automatically modeling a change in the IT infrastructure for one or more impacted employees of the enterprise; and

automatically initiating deployment of one or more IT infrastructure assets for the one or more impacted employees by organizing delivery of the one or more IT infrastructure assets to the one or more impacted employees to implement the change modeled.

18. The process of claim 17, wherein the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises one or more computer-related facilities, services, and installations used for operations of the enterprise, comprising one or more of:

computer hardware; and

computer software.

19. The process of claim 17, comprising capturing in an existing IT assets area an existing view of IT infrastructure assets of the enterprise, the existing IT assets area comprising one or more of:

asset profiles for IT infrastructure assets of the enterprise;

employee profiles for employees of the enterprise;

location profiles for locations associated with the enterprise; and

division profiles for divisions of the enterprise.

20. The process of claim 17, further comprising, if a role assigned to a particular employee is changed to a different role, changing the one or more items of IT infrastructure associated with the particular employee to reflect the different role.

21. The process of claim 17, further comprising, for a particular employee who is assigned one or more roles, assigning one or more additional items of IT infrastructure to the particular employee such that the particular employee receives the one or more additional items of IT infrastructure in addition to the one or more predetermined items of IT infrastructure associated with each of the one or more roles assigned to the particular employee.

22. The process of claim 17, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises a technology refresh for one of:

a particular employee of the enterprise;

a particular group of employees of the enterprise;

all employees of a division of the enterprise; and

all employees of the enterprise.

23. The process of claim 17, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise comprises a technology refresh for one or more of:

a particular workspace of the enterprise;

a work area comprising a plurality of workspaces;

a building of the enterprise; and

all sites associated of the enterprise.

24. The process of claim 17, wherein the change in the IT infrastructure comprises moving one or more employees between:

particular workspaces of the enterprise;

work areas of the enterprise, each work area comprising a plurality of workspaces;

or

buildings of the enterprise.

25. The process of claim 17, comprising modeling the change to the IT infrastructure of the enterprise according to one or more of:

network topology considerations; and

one or more business rules associated with the enterprise.

26. The process of claim 17, further comprising conducting user acceptance testing to determine whether one or more deployed changes in the IT infrastructure of the enterprise was successful and, if the changes were not successful, initiating a process to correct problems.

27. The process of claim 17, wherein the process is implemented for approving, managing, designing, and deploying change requests for changes in the IT infrastructure and for automatically collaborating and validating progress of change requests, process further comprising:

receiving a change request, the change request comprising one or more of a request for a change in the IT infrastructure or a request to resolve a problem associated with the IT infrastructure;

automatically creating an incident for the change request, the incident enabling the change request to be tracked and monitored;

determining whether to approve the change request; and

if the change request is approved;

automatically applying one or more business rules to the change request; and

automatically initiating deployment of IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request.

28. The process of claim 27, further comprising:

scheduling deployment of the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request, and

creating one or more milestones for delivery of the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request.

29. The process of claim 28, further comprising if a particular milestone is not met, notifying one or more appropriate individuals that the particular milestone was not met.

30. The process of claim 27, further comprising initiating one or more follow-up procedures for determining whether the IT infrastructure assets for fulfilling the change request were properly deployed and, if the IT infrastructure assets were not properly deployed, creating a new incident for resolving problems associated with the deployment of the IT infrastructure assets.

31. The process of claim 17, wherein the process is performed by software embodied in a computer-readable medium when the software is executed.