This session was a bit drier than others and it was mostly demos, so a bit light on technical content. The basic concept is that Microsoft System Center Service Manager and Orchestrator can be used together, along with other System Center products, to automate delivering IT services to customers. Microsoft has done a great job of integrating their System Center suite, and it really shows in the 2012 release. It can take data from SCCM, SCOM, VMM, AD and other connectors and create a comprehensive configuration management database.
Some examples of service delivery that are possible include: User self-service portal for requesting an application, requesting a new cell phone, provisioning a new VM, increasing disk space in a VM, adding a new server to SCOM for monitoring, and countless other IT operations.
- System Center Helps Deliver IT as a service
- Service Delivery and Automation Key Value Enablers
- Standardization – Standardize services provided by IT. Increased compliance.
- Self-service – Gives consumers of IT the ability to identify access and requests. Increased customer satisfaction
- Automation – Automate processes to fulfill consumer requests. Faster time to delivery and minimize human error
- Service Delivery and Automation Architecture
- CMDB (configuration management DB)
- Work items, configuration items, templates, knowledge, etc.
- Self-Service – Mobile, email, portal
- Automation – Integration with System Center, AD, 3rd party tools
- Demos of Orchestrator
- Able to bring variables from any activity and subscribe to it from any other activity with simple GUI selections. No having to remember variables to store objects.
- Service Manager has connectors for packages such as orchestrator, SCOM, and SCCM. Dozens of integration packs for other devices or software (VMware, HP ILO/OA, etc.)
- Bi-directional ticketing closing and operations manager alert closing
- Configure user oriented service catalog and define your offerings
- Configure user prompts and data validation rulesYou can configure service catalog and limit scope to various catalog groups based on AD group membership
- Uses SharePoint foundation at a minimum, but can also use SharePoint enterprise
- Application Approval Workflow, lets you link software catalog in SCCM to Service Manager
- Cloud Services Process Pack solution accelerator allows self-service private cloud offerings
- Excel data slicers can help disect OLAP cubes and help you create custom reports from Service manager
- Create dashboards using performance point for dynamic dashboard using OLAP cubes
- Check out Microsoft virtual academy for free System Center training
