Information technology operations

Data-center management is the collection of tasks performed by those responsible for managing ongoing operation of a data center This includes Business service management and planning for the future. Data-center management is the collection of tasks performed by those responsible for managing ongoing operation of a data center This includes Business service management and planning for the future. Historically, data-center management was seen as something performed by employees, with the help of tools collectively called Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tools. Now an outsourcing option exists: Data-center Management As A Service - DMaaS. Both for in-house operation and outsourcing, Service-level agreements must be managed to ensure data-availability. Data-center management is a growing major topic for a growing list of large companies who both compete and cooperate, including: Dell, Google, HP, IBM, Intel and Yahoo. Hardware/software vendors who are willing to live with coopetition are working on projects such as 'The Distributed Management Task Force' (DMTF) with a goal of learning to 'more effectively manage mixed Linux, Windows and cloud environments.' With the DMTF a decade old, the list of companies is growing, and also includes companies much smaller than IBM, Microsoft, et al. Among the topics currently being explored are: scalability, securing data center networks, disaster recovery, government restrictions.. Another major area is the cost of downtime regarding customer dissatisfaction & business loss, and also the 'astonishing' yet hidden cost and effect regarding personnel & productivity. Business-service management (BSM) treats IT as part of the larger enterprise strategy, and helps fill the gap between Business & IT.