Orchestration and provisioning architecture for effective service management

Orchestration and Provisioning Architecture for Effective Service Management

Alan McSweeney

February 13, 2012 2

Orchestration and Provisioning and Service Management

• Orchestration and provisioning tasks and requirements arise during the entire lifecycle of the delivery of a service to a customer, from service initiation to service usage, monitoring and service management and service termination

• Generalised architectural approach to orchestration and provisioning for services delivery will yield benefits in reduced costs, faster response times, reduces errors and greater flexibility and responsiveness

February 13, 2012 3

Orchestration

• Importance of orchestration is being recognised in relation to cloud services

− Cloud services are all about scale and rapid elasticity – automated work flows are essential

− Cloud service delivery includes fulfillment assurance and billing

− Cloud services delivery required work flows in various technicaland business domains

• Orchestration has wider application in service management, service fulfilment and customer relationship management

February 13, 2012 4

Orchestration and Provisioning

• Orchestration means the automated arrangement, co-ordination and management of cross-functional, enterprise-wide systems and services

• Provisioning means the creation, maintenance and deactivation of resource objects

• Orchestration is the management function and provisioning is the set of service-specific tasks

• Orchestration relates to the automated (as much as possible) arrangement, coordination and management of components (compute, storage, network, computer systems, middleware and services) to meet IT and business requirements

February 13, 2012 5

Orchestration and Provisioning

Orchestration Function

Service Specific Provisioning

Function

Service Component/

Resources


Function

Service Component/

Resources


Function

Service Component/

Resources

February 13, 2012 6

Orchestration

• Composition of architecture, tools and processes to enable the delivery of a defined service by fulfilling the associated process

• Connection of software and hardware components together to enable the delivery of a defined service by fulfilling the associated process

• Connection and automation of work flows, when applicable, to enable the delivery of a defined service by fulfilling the associated process

February 13, 2012 7

Orchestration Core Functions

To manage the co-ordination of workflows

that interact with participating systems (and people) as users

move through the lifecycle of services usage

To manage the co-ordination of service

management processes and workflows that that

interact with participating systems (and people) for the underlying service

platforms and infrastructure

February 13, 2012 8

Major Orchestration Stages

• Service request and information gathering and validation

• Composition/reservation including access control and SLA/policy enforcement

• Deployment, including services registration and synchronisation

• Operation including monitoring

• Decommissioning and recycling

February 13, 2012 9

Benefits of Orchestration

• Orchestration function allows the logic involved in interacting with multiple external systems to be isolated into separate workflows− These workflows can be redeveloped without the service request/service

access logic being modified

• Orchestration function acts as a co-ordination and management hub that both enables and controls the use of disparate systems, enable incorporation of Dell systems into and their reuse by other services

• Orchestration function can be involved in resource provisioning if required or this function can be performed by the services provision platform if it incorporate this functionality

• Specialised orchestration function allows activities to be automated as much as possible, reducing operating costs

• Specialised orchestration function allows changes to be implemented quickly to reflect the dynamic nature of services

February 13, 2012 10

Benefits of Orchestration

• Orchestration function allows the decision on implicit or explicit resource provisioning to be modified, either globally or for specific users, types of requests or types of services or any combination of these deciding factors

• Orchestration function can support multiple different workflows of different types and functions that can be used by multiple systems

• Steady-state operation of the underlying services infrastructure needs to be managed in a structured way using standard IT service management processes such as:− Incident Management

− Request Fulfillment

− Problem Management

− Release and Deployment Management

− Service Asset and Configuration Management

− Change Management

− Knowledge Management

− Service Level Management

− Event Management


Generalised Services Architecture

Service Presentation and Access Layer

Resource Provision Manage

Service Platform and Resources

Service

Management

Service

Governance

Su

pp

lyD

eli

ve

ryD

em

an

d

Service Service Service


Generalised Services Architecture

• Services architecture will consist of three functions

1. Demand for and usage of services, both existing and new

2. Delivery of services, both existing and new

3. Supply of services, both existing and new


Generalised Services Architecture - Detail

Infrastructure

Business

Support

Services

Operational

Support

Services

Service 1 Service 2

Service 3 Service 4

Services Management Services

Service

Creation

Service Usage/

Integration and

Access Tools

User Services

Event

Management

Security Policy

Service

Assurance

Data

Protection

Access and

Identity

Management

Governance

Security Resilience Consumability

Data Resilience

Resilience

Configuration

Resilience

Compliance

Resilience

Policy

Management

Ease of Doing

Business

User

Experience

Management

Adaptability

Ease of

Operations

Threat and

Vulnerability

Management

Security

Enforcement

Data Policy

Enforcement

Resilience

Monitoring

Availability/

Continuity

Management

Ease of

Integration


Operational Support and Business Support Services

• Within a services context , Operational Support Services (OSS) refers to internal systems that maintain details of services, orchestration, provisioning, managing service delivery, service assurance, customer service

• Business Support Services (BSS) refers to customer facing systems such as order management, revenue management, metering and usage management, pricing and billing management and customer management−Orchestration function can be used to interact with the BSS

functions where these are provided by existing systems

• OSS and BSS are terms borrowed from the Telecoms industry which is close to the service model many services companies are looking to implement


Operational Support and Business Support Services

Service

Delivery

Catalog

Service

Automation

Management

Service

Request

Management

Management Services

Operational Support Services (OSS)

Change

Management

Configuration

and Asset

Management

Image

Lifecycle

Management

(Release and

Deployment)

Resource

Provisioning

Incident

Management

Problem

Management

Monitoring

and Event

Management

IT Asset and

License

Management

Capacity and

Performance

Management

Opportunity

Management

Customer

Account

Management

Service

Offering

Catalog

Service

Offering

Management

Contracts and

Agreement

Management

Order

Management

Subscription

ManagementPricing

Entitlement

Management

Metering BillingClearing and

Settlement

Accounts

Payable

Business Support Services (BSS)

Continuity

and

Availability

Management

Platform

Management


Functional Layers Between the Consumers of Services and the Underlying Resources

Service Consumers

Applications and Services


Service and Related Management Systems

Service Internal Provisioning Function

Resources


Functional Layers Between the Consumers of Services and the Underlying Resources

• Service Consumers – these are the users (such as customers) of the service to whom resources will be allocated and whose request to access services will trigger orchestration and provisioning activities

• Applications and Services – these are the customer-facing set of applications and services that customers will use to request access to services and then access and use those services

• Orchestration Function – this is the orchestration facility that will co-ordinate the workflows that deliver on the processes relating to service access requests

• Service and Related Management Systems – these are the service platforms and their external and internal management functions that will be used by service consumers

• Service Internal Provisioning Function – these are the internal resource allocation/provisioning/management functions provided by the service platforms

• Resources – these are the resources provided to the service platforms that are allocated to service users


Functional Layer Interfaces

Service Consumers





Resources

1

2

3

4

5


Functional Layer Interfaces

1. Applications and Services – the customer will request directly or indirectly applications and services and will need to be able toaccess resources directly

2. Orchestration Function – the orchestration function will need to allow triggering of workflows and will need to provide information on the status of initiated workflows

3. Service and Related Management Systems – the service platforms will need to allow access to the services they provide

4. Service Internal Provisioning Function – the service platforms will have internal resource allocation management functions that mustprovide the ability to be interfaced with

5. Resources – the underlying resources that comprise the services being managed and provided by the service platforms will need tobe interfaced with for physical resource requests


Service Initial Request Functional Interaction

Service Consumers





Resources

1

2

3

4

5


Service Initial Request Functional Interaction

1. Service Consumers will interact with the Applications and Services to get initial access to services

2. Applications and Services will trigger a workflow in Orchestration Function to setup access rights in the required systems

3. The workflow initiated by the Orchestration Function will interface with Service and Related Management Systems to perform functions associated with initial access to services

4. One of the functions being interfaced with Service and Related Management Systems will be the Service Internal Provisioning Function for the platform to which access is requested

5. The Service Internal Provisioning Function will interface with the physical Resources that comprise the infrastructure where the services reside


Service Ongoing Usage Functional Interaction

Service Consumers





Resources

1

2

3

4


Service Ongoing Usage Functional Interaction

1. Service Consumers will access services using the Applications and Services

2. The Applications and Services layer will communicate directly with the Service and Related Management Systems to access resources and to modify (increase, decrease) the volume of resources beingconsumed

3. The Service and Related Management Systems will interface with Service Internal Provisioning Function to allocate/deallocate resources in response to implicit or explicit usage requests

4. The Service Internal Provisioning Function will interface with physical Resources that comprise the infrastructure where the services reside


Service Ongoing Service Management Functional Interaction

Service Consumers





Resources

2

Service Management

1

4

3


Service Ongoing Service Management Functional Interaction

• The Service Internal Provisioning Function may interact with theService Management function to provide details on resources thatare being provisioned (allocated) to feed into processes such ascapacity planning, change management, configuration management and others

• The Resources function may also interact with the Service Management function to provide details on resources that are being provisioned (allocated) to feed into processes such as capacity planning, change management, configuration management and others

• The Service Management function may trigger workflows within theOrchestration Function in response to changes in status of the Resources, such as capacity planning, change management, configuration management and others

• Service Consumers may also interact with the Service Management function to initiate processes such as incident management, problem management and others


Orchestration Process View

Self Service Portal Services Catalog

Users User Directory

Service Orchestration

Catalog

Platform/ Service

Platform/ Service

Provisioning Engine

Orchestration Activity

Database

Service Resource

Component 1

Service Resource

Component 1

Service Resource

Component 1

1

Opportunity

Management

Compliance

Management

Agreement

Management

Entitlement

Management


Billing Management

2

3

4

5

6

8

7

9

Credit Management

10


Orchestration Process View

• The user accesses services interface and completes the required information in order to get access

• The user details are entered into a user directory

• The services available will be displayed from some form of services catalog. This may or may not be a formal services catalog and may be implemented differently

• Associated with each service, there will be an orchestration workflow (or workflows) defined

• The services portal will enable access to the requested service using functions provided by the services platform

• The services platform will perform resource provisioning in response to service usage. This provisioning will be implicit and will not require the involvement of the orchestration function

• The provisioning component of the services will interact with the resources contained at the infrastructure layer and will allocate resources in response to service usage

• The interface will initiate the workflow within the orchestration function associated with enabling access to the requested service

• The workflow being executed by the orchestration function will access the required external systems and applications and perform the required functions

• The orchestration function will log and record its activities


User Lifecycle Management

Business

Support

Services

Operational

Support

Services

Services Platform

Services

1. Request Service

2. Integrate With

Service Function and

Asset and

Configuration

Management

3. Provision Service

4. Integrate With

Physical/Virtual

Resources

5. Discover and

Track Configuration

and Changes

10. Manage Service

Level Agreements

(SLAs)

8. Collect, Analyse,

Report And Bill

Based On Service

Usage And Agreed

Billing Plan

7. Realtime

Management And

Consolidation Of

Events Associated

With Service

6. Monitor Service

Delivery and

Operation and

Generate Alerts

9. Analyse Service

And Ensure

Alignment With

Service Levels


Use Cases Across the Life of the Customer’s Use of Services

1. Request Service – the user requests the service and goes through the various stages and steps involved in being able to use the service: service selection, credit check, compliance check, tax calculation, bill plan creation, agreement and entitlement creation and order

2. Integrate With Service Desk and Asset and Configuration Management – a new user will be notified to the service management system and their resource usage will be flagged within asset and configuration management

3. Provision Service – the service platform will allocate resources in response to usage requests from the customer

4. Integrate With Physical/Virtual Resources – the resource allocation/provisioning function within the service platform will integrate with the physical and virtual infrastructure layer to allocate resources

5. Discover and Track Configuration and Changes – as resources are allocated and deallocated dynamically, the configuration of the underlying resources will be discovered and tracked

6. Monitor Service Delivery and Operation and Generate Alerts – the operation and delivery of the overall service (to all customers) will be monitored and alerts will be generated in response to potential issues that need to be investigated and resolved

7. Realtime Management And Consolidation Of Events Associated With Service – events will be received in realtime from the service and its constituent components, consolidated if required and appropriate and handled and managed

8. Collect, Analyse, Report And Bill Based On Service Usage And Agreed Billing Plan – usage data will be collected, analyzed, be available for reporting and customers will be billed based on agreed billing rates

9. Analyse Service And Ensure Alignment With Service Levels – the overall service will be analyzed to ensure an appropriate level of service is being provided

10. Manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – individual service level agreements, if they exist and are offered will be monitored


Extended Customer Services Lifecycle

ConfigurationPricing and

Quotation

Review/

Approve

Accounting/

BillingCancellation

Initial Warranty

Support

Proactive

Support

Penalties/

Service Credits

Usage

Consumption

Collection

Recurring Billing

Change (Add/

Delete/

Remove)

Resource

Provisioning

Customer

Service

Upsell

Opportunity

ManagementCredit Check

Compliance

CheckTax Calculation

Agreement

Creation

Entitlement

Creation

Bill Plan

Creation

Access Rights

Creation

Sell/Order/

Trial

Service

ManagementConvert Trial

Modify

Entitlement

De-commission

and ReuseDisposal of Data Terminate


Customer Service Provider

Service Strategy

Service Operation

Service Transition

Service Design

Demand

Management

Financial

ManagementService

Portfolio

Management

Strategy

Management

Change

Management

Transition

Planning and

Support

Validation and

Testing

Release and

Deployment

Asset and

Configuration

Management

Knowledge

Management

Service

Assurance

Service

Management

Information

Security

Management

IT Service

Continuity

Management

Availability

Management

Capacity

Management

Service Catalog

Management

Supplier

Management

Service Level

Management

Service

Evaluation

Projects

Event

Management

Incident

Management

Request

Fulfilment

Problem

Management

Users

Service

ImprovementService

Reporting

Service

Measurement

Continual Service

Improvement

Access

Management

Operational

Activities


Service Management Architecture

• In terms of service management, the orchestration function can co-ordinate the integration of the services platform acting as an centralised hub

Orchestration

Function

Actions and

Events

Incidents and

Problems

Service

Management

Platforms

Integrated

View of

Services


Orchestration Emerging Standards and Initiatives

• OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)− Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA)

• http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=tosca

• http://tosca-open.org/

• http://www.tosca-open.org/downloads/TOSCA%20-%20Spec%20Draft%20-%20V0.8.2-C2.pdf

• GEYSERS Project - Generalised Architecture for Dynamic Infrastructure Services− http://www.geysers.eu/

• Unibus− www.mathcs.emory.edu/technical-reports/techrep-00230.pdf

− www.mathcs.emory.edu/uploaded-files/RPT-00195.pdf

• GEMbus− http://www.geant.net/Research/Multidomain_User_Application_Research/Pages/GEM

Bus.aspx

• Infrastructure Services On-Demand Provisioning Research Group (ISOD-RG)− http://www.ogf.org/gf/group_info/view.php?group=ISOD-RG


More Information

Alan McSweeney

[email protected]