Service Modeling Language may be the “missing link” for closing the gap between Services and the underlying IT infrastructure.
Service Modeling Language (SML) is a XML-based specification that tackles the difficult task of consistently representing how computer networks, applications, servers and other IT resources are described or modeled so businesses can more easily manage the services that are built on these resources.
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After attending the Service Desk’s “preview” last Microsoft TechDays at Lisbon I do have some notes on this promising product.
They got it right regarding usability and already existing Microsoft technology. The strong points I see:
Integration
SMS – Inventory, CMDB related activities support
MOM – Automatic Incident creation, knowledge base
SharePoint – Knowledge base
InfoPath – Customized forms (really flexible this part)
Outlook – Approval and notification tool
Powershell – Scripting
Workflow Foundation .NET – Workflow
For the first two an umbrella called System Center gathers tools for Service Management. Service Desk closes neatly the basic Service Support underlying technology.
Serge Thorn is currently in charge of IT Research & Innovation at Merck Serono International SA and maintains an excellent blog on IT Governance hot topic domains.
His analysis are thorough and focus on hot themes like SOA (look for it on ITIL v3) and Enterprise Architecture (Open Group’s TOGAF is one frameworks talked about).
Serge updates it regularly but not too often (thank God! Saves blog bandwith…) . Check it at: Serge Thorn’s IT Blog
Novell announcement of a Desktop-to-Data Centre Management Blueprint based on the set of IT operations management best practices.
Interesting mix of open source stuff with ITIL. Basically, it dwelves around an open management architecture, open source tools with the Data Centre in mind (think machine virtualization).
ITIL Blues 