Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services

Book description

Measure, manage, and improve the speed and reliability of web services

  • Complete reference for creating relevant, effective Service Level Agreements

  • Detailed discussions of both technical and business performance metrics and their statistical treatment

  • Performance and management implications of various web services delivery infrastructures, including caching and load distribution

  • Discussion of the transport infrastructure, including quality of service (QoS) technology and traffic shaping

  • Instrumentation system design

  • Measurement collection, aggregation, correlation, and use for real-time service level control and reporting

  • Quick problem detection, "triage" problem diagnosis, and root-cause analysis

  • Automated, policy-based system management

  • Load testing, modeling, and capacity planning for web systems

  • Calculation of return on investment for web infrastructure improvements

  • Structured plan for implementation of SLM techniques

  • The web has become a major vehicle for transforming business processes, but ineffective management of web-based services can result in high costs and user dissatisfaction. Service Level Management (SLM) is therefore a competitive weapon in the web marketplace, providing the tools needed to improve performance and reliability of web services while simultaneously controlling costs.

    Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services shows you how you can measure, manage, and improve network performance and quality of experience (QoE) for critical web services. Starting with an explanation of SLM and common performance metrics, the book provides detailed discussions of methods to measure and improve performance. Service Level Agreements, instrumentation, performance-improvement technologies, load testing, and long-term planning are all covered in detail. This book provides both technical engineers and non-technical managers with an organized, cohesive plan for measuring, improving, and evaluating the performance of web-based services.

    Whether you are delivering services to other businesses or directly to customers, Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services walks you through the complete process of designing a balanced solution for your situation. Use it to help design a system with the speed, reliability, and flexibility that are critical success factors for your business.

    This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. Acknowledgments
    3. About the Authors
    4. About the Technical Reviewers
    5. Preface
    6. Service Level Agreements and Introduction to Service Level Management
      1. Introduction
        1. E-business Services
        2. Webbed Services and the Webbed Ecosystem
        3. Service Level Management
        4. Structure of the Book
        5. Summary
      2. Service Level Management
        1. Overview of Service Level Management
        2. Introduction to Technical Metrics
        3. Measurement Granularity
        4. Measurement Validation and Statistical Analysis
        5. Business Process Metrics
        6. Service Level Agreements
        7. Summary
      3. Service Management Architecture
        1. Web Service Delivery Architecture
        2. Service Management Architecture: History and Design Factors
        3. Service Management Architecture: A General Example
        4. Summary
    7. Components of the Service Level Management Infrastructure
      1. Instrumentation
        1. Differences Between Element and Service Instrumentation
        2. Information for Service Management Decisions
        3. Instrumentation Modes: Trip Wires and Time Slices
        4. The Instrumentation System
        5. Instrumentation Design for Service Monitoring
        6. Instrumentation Trends
        7. Summary
      2. Event Management
        1. Event Management Overview
        2. Basic Event Management Functions: Reducing the Noise and Boosting the Signal
        3. A Market-Leading Event Manager: Micromuse
        4. Summary
      3. Real-Time Operations
        1. Reactive Management
        2. Proactive Management
        3. Automated Responses
        4. Examples of Commercial Operations Managers
        5. Summary
      4. Policy-Based Management
        1. Policy-Based Management
        2. The Need for Policies
        3. A Policy Architecture
        4. Policy Design
        5. Policy Product Examples
        6. Summary
      5. Managing the Application Infrastructure
        1. Interaction of Operations and Application Development Teams
        2. Application-Level Metrics
        3. Transaction Response Time: An Example of Dependence on Lower-Level Services
        4. Instrumenting Applications
        5. Summary
      6. Managing the Server Infrastructure
        1. Architecture of the Server Infrastructure
        2. Instrumentation of the Server Infrastructure
        3. Summary
      7. Managing the Transport Infrastructure
        1. Technical Quality Metrics for Transport Services
        2. QoS Technologies
        3. Managing Data Flows Among Organizations
        4. Summary
    8. Long-term Service Level Management Functions
      1. Load Testing
        1. The Performance Envelope
        2. Load Testing Benchmarks
        3. Load Test Beds and Load Generators
        4. Building Transaction Load-Test Scripts and Profiles
        5. Using the Test Results
        6. Summary
      2. Modeling and Capacity Planning
        1. Advantages of Simulation Modeling
        2. Complexity of Simulation Modeling
        3. Simulation Model Examples
        4. Capacity Planning
        5. Summary
    9. Planning and Implementation of Service Level Management
      1. ROI: Making the Business Case
        1. Impact of ROI on the Organization
        2. A Basic ROI Model
        3. Soft Benefits
        4. ROI Case Study
        5. Summary
      2. Implementing Service Level Management
        1. Phased Implementation of SLM
        2. An SLM Project Implementation Plan
        3. Summary
      3. Future Developments
        1. The Demands of Speed and Dynamism
        2. Evolution of Management Systems Integration
        3. Architectural Trends for Web Management Systems
        4. Business Goals for Service Performance
        5. Finding the Best Tools
        6. Summary
    10. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services
    • Author(s): John McConnell, Eric Siegel
    • Release date: January 2004
    • Publisher(s): Cisco Press
    • ISBN: 9781587050794