Technical Audit

The lifecycle of an Enterprise Management project can often be long and protracted. In fact, well beyond the initial implementation phase, the project can still be evolving as new requirements come to light and as the user communities come to accept the new tools that are provided.

The initial stages of an Enterprise Management implementation could be likened to the laying of the foundations of the system, with the real prize of a fully functioning management solution serving the enterprise just around the corner. The foundation is normally established with a solid business case, with clear objectives and a coherent design.

As time goes by, however, it is often the case that Enterprise Management systems are compromised due to a number of factors, including change in the business, loss of focus on the original business goals, unmanaged change to the environment, or simply through the turnover of skilled staff trained to operate and maintain the environment. This can lead to ad hoc development outside of the bounds of the original architecture, or in cases of neglect to the disrepair of the environment. In such situations, it is wise to cease further development and conduct a comprehensive review of the system.

Whether you've run into problems with your environment, or simply need an expert's opinion concerning your environment, Orb Data can offer you a comprehensive review in the form of a Technical Audit. This service offers a 'point in time' investigation detailing the configuration of your environment, the use of the environment, the problems contained within the environment, and a set of recommendations to remedy the situation.

Scope.

The Technical Audit can be conducted in environments that contain one or more Tivoli Managed Regions (TMRs), running Tivoli Enterprise software of any version.

Deliverables.

You will receive a fully detailed report in two parts. The first part will provide an overview of the current state of the environment. This includes:

• An overview of the environment including server configurations and software configurations, including revision and patch levels
• Details of the Logical Design
• Details of the Administrators, their access rights, and a description of what management functions they can and can't perform
• Description of existing and potential problems (such as poor system performance, or lack of routine housekeeping), along with specific causes

The second part of the report will set out a series of recommendations on how the environment can be remedied and further developed to meet the objectives defined for the Enterprise Management system. Additionally, at the customer's request, Orb Data can scope out the resulting work, and provide the technical skills necessary to implement the changes.

Other areas of concern.

Our specialists can also perform similar audits on more specific areas of your environment. These areas include, but are not limited to:

• Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) server configuration
• TEC rule implementation
• RDBMS Interface Module (RIM) implementation, performance and tuning
• Endpoint policy and management
• Gateway/Repeater configuration
• Source code management