HP Eases IT Admin Headache With Service Anywhere

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard has officially launched its Service Anywhere platform to make the life of the IT manager that little bit easier.

Service Anywhere is a software as a service (SaaS) IT service management (ITSM) platform that integrates HP technologies such as Universal Configuration Management Database (UCMDB), which manages services, applications and hardware across the IT environment.

Cloud Service

The platform, which can be delivered as a service through the cloud, is designed to enable users to resolve IT incidents and ensure availability of critical services. Entry-level pricing is expected to start at $89 (£56) per user per month.

The solution features an intuitive user interface and is populated and maintained with HP’s Universal Discovery software, which automates discovery and dependency mapping of relevant IT elements. Service Anywhere also provides service desk capabilities, including the handling of inbound requests and IT service configuration information as well as incident, problem and change management.

Also included are social collaboration for sharing and recording advice and communications; they can also improve first call resolution (FCR) rates, shorten handling times, and reduce escalations by alerting and engaging the right representatives to resolve issues. In addition, the platform manages and supports end-to-end delivery of required services and runs on a service that HP said guarantees 99.9 percent availability for clients, as well as enhanced security.

“IT service desk solutions need to easily adapt to changing enterprise environments to ensure the best support experience to users,” Lee Nackman, HP’s vice president and general manager for service and portfolio management software, said in a statement. “As a native SaaS application, Service Anywhere offers clients a feature-rich solution that is quick and easy to deploy, maintain and upgrade.”

Service Anywhere is a component of the HP IT Performance Suite, the next-generation enterprise performance software platform that enables IT management to improve performance with operational intelligence. The suite includes IT strategy and governance software, security intelligence products, operations and information management, and other software platforms.

HP deploys Service Anywhere using infrastructure located at an HP data centre facility, monitors the system for 24/7 availability, and provides related 24/7 infrastructure support, including application version upgrades, application service packs and patch installation. The company’s SaaS data centres are equipped with built-in high availability, redundancy and failover-supporting infrastructure.

Cloud Protection

To protect its internal environment, HP SaaS has implemented numerous physical security measures, firewalls and routers, access control lists, operating system hardening and other processes. Each data centre is equipped with physical protection, such as video cameras on all access points and along the perimeter, key card access and ID cards. Additional security measures include having strong password policies, two-factor authentication for network devices, and controlled access to database or system passwords.

As part of HP’s approach to risk management, the company has developed processes and procedures to recover from potential disaster scenarios. To provide for the unlikely scenario of a total data centre loss, HP SaaS replicates all customer data for storage at an alternate data centre.

All data centres have spare capacity, which enables the company to move critical services from an affected data centre. Database export for Service Anywhere and database backup are retained for the most recent five days, and all file systems run on clustered, network-attached storage (NAS) that is mirrored and features Redundant array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage.

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