Read about the bread and butter feature that enables your ITSM system to run smoothly
In our previous blog we talked about the ITSM trends you need to know and the exciting things to expect in 2020. To follow on from this, this next blog is going to focus on the bread and butter of an ITSM system. This is a feature which, if used correctly, enables the system to run smoothly and can be viewed as an ongoing service for your system. What is this feature?! Archiving!
In general, ITSM applications like many business applications, are fancy interfaces built with the main aim of storing data and to present this data to the user in the most relevant way. What sits behind any ITSM system (no matter if it is BMC Remedy ITSM, ServiceNow or Cherwell) is a database consisting of tables, columns and rows. The ITSM interface is making this data understandable and user-friendly so that operations and the business can make decisions on their daily work. Imagine millions of queries toward the database per day to retrieve relevant data and transform it into valuable information – this process works quite nicely!
“Slowness in opening a page, long running
queries, not being able to submit a ticket…”
After a while, however, performance issues start to occur. Slowness in opening a page, long running queries and even users not being able to submit a ticket. Sound familiar? Having excessive data causes the same issue as having no data – the data is not available to the user. Clicking on a button within the ITSM interface is making a query towards a table with millions and millions of records. The applications are doing their best, but it is not always enough no matter how tuned some of the queries are.
Don’t delay – archive now!
Although it is recommended to plan the archive policies at the beginning of an ITSM implementation, in my experience, it is always considered when the performance issues happen. Fear not! It is not too late to define your archiving policies and start the archive process. It will only benefit you in the long run. Get going today and don’t delay!
“It is not too late to define your archiving
policies and start the archiving process”
Easier said than done, right? Some questions which come to mind might be: “Will I lose access to my data?” or “What about data retention?”.
Don’t panic about losing data. It can be fully controlled by the archive policies, what data to be deleted and what data to be moved in specially created archive tables. The data moved in the archive can be used for reporting, so you still have the data, it is only removed from your daily operational tables, thus increasing performance.
The benefits
So what is the benefit of moving the data from your production tables to the archive tables? Do you remember the queries from the beginning of the blog? The million ones? Running queries towards your production table with less records gets speedier results, so you can see the data quickly. Simple!
It is recommended to run your archive processes frequently as this improves performance.
All ITSM platforms have archiving features and are now providing out of the box functionalities and archive policies which can be used for defining and implementing the archive process. Therefore, it is never too late to start archiving!
Maria Popova
Consultant, Xcession
