Optimized Computing - InScope Solutions

Government

According to studies by various organizations, including Gartner Group, the largest costs associated with any automated system are the administration of the production environment and the inefficient use of the hardware/software resources that make up the automated system(s). The InScope team will architect, develop, and implement solutions using industry-proven technologies to minimize administrative burdens and maximize the use of every dollar invested.

Configuration/Change Management

InScope delivers solutions that incorporate methodology, process, and tools to address end-to-end automation of system lifecycle management, including application release management, configuration management, and compliance. InScope’s configuration/change management solutions include:

Configuration Management Policy Audit

One of the keys to effectively managing the configuration status of IT assets is to have clear and effective policies and processes that govern both Configuration Management and Change Management. As part of our Policy and Procedure Audit service, the InScope Optimized Computing Solutions (OCS) analyst works with the client’s Configuration Management manager to review all policy and procedure documentation and compare them to industry best practices such as components from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and DoD best practices. The result of this effort is an extensive gap analysis that provides an organization with a detailed list of areas for improvement, and a comprehensive strategy for developing and/or refining the existing Configuration Management organization and associated policies, processes and tools.

Configuration/Change Control Board Support

As organizations mature, they tend to institute Change Control Boards (CCB) as part of their IT teams. InScope understands the important role a CCB plays in the overall operational efficiency of an organization, and provides clients with the appropriate mechanisms to control change. The InScope team works hand-in-hand with our Configuration Management clients to develop/refine CCB charters and make certain the appropriate power, procedures and membership are documented for success. As required, the InScope team will either Chair or Co-Chair the CCB for our clients until the organization is fully prepared to assume that vital role. In most cases, we also serve as technical advisors to ensure all changes are properly tested and reviewed prior to implementation.

Configuration/Change Management Automation

To assist our clients in managing the ever-growing volume of new system releases and system changes, the InScope team has developed a suite of solutions that help clients minimize the human effort associated with configuration/change management. Through partnerships with industry-leading software vendors such as BladeLogic, InScope has developed solutions that automate many of the tasks associated with Configuration Management. Our end-to-end solutions are designed to provide clients with complete and robust Configuration Management Databases (CMDB), which are the centralized repositories where all Configuration Management related artifacts and data are housed. To further advance automation, InScope developed solutions to manage the complex task of Production Release Management, drastically reducing the overhead associated with introducing new business features. Finally, the InScope solution takes the guess work out of change. Our solutions provide clients with automated mechanisms to track, audit, and validate both authorized and unauthorized changes, and provide real time “gold image” compliance verification.

Storage Optimization

Through the use of technologies such as centralized storage management and consolidation, InScope delivers solutions that are focused on driving storage resource utilization. Our solutions maximize storage value by minimizing wasted space and increasing manageability. InScope’s Storage Optimization solutions include:

Storage Architecture

InScope understands how to maximize the value of dollars spent on storage. We work with our clients to define/refine their storage operations objectives (availability, reliability, manageability, speed of deployment, etc.). With a complete understanding of these drivers, the InScope team then selects the technology that best suits the environment which not only includes online storage, but near-line and offline storage solutions.

Storage Implementation

InScope engineers are skilled in the deployment of multiple SAN/NAS technologies from NetWork Appliance, Hitachi, and EMC. Our team works to properly layout fibre channel fabrics, define effective disk partition strategies, develop multi-level RAID plans, implement near-line and off-line backup/recovery solutions, and define the process of managing these various solutions.

Storage Management

In order to maximize our clients’ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as it pertains to storage, InScope focuses on the following key management areas to optimize storage use and utilization:

Proactive volume management – Use volume and journaling technologies to ensure that when storage needs increase, these needs can be addressed proactively with zero impact to operations.
Proactive storage utilization – Identify tool sets that unify and simplify the overall management of heterogeneous storage solutions.
Data vaulting and archive – Leverage market leading archive solutions, such as Symantec’s EVault, to create data archives of critical information. This provides unparalleled access to critical data over time as well as drastically decreasing overall storage requirements while providing unique mechanisms for advanced backup/recovery as well as disaster recovery.

System Virtualization

InScope delivers solutions that employ a wide variety of virtualization and abstraction techniques. InScope’s System Virtualization (SV) solutions ensure that our clients can maximize the value of their hardware and software capital assets, and minimize data center floor space through resource consolidation while reducing overall administrative overhead.

System Monitoring/Performance Management

InScope delivers solutions that provide our clients with both proactive insight into overall system health/capacity through the use of advanced monitoring tools and a framework for end-to-end transaction monitoring and bottleneck management to successfully administer and manage Service Level Agreements (SLA). This fusion can ultimately enable the delivery of “capacity on demand” solutions.

Clients

InScope delivers Optimized Operations solutions across both commercial and federal organizations including:

Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority
Surface Distribution and Deployment Command
Air Force Material Command
Military Sealift Command
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Small Business Administration