Deploy, Manage, & Track Infrastructure Services at Scale
Itential’s Lifecycle Manager (LCM) enables teams to effortlessly define and review data models across all facets of your network infrastructure. This robust application simplifies the creation of models, ensuring your data remains up to date through workflows adept in CRUD operations.
Providing clear oversight and management of your applications and services, LCM acts as a flexible and logical command center for navigating the complexities of network services, orchestrating resources and data with precision and ease.
- Adaptable Resource Models: Craft and store detailed, persistent data schemas from various sources, tailored to a device or service process.
- Tailored Actions: Utilize workflows to adaptively update and advance service data and infrastructure through its lifecycle stages.
- Snapshot View: Take a quick, comprehensive look at all service instances and their current states.
- Chronicle History: Keep a detailed log of all actions and modifications for thorough, retrospective analysis.
Itential’s Lifecycle Management Capabilities
Whether it’s tracking granular details of a single network device, like firmware version or ACL configurations, or managing intricate network services that span routers, firewalls, and IT systems, Itential’s Lifecycle Manager can manage it all.
Resource Tracking Variety
Keep tabs on a broad spectrum of resources, from individual device configurations to overarching service details and statuses.
Standardized Definitions
Utilize JSON Schema to identify the criteria for the resource information you wish to track.
Workflow Automation
Implement workflows as actions to streamline common management tasks and keep resource information current.
Operational Visibility
Instantly access the operational status of any network service under your purview.
Lifecycle Management Use Cases
Unified Tracking of Network Service Resources
Every network service is composed of specific identifiers and allocated resources. Itential’s adaptable resource model excels by centralizing data from disparate systems — whether it involves network elements like resources and security policies or non-technical aspects such as service requests and customer details. By tracking these elements over time with automatic updates from their sources, your teams are perpetually in sync with the current operational landscape.
Comprehensive Resource Models
Create flexible resource models encompassing all service-related technical and non-technical details.
Seamless Orchestration
Guide infrastructure transitions smoothly as services evolve through various stages.
Integration & Federation
Integrate with network, sources of truth, and IT systems to federate and track service data over time.
Comprehensive Device Upgrades & Audit Trail
Lifecycle Manager offers a high-resolution lens to view and manage each device’s evolution. Automate software upgrades and refresh details for an array of devices with efficiency.
Resource Data Tracking
Establish models to supervise software versions, configuration snippets, and update timelines.
Critical Device Reporting
Identify and prioritize essential devices, streamlining updates and upgrades.
Automated Upgrades
Simplify the software upgrade process for network devices while keeping track of pertinent details.
Status Summaries
Access a comprehensive summary of all devices and their update statuses whenever needed.
Simplify Complex Network Service Management
Orchestrate the most complex network services with workflows that automate infrastructure management and track related information. As services transition through stages, Lifecycle Manager ensures all details are consistently updated, streamlining service management.
In-Depth Resource Models
Establish a model for complex services, encompassing data from network, cloud, and IT systems.
Instantaneous Service Provisioning
Automate service launch, capturing important details from various systems instantly.
Insightful Service Reports
Generate reports for a clear view on service utilization and resource allocation.
Phase-by-Phase Automation
Execute workflows to manage changes for each service phase while preserving updated details.
Real-Time Operational Status
Maintain a constantly updated snapshot of your network services and operational status.
Effective Management of Long-Duration Network Processes
Some stages in the provisioning of network services may require a longer-term time span before completion. With Itential’s Lifecycle Manager, you can align these processes with your business operations, ensuring no stage is neglected, no matter the time frame.
Stage Definition
Outline the phases for long-term processes, integrating both internal and external resource tracking.
Progressive Updates
Employ workflows that adapt and progress stages, keeping your operations on track.
Constant Reporting
Access current reports at any time to verify that extended-stage processes are progressing as planned.
Policy Compliance & Network Service Management
Enforcing and tracking policies for various network services can be resource intensive. Lifecycle Manager automates and simplifies this process, from policy-driven deactivation timers to compliance with device-specific operations.
Policy-Specific Models
Outline policies including configurations, security parameters, and business requirements.
Automated Service Creation
Streamline infrastructure service deployment and update associated resource data effortlessly.
Automated Policy Enforcement
Enable workflows to quickly identify and modify the status of services to align with business-driven policies.
Comprehensive Service Reports
Generate detailed reports of services affected by automated policy enforcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to track data for automation and orchestration?
No, automating network changes and orchestrating end-to-end processes can both be successfully accomplished without tracking the state of resources and data.
When should I use Lifecycle Manager?
Organizations that move toward providing network infrastructure as a service at scale may want to use LCM to simplify management of these services through their different stages.
What data is tracked with Lifecycle Manager?
LCM is not limited to tracking just network related data, you have the ability to track any type of information from any integrated source. This allows teams to track any service related resources like customer ids, ticket numbers, utilized network and cloud resources, dates, etc.
How do I define the data to be tracked for a service?
A resource model is created using JSON Schema which defines the data to be tracked for a service. Data is defined as standard JSON key:value pairs and can be as simple or as complex as needed for the type of service.
Where is the resource data stored?
When LCM creates an instance for a service, a unique JSON object is created based on the defined resource model. Values for this object instance are populated by workflow Actions and stored in the local Itential data store.
What are Actions in Lifecycle Manager?
Actions are workflows, created in Automation Studio, that are built to operate on a service. By default, Create, Update and Delete actions are provided for all LCM models. LCM designers can define more actions as needed for any given model.
Does Lifecycle Manager become the source of truth for networks?
No, LCM is not designed to become the source of truth for a service instance. Instead, it federates service data together from different sources of truth in order to make managing network services more efficient at scale.
