According to research from Gartner Group, "80 percent of unplanned downtime is caused by people and process issues".

To explain further we need to examine the following:

Process Issues - the Change Management Process was bypassed or inadequately executed

People Issues - Simply that the change was planned or implemented incorrectly

This applies equally to server and PC configuration management as to network change management.

No processes = IT anarchy

A formalised Change Management process is vital in order to maximise the effectiveness of any change while minimising potential problems resulting from a configuration change being made.

Common sense quickly determines the need for some form of process. Imagine running your IT Service Delivery organisation without any processes and no Servicedesk to keep records on Incidents logged, no Knowledgebase to avoid re-inventing the wheel for recurring problems, no Impact Analysis to avoid creating more problems during planned maintenance?

The ITIL Change Management process is one of the key, central processes that should be understood and assimilated into an IT Service Delivery operation. Change Management as a process is intended to ensure that when changes are made, they are first verified as being completely necessary and adding some value to the organization. The process ensures that changes are well planned, documented and clearly communicated to ensure any potential negative impact from the change is understood and eliminated or minimized. The entire experience and knowledge of the enterprise is harnessed and greater efficiencies can be gained from ?one visit? fixes - i.e. a number of required changes can all be delivered during one planned maintenance window. A well maintained Configuration Management Database (CMDB) will often be used as a means of better understanding the ?downstream? effects of changes and or their impact on a number of critical business services.

The elements of ?verification? and ?communication? have meant that Change Management systems that focus on the workflow and documentation have often naturally resided alongside or within the Servicedesk tool.

The majority of changes to servers or to the network arise reactively in response to problems - i.e. fixes. In addition, changes can be driven as proactive measures to improve service delivery, for instance, adding extra capacity to a server or the network to improve performance or fault tolerance.

Whatever the drivers involved, changes are inevitable and in many organisations, hundreds of changes will be made each week, each and every one carrying the potential to create problems.

Research from IDC reports that "Operator error is the single largest source of outages, causing nearly 60 percent of overall infrastructure downtime" - IDC

Furthermore, the problem is made more acute by every network device and server becoming more complex in configuration terms over the last few years. For example, VLAN configuration used to be a premium feature on a network switch, but these days, everything from switches and routers, to firewalls, prioritizes and shapes traffic before encrypting it into secure tunnels, not to mention voice and video settings.

Research from EMA reports that 98% of security breaches to virtual systems will be as a result of configuration error.

Microsoft servers in particular present another level of challenge given that there are a wide range of configuration settings and attributes spread around the Operating System. Of course, servers are increasingly presented as virtualized entities which bring in a further factor of complexity to their configuration settings.

To summarise the Issues relating to Change Management

Changes are inevitable and therefore must be dealt with using proper planning and execution

A formalised change process is therefore essential in order to fully assess, verify, approve and test any changes made, with proper documentation and planning of what, how, where and when changes will be made

Any change carries a high potential to cause problems, even if it has been vetted through a rigorous Change Management Process first