A generic model for IT services and service management

Whereas network and system components were in the focus of management research in previous years, nowadays management of services dominates management activities. We are witnessing a paradigm shift from device-oriented to service-oriented management, and with this the need to deal with new challenging management issues. The management of the underlying infrastructure with respect to the delivered services and agreed service level agreements is certainly the fundamental challenge. It is easy to see that all research questions center around the new managed object service and its integration with existing device-oriented managed objects (network devices, end systems, applications). Thus, the development of a common definition of a service in terms of a common generic service model is essential.