‘Mobile First–Cloud First’ Strategy – How About System Center – 05 – SCSM

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Advice to the reader
This posting is part of a series of articles. In order to get a full grasp of it, I strongly advise you to start at the beginning of it.

Other postings in the same series:
01 – Kickoff
02 – SCCM
03 – SCOrch
04 – SCDPM
06 – SCVMM
07 – SCOM

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In the fifth posting of this series I’ll write about how System Center Service Manager (SCSM) relates to Microsoft’s Mobile First – Cloud First strategy. Like SCOrch I think that SCSM isn’t going to make it to the cloud…

Ever heard of Service Desk?
The very start of SCSM was a bumpy ride. Originally it was code-named Service Desk and was tested back in 2006, with the release scheduled somewhere in 2008. The beta release ran on 32-bits(!) version of Windows Server 2003, with IIS 6.0, some .NET Frame work versions (of course), SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise.

Service Desk was really a beast. Terrible to install, a disaster to ‘run’ (it was slooooooooooooooow) and filled to the brim with bugs. Totally unworkable. Back then I was part of a test team which put the ‘latest & greatest’ of Microsoft’s products through its paces. The whole team was amazed about the pre-beta level of it. Never ever before we bumped into such crappy software. We even wondered whether we had received the proper beta bits…

So none of us was surprised when Microsoft pulled the plug on it and sent the developers back to their drawing boards. In the beginning of 2008 Microsoft officially announced it was delaying the release until 2010, because the beta release had performance and scalability issues. Duh!

Meanwhile a new name was agreed upon: Service Manager.

2010: Say hello to SCSM 2010
In 2010 the totally rewritten SCSM 2010 was publicly released at MMS, Las Vegas. For sure, the code base for SCSM 2010 was totally new, but somehow the developers had succeeded in bringing back some of the issues which plagued Service Desk: performance and scalability issues… Ouch!

Because SCSM 2010 was really the first version (totally rewritten code remember?) it missed out on a lot of functionality. As a result Microsoft quickly brought out Service Pack 1 for it, somewhere in the end of 2010. For SCSM 2010 SP1 in total 4 cumulative updates were published, alongside a few hotfixes.

From 2012x to 2016 in a nutshell
Sure with every new version (2012, 2012 SP1, 2012 R2 and 2016) the performance and scalability issues were partially addressed, but never they really disappeared. As a result SCSM has a track record for being slow and resource hungry. For SCSM 2016 Microsoft claims that data processing throughout has been increased by 4 times.

None the less, the requirements for SCSM 2016 are still something to be taken seriously. For instance, Microsoft recommends physical hosts, 8-core CPU’s and so on. The number of required systems can run over 10+(!), especially when you want to use Data Warehouse cubes and the lot. Even for enterprises this is quite an investment for just ONE tool.

Also with every new version, additional functionality was added. For instance, SCSM 2016 introduced a HTML based Self Service Portal. Unfortunately, the first version of that portal had some serious issues, most of them addressed in Update Rollup #2.

All in all, the evolution from SCSM 2010 up to SCSM 2016 UR#2 has been quite a bumpy ride with many challenges and issues.

Deep integration
Of course, SCSM offers a lot of good stuff as well. It’s just that SCSM is – IMHO – the component of the SC stack with the most challenges. One of the things I like about SCSM is the out-of-the-box integration with other tools and environments.

SCSM can integrate with AD, other System Center stack components (SCOM, SCCM, SCVMM and SCOrch). And – still in preview – you can use the IT Service Management Connector (ITSMC) in OMS Log Analytics to centrally monitor and manage work items in SCSM. As a result, the underlying CMDB is enriched with tons of additional information for the contained CI’s.

SCSM & Azure
At this moment – besides the earlier mentioned ITSMC in OMS – there are no other Azure Connectors available, made by Microsoft that is. There are some open source efforts, like the Azure Automation SCSM Connector on GitHub. But as far as I know, it isn’t fully functional.

Other companies like Gridpro and Cireson, are offering their solutions. But since these companies do have to earn a living as well, their solutions don’t come for free, adding additional costs to your SCSM investment. Still, some of their solutions resolve SCSM pain points for once and for all. So in many cases these products deserve at least a POC.

But still the Azure integration is limited. On top of it all, Microsoft itself doesn’t offer any Azure based SCSM alternatives. Azure Marketplace offers a few third party Service Management solutions (like Avensoft nService for instance) but none of them Microsoft based.

Of course, you could  install SCSM on Azure VMs, but shouldn’t since it’s a resource savvy product, which would bump up Azure consumption (and thus the monthly bill) BIG time.

No Roadmap?!
Until now Microsoft is pretty unclear about their future investments in SCSM. There is nowhere a roadmap to be found. So no one knows – outside Microsoft that is – what will happen with SCSM in the near future. Will there ever be a new version after SCSM 2016? I don’t know for sure. But the signs are the tell tale sign their won’t be…

ServiceNow
In the last years the online service management solution ServiceNow has seen an enormous push and growth. Not just in numbers but also in products and services.

Basically ServiceNow delivers – among tons of other things – SCSM functionality in the cloud. Fast, and reliable. It just works. Also it integrates with many environments, tools and the lot.

Verdict
SCSM has a troublesome codebase which isn’t easily converted to Azure without (again ) a required rewrite. When looking at where SCSM stands today, the reputation it has, I dare to say it’s end of the line for SCSM. No follow up in the cloud, nor a phased migration (like SCDPM or SCCM) to it.

Instead Microsoft is silent about the future of SCSM which on itself says a lot. One doesn’t need to speak in order to get the message across.

Combined with the power of ServiceNow, fully cloud based, it’s time to move on. When you don’t run SCSM now, stay away from it. Because anything you put into that CMDB must be migrated to another Service Management solution sooner or later. Instead it’s better to look for alternatives, using todays technologies to the fullest, like ServiceNow or Avensoft nService. For sure, there are other offerings as well. POC them and when they adhere to your company’s standards, use them.

When already running SCSM, upgrade it to the 2016 version. It has Mainstream Support till 11th of January 2022. Time enough to look out for alternatives, whether on-premise or in the cloud. Because SCSM won’t move to the cloud nor will Microsoft invest heavily in it like it did before it adopted their Mobile First – Cloud First strategy.

So don’t wait until it’s 2022, but move away from SCSM before that year, so you can do things on your own terms and speed, not dictated by an end-of-life date set for an already diminishing System Center stack component.

Coming up next
In the sixth posting of this series I’ll write about SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager). See you all next time.