IT Operations and IT Applications Differences

IT Operations and IT Applications differences is , generally speaking. Yet, some functions overlap in some area. IT applications is usually in charge of business analysis, design, coding, testing, and custom software deployment and IT Operations is not. The two functions overlap in the following areas:

• Off-the-shelf software installation and configuration for business applications support
• Database maintenance – Applications and users maintain the database from a database integrity viewpoint; Operations maintains it from an efficiency and processing viewpoint (cleaning up deleted records, reindexing, creating new indexes and views, backing up, etc.)
• Troubleshooting applications
• Monitoring application performance and issues, and alerting emergency resources when a problem occurs (call trees)
• Telecom configuration for communication with business partners, customers, and other entities (ex., FTP, EDI, e-commerce connections for ordering, copying data between servers, etc.)
• Help Desk – Help Desk duties are sometimes split between an IT Applications Help Desk and an IT Operations Help Desk
• Job scheduling management to insure that all required jobs run according to schedule on all platforms
• Financial system auditing – Insuring financials are secured according to regulatory and security requirements (including Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, auditing, and other requirements)
• Integrating specialized equipment with particular applications – This may include scanners, industrial printers, display terminals, thin clients, tablets, cell phones, etc.

Organizing your IT Operations department

The IT Operations sub-areas defined above along with shared functions between IT Operations and IT Applications, are one way of organizing the operations group in an overall IT organization. Different IT organizations will organize their departments in different ways, depending on their own needs and resources. The idea behind documenting these functions is to provide a template for Data Center planning, organization and talent acquisition.

It’s also important to note that whether you run an in-house Data Center, run your IT environment in a managed or hosted environment, or move your applications to the cloud, an IT Operations department will have to deal with these functions, regardless of where your physical network is located. Most of these functions are universal; it’s only their implementation that varies in different environments.

E-SPIN specialized and helping enterprise customer from the transition to IT Operation Management for breakthrough business and productivity. Feel free to contact E-SPIN for various requirement, from process, system, tool, people education/training to managed services.