Optimizing IT Monitoring with ITIL 4 & PeopleCert’s Accredited Tools

This article tries to explore how ITIL 4 framework applies to observability and monitoring and how the PeopleCert’s ITIL 4-aligned Accredited Tool Vendors (ATV) programme provides significant benefits for organizations seeking to implement effective tools in their IT operations.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital world, organizations across various industries, including healthcare, finance, retail, manufacturing, government and non-profit sectors, are undergoing rapid digital transformations. As businesses increasingly adopt digital technologies to enhance operations and drive innovation, their IT landscapes have expanded significantly. The proliferation of cloud services, SaaS/API integrations, microservices architectures, containers and distributed systems has created complex ecosystems that are challenging to manage and monitor effectively. This often results in the use of multiple tools for monitoring and managing services. According to a survey by 451 Research, the average IT and security team uses between 10 and 30 monitoring tools. ^[1]
The challenge extends beyond merely collecting data; organizations must integrate these tools into an overarching IT Service Management (ITSM) framework that supports the entire service value chain. As IT professionals and service managers navigate this complexity, ITIL 4 has emerged as a crucial framework that emphasizes a Service Value Stream-based approach towards IT landscape for successful service management.

Image: Market Study Infrastructure Monitoring Tools [2]

The evolution of value streams-based approach in ITIL 4
ITIL 4 represents a significant evolution from previous versions, shifting from a process-focused approach to a more holistic service value system. This transformation acknowledges the reality that modern IT services are complex, interdependent and require comprehensive visibility across multiple dimensions. Organizations implementing ITIL 4 report better alignment between IT monitoring and business outcomes compared to previous ITIL versions.

From Reactive Monitoring to Proactive Observability
Traditional IT monitoring has typically focused on tracking predefined metrics and generating alerts when thresholds are exceeded. While this approach remains valuable, IT thought leaders recognized its limitations in complex, dynamic environments where the relationships between components and potential failure modes are not always predictable.

Modern approaches to ITSM embrace the concept of observability, which extends beyond basic monitoring to provide deeper insights into system behaviour. Observability encompasses three key pillars:
1. Logs: Record of events and transactions that occur within systems
2. Metrics: Quantitative measurements of system performance and behaviour
3. Traces: End-to-end tracking of requests as they flow through distributed systems

Image: DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)[3]

By leveraging these three data types, IT teams can gain comprehensive visibility into their environments and answer not just “what” is happening but “why” it’s happening. Research from DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) indicates that organizations with high observability capabilities are more likely to be elite performers in software delivery performance.^[2]

ITIL 4’s Service Value Chain provides a flexible operating model for creating, delivering and improving services. Observability and monitoring activities are woven throughout this ITIL 4 Service Value Chain:

• Plan: Using historical monitoring data to inform capacity planning and service design
• Improve: Leveraging observability insights to identify opportunities for optimization
• Engage: Sharing relevant monitoring data with stakeholders to manage expectations
• Design & Transition: Incorporating monitoring requirements into service design specifications
• Obtain/Build: Implementing monitoring and observability tooling
• Deliver & Support: Using real-time monitoring to maintain service levels and detect incidents

This integration ensures that observability efforts directly support service delivery and improvement.

© PeopleCert

ITIL 4’s guiding principles directly influence its approach to monitoring and observability:

• Focus on value: Monitoring should concentrate on metrics that matter to service outcomes
• Start where you are: Leverage existing monitoring tools while gradually enhancing capabilities
• Progress iteratively with feedback: Continuously refine monitoring approaches based on feedback
• Collaborate and promote visibility: Share monitoring data across teams to break down silos
• Think and work holistically: Monitor end-to-end service experiences, not just individual components
• Keep it simple and practical: Avoid monitoring overload by focusing on actionable insights
• Optimize and automate: Automate routine monitoring tasks to focus human attention on analysis

These principles ensure that monitoring stays aligned with business goals and service value.

Organizations face several challenges when implementing effective monitoring and observability practices.

Tool sprawl and integration issues
Many organizations have accumulated numerous monitoring tools over time, each addressing specific needs but often operating in silos. This tool sprawl creates fragmented visibility across the IT landscape, difficulty correlating alerts and events across tools, inconsistent data formats and metrics, higher operational costs and complexity, and training burdens on IT staff.

A survey by Enterprise Management Associates found that 65% of enterprises use more than 10 different monitoring tools, while 36% use more than 20 tools.^[3]  This proliferation significantly complicates the monitoring landscape.

Data volume and signal-to-noise ratio
Modern IT systems generate enormous volumes of monitoring data. Key challenges include distinguishing meaningful signals from noise, managing alert fatigue among IT staff, storing and processing large volumes of telemetry data cost-effectively, and identifying patterns and correlations across multiple data streams.

According to Dynatrace research in 2023, IT and security teams spend a significant portion of their time dealing with alert-related issues, which can result in substantial costs for organizations. For instance, a 2023 Dynatrace Global CISO Report indicated that development and application security teams spend nearly a third (28%) of their time on vulnerability management tasks, including chasing false positives.^[4]

Alignment with service management practices
Many monitoring tools focus on technical metrics rather than service outcomes, creating gaps between technical monitoring and business impact assessment, difficulty in translating technical incidents into service context, challenges in prioritizing incidents based on service importance, and limited ability to translate monitoring data into business value.

A study by IDC revealed that 78% of organizations report a disconnect between their monitoring capabilities and their ability to assess business impact during service disruptions.^[5]

When evaluating tools for ITIL alignment, IT professionals encounter various certification frameworks. Understanding these approaches helps organizations make informed decisions about tool selection.

Certification landscape overview
The IT service management tool certification landscape includes:

• PeopleCert’s Accredited Tool Vendors (ATV) programme aligned with ITIL 4
• Traditional industry certification programmes
• Vendor self-certification and compatibility statements

 
Practical considerations for organizations
When deciding which certification framework to prioritize in tool selection, organizations should consider:

• ITIL maturity: ATV’s criteria may be more relevant for those invested in ITIL 4, while traditional assessments might suit those transitioning from process-focused implementations.
• Evaluation scope: ATV offers a holistic evaluation, while traditional certifications provide granular insights.
• Integration focus: ATV emphasizes tool integration with the Service Value Chain.
• Market position: Vendor certifications may limit options if specific certification is required.
• Transition strategy: Tools with multiple certifications support transitions from earlier ITIL versions to ITIL 4.

Complementary approaches
Different certification frameworks offer varied perspectives. Leading ITSM tools often seek multiple certifications, recognizing the value of compliance with different standards. Organizations benefit from considering various certifications as complementary validations.

PeopleCert’s Tool Vendor Accreditation programme provides businesses with access to IT Service Management tools that meet the highest industry standards for quality, backed by the expertise of certified professionals.

PeopleCert’s ATV is distinct in two important ways. First, it rigorously assesses both the tool and the vendor’s ability to deliver an integrated, ITIL 4–aligned solution. This dual focus helps ensure a seamless integration into the broader ITSM ecosystem and Service Value Stream. Second, by emphasizing comprehensive alignment with ITIL 4 best practices, the ATV programme provides a deeper, more dynamic evaluation that can better accommodate the complexities of modern digital environments.

What is the ATV Programme?
The ATV programme assesses service management tools against ITIL 4 requirements, evaluating:

Benefits of accredited monitoring tools
Organizations selecting ITIL ATV tools realize several benefits:

• Enhanced ITIL 4 alignment: Tools support ITIL 4 practices, contributing to the Service Value Chain and using consistent terminology
• Reduced integration complexity: Tools integrate seamlessly, creating a unified service management toolchain. Research from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) and other industry analysts indicates that organizations with well-integrated monitoring tools experience significantly faster mean time to resolution (MTTR) compared to those relying on fragmented tooling. These findings highlight that a unified view and streamlined workflows enable quicker incident diagnosis and recovery.
• Focus on service value: Solutions emphasize service outcomes by correlating technical metrics with service performance indicators.
• Risk reduction in tool selection: The ATV assessment provides a form of due diligence. This assessment helps avoid tools that claim ITIL alignment but don’t deliver.

To maximize the benefits of ITIL 4’s approach to observability and ATV tools, organizations should follow these implementation best practices:

• Map monitoring to the Service Value Chain: Identify how monitoring contributes to each step in the Service Value Chain.
• Define service-centric observability requirements: Move beyond technical metrics to define requirements in terms of service outcomes.
• Adopt a platform approach: Consider ATV-accredited platforms providing unified data collection and consistent analysis.
• Integrate with service management workflows: Ensure integration with key service management practices.
• Build observability as a service: Develop observability as a shared capability across the organization.

Effective monitoring and observability are critical for successful service management. ITIL 4 provides valuable guidance on integrating these capabilities into the broader Service Value System, emphasizing the importance of holistic visibility, service-centric metrics and continuous improvement.

The PeopleCert’s ATV programme offers a valuable framework for selecting tools that align with ITIL 4 principles. By choosing ATV-accredited tools, organizations can reduce implementation risks, accelerate time-to-value and ensure monitoring capabilities contribute to service value creation.

This proactive, value centric approach helps IT professionals manage complex environments, detect and resolve issues and deliver superior digital experiences.

Footnotes:

[1] https://www.sumologic.com/brief/tool-sprawl/

[2] DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA)

[3] Enterprise Management Associates, “The Many Faces of IT Monitoring: Tool Proliferation Challenges,” 2023.

[4] https://www.dynatrace.com/news/press-release/global-ciso-report-observability-security/

[5] https://www.techtarget.com/esg-global/