Marek Isalski, Faelix.net, describes how we've built a CRM into the core of our business using an approach referencing the ITIL CMDB scheme.

1. SDN, CMDB, NMS… CRM?!
Howwe're putting the
customer at the centre of our
network
Marek Isalski – marek @ faelix.net – @maznu
faelix limited – https://faelix.net/ – @faelix
PDF: https://faelix.link/uknofcrm (7Mb)

3. THANK YOU!
Me, to UKNOF
MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION FROM INDUSTRY PEERS

4. NEIL MCCRAE — UKNOF31 (APRIL 2015)
"HOW TO CONVINCE YOUR BOSS OF THE VALUE OF UKNOF"
INTRODUCTION – UKNOF’S
PURPOSE
• To act as an open forum for operational, technical and engineering information
exchange, co-operation and co-ordination between Internet, Ethernet and other
public telecommunications network operators within the United Kingdom.
• To pro-actively support the sharing of knowledge, ideas and best practices to
enhance the effective, stable and secure operation of the UK's Internet
infrastructure as a whole.
• Or in old terms “rough consensus and running code”
• How does that compare to your organisations purpose?

5. BRIAN NISBET — UKNOF36 (JAN 2017)
"YOUR SIXTY SECONDS STARTS NOW!"
KC Green -
http://gunshowcomic.com/

6. ANDY DAVIDSON — UKNOF31 (APR 2015)
"SOME THOUGHTS ON NETWORK AUTOMATION"
This may be a little unstructured, sorry
❯I am a believer in software.
❯Inevitable future of network orchestration
❯A few days work to build tools that help:
❯Consistent decision making
❯Consistent provisioning
❯Consistent troubleshooting

7. DAVID ROTHERA — UKNOF32 (SEP 2015)
"DR NMS, OR: HOW FACEBOOK LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING…"
How is it now?
Vendors
checks
FBNet
Vendors logs
event in OperDB
Megazord
groups alarms
Link down
alarms
[Monitoring period ends]
Event is closed
Links come back
[Monitoring period starts]
Carrier is contacted
with details of event
© 2015 Facebook | Dublin | Credits: robot icon created by Gregory Sujkowski for https://thenounproject.com/term/robot/37319/, list icon created by Stefano Vetere https://thenounproject.com/term/list/21440/, folder by Luis Mesinas https://thenounproject.com/term/folder/79694/, check-list by Luboš Volkov https://
thenounproject.com/term/check-list/20936/, connected icon by Manav Dhiman https://thenounproject.com/term/connected/86082/, operator by Alice Cerconi https://thenounproject.com/term/conference-call/41544/, brain created by Rohith M S for https://thenounproject.com/term/microchip/29013/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Task created

8. WE WANT A
CRM, PLEASE?
Three customers, early 2014
MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION FROM OUR CUSTOMERS

9. ITIL
IT SERVICE
MANAGEMENT
(and qualifications
with pin-badges)

10. // FOR A LONGER INTRO, JUST GO AND READ THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE…
ITIL MAN PAGE
AVAILABILITY SERVICE LEVEL
SECURITY CAPACITY
PLANNING
SERVICE
DELIVERY
INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT
PROBLEM
MANAGEMENT
FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT

11. // XXX TODO: INCLUDE LOLCAT GIFS TO KEEP PEOPLE'S ATTENTION
ITIL MAN PAGE
CI NAME
CI OWNERSHIP
CI IMPORTANCE
HARDWARE
SOFTWARE
NETWORKS
PEOPLE
LOCATION

12. // REAL GOLD BECAUSE THAT'S HOW MUCH BUILDING A CMDB COULD COST
ITIL MAN PAGE
C
M
D
B

13. "CMDB CAN’T BE DONE. NOT AS ITIL DEFINES IT." — http://www.itskeptic.org/itil-cmdb-skeptic
REAL WORLD…
C
M
D
B
NAGIOS/etc
SENTRY/etc
CUSTOMER
LIST
OXIDIZED
BILLING
SYSTEM
RIPE DB
TLD
REGISTRY
WHOIS
IMAP
FOLDERS

14. "GREAT PUTRESCENCE IN CORNER … THAT EVERYONE STUDIOUSLY IGNORES"
REAL WORLD…
C
M
D
B
NAGIOS/etc
SENTRY/etc
CUSTOMER
LIST
OXIDIZED
BILLING
SYSTEM
RIPE DB
TLD
REGISTRY
WHOIS
IMAP
FOLDERS
VM / CLOUD
MGMT
ANSIBLE/etc
CONTROL
PANEL
RESELLER
ACCOUNTS
RANDOM
SCRIPTS
HARDWARE
WARRANTY

15. "HOW WILL YOU KEEP IT CURRENT AND ACCURATE?"
REAL WORLD…
C
M
D
B
NAGIOS/etc
SENTRY/etc
CUSTOMER
LIST
OXIDIZED
BILLING
SYSTEM
RIPE DB
TLD
REGISTRY
WHOIS
IMAP
FOLDERS
VM / CLOUD
MGMT
ANSIBLE/etc
CONTROL
PANEL
RESELLER
ACCOUNTS
RANDOM
SCRIPTS
HARDWARE
WARRANTY
HELPDESK
/ SUPPORT
TIMESHEETS
CONTRACTS
IMPORTANT
CONTACTS

16. BRIAN'S SIXTY SECONDS ARE UP: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION?
REAL WORLD…
C
M
D
B
NAGIOS/etc
SENTRY/etc
CUSTOMER
LIST
OXIDIZED
BILLING
SYSTEM
RIPE DB
TLD
REGISTRY
WHOIS
IMAP
FOLDERS
VM / CLOUD
MGMT
ANSIBLE/etc
CONTROL
PANEL
RESELLER
ACCOUNTS
RANDOM
SCRIPTS
HARDWARE
WARRANTY
HELPDESK
/ SUPPORT
TIMESHEETS
CONTRACTS
IMPORTANT
CONTACTS

17. BRIAN'S SIXTY SECONDS ARE UP: THE PHONES ARE RINGING. FML.
REAL WORLD…
C
M
D
B
NAGIOS/etc
SENTRY/etc
CUSTOMER
LIST
OXIDIZED
BILLING
SYSTEM
RIPE DB
TLD
REGISTRY
WHOIS
IMAP
FOLDERS
VM / CLOUD
MGMT
ANSIBLE/etc
CONTROL
PANEL
RESELLER
ACCOUNTS
RANDOM
SCRIPTS
HARDWARE
WARRANTY
HELPDESK
/ SUPPORT
TIMESHEETS
CONTRACTS
IMPORTANT
CONTACTS

18. CRM
=
CMDB
Python,
APIs, etc

19. CRM
{
"id": 746,
"created": "2016-12-30T17:50:39Z",
"name": "workstation.marek.isal.ski",
"d": {
"ganeti_nodes": {
"secondary_nodes": [
"dolly.g.faelix.net"
],
"primary_node": "queen.g.faelix.net"
},
"ganeti_beparams": {
"vcpus": 4,
"memory": 4096,
"minmem": 512,
"maxmem": 4096
},
"addr": [
"185.134.197.5",
"2a01:9e01:a217:77:a800:ff:fe3f:a75c"
],
"ganeti_disks": [
{
"spindles": null,
"template": "drbd",
"size": 8192
},
{
"spindles": null,
"template": "drbd",
"size": 16384
}
],
"ganeti_nics": [
{
"vlan": 777,
"mac": "aa:00:00:3f:a7:5c",
"link": "host0",
"mode": "openvswitch"
}
],
"ganeti_hvparams": {
"reboot_behavior": "reboot",
"root_path": "/dev/xvda1",
"bootloader_args": "",
"bootloader_path": "",
"cpu_mask": "all",
"cpu_weight": 256,
"use_bootloader": false,
"kernel_path": "/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64",
"initrd_path": "/boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64",
"vif_script": "/etc/xen/scripts/vif-ganeti-ovs"
},
"name": "workstation.marek.isal.ski"
}
}
{
"id": 110,
"created": "2014-03-18T13:55:51.219084Z",
"archived": null,
"name": "Marek Isalski",
"d": {
"username": [
"maz"
],
"ripe_nic_hdl": "MFLX-RIPE",
"uid": 1000,
"RIPE_address": "Faelix Limited, M21 9WR",
"salutation": "Marek",
"gid": 1000,
"email": [
"marek@faelix.net"
],
"name": [
"Marek Isalski"
]
}
}
{
"id": 56,
"created": "2014-08-09T14:51:05.172449Z",
"name": "Faelix Limited",
"d": {
"address_registered": {
"postcode": "M21 9WR",
"address": "13 Peveril Crescent"
},
"address_billing": {
"postcode": "M21 9WR",
"address": "13 Peveril Crescent"
},
"name": [
"Faelix Limited"
],
"company": "05852778",
"vat": "GB 889 441470"
}
}
WORKSAT
PAYING FOR
CAN MAKE REQUESTS ABOUT
THING PERSON
ORG

20. CRM
VIRTUAL
MACHINES
VM
AGENTS
DNS
PAPERWORK
etc
SUPPORT
+ BILLING
CUSTOMER
COMMS
GANETIAPI
CRM API
POWERDNS
CRM
UI
EMAIL+NEW
SLETTERS
HARD GRAFT
CONTROL
PANEL
CRM API

21. CRM
VIRTUAL
MACHINES
VM
AGENTS
DNS
PAPERWORK
etc
SUPPORT
+ BILLING
CUSTOMER
COMMS
VHOSTS
CREATE
CRM
UI
EMAIL+NEW
SLETTERS
PROVISION(SOON?)
CONTROL
PANEL
CRM API
HARD GRAFT

22. CRM
NETWORK
MONITORING
VIRTUAL
MACHINES
VM
AGENTS
DNS
PAPERWORK
etc
SUPPORT
+ BILLING
CONTROL
PANEL
CUSTOMER
COMMS
GANETIAPI
CRM API
POWERDNS
ICINGA2API
CRM
UI
CRM API
EMAIL+NEW
SLETTERS
HARD GRAFT
PROVISIONING
RIPE DB
etc
SALTSTACK
AD-HOC

23. CRM
NETWORK
MONITORING
VIRTUAL
MACHINES
VM
AGENTS
DNS
PAPERWORK
etc
SUPPORT
+ BILLING
CONTROL
PANEL
CUSTOMER
COMMS
GANETIAPI
CRM API
POWERDNS
SERVICE/HOSTALERTS
CRM
UI
CRM API
EMAIL+NEW
SLETTERS
HARD GRAFT
PROVISIONING
RIPE DB
etc
SALTSTACK
AD-HOC

24. AFTER MUCH YAK-SHAVING…
WHERE HAVE WE GOT TO?
▸ "State of the Net" and "CMDB"
actually align!
▸ Who is using what service?
How much are they paying?
Has it been billed?
▸ Rolling out "control
panel" (end-uservisibility) to
customers gradually. Improving
with their feedback.

25. [HAND-WAVING COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS GOES HERE]
HAS IT BEEN WORTH IT?
▸ Easy notifications for maintenance, support, etc.
▸ Better billing processes; and SLA tracking.
▸ More automation is saving time; self-service for customers.
▸ Shining a light in dark and dusty corners of infrastructure.
▸ Improves our confidence… and maybe customer confidence?
▸ Feels like a stronger foundation for expanding services, helping
more customers, growing staff?

26. WE ARE AT THE START OF THE JOURNEY
WHAT IS LEFT TO DO?
▸ Provisioning of new services directly from CRM.
▸ Should destructive operations be possible from CRM?
▸ Should destructive operations be "web UI easy" for customers?
▸ Better integration with third-party services.
▸ Move to using RIPE DB RESTful interface.
▸ Soliciting feedback (customer surveys, etc).
▸ Hard stats to show it's been worth it! ;-)

27. e: marek@faelix.net
t: @maznu
w: https://faelix.net/
THANKS FOR LISTENING!
ANY QUESTIONS?