The ghost in the machine: How IT Service Management (ITSM) underpins a Social Science Data Service

The UK Data Service (UKDS) is the only nationally funded social science research infrastructure in the UK. With over 9000 datasets, it has been providing support for researchers for over 50 years. As a data archive, data curation and access rightly take focus when thinking of what our services entail; but there is another aspect of running a successful data service: IT Service Management.

IT Operations departments and Helpdesks are an integral part of a social science repository, supporting both internal and external users, and in our case facilitating access to sensitive datasets via our SecureLab, (a virtual environment utilized by the research community), to establish a safe connection in order to conduct analysis on data deemed too sensitive for general release.

With an ever-increasing user base and technological advancements being made in IT all the time, it is important for us to deepen the relationship between data infrastructure and IT Infrastructure. The research and data community often talks the language of “services” and this presentation explains how IT Service Management (ITSM) provides a ready-made framework not only to describe obviously technical aspects of the delivery and operation of IT services, but how ITSM principles can be extended to repository activities like curation and access, leading to measurable, focused growth and improvement within data services. In the last decade, compliance with GDPR, ISO standards and other Data Protection regulations has necessitated a more robust and structured framework for data service management and governance. We outline how the implementation of a standard like FitSM results in a positive effect for the users we support, improved development of our systems and processes, not only for SecureLab services but also for data services throughout the UKDS.