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TMCnews Featured Article
March 05, 2011
The Cloud and ITSM, ITIL, ITIL Training and Certification
By Brendan B. Read, Senior Contributing Editor
When IT moves to the cloud, to either OEM-or-third-party servers, does it make IT service management (ITSM) and with this the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and ITIL training and certification less necessary.
Yes and no. Yes because cloud/hosting providers need to have solid IT support systems in place, which includes ITSM, ITIL, and by extension ITIL-trained-and-certified—such as by the RCCSP Professional Education Alliance--support reps. No from the users’ perspectives because by definition the organizations supplying the hosting are responsible for the IT infrastructure.
Adam Miller, senior strategy consultant with GlassHouse Technologies focuses on ITSM. He looked at the issue of whether ITSM can work in with the cloud in a Jan.28, 2011 article for ITPro Portal “How has ITSM had to change in order to adapt to the cloud pay-as-you-go model?”
“With the growing uptake of cloud services, ITSM plays different roles for cloud service providers and customers looking to move their data or applications into the cloud."
“From the perspective of an organisation that is moving their data into the cloud where it will be managed by a provider, the importance of ITSM is actually relatively low – unless performance, service levels or regulatory issues are affected their focus will be on the bottom line and their business as usual activity; which in 99 percent of cases is why they will have adopted cloud services in the first place.”
“From the cloud provider perspective, it is a very different story...Without the processes and controls in place that a robust ITSM strategy provides infrastructure will rapidly become disparate, resulting in reduced profitability from poor utilisation and increased risk. As a result, customers that have trusted the provider with their data may then become dissatisfied and take their business elsewhere.“
“To avoid potential heavy losses, or in the best case to avoid paying out regular service credits, it is vital to ensure that the cloud provider keeps its “house in order.” The processes and approach required to support and maintain data in the cloud shouldn’t be too dissimilar to existing ones, but it’s essential that these processes are reviewed and tested thoroughly before even contemplating placing customers (that the business has spent years building relationships and trust with) on the new cloud platform.”
“Areas such as capacity management should be reviewed to maintain the correct balance between platform availability and over-provisioning (which could reduce profitability). It should also ensure that configuration management processes are flexible enough to enable customers to make ad hoc changes, while other customers on the platform remain unaffected.”
“In summary, although ITSM itself hasn’t changed specifically for cloud services, ITSM processes should be reviewed and adapted so that they match the service needs of end customers and, just as importantly, deliver profitability for the business.”
Cloud/hosting providers have an excellent resource for ITSM, and for ITIL training and certification. The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance offers a wide range of up-to-date ITIL courses offered in cities across the continent and also virtually. For example the ITIL v3 Foundation Training & Certification schedule is now available in 40 cities in the first half of 2011. IT professionals pursuing ITIL certification can now mix and match the classes, selecting the dates and times of their convenience.
Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard
