The ascent of IT applications to cloud/hosted environments from premises installations appears to be rising faster than the managing processes: specifically IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

ITSM provider Axios Systems has released a global survey of IT professionals showing that 68 percent of global organizations are planning to adopt a cloud strategy. Some 28 percent of them have already adopted it in one or more areas. Five percent have plans to implement cloud services in the next three months. Another 16 percent also have short-term plans to adopt cloud strategies in three to six months.

With an additional 20 percent of respondents planning to roll out cloud services in six months or beyond, the market shows very clear signs of wide-spread cloud adoption says the survey. Only 32 percent said that they have no current plans to go to the cloud.

Yet the Axios survey shows that a majority--51 percent--of IT professionals do not think their ITSM processes are mature enough to effectively manage cloud-based services. One-third (31 percent) of professionals indicate that their current ITSM tool would not support the cloud services management. And the remaining 42 percent of respondents feel unsure. Just eight percent of organizations currently use their tools for that purpose.

In contrast 26 percent do believe their organizations’ ITSM/ITIL tools are ready for the cloud; the remaining 23 percent feel unsure. 19 percent think their current tool could support it but they have just not started to do so.

“ITSM and ITIL play a critical role in managing cloud services,” says Markos Symeonides, executive vice president at Axios Systems (News - Alert). “Many organizations we work with understand IT service supply chains and the need to fully view how their business services are constructed. These organizations must get an end-to-end view for all services, including cloud-based ones.”

“ITSM tools like assystSaaS for ITSM and Service Catalog allow organizations to manage all aspects of IT service provision, including supplier and contract management for cloud computing vendors as well as the traditional ITIL processes like Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Asset and Service Level Management,” adds Symeonides.

The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance offers another key set of tools: ITSM learning along with ITIL training and certification via a highly comprehensive set of classes taught by expert instructors offered at convenient locations including virtually.