IT Service Management for the Cloud
Introduction
A number of commentators have been quick to seize upon the idea that the widespread uptake of Cloud Computing in the business world signals the death knell of IT Service Management and, in particular, ITIL. The reality is that IT Service Management is fundamental to the successful provision of any IT service and ITIL remains the framework of choice for those wanting to adhere to best practice. Services provided through the Cloud are no exception, just different.
For any business considering moving IT services into the Cloud there are a number of considerations to be addressed and, while responsibilities in the Cloud environment may be redistributed, ultimate accountability rests with the business IT function.
This paper does not make a major differentiation based upon the type of Cloud Service that is being considered, i.e. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service); SaaS (Software as a Service); PaaS (Platform as a Service), and DaaS (Data Storage as a Service); etc… This is due to the fact that, iCore’s research indicates that all of the service management aspects covered here are relevant to all types of Cloud Services. At the same time this paper is not saying that “one size fits all” and Customer‟s need to be clear how much risk / trust they have in the Provider.
The ‘Provider’ will take over a large element of responsibility for service management from the ‘Customer’ but it will not be everything and it is essential that the Customer retains overall accountability for the service delivery to the business.
iCore have many years of experience of supporting organisations that have diverse IT service provision, and we have analysed the types of services being discussed within Cloud Computing. This Consideration Paper provides some high level information relating to IT Service Management issues for Cloud Service provision from both the Customer and Provider perspectives.