Cloud-based IT services are omnipresent in many large IT enterprises and SMBs across the globe. Compared to traditional IT services that were offered in-house, cloud-based IT services have changed the way we consume content today. Cloud has enabled many small businesses to thrive because of affordable services which would have been near impossible if it was done in-house. So how does it change for IT professionals who are responsible for delivering IT services through Cloud?
1. What is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)? :
ITIL is a de facto industry standard for IT services across the globe, it is a best practice framework for IT Service Management (ITSM) which has been developed by documenting the experience of ITSM experts from all over the world in both public and private sector organizations.
According to AXELOS’ ITIL publications, a service runs through five stages of the lifecycle. Starting from Service Strategy to Service Design, and then next to Service Transition where the service becomes a tangible entity and then to Service Operation, and finally to Continual Service Improvement where you can measure the services and improve them on a regular basis.
Some of the best practices prescribed in ITIL contain a process that enables an enterprise to manage services in an efficient way. In fact, ITIL can be described as a common sense approach required while managing IT services.
2. How Cloud Fits in Today’s Service-based Environment:
Both ITIL and cloud have similar things on focus which are services and processes. ITIL prescribes that when you provide a service; it is a way for your customers to gain value without taking any ownership, risks, and costs for the service. Even cloud technology also has the same philosophy behind it. When enterprises use cloud services, they do not have to own those services along with the risks and costs attached to them. Enterprises just agree on key functionalities such as mailbox size or bandwidth output etc, and the price that they have to pay for the services.
Because cloud services do not have a robust management methodology that helps in managing their processes, ITIL fits with cloud services hand in glove. Cloud services offer enterprises convenient, real-time access to a shared pool of resources (networks, applications, storage, servers, and services) which can be procured and released with minimum effort. And at hindsight of all these cloud services, needs a well-established management process to offer a seamless service.
In the case of a hybrid IT environment where enterprises use PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS services along with traditional IT infrastructure, there is a current shortfall of best practices in this regard, and this is where ITIL provides a robust methodology for cloud services to rely on.
3. How can ITIL Offer Help to Cloud Services:
Imagine as an enterprise you are providing cloud services to various small and large companies, and for some reason, your service shuts down. What will be the consequences? First and foremost, your customers will contact your support center and then you have to get your services up in no time.
Similarly, when change is incorporated without being announced, documented, or properly prepared for it, the next logical consequence is service disruption/outage. For an enterprise in this situation means a loss of revenue. But then this also means something has to be done proactively to avoid such situations down the line.
Each of the above-mentioned scenarios is described and elaborated in detail in the latest ITIL v3 version (Incident Management and Change Management process). ITIL not only describes process descriptions in its books but also describes interfaces between processes along with roles and responsibilities. So, as an enterprise, if you are planning to implement cloud services to some of the processes, there is no need to start everything afresh, as ITIL and its best practices cater to enough details that are applicable for cloud services.
ITIL and its service lifecycle approach prescribe that an IT service provider should be able to control and manage services to get rid of ad-hoc activities and measure and improve the services that are being offered.
A word of caution with ITIL is not invincible. ITIL’s existence was mainly due to improving traditionally delivered services. So just copy-pasting those solutions is not the way to move ahead, you have to make sure processes are adapted to the new environment and address the latest requirements. And as an organization if you already possess processes that support cloud services – then undoing the whole thing is not necessary either. Just take the processes you have, keep in mind the ITIL recommendations, and then implement the best of both worlds.
