Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Service Provider Perspective (External Facing) - Service Level Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 8

With Cloud computing, SLM will become even more important. Customers are concerned with the service levels that would be or is being delivered to them. They are not concerned with how the service provider will deliver the same. In cloud environment, a well defined SLA will gain prime importance. Service provider will have to have a very effective OLAs and UCs so as to be able to commit to and meet the customer's service requirements. Hence there has to be a very effective coordination between SLM and supplier management.

Customers would be interested in knowing how the service provider can meet their service requirements. Customers would evaluate the service levels that the service provider has been delivering. So one of the first steps towards decision on selecting a service provider would be the detailed analysis and evaluation of the service levels that they guarantee to provide.

Thus, a service provider will need in place a very matured Service Level Management process along with an experience Service Level Manager. This would be very important to gain customer's confidence.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Customer Perspective - Release & Deployment Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 7

As in cloud environment customer could only be concerned about their hosted services or applications and not the cloud infrastructure, any release and deployment would be done remotely. In case of private cloud the release policy would not be drastically different to the one in traditional ITSM environment.

But in case of Public cloud the Release & Deployment process, policy and plan would be significantly influenced by the service provider. The customer would have to ensure that their interests are taken care of. They also have to ensure that the criteria for emergency releases are agreed upon with the Service provider.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Customer Perspective - Change Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 6

Every IT service has to go through a change at one point of time or other during its life cycle. Change to the hosted services or applications can be controlled by the customer organization following their organizational change policy.

But the concern starts when the customer is using public cloud, and even more so when the cloud infrastructure itself needs a change. These changes, specifically the ones related to cloud infrastructure, are controlled by the service provider and would be based on their change policy. Thus, for a customer it is very important to analyse the impact of such changes on their services, the associated risks and mitigation options.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Customer Perspective - Incident Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 5

When an IT service is hosted in a cloud environment, then the incidents that can trouble an organization could occur because of:

Error in application/service:

These are the incidents that occur because of error in the services or applications hosted by the organization. These incidents have to be resolved by the customers themselves. But a proper monitoring and recording of such events/errors should be done. It has to be integrated with the customers ticketing and incident management tool.

Error in the cloud infrastructure:

The responsibility to resolve such incidents is that of service provider. Customer should ensure that the defined SLA is inline with their organizational requirements. Also, this is again a case where Service Continuity Management is critical.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Customer Perspective - Service Continuity Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 4

In case the customer is having their own private cloud (within their premises) then their existing service continuity policy still holds good. But when they are availing the cloud services from a service provider then this becomes another critical process for them.

Since the services are hosted with the cloud service provider, it is very important to evaluate the service continuity process and policy offered by the service provider. This then should be analyzed to understand its relevance to organizational service continuity and business continuity policy. If need be then the offered service continuity process, policy and plan should be negotiated upon to address the organizations needs and concerns.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing: Customer Perspective - Security Management

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 3

One of the key concern for any organization that wants to move their services to cloud is how secure their data and services would be. This is even more true if one wants to move their services to a Public cloud. This makes Security Management as one of the key processes that customers are concerned with.

It needs to be ensured that the IT security is integrated with the business security. Thus, a organization seeking cloud services has to ensure that their overall corporate and IT security governance framework is not compromised upon while moving their IT services to a cloud environment.

Initially moving the services, which has a high  security risk, to cloud should be avoided. These services should only be moved when all the concerned security risks are adequately addressed.

If the private cloud is set up internally then Security Management will not be of any concern as the services are still hosted internally. But the above discussion holds true if private cloud is provided by any vendor (in this case services are not hosted within the organizations own premises) or for a public cloud.

Key ITIL Processes For Cloud Computing

ITIL and Cloud Computing Series - Part 2

With cloud computing, the only difference that is going to be in ITIL world would be that the ITIL processes could no longer be ignored. In my experience, today in many organizations ITIL processes exist in silos. Key processes like configuration management are ignored. In most of the processes, an option to bypass the process exists, i.e. the process adherence and its compliance with best practices are significantly low.

But with cloud computing ITIL processes can no longer be neglected. Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) process will become utmost important along with the IT security and demand management processes. To highlight the key processes in cloud computing environment, I would prefer to list 5 key processes from customer's and service providers’ perspective in the order of their importance.

Customer perspective:

1) Security Management

2) Service Continuity Management

3) Incident Management

4) Change Management

5) Release & Deployment Management

This perspective is important for a customer while finalising a vendor. These are the processes which concerns a customer the most.

Service provider perspective – External Facing

1) Service Level Management

2) Service Portfolio Management

3) Service Catalog Management

4) Financial Management

5) Supplier Management

These are the key processes which the service provider needs to focus on while approaching a customer.

Service provider perspective – Internal Facing

1) Service Asset & Configuration Management

2) Demand Management

3) Financial Management

4) Request Fulfillment

5) Capacity Management

These processes are important for a cloud service provider for their internal organization in order to provision customers’ requests.

The subsequent post will highlight the importance of above processes in cloud computing environment.