IT Service Management and ITIL (Information Technology Information Library) are an integrated, process based, set of best practices to manage IT services. The basic premise is that IT is a service provider to the organisation. In this fashion, the parallelism between the nature of ITSM and the core of what Cloud computing is and what it is trying to achieve is readily apparent. It can be derived that ITSM, which is founded in ITIL industry accepted best practices, is the necessary enabler for Cloud computing to achieve its goals and realize its benefits. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are registered trademarks of the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce. ITIL gives a detailed description of a number of important IT practices with comprehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that can be tailored to any IT organization in support of complex environments. ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which covers an IT management topic.

Companies that are investing heavily in IT process re-engineering often use ITIL as a reference point. One of the key elements that this standard introduces s the use of a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Used correctly, a CMDB is a system used to track configuration items, requests for change. Work orders, errors, relationships etc. In plain English, this means that by using tools that provide a CMDB, there will be a greater visibility of loud computing and Virtual server systems in place, as well as their configuration and any cause and effect of system failures or defects on other dependant systems. We already know that Cloud computing is more than only desktop or server virtualization although some [most maybe] organisations are working with Cloud computing concepts in this context. Cloud computing is also Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service and Storage as a Service, as well as Web based (hosted) database and application services.

When you continue on this train of thought, you can also think about where the ITIL framework is being utilized: at the delivery side of cloud computing services, or at the receiving side of cloud computing services?

Let’s assume that we are part of an IT organisation that delivers Cloud computing Services (and SaaS in particular). Which areas of ITIL are not coherent with this delivery model? The answer is easy, none. 
All components of ITIL are of interest and importance as the SaaS is a service delivery to external customers so you need to consider all phases in the lifecycle from Strategy to Operations. You will need to have controls and management structures in place to build a sustainable IT infrastructure that has the ability to deliver the Software Services as per the agreed Service Levels. In fact, you probably need more controls in place because you will always have the unknown factor of the service provider or Internet connection to deal with. In our second scenario we will look at a Virtual server environment as part of a data centre that utilizes ITIL processes for Service Management controls. The ‘boxes’ still have to fit in with the overall service offering, you still need to manage their entire lifecycle. The fact is that this is only the process component of IT Service Management, and there is a whole lot more to managing with your IT Services in a consistent and quality way than to simply look at the ITIL books. In fact, most ITIL implementations fail to deliver any value and measurable benefits because of the isolated focus on ITIL and not ITIL in the context of IT Service Management.

ITIL is by no means the Holy Grail to fix all problems within the IT industry and therefore the management of Cloud computing environments. However, the point here is that it shouldn’t make a difference how and where you get your service components, the delivery management controls should stay the same. This is of course from a technical viewpoint of view where a lot of the activities will be only slightly different. However, approach this question from a Service Management point of view and it stays very much the same. Even RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) diagrams for most ITIL roles will be unaffected by the introduction of Cloud computing services therefore making ITIl a strong candidate for Service Delivery for this model of business computing.