Second itSMF knowledge session - ITIL and the Cloud

Following the success of the first itSMF knowledge session, we organized a second one in the third week of February. The topic for the day was the relevance of ITSM and ITIL to the emerging model of cloud computing.

Vartika, the facilitator for the day, presented a brief overview of the topic under discussion. The focus was mainly kept around the public cloud delivery model and how ITIL could help evaluate vendors and adopt the new technology. In the discussion that followed student members brain stormed on the idea of an IT service, how the cloud model was different from traditional outsourcing (or if it was at all) and how ITSM figured in the whole picture. There were some differing opinions too – Some students opined that the cloud model is not very different from any other vendor-client relationship and hence a strong vendor/supplier management process is all one needs to handle a public cloud vendor; There were others who saw differences between traditional outsourcing and the cloud due to the increased complexity and security risks, which necessitate some additional focus on other ITSM processes as well.

Overall, it was a productive discussion that brought out a lot of interesting ideas that we all carried home to mull over later!

Here are some additional sources for those who wish to learn more -
Gartner article
IBM Whitepaper
CA Whitepaper

Posted by Saiganesh Sairaman, MSIS, Class of 2012