Blog Posts BPMN Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

What Do ITIL Practitioners Need to Know About the Cloud?

Blog: Good eLearning

In the spheres of digital and IT management, it seems everyone is going on about the Cloud. Cloud technology can help service providers unlock higher levels of speed, quality, reliability, and access, not only enhancing customer-facing services but also optimizing internal processes to maintain business continuity and minimize costs. The adoption of the Cloud has only been hastened by the rise in remote and hybrid working environments. Whether out of opportunity or necessity, more and more organizations are striving to make the most of what the technology has to offer.

Despite the potential of cloud technology, however, there is an evident gap between the needs of businesses and the availability of qualified candidates. This has created a situation where professionals and businesses with the right knowledge and capabilities can enjoy major opportunities to stand out and thrive.

For ITIL practitioners, gaining cloud-related expertise can be the next organic phase in driving continuous improvement in a business. At the same time, there is no doubt that the evident and increasing value of this specialist knowledge has the potential to open potential job roles. Luckily AXELOS, the company behind ITIL, has accounted for this and actively supports practitioners in enhancing their knowledge of the topic.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what ITIL practitioners need to know about cloud technology.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Technology for ITSM?

The potential for the Cloud within IT service management can be seen in several key areas, including:

Cost savings – An advantage of using a cloud service provider is that they generally take on tasks and costs relating to maintenance. This frees up time and capital that businesses can use elsewhere. Cloud providers also improve their own platforms for the benefit of clients – a benefit these clients can then pass on to end-users.
Upgrading – One of the main selling points of cloud-based services is that they can be in a state of continuous deployment. Companies do not need to schedule downtime for the sake of making updates or repairs, making it faster and more painless to enhance services. This advantage even applies as services scale upwards and incorporate new features.
Service continuity – In the event of an issue, cloud-based services can continue running, as the servers are hosted elsewhere. This is beneficial not just in terms of value-generating services but also in essential internal functions such as customer support. In short, the Cloud can keep businesses running even through disasters.
Centralization – With cloud platforms, ITSM can be orchestrated from a single central location. This makes it easier to support different services and sections of a business, as well as dispense updates. This also applies with remote working, as technicians can even handle significant repair work remotely.
Relevance – We have spoken already about how important cloud knowledge and skills are for ITIL practitioners. However, cloud-related considerations are also becoming increasingly important for business actors. High-level decision-makers must consider the application and potential of cloud services, even if they lack technical knowledge. On the one hand, this makes ITSM-based expertise far more valuable. On the other, it means that stakeholders are now more likely to support cloud migration than they may have been previously.

ITIL Cloud Service Management

Even though cloud technology has not been around as long as ITIL, it still meshes well with the framework’s focus on continuous improvement. In terms of ROIs, security, productivity, and other key elements, the potential of the Cloud simply cannot be ignored, especially with these evolved service capabilities having a direct impact on user expectations. The framework itself can also accommodate the Cloud, with practitioners having combined them even in the days of ITIL v3.

The most important thing for ITIL practitioners to know about the Cloud is that it will not require them to rebuild their skills from scratch. Cloud technology is very much part of the framework’s natural evolution, which ITIL practitioners have played a key role in. This is particularly evidenced by the new cloud-focused ITIL 4 module.

ITIL Cloud Training

The growing relevance of cloud technology didn’t go unnoticed by AXELOS, the organization behind ITIL, or the practitioner community itself. Indeed, as ITIL users play a significant part in the ongoing development of ITIL 4, demand for a more well-defined approach was high.

Recently, this led to the release of ‘ITIL Specialist: Acquiring and Managing Cloud Services (AMCS), an expansion module separate from the main certification path. It goes into detail about the nature of cloud services, as well as how organizations can benefit. Crucially, it also looks at how to select service providers, migrate businesses to Cloud, and fully optimize its adoption and implementation.

Studying ITIL 4 AMCS is an excellent way to learn how best to utilize the Cloud within the context of ITIL. As the module goes into detail on how to prepare for VUCA challenges within the sphere, it is also a great way to future-proof an organization’s utilization of cloud technology. As the module does not have any set prerequisites, it is also open even to non-technically minded candidates, such as executives and decision-makers.

Conclusion

So, what is it that ITIL practitioners really need to know about the Cloud? The easiest answer is that it cannot be ignored! For the sake of competitiveness, convenience, and continuous improvement, exploring the benefits of cloud technology for an organization is becoming increasingly essential, if not all but mandatory.

Practitioners can also help themselves significantly by learning just how valuable cloud-related expertise has come to be. Studying a module such as ITIL 4 AMCS has the potential to greatly benefit a candidate’s career, even if they are not planning to make it a specialization.

Want to find out more about ITIL cloud training? Visit the Good e-Learning website for a free trial of our fully accredited ITIL 4 AMCS certification course!