Cloud Service Management Important Guide
Cloud Service Management (CSM) may be the answer to your requests if you discover that IT Service Management (ITSM) is irrelevant to your brand-new cloud-based infrastructure.
The cloud version of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) is called cloud service management (CSM). In the past, IT departments have been required to manage both software and hardware in order to provide IT services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Cloud services were unavoidably established as a result of the drive to reduce expenses. Many IT managers face a conceptual challenge as a result: if they aren't managing the IT system's infrastructure, are they actually providing IT services?
ITSM was never about managing hardware, and it makes sense that the IT department can't claim to provide infrastructure if it isn't actually building the servers it runs. As a provider of IT services, you do more than just look after equipment. Therefore, the objectives and responsibilities of IT service management are unaffected by the fact that cloud infrastructure is located in a different location. CSM is the same as ITSM, but the discipline's name makes it clear that the outsourcing of hardware provision is part of it.
The idea of software delivery is not really altered by CSM. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been around for almost a decade and has not changed the ITSM framework, ITIL, or the requirements of ITSM. IT services are still managed by the IT department, regardless of whether it purchases a software license and loads the package onto a virtual server in the cloud or pays a monthly subscription to access software hosted on a cloud server by the software provider.
Business strategies and IT services
Cloud services have been a part of business practices for a long time. It has been difficult for ITSM to keep up with this gradual change. The centralization of IT services marked the beginning of the shift toward remote resources. Businesses can now operate without the need for in-person IT support at each location thanks to remote IT administration.
It makes sense to use remote services, especially when continuity systems are provided. Backup files are shielded from accidental, malicious, or environmental damage at the primary data storage location by using off-site servers. This off-site backup strategy has been used by businesses for decades, and best practices standards like ITIL take these practices into account.
Even when a business strategy uses cloud services, IT managers within the company still need to manage it. While the IT department is still in charge of planning and commissioning IT services, cost tracking, data protection assurance, and performance standard monitoring, some of the business functions that were previously performed in-house have been outsourced to third-party providers.
ITSM split
Within the scope of IT provisioning responsibilities, IT services management defines competence areas. There are several roles in an IT department, and ITSM defines the internal boundaries of each service. In some instances, a specialized function contributes to other services performed by the IT department, while in others, those services fit together to present a single user interface.
It is not uncommon for a function of the IT department to only provide services to other IT services and not have direct contact with the business's end users. This layered service model is taken into account by ITSM best practices. Service level assurance, on the other hand, is made more difficult by layering services. As a provider of IT services, the IT department is accustomed to working toward Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and data protection standards and interacting with departments of end users. In the layered services model, the IT department is sandwiched between service provider contracts and SLA agreements with its user departments.
A chain of responsibility is the biggest problem that this layering of services causes. It is possible for an IT department to decide to completely outsource its tasks to an MSP. In turn, the MSP might decide to outsource certain tasks to other service providers. SaaS platforms may facilitate the outsourced service's delivery. It's possible that the SaaS provider will decide to delegate infrastructure management to a cloud service. That infrastructure system's underlying servers could easily be virtualized and managed by a cloud storage service. Using an MSP in this initially straightforward scenario results in the creation of six layers of provisioning where there was previously only one.
Legal liability
On behalf of numerous other businesses, the IT department is required to provide assurances regarding delivery standards and system security when signing an SLA with user departments. In theory, the IT department only requires assurance of the MSP's dependability in the above-described layered provision outline. However, the top-level business will be sued in the event of a security breach at the bottom-level server provider that results in the disclosure of customer personal information.
The provision of cloud services results in legal complications, and traditional ITSM standards do not address the responsibility ladder. Every company that serves as a layer in the provision of cloud services needs to be certain that the provider they select is able to provide sufficient capacity in a professional and secure manner. The service level agreement is the primary document that binds a promise of competent cloud service delivery.
ITSM for cloud services customers
The IT department of the consuming company is in charge of cloud services management's top layer. The IT department becomes a cloud services broker when it deploys cloud services rather than originates services in-house.
At this level, it is the responsibility of the service provider to closely define service expectations, ensure that those goals are properly expressed in the service level agreement, and monitor service delivery to ensure that the SLA goals are met.
Businesses can access ITSM tools that enable quality assurance programs for SLA monitoring. Additionally, there are Cloud Service Management (CSM) platforms available to service providers that provide customers with live monitoring interfaces.
The Cloud Service Management Framework
MSPs use Professional Services Automation (PSA) systems, which are very similar to a cloud service management framework. There aren't many CSM platforms that have already been written. This is because cloud services do not have a single business model.
Take a look at a cloud storage service, an MSP, and a SaaS provider. Each kind of cloud service must cater to a distinct community within the organizations that it serves and has different levels of interaction with the client company. In the MSP category of cloud services, incident management is a more important responsibility. Providing a Help Desk service is frequently the MSP's primary responsibility. End-user support is not expected to come directly from cloud infrastructure providers. Instead, these services are incorporated into the client's IT department's responsibilities. As a result, the infrastructure provider is more likely to provide channels for IT professionals who communicate rarely.
Cloud service categories
A combination of a PSA package and a Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) service for MSPs provides a CSM platform and all of the software needed to run the business. The SaaS provider's business model is very similar to that of a centralized IT department that serves multiple locations. Off-the-shelf Service Desk tools might work well for a SaaS business.
Only the pure cloud-based infrastructure provider employs a business strategy that is absent from on-premises counterparts. A CSM system that does not directly fit into the ITSM set of practices that are currently available would be beneficial to this type of business. Because the industry serves a wide range of clients, it requires distinct client-facing functions for each service, making this category of cloud services difficult to quantify.
Take, for instance, the market for cloud storage. A structured space is offered by some cloud storage providers, such as Google Drive, to both individuals and businesses. This is a public that deals with individuals and is focused on customers. Services for businesses provide a collection of individual accounts with a management console, so they still need to provide channels of communication to each end user. Disk space packages, like block storage, that only support applications running on the same cloud service are at the other end of the spectrum.
The offloading of processing power required for mobile apps has resulted in an increase in the complexity of software services in recent years. Microservices provide applications with functions that can be incorporated into Web pages as well. The fact that microservices are hosted sets them apart from the typical function library. Microservice providers don't sell their code; rather, they run it and make it possible for software developers who subscribe to use an API to start execution. Because microservices are built on top of other microservices that run on different servers, legal concepts like a chain of responsibility are hard to put into practice.
The library of functions needs to include cloud services management for these obscured layers of microservices. API commands should have access to analytical functions that run alongside the main software to check statuses and investigate failures. There are two phases to the support that these API users require. When new apps with microservices are made available to the public, end-users who use those apps will have different support needs than developers who are integrating and testing those apps.
This demonstrates that different users of various cloud services are at various stages of their usage lifecycle. Because some services will be used constantly by end users while new apps are being developed using the same APIs, the providers of microservices cannot distinguish between the two types of service demands. As a result, the cloud-based microservices industry necessitates the simultaneous implementation of two distinct CSM strategies.
Because each kind of cloud storage has different requirements for human interaction, monitoring, and management, it's hard for any software company to build a good CSM platform that appeals to a wide enough market to make the system financially viable.
The requirements for a CSM platform are just as diverse as the cloud services industry. There is no one-size-fits-all CSM solution due to the industry's diverse requirements. In order to accommodate its unique operating model, each provider must adapt existing best practices standards.
Implementing CSM
There is no recognizable brand that offers the preferred CSM strategy for all cloud service providers because there is no standard operating business model for cloud services. Cloud service managers are more likely to rely on their knowledge gained from traditional IT product development and support or established IT professional working practices derived from Service Desk conventions.
Until those systems are unable to provide suitable models, a CSM strategy is more likely to adhere to traditional ITSM standards like ITIL. IT managers have long been adept at picking and choosing which processes to implement and which to skip over for lack of relevance because ITSM practices never exactly fit all of the needs of every type of IT provision scenario.
In terms of best practices, cloud services with human components, such as MSPs or pen testers, better represent the typical IT department due to their multi-level interactions with other company departments and individuals. A lot of the ITIL book is irrelevant to the working practices of providers of obscure back-end microservices. In those situations, the requirements for support, SLA negotiation, and assurance are met by comprehensive usage manuals and built-in monitoring facilities.
Compared to their counterparts in established business sectors, key cloud service innovators are more adept at developing novel working practices. These innovators place less importance on internal best practices. However, as a service or product enters the market, innovators must contend with potential customers' service level expectations. In order to make a profit, these innovative service providers will have to incorporate CSM into their current operations.