The Impact of Server Virtualization on Itil Processes

Abstract

Server virtualization influences all aspects of IT service management, and is a key enabling technology for cloud computing. In this paper we focus on the impact of server virtualization on service delivery and service support as described by ITIL. We identify advantages, disadvantages, and risks of server virtualization for capacity, management, availability, costs, and security of IT services, and relate these aspects to the ITIL processes. We validated our results using an empirical test within four different organizations. Our main conclusion is that server virtualization does not change the ITIL processes themselves, but it does change the way the processes are executed. Server virtualization is no silver bullet for solving problems in IT operations and management. If server virtualization has been properly introduced, it can offer faster and better execution of the ITIL processes.