ITIL Change Management is an important step in the ITIL Service Transition phase of the ITIL service cycle. Service asset and configuration management are also part of the change management process. Service owners must be familiar with the following definitions, goals, objectives, and steps to ensure that they can successfully use service asset and configuration management. These topics are covered in detail in ITIL courses. ITIL foundation certification training aims to teach you how to use service asset and configuration management within the ITIL framework.
Definitions in Configuration and Service Asset Management
Asset
Let’s begin with the definition. An asset is defined as a useful or valuable person or thing. Assets of an IT service provider include its applications, configuration items, tools, and any other valuable items that enable it to provide services to customers or businesses. Configuration Management and service asset management are two parts of the same thing.
Configuration Item
A Configuration Item, also abbreviated as CI, is any component that must be managed to deliver an IT service. Configuration items include IT services, hardware and software, buildings, people, formal documentation, and formal documentation. A Configuration Item is a component or item that assists in the delivery of an IT service to the customer. Configuration Management maintains information about each configuration item throughout its lifecycle.
A configuration record is a collection of properties, specifications, requirements, and other information about a configuration item that can be used to comply with other services provided by an IT service provider. To avoid any inconsistency between configuration items, a configuration record for a configuration item must always be kept current in the configuration management software. All configuration items of an IT service provider must be under the control and configuration management process, and then IT Change Management.
Configuration Management Database
CMDB is the abbreviation for Configuration Management Database. CMDB is a database that stores configuration records throughout their entire lifecycle. An IT service provider will have many assets. Consider a service as a series of revisions and releases that occur throughout its lifecycle to meet new requests or fix problems. All of these attributes and updates are stored in configuration records. These configuration records for the various configuration items are kept and maintained in Configuration Management Database. One or more CMDBs are maintained by an IT Service Provider’s Configuration Management System. Each CMDB stores attributes and relationships between configuration items.
Version 2.1 can be used for fingerprint detection software in an ATM at a bank. A fingerprint detection device must be at least version 5.2 to function properly. The CMDB contains these relationships between each configuration item. The CMDB is an important component of service asset management and configuration management.
Configuration Management System
The Configuration Management System, also abbreviated CMS, is a collection of tools and databases that is used to manage the Configuration Data of an IT Service Provider. Configuration records contain data about configuration items. Configuration records are also included in the Configuration Management System Databases. The service asset and configuration management process includes the CMDBs of IT Service providers to manage the configuration data.
Configuration Management System also contains information
