Virima V6.0 will soon be available with an all-new look, enhanced discovery, mapping and vulnerability features and more. Stay tuned!

What is a configuration item in ITIL?

What is a configuration item in ITIL

An ITIL configuration item (CI) is a basic building block for your Configuration Management Database (CMDB). And your ITIL CMDB is a critical element of your IT management toolkit. So, it makes sense to take a closer look at what CIs are and why they are so important to effective IT Management.

Functions of a CI in configuration management

Many may think that a configuration item is simply what its name seems to imply – an item of information about the configuration of an element of your IT estate. And some CIs are just that.

But for maximum value to your IT management efforts and your business, CIs can and should also be much more.

The widely adopted ITIL best practice guidelines for IT management says a configuration item can be almost any information about almost any component of your IT environment. Examples include but are not limited to the following:

  • Product documentation
  • Relevant associated people and their specific responsibilities
  • Support contacts and responsibilities
  • Ownership and maintenance responsibilities
  • Costs and contract details
  • Connections to and interdependencies with other IT components, applications, and users

Why configuration items matter in CMDB

The broad range of information CIs can contain is at the heart of the value they can deliver, to your IT management efforts and your business as a whole. The more accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information you have about your IT estate, the more control you can exert over it. 

That information can help speed diagnosis and resolution of incidents and problems. It can help you and your team take steps to avoid those incidents and problems. It can even help you maximize returns on your business’ IT investments.

To deliver these benefits, every configuration item in your environment must be clearly defined and kept accurate and current. To achieve this goal, your CIs must be stored in a CMDB that is powerful, flexible, and able to communicate with every critical IT resource in your estate. 

Your configuration management database must also support automated updates to all of your CIs, on schedule and on-demand. The CMDB must be able to turn CI content into clear and actionable reports for every constituency involved in or affected by the management of your IT estate. 

(See “What does CMDB stand for?”)

The value and functionality of your ITIL CMDB are largely powered by the content of the CIs it contains. By focusing on building and maintaining the best CIs you can, you and your team can maximize that value and functionality, in ways that strengthen your IT management and your business.

Virima: Your partner for unmatched IT management

Virima can help you capture and manage the CIs that maximize the value of your CMDB to IT and your business. Virima offers solutions for IT Asset Management (ITAM), IT Service Management (ITSM), and IT Operations Management (ITOM). 

Those solutions can automatically discover and map your critical IT resources and the interconnections that link them, your applications and services, and your users. 

Virima ensures you can communicate with and manage all critical elements of your IT estate, wherever they reside. 

Get started with a demo  and explore the possibilities!

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

More to Explore

Table of contentsUnderstanding ServiceNow® ReportsWhy businesses need reporting and how ServiceNow® helps Data sources to create reports in ServiceNow®Creating Custom Reports in ServiceNow®Creating Custom Dashboards in ServiceNowUnderstanding Dashboard Designer interface:Best Practices for ServiceNow Reporting and Dashboards Ensuring data accuracy and relevanceOptimizing report…

Table of contentsUnderstanding ServiceNow® CMDBBenefits of using ServiceNow CMDBUnderstanding ServiceNow® ITSMCore components of ServiceNow® ITSM Integration of ServiceNow® CMDB and ITSM: Why Does It Matter? Incident Management: Faster resolution with CI informationProblem Management: Identifying root causes and affected CIsChange Management: Assessing the…

Table of contentsServiceNow CMDB API Set UpAccessing CMDB Data Using ServiceNow API CMDB Understanding the CMDB API Structure: Endpoints and CMDB TableData Extraction and Querying Using ServiceNow CMDB APIHow to Extract Data From CMDB Using REST API Querying Through ServiceNow API CMDB:…

Table of contentsServiceNow Implementation: A roadmap for successHow Virima can helpServiceNow implementation best practices: In the world of IT, various systems and tools are used to manage different aspects of service delivery, such as incident management, change management, asset management,…

ITSM (IT Service Management) processes mapping documents and visualizes ITSM processes from initial request to delivery in an organization. It helps understand how IT services are delivered and how different processes interact in that organization.  Let’s say a large organization…

Are you tired of struggling to keep track of your organization's IT assets? Do you find yourself constantly searching for information on your company's hardware and software? Look no further than ServiceNow CMDB!  Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a robust…

Configuration Items (CIs) are the building blocks of your ServiceNow CMDB. At the most basic level, a CI is any object that the system can manage. CIs include applications, devices, users and groups, and so on.  However, ServiceNow's CMDB also…

Effective IT Service Management (ITSM) processes and tools are critical to delivering quality IT services that meet business objectives and satisfy end-users. On the other hand, inefficient, ineffective, or outdated ITSM processes and ITSM tools can lead to a range…

How IT service management (ITSM) processes work? To understand how ITSM works, let’s consider a bustling international airport with several flights across many different terminals taking off and landing. It is an elaborate task to process such an enormous amount…

Service mapping is a key tool for incident and change management. It provides many benefits to the organization, such as enabling better communication between teams and reducing time spent on resolving incidents. Service mapping is a key tool for Incident…