What is ITIL

ITIL—Information Technology Infrastructure Library®—is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. It has been successfully deployed for more than 20 years.

ITIL provides a comprehensive set of best practices for IT service management and offers guidance to improve IT service providers capabilities and resources in order to effectively and efficiently provide IT services to business users and customers.

More and more organizations are relying on Information Technology (IT) to enable business processes and automate services. IT is responding by moving away from a technology approach, to focus on process and service. Many IT departments are applying ITIL® best practices to standardize and optimize IT processes and to improve the delivery of IT services.

History of ITIL

In the 1980s the British government approached the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), to develop an approach for efficient and effective use of IT resources by British public sector organizations.

This resulted in the development of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®).

ITIL provided a comprehensive set of best practices for IT Service management. It took into account the mistakes that were made in the UK and Europe and provides a collection of the best practices observed in the IT service industry.

ITIL® version 1 was released in the early ‘90s and included a series of 40 related books that served as best practices manuals.

In 2002, ITIL version 2 was released. ITIL v2 included eight publications, with Service Support and Service Delivery publications being the most popular.

ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery books were considered to be the core of ITIL v2 and employed a process-driven approach which can be scaled to fit any size of organization.

In December 2005, the OGC issued notice of an ITIL refresh, commonly known as ITIL version 3, which became available in May 2007. This adopted lifecycle approach to service management.

ITIL v3 introduced five concise and simplified publications, including:

  • Service Strategy
  • Service Design
  • Service Transition
  • Service Operation
  • Continuous Service Improvement.
    In July 31, 2011. ITIL published an improved version of ITIL V3.
      In February 2019, ITIL 4 was officially launched. ITIL 4 is an augmentation to the ITIL framework, not a replacement. The core elements of ITIL 3 remain the same but there is a new focus on value. In ITIL 4, the service lifecycle has been replaced by the service value system and processes are now called practices. In addition, ITIL 4 incorporates the guiding principles.

        ITIL is currently the most widely accepted non-proprietary framework for IT service management.

         

        Benefits of ITIL

        • Common and consistent language
        • IT perceived as offering value to the organisation
        • Enhanced image of IT as a business partner
        • Improved quality of IT Services
        • Improved user and customer satisfaction
        • Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
        • Improved IT governance

         

        Who Owns ITIL

        In the 1980s the British Government approached the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA)  now called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to develop an approach for efficient and effective use of IT resources by British public sector organizations. This resulted in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

        Since then ITIL has been 100% owned by UK Government.  From Jan 1 ’14,  a new company AXELOS, will own ITIL.  AXELOS is a new joint venture company, created by the Cabinet Office on behalf of UK Government (HMG) and Capita plc to run the Best Management Practice portfolio, including the ITIL.