ITIL

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) was developed by the U.K. government in the mid-1980s and has become a de facto standard for best practices in the provision of IT infrastructure management and service delivery. ITIL is a registered trade mark of the U.K. Office of Government Commerce, which owns and develops the ITIL best-practices frameworkpractices framework^[*].

The ITIL evolved as a result of businesses' growing dependence on IT and has enjoyed a growing global recognition and adoption from organizations of all sizes.

Unlike many standards and frameworks, the widespread adoption of the ITIL has caused a variety of commercial and not-for-profit product vendors to develop products directly supporting the ITIL. In addition, major infrastructure service management products have been refined and organized around the ITIL approaches, which, in turn, has fostered wider acceptance.

In addition, the growth of ITIL has been supplemented by the proliferation of ITIL professional consulting and manager certifications that provide ready access to the expertise needed to plan, configure, and implement the standards.

ITIL Concepts

The ITIL provides a series of practical references and specific standards for infrastructure and services management adaptable to virtually any organization. The service-support functions address such issues as problem management, incident management, service desk, change management, release management, and configuration management. The service-delivery functions address capacity management, availability management, financial management, continuity management, and service levels.

In order to keep the ITIL current and to foster continued growth of the standard, OCG has continued to work closely with the British Standards Institute (BSI) and the Information Technology Service Management Foundation (itSMF). In 2000, BSI and OGC undertook to work together to align the BSI Management Overview (PD0005), the Specification for Service Management (BS 15000-1), the Code of Practice for Service Management (BS 15000-2), and ITIL guidance into a consolidated framework. The management overview provides the introduction to ITIL and leads users into supplemental and increasingly expanded information regarding the standards.

^[*]ITIL is a registered trade mark and a registered community trade mark of the Office of Government Commerce and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.