Define ITIL

It is not very hard to Define ITIL, especially in the current IT world. Let’s Define ITIL. ITIL is the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management. Used by many hundreds of organizations around the world, a whole ITIL philosophy has grown up around the guidance contained within the ITIL books. ITIL consists of a series of books giving guidance on the provision of quality IT services, and on the accommodation and environmental facilities needed to support IT. ITIL has been developed in recognition of organizations' growing dependency on IT and embodies best practices for IT Service Management. ITIL provides the foundation for quality IT Service Management. The widespread adoption of the ITIL guidance has encouraged organizations worldwide, both commercial and non-proprietary, to develop supporting products as part of a shared 'ITIL Philosophy'.

Define ITIL: The ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) consists of 6 sets: Service Support; Service Delivery; Planning to Implement Service Management; ICT Infrastructure Management; Applications Management; The Business Perspective. Within these a variable number of very specific disciplines are described. Although the UK Government actually created ITIL via the CCTA, it is rapidly being adopted across the world as the standard for best practice in the provision of IT Service. Although ITIL covers a number of areas, its main focus is certainly on IT Service Management (ITSM).

Define ITIL in other words: ITIL is the IT Infrastructure Library and ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark and a Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce.  Developed in the late 1980's by the CCTA (now the OGC), by the mid 1990's it had become the world-wide de facto standard in service management.  ITIL has become very popular as it is a public domain framework which is scaleable.  Very large organizations, very small organizations and everything in between have implemented ITIL processes.  ITIL focuses on best practice, and as such can be adapted and adopted in different ways according to each individual organizations needs.  So Define ITIL what is it?

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a set of best practices standards for Information Technology (IT) service management. The United Kingdom's Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) created ITIL in response to the growing dependence on Information Technology to meet business needs and goals. ITIL provides businesses with a customizable framework of best practices to achieve quality service and overcome difficulties associated with the growth of IT systems.  ITIL is organized into sets of texts which are defined by related functions: service support, service delivery, managerial, software support, computer operations, security management, and environmental. In addition to texts, ITIL services and products include training, qualifications, software tools, and user groups such as the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), all of which you can find details of on this website.

While owned by the CCTA since the mid-1980s, ITIL is currently maintained and developed by the Office of Government Commerce.

ITIL for IT service management began in 1989, growing out of an effort by the United Kingdom's government to improve IT service management. It has slowly made its way to North America via Canada. ITIL features two disciplines; service support and service delivery (rewritten in 2000 and 2001) aimed at improving the quality of service while reducing or maintaining costs. Automating the management of the IT infrastructure in a business-relevant way is high priority this year for all IT organizations. Best practices should serve as a guide to designing IT management processes that increase the overall efficiency, reduce costs and align IT with the business. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) definitions act as best practice guides that work to improve operational efficiencies.

Learn the ITIL road map to deliver best practice Service Management in your IT organization. Using ITIL processes, an IT organization can:

• Monitor the quality of IT services, improve efficiency, increase effectiveness and reduce risks.
• Align IT’s service management processes with critical business-focused processes and priorities.
• Decrease the cost of IT delivered services to the business while increasing it’s effectiveness, utilization and efficiencies around Service delivery and Service support.