ITIL® Explained
What is ITIL ®
ITIL is the globally-recognised leader in IT service management and as such has been adopted by thousands of organizations worldwide, including NASA, Microsoft and HSBC.
It is a collection of best practices in IT service management that allows you to monitor, sculpt and improve your IT services. It is particularly useful in a customer-service-based management system as it allows you to manage risk, improve customer experience and enable business change.
It also enables you to lower your IT costs while delivering better services, by improving the way different teams interact and manage the IT infrastructure within your business. It incorporates a wide range of departments, from design to development.
A series of books on ITIL has been issued since 1989 by the Cabinet Office, an administrative body of the government of Great Britain. As of the beginning of 2014, the ITIL® trademark and intellectual property has been owned by AXELOS, a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Capita Plc.
History of ITIL ®
The ITIL concept emerged in the 1980s, when the British government determined that the level of IT service quality provided to them was not sufficient. The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), was tasked with developing a framework for efficient and financially responsible use of IT resources within the British government and the private sector.
Large companies and government agencies in Europe adopted the framework very quickly in the early 1990s. ITIL was spreading far and, and was used in both government and non-government organizations. As it grew in popularity, both in the UK and across the world, IT itself changed and evolved, and so did ITIL.
In year 2000, The CCTA merged into the OGC, Office for Government Commerce and in the same year, Microsoft used ITIL as the basis to develop their proprietary Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF).
In 2001, version 2 of ITIL was released. The Service Support and Service Delivery books were redeveloped into more concise usable volumes. Over the following few years it became, by far, the most widely used IT service management best practice approach in the world.
In 2007 version 3 if ITIL was published. This adopted more of a lifecycle approach to service management, with greater emphasis on IT business integration.
What is ITIL ® 4
ITIL 4 has evolved from the current version by re-shaping much of the established ITSM practices in the wider context of customer experience; value streams and digital transformation; as well as embracing new ways of working, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps.
ITIL 4 provides the guidance organizations need to address new service management challenges and utilize the potential of modern technology. It is designed to ensure a flexible, coordinated and integrated system for the effective governance and management of IT-enabled services.
Find out more
FURTHER INFORMATION available to members
Article – The Evolution of ITIL : A New Operating Model in ITIL4
Workshop Recording – ITIL4 : Are You Ready
