Information Technology Infrastructure Library

What Does Information Technology Infrastructure Library Mean?

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a widely accepted best practices framework for IT service management (ITSM). ITIL includes practices, checklists, tasks and procedures documenting the role of the ITSM function. Additionally, ITIL is supported by a qualification scheme, accredited training organizations and implementation third-party (also called ITIL-aligned) assessment tools.

It was created in the 1980s by The UK government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) to help organizations with their IT investments by efficiently meeting their business requirements and goals.

Techopedia Explains Information Technology Infrastructure Library

ITIL leaves the implementation details to the discretion of the organization. ITIL v2 was introduced in 2000/2001 and consists of eight books, each corresponding to a specific discipline. These eight books are:

1. Service Support
2. Service Delivery
3. ICT Infrastructure Management
4. Security Management
5. The Business Perspective
6. Application Management
7. Software Asset Management
8. Planning to Implement Service Management

An additional book, Small-Scale Implementation, was added in 2007. ITIL v3, published in 2007, consists of five volumes. Each volume corresponds to a discipline, as follows:

1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement

In varied industries and markets, many of the world’s largest organizations have implemented ITIL in some form. Examples include Microsoft, HP, NASA, the UK National Health Service, HSBC and the Disney Company.