ITIL® is a series of books that provide methods for managing IT services, improving efficiency, and reducing costs. Originally created by the British government, it has gained worldwide popularity. The library covers topics such as strategy, design, transition, and day-to-day operations. A toolkit is available to help organizations implement ITIL® practices.
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) is a series of books that describe methods for implementing and managing information technology (IT) services. The methods described in the library are intended to streamline an organization’s IT services by improving or implementing tactics for IT environments such as problem and contingency awareness, cost analysis, and software and hardware management and configuration. The books also describe ways in which all the inevitable changes to an IT environment can be managed. By utilizing the many practices outlined in ITIL® organizations organizations are known to dramatically improve the efficiency of their IT resources and reduce costs by up to 50%.
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library was created by the British government in the 1980s in an attempt to bring under control the growing reliance on IT resources. The then Central Computer and Communications Agency, which later merged into the Office of Government Commerce, originally published over 30 volumes in the first version of ITIL®. The library was required reading for British government agencies and contractors interested in providing IT services.
Over the years, however, the highly practical practices have gradually gained worldwide popularity. A second version of the library was released which condensed the material into eight volumes. The third version, released in 2007, further reduced the number of books in the library to five. These are simply the core of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, while under each of the main topics, the additional volumes can offer more specific practices depending on the type of IT services.
The first central topic in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library is about strategy, which unites organizational goals with IT through planning and analysis. The next subject area is the actual design of the IT environment, taking the needs determined by the analysis and combining them with specifications such as hardware, software, personnel, strategic partnerships and so on. The third volume of the set acts as a bridge to the transition from planning to actual operations, describing techniques for making sure your IT plan is implemented correctly and yet remains flexible to change and less susceptible to unforeseen disasters. The other areas deal with general tactics for the efficient day-to-day operation of the IT environment and proactive management and further improvements are discussed.
While the complexity of the original 30+ volumes has been condensed somewhat, the density of subject matter still exists. To help with the complexity of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, a toolkit has been devised to help organizations initiate and develop practices in their IT environment. The ITIL® toolkit contains elements such as presentations to streamline management, quick fact sheets that summarize topics and practices, and a series of compliance questionnaires to understand which areas are already working and which may need improvement.
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