Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has been around for 20 years, but interest within the United States has only increased in the last five years. ITIL is becoming the next big thing in Information Technology. It is the new industry buzz-word, the new certification, the new conference, and the new idea that the IT world feels it needs. This paper will describe the origin of ITIL, who controls the ITIL contents, who are the biggest users of ITIL, and why you should care about it. Throughout this paper, it will be important for you to remember that ITIL describes a framework of processes for the. | Global Knowledge Expert Reference Series ofWhite Papers ITIL What It Is and Why You Should Care 1-800-COURSES ITIL What It Is and Why You Should Care Eugene S. Ball PhD ITIL Certified Service Manager Introduction Information Technology Infrastructure Library ITIL has been around for 20 years but interest within the United States has only increased in the last five years. ITIL is becoming the next big thing in Information Technology. It is the new industry buzz-word the new certification the new conference and the new idea that the IT world feels it needs. This paper will describe the origin of ITIL who controls the ITIL contents who are the biggest users of ITIL and why you should care about it. Throughout this paper it will be important for you to remember that ITIL describes a framework of processes for the management of IT. Because it is a framework ITIL does not describe in great detail how any particular process should be implemented. Where did ITIL come from ITIL started in the late 1980s when the British Central Computer and Telecommunication Agency CCTA now called the Office of Government Commerce OGC made a decision that there should be a better way for Information Technology to function. The CCTA commissioned a study group to develop a new approach to managing Information Technology. From this group came Version 1 of ITIL which was called GITIM Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management. Version 1 of ITIL was a great deal different from the present-day version. Part of this difference is due to the gradual maturing of ITIL and changes in the Information Technology industry. Between the development of Version 1 and the year 2001 the number of documents books used within ITIL grew to more than 32. In the year 2000 Microsoft used ITIL as the basis for development of their proprietary Microsoft Operations Framework MOF . The year 2000 also saw the CCTA merge into the Office of Government Commence OGC . Version 2 of .
