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ITIL Definition

ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework of best practice approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality information technology (IT) services.

ITIL outlines an extensive set of management procedures that are intended to support businesses in achieving both high financial quality and value in IT operations.

These procedures are supplier-independent and have been developed to provide guidance across the breadth of IT infrastructure, development, and operations.

ITIL is published in a series of books (hence the term Library), each of which covers a core area within IT Management. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are Registered Trade Marks of the United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

Importantly ITIL is also recognised as an international standard, namely ISO IEC 20000.

ITIL is owned by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

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ITIL Versions

ITIL was conceived from a U.K. government initiative in the mid 1980’s.

It began as a project to document best practice in IT, and this framework was quickly adopted. By the early 90’s many large organisations and government agencies throughout Europe had adopted ITIL.

ITIL Version 2

To reflect the popularity of ITIL and to reflect changes in IT, ITIL version 2 (ITIL V2) was published in 2000.

ITIL V2 is broken up into 2 parts:

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ITIL Version 3

The ITIL version 3 (ITIL V3) project began in 2004, and involved extensive consultations with thousands of global IT service management practitioners from the public and private sectors, including vendors, qualification bodies, exam institutes and education providers.

May 2007 saw the launch of ITIL version 3, confirming ITIL’s place as the worlds’ most credible framework for IT Service Management.

See how to bridge from ITIL version 2 to ITIL version 3

The Differences Between ITIL V2 and ITIL V3

ITIL V3 comprises of 5 core manuals, namely:


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ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

The Swirl logo™ is a Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce

Ownership of ITIL ™ belongs to the OGC and is managed by the APMG.