History and Evolution of ITIL

The ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library – acronym is a registered trademark of UK’s Cabinet office. It is a framework which ensures the efficient and effective functioning of Service Management in the IT industry. It is simply a collection of best practices gathered from all across the industry, vetted by IT service providers, suppliers, customers and all other stakeholders. It has evolved and established itself as the most prominent framework for service management for more than 3 decades now.

The ITIL concept emerged in the 1980s, when the British government determined that the standard of IT service quality provided to them was not sufficient and up to expected levels. 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.

The earliest version of ITIL was originally called GITIM, Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management. Obviously this was very different to the current ITIL framework, but conceptually very similar, focusing on service support and delivery. 

Large companies and government agencies in Europe adopted the framework very quickly in the early 1990s. ITIL was spreading far and began to spread its wings in both government and non-government organizations. The IT industry in itself underwent considerable transformation in the 90s and ITIL kept pace and adapted to the changes in the industry.

In the year 2000, The CCTA merged into the OGC, Office for Government Commerce. In the same year, Microsoft used ITIL as the basis to develop their proprietary Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). This was a significant milestone.

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 of ITIL was published. This adopted more of a lifecycle approach to service management, with greater emphasis on IT business integration. In 2011, ITIL 2011 was published and it is the most updated version of the ITIL framework as of today.