What is ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)?

Table of Contents

ITIL stands for “Information Technology Infrastructure Library”. It is an online library full of publications about how to make your IT run as smoothly as possible. It is an excellent resource for every company trying to improve its IT department.

At its core, ITIL is a set of guidelines that help a company provide the best IT service possible. They are purposefully malleable guidelines so that each business can customize these guidelines to fit their own company. Because these guidelines are written to be adapted, it can be hard to understand exactly what ITIL is and what it wants you to do.

The certification is comprehensive and takes some time to receive as it helps you fully understand how to implement such a huge framework as ITIL. One of the reasons it is so interesting is because it works in steps and as a framework with no standards. ITIL is a set of practices used to improve any company’s IT services no matter their size without any set standards and steps that can be used and changed to fit your company.

This library grows and changes as the IT industry does. This is what makes it such an adaptable and helpful resource for IT services around the world. Once you understand how to use ITIL it becomes an invaluable resource in the pursuit of an excellent IT team.

The great thing about ITIL is that it is made to be helpful so once you understand it, it becomes very simple. The basics are easy to learn and understand. After that, all you need is a few details and to decide how to best implement your new knowledge into your business.

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1. Framework

ITIL can be a very confusing concept to grasp. The explanations online seem to make it more complicated and less understandable by making it sound like a full library full of unreadable information. To put it basically, this is a framework to help your business work as a single unit.

ITIL is not going to break down every decision in every business. It is the basic outline of how to make an IT strategy that will work in your company and help improve your whole system. It is a library that consists of five books filled with information to help you decide the best way to make your company work strategically together.

Because ITIL is not a set of standards it is easy to implement is any size company. Small companies to large companies are able to make the framework applicable to them and improve their IT services by using it. The purpose of ITIL is to help a business improve and that is not regulated to a certain size business.

The purpose behind ITIL can be frustrating to grasp with very few simple explanations available. Thinking of it as a guideline for every business to help improve their IT systems is an easy description that gets the basics down. Even if it does not cover all the small details that ITIL itself includes.

2. Purpose of ITIL

The base purpose of ITIL is to increase the IT customer experience and improve a company’s IT services. Because it is a constantly growing and evolving system, so are the businesses that use it as their framework. This framework guarantees that each customer is going to have the best possible IT experience.

There are enough different strategies and programs in the ITIL to help any company that has an IT system. There is a strategy in it for every possible company that can be applied to improve their IT service. This means a large part of what the ITIL exists to do is compile the best strategies for improving every single company’s IT services.

It was created as an IT framework that can be implemented in stages that prevents any need to rush and makes it a more customizable IT plan. There is not a rule in ITIL stating that the whole thing needs to be implemented quickly or even fully implemented at all. It is designed to be a framework that can be taken in stages and customized to what your company needs.

What was originally thirty books filled with tons of information on how to improve your IT system has been shrunk down to five constantly evolving books worth of information. These books can be found online and are regularly updated to make sure they contain the best possible IT strategies for every business. The purpose of the ITIL is to improve the function and efficiency of your company’s IT service.

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3. Constant Improvement of ITIL

The same way the ITIL itself is constantly improving, it encourages businesses to improve their IT system. It is written into the framework of every strategy to have a constantly improving system that will grow with your customers and company. A company will change and improve and ITIL understands that your IT system needs to keep up with that shift.

ITIL helps your company build a strategy and design for your IT service that is constantly evolving. It is built to make your company run smoothly online and increase customer satisfaction. The whole world is run on the internet and it makes sure your company is keeping up with the way the internet is run and functions.

The internet is growing and changing faster than anyone can keep up with. The constantly growing internet requires a constantly growing IT plan to keep up with it and provide the best customer experience. Keeping up with the incredible growth of the internet means having a plan meant to change as the internet itself changes and grows.

The idea of a constantly improving IT service sounds ideal if a little stressful. Luckily, the ITIL certification you have to receive to fully understand ITIL makes it all much easier to understand. Because it is always evolving and wants your company to be growing as well it makes sure you are well informed on how to keep up with and manage those changes.

4. ITIL Accessibility

There is a certification you can receive for intermediate ITIL that is recommended if you want a job helping companies use ITIL and improve. However, one of the great things about this is how accessible it is to everyone so anyone can read through it and implement some of the steps. There are hundreds of different ways to find ITIL and learn how to use it in your business.

From its conception, ITIL was meant to be accessible and helpful. It has not lost that ability through all of its updates and continues to be easy to find online and implement in a company. It is made as a set of practices instead of a set of standards which makes it accessible as well as user-friendly.

The certification is helpful but not required. It is there to help you understand every part of the ITIL system and how to use it. But it is not the only way to understand it or even the most popular way. It is accessible all over the internet. The latest incarnation of the ITIL is always available to whoever wants to keep up with the constant changes the ITIL believes are necessary to improve your IT system.

The information may not be easy to understand at first. But there are just as many articles explaining ITIL in simpler terms. Because there are on why you need to use it to make your business great. A company’s IT service needs to run smoothly for both their customers to be happy and their business to succeed. ITIL helps make companies IT services run smoothly and keep up with the constantly evolving IT industry.

5. ITIL Certification

There is, of course, a certification you can get that shows you are an expert in ITIL. This certification is the best way to fully understand ITIL. Then you can able to teach others as well as implement it yourself. The certification is also a great way to show possible employers that you would be an asset to their company.

In the last few years, ITIL has grown in popularity. More companies are choosing to use the ITIL framework to improve their IT services. To do that properly they are getting the certification themselves or hiring someone who can show their IT team what to do and implement ITIL correctly and effectively for their business. That makes an ITIL certification a great way to prove your worth and get a job.

There are five different levels of certification for ITIL. That means you can still know more than the average person and be an asset with only one level of certification. But you become an expert at level five. These levels guarantee a full education on how ITIL works and how to implement it in every size business with every type of IT services.

To be clear, the certification is not required for reading ITIL and trying to implement it. It is a certification that explains ITIL better. Because ITIL is not exactly easy to read and understand without a bit more explanation. The certification is an extra level of expertise that allows for a better understanding of what ITIL can do and be used to improve in all IT services.

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6. Start Where You Are

Possibly the best and most thought out part of ITIL is that it allows each company to start exactly where they are. You likely already have some kind of IT system set up; ITIL does not want you to completely start from scratch. That is why there are so many different incarnations and methods for using ITIL.

You already have a base for your IT service so ITIL is there to help you improve it. Throwing away your whole IT system and starting from scratch is time-consuming and ill-advised. ITIL meets you where you are to help you build something better on the back of what you already have.

It is likely your IT team already knows what your company needs to improve. They just aren’t sure where to start or how to implement changes. ITIL will give them a framework to start from and help them grow from there. Leaving you with an updated and evolving IT strategy perfect for modern software development.

The things that your IT service has already improved and implemented will help ITIL find a place to start. None of the work you have done on your IT services before you began using ITIL will be wasted. Because ITIL wants to improve what you have not completely rebuilt. That is what makes ITIL such a universally helpful IT plan.

7. History

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library has a long history on the internet and helping improve IT services. It was created in the nineteen-eighties to help the IT practices that existed to be widely known and shared. From there it was put on the internet to be shared and be easily accessible.

Of course, it was not immediately posted on the internet. There were a few years before it became the easily accessible library it is today. But it was certainly one of the first IT frameworks to be uploaded to the internet to reach and help as many people as possible.

It took until the year two thousand for ITIL to be updated for the first time. The internet had changed so much between the creation of ITIL and the decade 2000 that it had become outdated and not as accurate as it was intended to be. Since then the ITIL has been updated several times to keep up with the constantly changing internet.

The British government was responsible for ITIL from its conception until twenty thirteen when AXELOS became responsible for ITIL. Currently, AXELOS owns ITIL. They are in charge of when it is updated and all of the information that ITIL possesses. They have not done much to change the ITIL from its original purpose. ITIL continues to be a source of information and an excellent framework for any IT team to follow.

8. Pitching

Often, ITIL needs to be pitched to a company for them to want to implement it. Pitching it to a company can be a little difficult if they do not understand what ITIL is and the benefits of it in business. The certification teaches you how to pitch ITIL. But you can also read about ITIL and pitch it as an excellent framework.

ITIL has been adapted for thousands of companies. It uses several different strategies to help improve any business and its IT services quickly and efficiently in a way that will last. Many people are positive that ITIL is an excellent example of how many businesses and IT services will be run and operated in the future.

There is enough proof of how well ITIL works for it to be easy to prove as an excellent strategy. Since ITIL is so adaptable, it is also easy to start with a few steps. You can decide if it works for your company instead of just jumping feet first. That is why ITIL is such an excellent framework and strategy to adopt. It is a good practice while a company grows and changes.

ITIL is built to work for any company of any size at any stage in their growth. It is a framework of practices that allows each IT service to improve and grow at a steady rate that works for the company as a whole. Pitching it is almost always necessary to get a company to adopt it as a practice. But it always worth when the results start showing.

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To Conclude

ITIL is a constantly evolving program to help every company improve its IT services. The system strives to improve customer experience and provide feedback to the company so they can improve what customers are not enjoying. It was created to give each company a way to build its IT services into something great.

ITIL believes in constantly growing and improving and will help your business do the same. It is built as a framework to give your company a plan to follow that allows it to succeed no matter where the company’s IT services are starting. The framework of ITIL can be applied to any IT service at any level.

Even though ITIL is difficult to understand it is easy to implement. There is a framework for every type of IT program that will help improve and enhance your company’s IT system. ITIL is a global framework that helps every IT service find the best strategy to help them succeed.

This is a framework made to improve the IT services for any company of any size. It can be implemented in steps to allow for an easier transition and to meet you where your IT services are at. ITIL is a tried and true method of improving your IT services. It is user-friendly enough to be used in any company of any size.

Finally, ITIL is built to be accessible and work for every company. It is constantly improving and growing which makes it difficult to understand at first. But it can be immensely helpful once you grasp the concept. ITIL is built to help your company’s IT system become the best it can be and stay the best.

This article is written by Gabe Nelson. Gabe is a content specialist of over 8 years of experience, currently working with Semaphore. Just out of high school he set off crab fishing in the Bering sea in Alaska. From there he went back home to finish his college degree at the University of Montana. He has a passion and keen understanding when it comes to CI/CD inside and out. He has written hundreds of content pieces in numerous niches. Currently, he lives in Missouri with his wife and kids enjoying the peaceful town of St. Joseph.