Definition: ITIL

(Information Technology Infrastructure Library) One of the more comprehensive as well as non-proprietary and publicly available sets of guidelines for "best practice" IT services management, owned by the British Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Each library module provides a code of practice intended to improve IT efficiencies, reduce risks and increase the effectiveness and quality of IT services management and infrastructure.

In the late 1980s, the library was conceived by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) of the British government. Although ITIL services and training were popular in Europe, it took more than a decade before they were introduced to the U.S. private sector by a number of consulting firms such as Andersen Consulting, Ernst & Young, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Pink Elephant and Price Waterhouse Coopers. ITIL certification examinations are available through EXIN in the Netherlands.