According to the UK’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 2 (v2) is finally being laid to rest. ITIL v2 was lauded as the “most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world.” In 2007 ITIL v3 was launched with, a few major changes, possibly most significant a key shift in methodology by encouraging inter-department communication between IT and business teams. Having worked on both sides of this equation in different careers, I can attest that improved communication between these departments definitely needed addressing. But as we move into this new decade, let’s look back at some of the stats and the history of ITIL v2. 

• Some general ITIL Information
• A Google search for ITIL v2 returns over 353,000 results
• ITIL v2 was launched in tandem with BS 15000 which later became ISO/IEC 20000
• A Google search for ISO/IEC 20000 returns 226,000 results
• Some notable ITIL adopters: Microsoft, IBM, Cat,and Boeing

The blog IT Skeptic has worked out the cost to obtain full ITIL certification: $60k. This includes hourly rates for your time,travel, etc.  The actual cost, should you choose to obtain just the certification, is probably closer to $20k-30k.

ITIL began with a decision from the UK government recognized a need for a set of standards for IT infrastructure and management.  The original group formed to address this issue was the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). The CCTA then produced the Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management (GITIM). Yes, that’s a lot of acronyms, but stay with us! So the GITIM lost the G and the M, improvised with library, and the ITIL was born.

History

1989 – ITIL v1, thirty volumes long, is released. 

2000/2001 – CCTA becomes the OGC, which is under the office of the UK Treasury. Perhaps the government suspected that IT service management would yield lots of revenue!

2006 – The ITIL Glossary is released.

2007 – ITIL v3 is released. It is five volumes long, with a focus on communication with business teams. 

2009 – OGC announces the end of ITIL v2, and there will be no more books or certifications.

2010 – 1 year notification/warning from OGC

June 30, 2011 – RIP ITIL v2

It doesn’t take but a few hours of searching the web to find that there are quite a few players in the world of certification and IT Operations Frameworks.  The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) developed in the UK in 1989 by CCTA which now resides under the ownership of the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was one of the first attempts at documenting the concepts, policies, and best practices for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure.  Over the past few decades IT departments have seen the development of websites, blogs, certification processes, revision changes of ITIL strategies, and teams of consultants grow at staggering rates.  A lot of this could be contributed to many economic factors but I believe the biggest changes are contributed to IT alignment with business units.  As IT services becomes more measurable in conjunction with business unit profitability, company executives can better see the bottom line revenue potential of investing in their IT department processes, training, and service management; not just the hardware and software assets.  With this shift in visibility IT departments go from black boxes which few executives understood to glass boxes that play an immediate role in productivity, revenue generation, and customer satisfaction visible to everyone.  And with this visibility comes money and as companies start spending more of it the private sector reacts providing an increasing number of services and solutions to help fill the needs.

Since its inception both formally and informally the playing field has changed and grown springing up new players such as ITSMF International, ITSMPA.org, ISACA, COBIT, ISO 20000, and Microsoft Operations Framework just to name a few.  These companies coupled with mandated compliances such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, and SOX have made IT operations a huge growth area for companies of all types who want to provide their touch, insight, and experience to this unquestionably fast moving and high growth business segment.

But with all of these new players and the push by companies like Microsoft into the market defining new terms and best practices which organizations and sectors of this model will be the industry leaders moving forward.  The direction of operations is changing, in the past few years we have seen the process driven ITIL version 2.0 replaced with a business aligned version 3.0.  And now Microsoft is providing their version of operations framework which is similar to ITIL but has its own unique twists.  So who is going to jump into the mix next?  One thing is for sure competition sparks productivity, new ideas, and new ways of approaching problems.  All though I would like to see continued alignment in terminology I like the idea of new companies pushing the incumbents, if nothing else it gives me something to blog about!