The Practical Value of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

If you're considering ITIL or have already launched down the ITIL path, you don't really need to worry about whether it works. It does. That's the consensus of members of the CIO Executive Council, many of whom are implementing several stages of ITIL's 12-process framework. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a process-based best-practice framework for supporting and delivering IT services. Among its benefits are its ability to improve IT service levels and aid CIOs in helping their staff gain a better understanding of how IT affects the business. That said, implementing ITIL requires significant change management. Read the entire story.

Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) is a collection of best practices, principles, and models that offers guidance to IT organizations for managing their IT services. Built on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) from the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom, MOF is a framework for managing the operations and support of IT systems, making adjustments due to changing business needs, and optimizing processes for greater efficiency. MOF simplifies IT processes using a model illustrated with clear, easily understood diagrams that divide IT services into four quadrants: the Supporting Quadrant, the Changing Quadrant, the Operating Quadrant, and the Optimizing Quadrant.

Microsoft has been actively involved with the ITIL community since 1999, both by using ITIL content and by contributing to new, updated, and expanded documentation. ITIL provides a broad spectrum of guidance documents that cover IT service delivery, management, and support, as well as elements of IT infrastructure, security, and application management. ITIL promotes the practice of applying descriptive guidance to achieve focused improvement in various areas of service management on a continuing basis.

In contrast to the descriptive ITIL approach, the MOF approach is prescriptive, promoting continuous improvement of IT service management capabilities throughout the IT life cycle. IT organizations are ideally in a constant state of improvement. To assist in achieving this ongoing development, MOF provides prescriptive, process-driven tools and best practices through a growing number of specific service management functions. By combining MOF with Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF),¹ organizations can implement an end-to-end framework to manage their infrastructures—from planning and building through operations and support.