First Look

The ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library standard collects best practices and processes on the planning, provision and support of IT services so they best support business objectives. It was
designed by Office of Government Commerce in the U.K. seven years ago.

Now, Entuity Software has developed its Eye of the Storm management suite that extends ITIL’s advantages. We spoke to Bill Tracy, Entuity's vice president of product strategy about the ITIL standard's benefits and how it can work with BPM or SOA approach.

"It's really about a top-down approach to IT service management," Tracy said. "ITIL takes a business perspective management versus the bottom-up approach that's been traditional for the last ten years or so. It's about assessing business needs and strategies, tying them to the IT subsystem, and assuring that it's meeting the goals of those strategies," Tracy said.

"This standard has quite of following. It has an international following and a whole group of service providers that have been certified in it," Tracy added. "As you're rolling out BSM and BPM strategies, ITIL is going to be fundamental to that."