ITIL vs IT Service Management

Background on ITIL

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) concept emerged in the 1980s, when the British government determined that the level of IT service quality provided to them was not sufficient. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was tasked with developing a framework for the efficient and financially responsible use of IT resources. Initially, it was intended to be used within the British government only, but many private sector companies have since adopted it.

Since the early 2000’s ITIL gained a significant following with IT service providers as a differentiating advantage over other market competitors. Its integration into the IT industry was clear when Microsoft used ITIL to develop their proprietary Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). The definitive version of ITIL, version 3, was released in 2007 with the most recent update being published in 2011. Continued development and improvement of ITIL indicates that ITIL provides tremendous value to many companies globally.