Availability Management

<seo metakeywords="availability management, itil availability management, availability management itil, availability management process, availability itil v3" metadescription="Availability Management: ITIL process definition - Sub-processes - Terms - Additional information on ITIL Availability Management." />

DE - ES - Availability Management

 

Overview

Objective: ITIL Availability Management aims to define, analyze, plan, measure and improve all aspects of the availability of IT services. Availability Management is responsible for ensuring that all IT infrastructure, processes, tools, roles etc are appropriate for the agreed availability targets.

Part of: Service Design

Process Owner: Availability Manager

 

Process Description

ITIL Availability Management

There are no major differences between Capacity Management in ITIL V3 (2007) and ITIL 2011.

Following the introduction of Design Coordination in ITIL 2011 the information flows have been adapted. The process overview of ITIL Availability Management (.JPG) is showing the most important interfaces (see Figure 1).

 

Sub-Processes

These are the ITIL Availability Management sub-processes and their process objectives:

 

Design Services for Availability

Process Objective: To design the procedures and technical features required to fulfill the agreed availability levels.

Availability Testing

Process Objective: To make sure that all availability, resilience and recovery mechanisms are subject to regular testing.

Availability Monitoring and Reporting

Process Objective: To provide other Service Management processes and IT Management with information related to service and component availability. This includes comparing achieved vs. agreed availability and the identification of areas where availability must be improved.

 

Definitions

The following ITIL terms and acronyms (information objects) are used in ITIL Availability Management to represent process outputs and inputs:

 

Availability Design Guidelines

The Availability Design Guidelines define from a technical point of view how the required availability levels can be achieved, including specific instructions for application development and for externally sourced infrastructure components.

Availability Guidelines for the Service Desk

Rules produced by Availability Management on how to manage Incidents causing unavailability, to prevent minor Incidents from becoming major Incidents.

Availability Management Information System

A virtual repository of all Availability Management data, usually stored in multiple physical locations.

Availability Plan

The Availability Plan contains detailed information about initiatives aimed at improving service and/ or component availability.

Availability/ ITSCM/ Security Testing Schedule

A schedule for the regular testing of all availability, continuity and security mechanisms, jointly maintained by Availability, IT Service Continuity and Information Security Management.

Availability Report

The Availability Report provides other Service Management processes and IT Management with information related to service and infrastructure component availability.

Maintenance Plan/ SOP

Maintenance Plans are part of the operational documentation for applications and infrastructure components, which are sometimes known as Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). They define the frequency and scope of preventative maintenance. Maintenance Plans/ SOPs are typically extracted from technical or administration manuals to define in a concise manner the tasks to be carried out as part of standard operations.

Recovery Plan

Recovery Plans are created mainly by Availability and IT Service Continuity Management. The plans contain specific instructions for returning services and/or systems to a working state, which often includes recovering data to a known consistent state.

Technical/ Administration Manual

A document describing the procedures required to run and maintain a type of application or infrastructure component.

Test Report

A report of the preparation, progress and evaluation of a test, created for example during the various tests carried out by Availability, IT Service Continuity or Information Security Management.

 

Checklists | KPIs

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Availability Management
• Checklists Availability Management:
  • Checklist Availability Improvement Plan
  • Checklist Availability Report

 

Roles | Responsibilities

Availability Manager - Process Owner

The Availability Manager is responsible for defining, analyzing, planning, measuring and improving all aspects of the availability of IT services. He is responsible for ensuring that all IT infrastructure, processes, tools, roles etc are appropriate for the agreed service level targets for availability.

 

Responsibility Matrix: ITIL Availability Management
ITIL Role | Sub-Process	Availability Manager	Service Owner[3]	Applications Analys[3]	Technical Analyst[3]	IT Operator[3]
Design Services for Availability	A[1]R[2]	R[3]	R[3]	R[3]
Availability Testing	AR				R[3]
Availability Monitoring and Reporting	AR

 

Remarks

[1] A: Accountable Accountable according to the RACI Model: Those who are ultimately accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the Availability Management process.

[2] R: Responsible according to the RACI Model: Those who do the work to achieve a task within ITIL Availability Management.

[3] siehe → Role descriptions ...