ITIL IT Service Continuity Management

What is it?

IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM) is one of five components in the ITIL Service Delivery area. Also known as DCP, DRP, DCT, or just plain DR, IT Service Continuity Management provides a framework for developing IT infrastructure recovery plans in support of Business Continuity Management (BCM) plans and timeframes.

ITSCM defines the processes that enable IT to work closely with Business Continuity Management departments to ensure plans and alternative service options are in place to meet BCM needs in the event of a significant business outage or disruption. ITSCM plans differ greatly by region as different areas have different risks, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, and/or terrorist activities. As a result, recovery plans are highly customized to meet individual business and locale needs.

IT Service Continuity Management activities include:

• Working with BCM and Service Level Management (SLM) to determine potential issues and recovery requirements through a Business Impact Analysis
• Assessing risks, determining costs to mitigate those risks, and prioritizing which recovery plans will be developed through a Risk Assessment
• Translating recovery requirements into infrastructure options and data storage requirements
• Implementing and testing backup and recovery techniques, as well as negotiating and signing contracts for alternate site arrangements
• Periodically reviewing and refining plans to ensure they remain effective as business events dictate

Why should I implement IT Service Continuity Management?

Benefits to implementing ITSCM processes include:

• Minimizing disruption in IT services following a major interruption or disaster
• Minimizing costs associated with recovery plans through proper proactive planning and testing
• Properly prioritizing the recovery of IT services by working closely with BCM and SLM

ITSCM processes are closely tied to Service Level Management, Availability Management, Capacity Management, Configuration Management, Change Management and Incident Management processes.

TeamQuest Addresses ITIL IT Service Continuity Management

TeamQuest software directly supports ITIL IT Service Continuity Management processes.

TeamQuest Model permits you to simulate operating your mission-critical applications on a limited size, hot-site platform in order to understand the consequences of executing a recovery scenario. This permits you to size the smallest effective capacity increment required and maximize the value of disaster recovery dollars spent.

TeamQuest tools support IT Service Continuity Management by:

• Providing data that shows IT resource usage for each application or service
• Allowing IT to experiment with various business continuity options, including consolidation and moving work to different servers in the event of a disaster
• Providing what-if analysis capabilities to determine service performance on back-up servers
• Providing simulation tools to predict disaster recovery needs
• Allowing you to experiment with multiple scenarios to determine resources needed to meet business unit goals