13.

13.1.

Availability Management
Availability Management Synopsis

Goals Optimize ability Deliver cost-effective & sustained Availability Determine business requirements Match IT capabilities to business requirements Provide alternatives & costing to fill gaps Monitor & measure to ensure Availability is provided Continuous improvement to optimize Benefits Single point of accountability IT Services meet business requirements Availability is cost justified Agree, monitor & measure Availability to support SLM Identify shortfalls, identify & implement corrections Business & User perspective to ensure optimal usage Frequency & duration of failures reduced over time IT mindset moves from reactive to proactive IT is seen to add-value to the business Critical Success Factors Clearly defined and agreed SLAs Accurate business forecasts Knowledge & accuracy of IT plans & strategy Understanding current & future technologies Ability to demonstrate cost-effectiveness Interaction with other effective SM Processes Ability to plan & implement to match business Key Performance Indicators Percent Unavailable Duration Frequency of failure Impact of failure Possible Implementation Problems Reluctance to appoint an Availability Manager Difficulty understanding how AM can make difference Current Availability is viewed as good enough Resistance to authority of Availability Manager/Process AM not empowered to influence IT Tools Component Failure Impact Analysis Fault Tree Analysis CRAMM System Outage Analysis Expanded Incident Lifecycle Continuous Improvement Technical Observation Post Availability Plan Activities Determine Availability required for new/changed Service Identify VBF and impact from IT component failure Determine targets for reliability and maintainability Establish measurements Inputs Business Availability requirements Business impact assessment Availability, reliability and maintainability requirements Incident and Problem data

Configuration and monitoring data Service level achievements Outputs Availability and recovery design criteria IT infrastructure resilience and Risk Assessment Agreed targets: Availability, reliability & maintainability Reports on Availability, reliability & maintainability achieved Availability monitoring Availability improvement plans Managers Duties Define & execute AM processes Ensure Services designed for required Availability Monitor, measure & report on Availability per SLAs Optimize with cost effective improvements Reduce over time frequency & duration of Unavailability Identify & progress corrective actions Forward looking Availability Plan

13.2.

Availability Management Goal Statement The goal of the Availability Management process is to optimize the capability of the IT Infrastructure, services and supporting organization to deliver a cost effective and sustained level of Availability that enables the business to satisfy its business objectives. This is achieved by determining the Availability requirements of the business and matching these to the capability of the IT Infrastructure and supporting organization. Where there is a mismatch between the requirement and capability, Availability Management ensures the business is provided with available alternatives and associated cost options. Availability Management should ensure the required level of Availability is provided. The measurement and monitoring of IT Availability is a key activity to ensure Availability levels are being met consistently. Availability Management should look continuously to optimize the Availability of the IT Infrastructure, services and supporting organization, in order to provide cost effective Availability improvements that can deliver evidenced business and User benefits.

13.3.

Availability Management Benefits "A single point of accountability for Availability (process owner) is established within the IT organization IT Services are designed to meet the IT Availability requirements determined from the business The levels of IT Availability provided are cost justified The levels of Availability required are agreed, measured and monitored to fully support Service Level Management Shortfalls in the provision of the required levels of Availability are recognized and appropriate corrective actions identified and implemented A business and User perspective of IT Service Availability is taken to ensure optimal usage and performance of the IT Infrastructure is achieved to deliver maximum benefit The frequency and duration of IT Service failures is reduced over time IT support organization mindset moves from error correction to service enhancement; from reactive to proactive attitude The IT support organization is seen to add value to the business" (SD 8.3.5) Clearly defined and agreed SLAs Accurate business forecasts Knowledge & accuracy of IT plans & strategy Understanding current & future technologies Ability to demonstrate cost-effectiveness Interaction with other effective SM Processes Ability to plan & implement to match business Percent Available or Percent Unavailable Duration Frequency of failure

13.4.

Availability Management Critical Success Factors

13.5.

Availability Management Key Performance Indicators

 13.6.

Impact of failure "The IT organization view Availability as a responsibility of all senior managers and therefore are reluctant to justify the costs of appointing a single individual as accountable for Availability The IT organization and supporting organization have difficulty understanding how Availability Management can make a difference particularly where the existing disciplines of Incident Management, Problem Management and Change Management are already deployed The IT organization view current levels of Availability as good so see no compelling reason for the creation of a new role within the organization There is resistance to process ownership and the concept of an accountable individual/role who has authority over all the IT support organization The IT organization fail to delegate the appropriate authority and empowerment to enable the process owner for Availability Management to influence all areas of the IT support organization" (SD 8.3.5) Component Failure Impact Analysis (CFIA) Fault Tree Analysis C Risk Assessment and Management Method (CRAMM) System Outage Analysis (SOA) The Expanded Incident Lifecycle Continuous Improvement Technical Observation Post (TOP) Availability Plan (SD 8.6.2 and 8.9)

Availability Management Possible Implementation Problems

13.7.

Availability Management Tools

13.8.

Availability Management Inputs and Outputs Inputs: Business Availability requirements Business impact assessment Availability, reliability and maintainability requirements Incident and Problem data Configuration and monitoring data Service level achievements Outputs: Availability and recovery design criteria IT infrastructure resilience and Risk Assessment Agreed targets for Availability, reliability and maintainability Reports of Availability, reliability and maintainability achieved Availability monitoring Availability improvement plans Activities: Determine the Availability requirements for new or Changed Services Identify the Vital Business Functions and the impact from an IT component failure Define the Availability targets for reliability and maintainability

Establish measurements

13.8.1. Availability Management Inputs and Outputs Diagram

13.8.2. Availability Management Inputs and Outputs Description Interface Business Availability requirements Description The Customers need to work with Service Level Management and Availability Management to document the Availability requirements and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of achieving that level of Availability. Business impact A Business Impact Assessment (BIA) should be completed for each Vital assessment Business Function (VBF) The identification of critical business processes, and the potential damage or loss that may be caused to the organization resulting from a disruption to those processes. Business impact analysis identifies: The form the loss or damage will take How that degree of damage or loss is likely to escalate with time following an incident The minimum staffing, facilities and services needed to enable business processes to continue to operate at a minimum acceptable level The time within which they should be recovered Availability, reliability Availability Management needs to ensure that the design activity for and maintainability Availability looks at the task from two related but distinct perspectives: requirements DESIGNING FOR AVAILABILITY: This relates to the technical design of the IT Infrastructure and the alignment of the internal and external suppliers required to meet the Availability requirements for an IT Service. DESIGNING FOR RECOVERY: This relates to the design points required to ensure that in the event of an IT Service failure, the service can be reinstated to enable normal business operations to resume as quickly as is possible.

Interface Description Incident and Problem It is important to recognize that every Incident passes through a number data of stages. These are described as follows: Incident start Incident detection Incident diagnosis Component repair Component recovery Service restoration (and verification) This lifecycle view provides an important framework in determining amongst others, systems management requirements for Incident detection, diagnostic data capture requirements and tools for diagnosis, recovery plans to aid speedy recovery and how to verify that IT Service has been restored. Configuration and Availability Management should take a proactive role in identifying and monitoring data progressing cost justified Availability improvement opportunities. The ability to do this places reliance on having appropriate and meaningful Availability measurement and reporting. To ensure Availability improvements deliver benefits to the business and Users it is important that Availability measurement and reporting reflects not just IT component Availability but Availability from a business operation and User perspective. Service level The Service Level Management ( SLM ) function is normally responsible achievements for communicating with the business on how their Availability requirements are to be met and ultimately negotiating the SLA for the IT Service. Availability Management therefore provides important support to the SLM function during this period. While higher levels of Availability can often be provided by technology investment there is no justification for providing a higher level of Availability than that needed and afforded by the business. The reality is that satisfying Availability requirements is always a balance between cost and quality. Availability The process of Availability Management is documented, below. Management Availability and The role of Availability Management within the design activities is to recovery design provide: criteria The specification of the Availability requirements for hardware and software The requirements for Availability measurement points (instrumentation) The requirements for new/enhanced systems management Participation in the IT Infrastructure design The specification of the reliability, maintainability and serviceability requirements for components supplied by internal and external suppliers Validation of the final design to meet the minimum levels of Availability required by the business for the IT Service

Interface IT infrastructure resilience and Risk Assessment

Description To assess the vulnerability of failure within the configuration and capability of the IT support organization it is recommended that the proposed IT Infrastructure, service configurations, service design and supporting organization (internal and external suppliers) are subject to a formal Risk Analysis. CRAMM is a technique that can be used to identify justifiable countermeasures that can protect the Availability of IT Systems." Agreed targets for The agreements for Availability are documented in the Service Level Availability, reliability Agreements (SLA). Each SLA must document the agreed Availability or and maintainability Unavailability target, the method of measuring Unavailability and agreements for maintenance windows. Reports of "In order to satisfy the differing perspectives of Availability, Availability Availability, reliability Management needs to consider the spectrum of measures needed to and maintainability report the same level of Availability in different ways. Measurements achieved need to be meaningful and add value if Availability measurement and reporting are ultimately to deliver benefit to the IT and business organizations. This is influenced strongly by the combination of what you measure and how you report it. Availability A key output from the Availability Management process is the monitoring measurement and reporting of IT Availability. This provides the basis for: Establishing measures of Availability and agreeing Availability targets with the business Monitoring of the actual Availability delivered versus agreed targets Identifying unacceptable levels of Availability that impact the business and User Reviewing Availability with the business and User representatives Reviewing Availability with the IT support organization Continuous improvement activities to optimize Availability" Availability The impetus to improve Availability comes from one or more of the improvement plans following: The inability for a new IT Service to meet its SLA on a consistent basis Period(s) of IT Service instability resulting in unacceptable levels of Availability Availability measurement trends indicating a gradual deterioration in Availability Unacceptable IT Service recovery and restoration time Requests from the business to increase the level of Availability provided Increasing impact on the business and its Customers from IT Service failures as a result of growth and/or increased business functionality A request from SLM to improve Availability as part of an overall SIP Availability Management monitoring and trend analysis

13.9.

Availability Management Process Flow 13.9.1. Availability Management Process Flow Diagram

13.9.2. Availability Management Process Flow Description Aspect Define business Availability requirements IT infrastructure analysis and capability review Description The Customers need to work with Service Level Management and Availability Management to document the Availability requirements and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of achieving that level of Availability. Availability can be analyzed through techniques including: Component Failure Impact Analysis ( CFIA ) Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) CRAMM Calculating Availability Calculating the cost of Unavailability Developing basic IT Availability measurement and reporting Developing business and User measurement and reporting Systems Outage Analysis (SOA) The Incident lifecycle Continuous improvement methodology Technical Observation Post (TOP)

Aspect Availability models

Agree Availability requirements Specify serviceability requirements Negotiate serviceability into contracts Specify reliability, resilience and maintenance requirements Negotiate into SLAagreements Test for meeting Availability requirements Monitor compliance to Availability requirements

Description Modeling tools are required to forecast Availability and to assess the impact of Changes to the IT Infrastructure. Inputs to the modeling process include descriptive data of the component reliability, maintainability and serviceability. A spreadsheet package to perform calculations is usually sufficient. If more detailed and accurate data is required a more complex modeling tool may need to be developed. The lack of readily available Availability modeling tools in the marketplace may require such a tool to be developed and maintained inhouse. The agreements for Availability are documented in the Service Level Agreements (SLA). Each SLA must document the agreed Availability or Unavailability target, the method of measuring Unavailability and agreements for maintenance windows. Define the cost-justifiable level of Availability, reliability, maintainability and serviceability requirements in agreements and negotiate those requirements into Underpinning Contracts with external vendors.

Define the cost-justifiable level of Availability, reliability, maintainability and serviceability requirements in agreements and negotiate those requirements into Operational Level Agreements with internal service suppliers.

Audits need to be conducted to insure that the monitoring is effective and the data is accurate. A key output from the Availability Management process is the measurement and reporting of IT Availability. This provides the basis for: Establishing measures of Availability and agreeing Availability targets with the business Monitoring of the actual Availability delivered versus agreed targets Identifying unacceptable levels of Availability that impact the business and User Reviewing Availability with the business and User representatives Reviewing Availability with the IT support organization Continuous improvement activities to optimize Availability"

13.10. Availability Management Relationships with other Service Management Processes Please refer to the prior section for the relationship of IT Service Continuity Management with Service Desk, Incident, Problem, Configuration, Change, Release, Service Level, Financial, Capacity and IT Service Continuity Management.