The two processes, availability and service continuity management, must ensure that the agreed objectives of availability and continuity for the customer can be met in every case.
It is vital that all activities and expenditure, as well as the resources assigned for the implementation of the continuity and availability targets, should be coordinated with the requirements of the business.
The availability must be recorded for monitoring the services and historic data sets kept for trend developments in order to identify and document deviations from the defined targets. We also recommend that the effectiveness of improvement measures which have been introduced should then be reviewed.
The availabilities and planned maintenance windows must be forecast in advance and communicated to all those involved. This will enable preventative maintenance to be carried out on a targeted basis.
The service provider must give an undertaking to draw up a strategy for adhering to the service continuity targets. One of the integral parts of this strategy is a risk assessment based on the extent of loss and probability of occurrence which takes into account both service as well as particularly critical operating times.
We recommend that the service provider clearly defines at least the following points with each customer group:
- maximum accepted period without service
- maximum accepted period with reduced service
- accepted reduced service level during a defined recovery period
The service continuity strategy must be reviewed jointly with the business representatives on a continual basis, at least however annually. All changes to the strategy must be formally agreed and implemented within the framework of the change management.
For comparison see the Availability and IT Service Continuity Management process in accordance with ITIL V3. | 
