Keeping the IT services the business relies on available, or back quickly, when something major goes wrong.
IT service continuity management (ITSCM) is the discipline of preparing IT services for serious incidents. Its aim is to keep them available, or restore them quickly, before, during and after an event such as a system failure, a cyber attack or a natural disaster. It comes from the ITIL approach to IT service management and supports the organisation’s business continuity plans.
Almost every task now depends on technology, from email to payments. When systems stop, work stops, and ITSCM is how an organisation decides in advance what returns first and how.
We found no video that covers IT service continuity management directly. This short video from IBM Technology covers a closely related topic, the difference between disaster recovery and backup.
Give teams clear advice and support on continuity and recovery, so they can act quickly during an incident.
Keep IT continuity and recovery plans in line with the organisation’s business continuity plans, supported by regular impact and risk analysis.
Plan recovery actions ahead of time, so losses that cannot be avoided are kept as small as possible.
Put recovery arrangements in place that meet the targets agreed for each critical IT service.
Review how changes to systems, processes or suppliers affect the plans, and update them.
Agree contracts that guarantee the recovery support the organisation depends on.
Identify what could interrupt IT services, from cyber incidents and system faults to human error.
Understand what an outage does to the business, so recovery can be ranked by need.
Choose the approaches, such as backups, redundancy or alternative systems, that meet the recovery targets.
Write down the actions and responsibilities for infrastructure, applications and services.
Test the plans regularly and update them as technology, services and needs change.
Work with the business continuity team and manage third parties so support meets the agreed levels.
The steps to restore business processes after a disruption, who does what and when the plan is triggered. It also sets out who is told what, and ITSCM plans are a vital part of it.
The ongoing approach of finding the risks that could disrupt the business and bringing their effect down to an acceptable level, with regular review and improvement.
A study of how losing a service affects revenue, customers, compliance and daily operations. It identifies critical processes, the resources they need and how long the organisation can wait.
Set the scope, aims and policy. Identify the critical IT services, then carry out impact analysis and risk assessment.
Decide in advance who makes decisions, who activates the plan, who communicates and who recovers each service.
Agree who is told what, how updates are given and how issues are escalated before, during and after an incident.
Use walk-throughs, simulations and technical recovery exercises to show that the plans work and the targets can be met.
Review each test or real incident, record lessons and update the plans as the organisation changes.
List the IT services and the assets behind them, including systems, software, networks and people.
Look at what could disrupt those services, such as failures, cyber incidents or staff absence.
Set recovery priorities, arrange backups and choose secure storage so services return in order.
Keep the recovery plan written, current, shared with the right people and stored where it can be reached in an emergency.
Two roles are commonly involved. A service continuity manager plans and manages continuity across the organisation, keeps the plans current, leads testing and coordinates the response to a major incident. A recovery team of technical staff and representatives from other departments carries out recovery tasks and keeps IT and the wider organisation informed.
In short, a sound ITSCM framework rests on five things: impact and risk analysis, recovery strategies, recovery plans, the measures that put them in place, and regular testing and upkeep. Related guide: what is IT disaster recovery?
ITSCM is the IT part of business continuity, and IT disaster recovery supplies much of its technical means. Both support operational resilience, the ability to keep delivering critical services through disruption. ADOX develops its consulting and training in adherence to ISO 22301, UAE NCEMA 7000 and the BCI Good Practice Guidelines (GPG 7.0). See ADOX’s BCMS Framework and incident response and crisis management simulations.
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Source: ITIL Website, What is IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM)?. This guide is ADOX’s own summary, written in its own words, and is not an ITIL publication. ITIL is a registered trade mark of its owner.