IT Service Continuity Management Policy

From IT frameworks

IT Service Continuity Management is the last ditch resort for IT. It is the safety net for the critical systems. It is a critical component in the company’s IT risk management.

This policy defines the rules for ensuring critical systems will continue servicing the company or swiftly return to service in times of disaster.

The service’s SLA defines the rules set for a specific service. The policy laid out here are default rules.

Backup and restore

The basic safety net of IT systems is backups. For all critical systems, there must be proper backup and restore procedures. The SLA dictates how fast a system must be restored in case of a disaster. But only relying on backup is a poor man’s continuity management. A full continuity plan should also exist for all business critical services.

The IT Service Continuity Manager defines the backup and restore procedures to comply with the SLAs. The procedures are recorded in the Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS).

IT Service Continuity Plan

Each business critical service should have a plan that ensures the continuity of the service in case of disaster. The plan must ensure the SLA is upheld at all times. The business sets the terms for the continuity plan. The business pays for a proper disaster recovery according to how critical the service is to business operations. The more critical, the more it can afford to spend on disaster recovery.

The IT Service Continuity Manager is responsible for presenting good options for disaster recovery for each critical service. The options must be worked out together with the system responsible. The budget for each option is worked out together with Financial Management.

The options for disaster recovery are presented to Service Level Management (SLM) as part of the SLA negotiations.

The IT Service Continuity Plan includes a full procedure for disaster recovery and stored in the Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS).

The IT Service Continuity Plans are tested each year under the supervision of the IT Service Continuity Manager. A report is written, submitted to SLM and stored in the SKMS. Any corrective measures is supervised by the IT Service Continuity Manager.