PROACTIVE AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
There are a number of techniques used by availability management that look to prevent service outages by identifying and eliminating the sources of service
failures. One of these is the availability plan, wherein availability management identifies and costs the requirements for new and upgraded resources necessary to deliver the required levels of availability. The availability plan will also
include an assessment of the risks of service interruption and failure and
appropriate actions necessary to mitigate those risks.
Risk analysis and management are important across IT service management, especially in processes and activities that concern service availability. These include availability management, security management and IT service continuity
management, which is covered in the next chapter where a fuller discussion of risk analysis and management is included.
Another technique is to assess the impact of requests for change (RFCs) to understand their potential to interrupt services and find ways to prevent this
occurring.
Other proactive techniques include advising on cost-effective new technology to improve availability and providing advice and guidance to other areas of IT and the business on all availability-related aspects.