Verfügbarkeitsmanagement

Verfügbarkeitsmanagement is a strategic management process aimed at guaranteeing the required service qualities, mainly availability and reliability, of information technologies and business processes during operational hours. This concept combines business and technical approaches to ensure the continuous functionality of critical processes and systems.

One of the primary goals of Verfügbarkeitsmanagement is to identify and mitigate risks associated with service disruptions, such as hardware failures, software glitches, and operational mistakes. This involves analyzing potential causes of downtime, categorizing them depending on likelihood and potential impact, and implementing measures to prevent or minimize their occurrence.

To achieve this, organizations develop strategies to balance the costs of building in redundancy to counteract single points of failures and implement maintenance strategies that minimize the likelihood of accidental data loss during maintenance and repairs. Regular risk assessments and incident analysis help to stay informed about evolving requirements and fulfillment degrees of existing measures. Monitoring tools often play a crucial role in tracking system performance and notify operational teams about emerging operational risks in near real-time.

In many cases, the use of standardized methods such as ITIL and ISO 27001 can be seen as a guideline to support the development of a comprehensive availability management plan, providing a structured process for incident and problem management, while also taking steps to measure and assess the effectiveness of these processes.