Service Continuity Management is a reactive and proactive process. It involves
contingency planning for recovery in case an unforeseen disaster or event were to
seriously affect or destroy ICT service. It also involves risk analysis and the
implementation of countermeasures to minimise the likelihood of such an event
happening in the first place.
As the title of the process suggests, Service Continuity Management is about
maintaining continuity of service - that is to say not just the continuation of
equipment see Example services in FITS Service Level Management for more
information about the difference between services and equipment. It therefore
follows that we must consider all components of the service, not just the hardware
and software. Similarly, the risks are not confined to the dramatic and remote-
sounding examples of fire, flood and terrorist attack. There are many more
commonplace possibilities such as a severed cable under a road, a leaking central-
heating system, destructive software virus, transport difficulties affecting staff and
loss of system password.
