Which function is responsible for ensuring that services are available when needed?

Availability Management is the function responsible for ensuring that services are available when needed. This involves determining the availability requirements of services, planning for and managing those needs, and monitoring the actual performance against those planned requirements. The overarching goal of Availability Management is to ensure that an organization can deliver its services at the levels agreed upon with stakeholders, which includes minimizing downtime and maintaining service quality.

This function actively identifies potential issues that could impact service availability, puts mitigation strategies in place, and continually monitors performance to adjust as necessary. It is critical to aligning IT services with business needs and ensuring that services remain operational and accessible to users when required.

In contrast, Change Management focuses on controlling the lifecycle of changes to minimize disruption, Incident Management deals with responding to and resolving incidents to restore service operation, and the Service Desk acts as the primary point of contact for users to report incidents or request services. While these functions contribute to the overall effectiveness of IT service management, only Availability Management directly addresses the specific goal of ensuring that services are available when needed.