Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Management Special Interest Group A SIG of LISTne

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Business Continuity Planning and Disaster
Recovery Management Special Interest GroupA SIG
of LISTnet

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery 101
• A Primer

Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• What is Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
  Planning?
• The process of creating plans, processes and/or
  procedures to resume or re-establish mission
  critical business functions within an acceptable
  time frame
• A DR Plan recovers technology platforms and
  associated technology functions (i.e., networks,
  etc.)
• Business Continuity plans focus on recovery of
  business functions and workgroup functions (i.e.,
  Payroll Department, Call Center, etc.)

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Okay, why?
• Disaster Recovery evolved from Data Center
  functions
• Used to be focused only on centralized processors
  and platforms
• Strictly a technical solution
• It was realized that recovery of the platform did
  not mean recovery of the business
• Business Continuity addresses those
  non-technical functions that are required to
  restore business

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Fine, but what differentiates technical from
  non-technical?
• Technical typically are computer platforms or
  systems (i.e., mainframes, servers, midrange,
  routers, gateways, network comms, etc.) found
  within Data Centers or IT areas
• Non-technical are functions and processes that
  support critical business operations that are
  external to the above (i.e., HR, Payroll, Legal,
  Call Center, etc.)

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Who is responsible for each plan?
• Since a Disaster Recovery plan is a technology
  process, then IT personnel should create and
  maintain the plan
• A Business Continuity plan is a business recovery
  that should be driven by business needs and
  decisions, therefore created by business personnel

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• How do I build one of these plans? (Simplified
  version)
• First, a commitment from upper management helps
  (commitment for resources in manpower and
  funding)
• Now, gather information through a Business Impact
  Analysis (BIA) to determine critical operations
• Determine strategies and objectives for
  recovering the critical functions
• Document the findings as steps to follow in the
  event you have to declare a disaster

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• What are some recovery strategies?
• Do nothing assume the risk
• Revert to manual processing
• Self recoverable/multiple sites
• Hot-site/cold-site vendor
• Mobile recovery facility
• Quick ship
• Reciprocal agreement

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Okay, I have a plan, now what?
• Train your personnel and participants
• Test the plan to determine if it works
• Do not be surprised if it is not perfect the
  first time
• Testing can consist of a table-top exercise,
  component testing, or full execution
• Update/modify the plan with the results of the
  testing

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• What else do I need to consider?
• Several things, but first and foremost, make sure
  your critical data/vital records, as in tape
  files, mirrored disk, paper archives, etc., are
  stored in a safe location (off-site storage) and
  can be retrieved
• Without your data, your plan will not work
• Maintain the plan on a regular basis
• Think out of the box!

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Sure, but (common misconceptions)
• We are immune to disasters
• That never happens here
• We have an insurance policy, thats enough
• We never had an outage before
• Learn from other situations
• Floods (Chicago)
• Tornados (eastern seaboard)
• Hurricanes (Andrew, Floyd)
• Fires
• WTC/Sept. 11
• Bio-terrorism (anthrax)

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Why plan?
• Corporate/Brand survival
• Insurance/Auditing requirements
• Regulatory requirements
• Due diligence
• Obligation to shareholders/employees/others

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Besides this SIG, where else can I get
  information?
• Free publications
• Disaster Recovery Journal
• Contingency Planning Management
• Web Sites
• www.drj.com
• www.contingencyplanning.com
• www.globalcontinuity.com
• www.recovery.sungard.com
• www.disaster-resource.com
• www.fema.gov
• Professional Organizations

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Business Continuity Disaster Recovery 101

• Questions Answers