Disaster Recovery Planning

Welcome back to our Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Planning Blog.

2011-01-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to our Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Planning Blog.

And, welcome to 2011!!!

Here we are at the beginning of a new year! Beginnings are exciting aren't they? New Year! New Projects! Most important... New Budget! Much as I wish it could be otherwise, nothing happens without money. If your experience is different, let me know.

Anyway, now we have money to spend let's jump right into that Business Continuity Planning project we started looking at last year. But you know, it's been awhile so a little review wouldn't hurt.

Business Continuity Planning includes:
• Ensuring business survival by reducing the impact of a disaster or major failure
• Reducing the vulnerability and risk to the business by effective risk analysis and risk management
• Preventing the loss of Customer and User confidence.

The basic stages of the Business Continuity Life-cycle are:

Stage 1 – Initiation → Getting the ball rolling.

Stage 2 – Define requirements and strategy → Speculate what might impact our ability to do business. Determine what that would cost the company. Decide when we need to be back in business. Get a handle on what resources we need to get back in business. Come up with a somewhat generic plan for getting back in business.

Stage 3 – Implementation → Do the work of building the plan and implement required new capabilities.

Stage 4 – Operational Management → On going care and feeding of the plan and associated capabilities.

Okay!! Now that we all remember what we're doing let's get right to it.

Wait!! Time out. Pop Quiz! And no cheating by looking ahead.

What is the first major project task we should work on?

Storage Management guys want to get right into backup and recovery, mirroring, offsite storage, data deduplication... better order more disk first.

The Executive with the Airline magazine in his briefcase knows cloud computing is the solution to this and a few other issues... Budda Bing Budda Boom (sorry ESM).

Systems Management guys want more virtualization, standardization, consolidation, data centre duplication... have to work with the Hardware guy to get more servers first.

The HR ladies (more often than not) know that people are the key... add that skills inventory to the staff database first.

Configuration and Capacity Management guys (Hardware, Software, Network and Application guys for many of you) want room to grow and lists of everything... should have spent more time on the CMDB (Configuration Management Data Base) last year.

Middle Management (no I'm not talking about weight) know they better get going before the budget is taken away... maybe hire a consultant first ;).

As tempting as all those suggestions are, the first task you have to complete is to legitimize, institutionalize and secure/protect the funding for your Business Continuity Planning project.

I know, $1 a pound words but what does it mean?

For those of you who haven't already guessed, it means:
 you need a Champion at the highest levels of the company
 having a tested and working Business Continuity Capability must be seen as critical to business success
 Business Continuity budget dollars cannot be in the discretionary part of the budget.

For all of you folks who would rather roll-up your sleeves and “git-r-done” try to remember what happened to the discretionary projects last year. When money gets tight discretionary projects get cut and even non-discretionary projects can be pared back.

Take some time to figure out who is your best candidate for a Champion. You might think the CIO is the natural choice but depending on your industry and the personalities involved it could just as easily be the top Financial or Operations person. Chances of success are greatly enhanced if your Champion comes from the Board of Directors or equivalent level.

Having found your prospective Champion you have to figure out how to get them on board in a big way. Some people are motivated by technical excellence, some by competitive advantage while others are driven by fiduciary responsibilities and regulatory compliance. Whatever your Champion's sweet spot is, be sure to emphasize the appropriate aspect of the project when you present it.

I can hear the objections already... How the heck am I supposed to know who would make a good Champion or what their “sweet” spot is?!? The answer is simple... you ask.

If you are in a big company ask your boss or other successful project managers. It's unlikely you're the first person who's had to pitch a new project. Somebody already has the answers to your questions.

If you are in a small company you may already know who is interested in what and you may have direct access to the guys who make the decisions so you can work on them directly to sell the project.

The great thing about having the right Champion is that you will have support to get on with the work as well as someone to run interference when the budget appropriation needs to be increased.

The potential downside is that you will have someone high in the organization not only interested in your project but expecting you to deliver great things. That's really good news if you do well!

I hope you are finding this interesting. Next time we'll move on to the next stage.

If you run a business that makes use of computers or data and you need help with Backup and Recovery, IT Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity Planning... pick up the phone and call 226-220-0472, we can help you.

Fred Spitzig

What Is Business Continuity Planning & Why Should I Care

2010-08-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to our Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Planning Blog.

Enough!!

Time to stop wasting time and get down to it!!

What is Business Continuity Planning and why should I expend scarce company resources on it when I have more immediate problems to deal with.

At the risk of sounding like a guy with a hammer looking for a nail to pound, Business Continuity Planning is one more facet in the multi-disciplinary lense you use to examine and improve your business. I firmly believe that incorporating a Business Continuity Planning mindset can yield additional benefits ranging from process improvements to competitive advantage.

Simply stated, Business Continuity Planning is a set of disciplines concerned with managing an organization's ability to continue or re-establish a pre-determined and agreed upon level of service to support business requirements, following an interruption to the business. This includes:
• Ensuring business survival by reducing the impact of a disaster or major failure
• Reducing the vulnerability and risk to the business by effective risk analysis and risk management
• Preventing the loss of Customer and User confidence.

By way of introduction, let's have a look at the Business Continuity Life-cycle.

Stage 1 – Initiation → Chances of success are greatly enhanced if this comes from the Board of Directors level. The Board is responsible for setting policy, allocating responsibilities, directing and monitoring the Business Continuity Program. Senior Management is responsible for managing Business Continuity, accepting deliverables, communicating and maintaining program awareness.
Bottomline: These are the folks that say Business Continuity Planning is important to the company and then provide and preserve the funding to do something about it. Without them it's all just good intentions.

Stage 2 – Define requirements and strategy → Generally Junior Management is responsible for undertaking Business Continuity analysis, defining deliverables, contracting for services, managing testing and assurance. This includes:
 Business Impact Analysis
 Risk Assessment
 Business Continuity Strategy
Bottomline: This is where we figure out our bag of hammers and decide how to deal with them. Or, in english, within the scope of the current project; What events might impact our ability to do business? What does it cost when we are unable to conduct normal business operations? When do we need to be back in business? What resources do we need to get back in business? How are we going to get back in business?

Stage 3 – Implementation → Supervisors and staff are responsible for developing deliverables, negotiating services, performing testing, developing and operating processes and procedures. This includes:
 Organization and Implementation Planning
 Implement Stand-by Arrangements
 Develop Recovery Plans
 Implement Risk Reduction Measures
 Develop Procedures
 Initial Testing

If you have more resources than time, and a really good project manager, Implementation can be split into multiple projects that can be run simultaneously. If resources are the issue then running the same multiple projects one after another works as well.
Bottomline: Finally, we're clear for take-off. Time to get down to work, believe me there will be lots of it. If you are short on staff resources, consultants can help bridge the gap.

Stage 4 – Operational Management → The ultimate success of your Business Continuity Planning efforts is dependant on your ability to evolve it into an ongoing Business Continuity Program. The purpose of such a program is to keep your continuity plan alive. Components of the ongoing effort include:
 Assurance
 Education & Awareness
 Review, Audit & Improvement
 Testing
 Change Management
 Training
Bottomline: Unless you want your plan to become quickly out-dated you need processes to update, test and improve the plan. And, you need to train your staff so they know and can execute their roles when required.

I hope you are finding this interesting. Next time we'll get into more detail regarding some of the major issues, some of which you may already be facing.

If you run a business that makes use of computers or data and you need help with Backup and Recovery, IT Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity Planning... pick up the phone and call 226-220-0472, we can help you.

Fred Spitzig

Disaster Recovery Planning updates

2010-07-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Welcome back to our Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Planning Blog.

Last time I gave you some reasons for keeping up with this Blog. Let's see if I can hold your interest.

Looks like the 50,000 foot view of the land of Business Continuity Planning will have to wait until next time. Before I get into that I have to tell you, I hate jargon. I'll be the first to admit that doesn't mean I don't use it but in this Blog I will explain any jargon that I use. And, I want you to feel free to call me on it if I don't make something clear.

So I'll take a step back and explain some terms I threw out last time.

Business Interruption Insurance: When a disaster strikes your business location, the location may be temporarily unusable. Your business will not be producing income and may continue to incur fixed costs (rent, utilities, etc.). Standard property insurance does not cover the loss of income caused by the temporary closure of the business. Business Interruption Insurance can provide coverage for:
· The costs and expenses incurred by your business even though the location is unusable.
· Costs incurred in having to move and operate from a temporary location.
· “Extra expenses” that may be incurred by keeping the location open.
Business interruption insurance is probably the most valuable coverage your business can have. It is also coverage that is frequently overlooked by businesses. This is because it is easy to forget that income cannot be produced without an operating business or the business owner believes property insurance will cover all losses. Of course you will want to review your needs with your agent to ensure you are appropriately insured. Is Business Interruption Insurance part of your Business Continuity Plan? Yes it is!!

Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major unpredictable event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. Three elements are common to most definitions of crisis: (a) a threat to the organization, (b) the element of surprise, and (c) a short decision time.
In contrast to risk management, which involves assessing potential threats and finding the best ways to avoid those threats, crisis management involves dealing with threats after they have occurred. It is a discipline within the broader context of management consisting of skills and techniques required to identify, assess, understand, and cope with a serious situation, especially from the moment it first occurs to the point that recovery procedures start. Is Crisis Management part of your Business Continuity Plan? Yes it is!!

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Is CRM part of your Business Continuity Plan? It is if you are using any type of CRM strategy in your business!!

IT disaster recovery plan is the documented plan that contains the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Is Disaster Recovery Planning part of your Business Continuity Plan? Assuming you use any sort of computer or telephony based technology, yes it is!!

Your File Backup and Recovery Program ensures that you not only have backups of your data taken at appropriate times but also verifies your ability to restore files from backup. An enhancement to the File Backup and Recovery Program is storage of a copy of your backups at an offsite location so they are available if your primary location were destroyed.

I'm almost out of space for today. I want to leave you with one more piece of information concerning Business Continuity Planning. This effort can be as big or as small as you want to make it. You can make it one big project or a series of smaller ones. If you are willing to review business processes at the same time you develop your Business Continuity Plan you will almost always find ways to improve efficiency, save time or money. So, although nothing is free, sometimes you can achieve more than the planned benefits.

If you run a business that makes use of computers or data and you need help with Backup and Recovery, IT Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity Planning... pick up the phone and call 226-220-0472, we can help you.

Fred Spitzig

Disaster Recovery Planning

2010-07-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Welcome to our Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Planning Blog.
I know, just what the world needs, another Blog. So, even if you are interested in the subject matter, why would you want to follow this particular Blog? In the spirit of edutainment, let me borrow from Jeff Foxworthy.
If you think your business interruption insurance will get your business back up and running after you find a smoking hole in the ground where your offices used to be... YOU probably want to read this Blog.
If you think your crisis management plan will help you recover your critical CRM data files... YOU should read this Blog.
If you think your IT disaster recovery plan will restore your Just In Time manufacturing process to the point of failure... YOU may want to read this Blog.
If you don't have a file backup and recovery program OR, you haven't tested the ability to actually recover from your backup files OR, you don't keep a copy of your backup files offsite... YOU definitely need to read this blog.
If you run a business that makes use of computers or data and you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about... Pick up the phone and call 226-220-0472, we can help you.
The bottomline: I'm never surprised to find that somebody, often quite a few somebodies, don't appreciate the difference between having backup data and having a tested plan that will help you get your business back up and running in the event of a major disaster. Here we'll take the time to educate you and do it in a way that makes sense.
Now that I've piqued your interest you'll want to join me next time when I sketch out a 50,000 foot view of the land of Business Continuity Planning.
Fred Spitzig
Disaster Recovery Planning Expert
Rampart Group Ltd

Simple Free Ways to Harden Network Security now

2010-05-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

Often companies invest time and money in firewalls and intrusion prevention devices, anti-spam and anti-virus software, and overlook the settings on the border router connected to the internet. The BORDER ROUTER SECURITY TOOL is a free and easy web based utility to secure this first stop into your network. Go to http://www.borderroutersec.org and enter router information into the questionaire for a free result that can be cut and pasted into your router. Vulnerabilites such as Nmap Scan, Banner Grabbing & CDP /Yersinia can be prevented.