Disaster Recovery Journal

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Survey (PDF)	Questionnaire (Doc)
2013 Consultant Survey	2013 Form (Deadline: November 9, 2012)
2013 Emergency Notification Survey	2013 Form (Deadline: November 9, 2012)
2013 Other Services Survey	2013 Form (Deadline: February 4, 2013)
2012 Alternate Site Survey	2013 Form (Deadline: May 6, 2013)
2012 Software Survey	2013 Form, Mainframe Form (Deadline: August 5, 2013)

* The information was compiled from results of a consultant survey conducted by Disaster Recovery Journal. DRJ does not in any way endorse these companies or their services. All information included in the survey was provided by the vendor. For further information on any specifi c information included here, contact the consulting company directly. Vendors who would like to be included in future surveys should call DRJ at (636)282-5800

With 23 years of experience in software engineering Greg Povolny has developed technology for the Department of Defense, Pennsylvania's National Guard, and Florida's Department of Children and Families. He has seven patents for inventions with data interoperability. He is the founder of Mindshare Technology and the original architect of the SAMS technology and will use his experience and technology framework to deliver on state-wide solutions for emergency management and disaster preparedness.

Phelan: What do you see as the needs of the not-for-profit sector that can be met with IT solutions?

Povolny: From an IT perspective, the not-for-profit sector is left to its own devices with regard to emergency planning and disaster management. Often there is limited budget, lack of technology, limited or no standards and where technology solutions are deployed, they are almost always disconnected from other community partners. Today, with the far-reaching capability of the global Internet and its mass connectivity between stakeholders and partners, online information sharing and collaboration is a must and should be an integral part of the IT strategy.

Phelan: What is the significance of social networks, and do they play a part in creating synergies between the public, private, not-for-profit, and faith-based sectors for disaster preparedness?

Povolny: Social networks have been in formation for as long as people have been interacting. The more organized the social network becomes, and the more accessible the participants are, the more ready and the more proactive stakeholders can be daily, during and post disaster. Emergency support functions, the emergency operations center (EOC), and first responders have a good technology foundation. However, it is all too often disparate from each other. To compound the disparity, non-profits and faith-based organizations also are disconnected from such functions yet remain a critical support function long after the first responders and EOC have completed their tasks. The lack of collaboration and in particular, real-time collaboration makes the ability to organize infinitely more difficult.

Phelan: Where has Mindshare Technology made the greatest contribution in this market and/or in addressing such gaps?

Povolny: Similar to the emergency support function that coordinates and provides services within an EOC, non-profit and faith-based agencies also play a critical role in meeting the immediate needs and facilitating the long-term recovery of disaster affected citizens. The effectiveness of these efforts depends upon the extent to which these organizations, along with government agencies and other public and private entities, can share information in real time, coordinate essential activities, and communicate with persons in need. The absence of data collection architecture across disparate systems, in particular across the formal social services network of non-profit and faith-based organizations, is a significant problem, and threatens the operations of an emergency situation and jeopardizes the safety of all involved. These agencies must be able to work together and communicate situational awareness effortlessly to avoid a fundamental breakdown in delivery of social services before, during, and after a disaster. The SAMS approach to effortless information exchange is to automatically and proactively traverse the human relationships as defined in the social network, which is stored in the SAMS multi-dimensional participant relational database.

SAMS provides a self-defining approach to the natural evolution of community partnerships (social networks). There is inherent information sharing across such partnerships. It is our intention to facilitate the integration between our social network models. The SAMS service includes information sharing across databases that proliferate between community partners such as contacts, special needs, assets, victim registry, volunteers, realtime status, and dashboard solutions.

Phelan: What opportunities are there for business continuity planners in servicing this market?

Povolny: This is a great opportunity for business continuity planners in many ways. First and foremost, the use of such technology can be the core component to the communications plan. Furthermore, recovery plans can benefit through the real-time visualization of contacts, volunteers, assets, inventory, as well as a geographical depiction of situational awareness on a GIS map using local and state layers.

Mindshare is currently working with stakeholders in the City of Tampa and in particular with the community partnerships that interact with the Metropolitan Medical Response Services. We are excited to address the very real requirements that are facing our nation today. The ability to bring together all aspects of human interactions using the global Internet, collaboration technologies, and real-time, mission critical data sharing is here and now. Tom Phelan, Ed.D., is professor and program director, emergency and disaster management and fire science, at American Public University's School of Public Safety and Health.

Jeffrey M. Dato, MBCP
Vice President, Risk Management and Corporate Real Estate
Pinnacle Airlines Corporation

Congratulations! By reading this, you are taking the first step along the journey to better understanding of how an effective business continuity program can affect (directly or indirectly) who you (as a company) are, how and with whom you do business, and which strategic direction to follow in order to minimize downside exposure to operational and reputational risk.

The recent SEC ruling requiring companies to document risk management issues with their proxy statement underscores the scrutiny offices and directors are under with regards to managing their business in a prudent manner. That venue is an excellent opportunity to showcase the lengths your organization is going to ensure operational resiliency and how you value all stakeholders when considering strategic decisions. Your resiliency vehicle, business continuity management (BCM), is just one component of managing enterprise risk, typically tied to an enterprise risk management (ERM) program. As with ERM, linking BCM to your corporate mission statement – who you say you are – can go a long way to ensure you are focused on meeting the expectations of your stakeholders no matter what unplanned mayhem may occur.

Historically, many executives have dismissed business continuity as another form of insurance. Do not be misguided. Insurance just replaces the financial losses incurred – not your business. As an officer or director, you are in a position of trust and obligated by the Uniform Commercial Code (“Prudent Man Rule”) and common law to manage the business to the best of your ability – which includes the consideration of risk (upside and downside) in all financial, operational and strategic decisions. This concept extends to all stakeholders – investors/shareholders, employees, business partners (customers and suppliers), etc. – who will remind you of your obligations and commitments at time of crisis.

Using the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as example, imagine your organization facing similar public outrage. How about the media frenzy surrounding the former energy giant in Houston or, more recently, New York-based global insurance, brokerage and banking conglomerates now only former shadows of themselves? There are multiple other examples where ill-prepared companies were not able to meet customer obligations due to key suppliers experiencing unplanned operational failure. In the end, the customer will not care if you chose to outsource a key component or process – it is your product, it was promised to be delivered on time, and it is impacting their reputation and financials. No excuses will be accepted and your company’s (and, likely, individual) reputation will be tarnished for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, in the aftermath, you will have a lot of time to ponder whether it was worth the cost savings realized by not implementing a proper business continuity program. No one wants their company to be the case study cited in either business schools or articles like this one. Studies have proven the value of being prepared. Take, for example, an independent study conducted by Oxford University where they analyzed the share price (post-impact) of organizations who faced a crisis. Results showed that those who responded well experienced a 5 percent increase in share price as compared with a 15 percent decrease by those who did not. A 20 percent return on investment variance is real money.

A well-designed and oft-exercised business continuity program encompases a wide array of processes, including Incident response, crisis management, business resumption, and IT disaster recovery. These components work hand-in-hand with your other ERM and risk management processes, including areas like insurance and occupational health and safety. Used appropriately, these processes can help to maintain your business, integrity and reputation while in the eye of a storm. While business continuity may not be the magic elixir to bulletproof your organization, the concept of managing risk effectively does apply.

What does this all mean to you? Take it seriously. Today. Read the articles included herein. Ask questions of your risk and business continuity groups. Listen to their answers and respond accordingly. Be prepared. The era of “It won’t happen to us” is forever gone. Sometime, somewhere – “it” can happen and “it” will. Godspeed.

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Do you know how much downtime costs your company every year? Most companies are shocked when they find out. A study by Infonetics Research* found that medium businesses (101 – 1,000 employees) are losing an average of 1% of their annual revenue, or $867,000, to downtime, with an average of nearly 140 hours of downtime every year. In addition to the financial losses, downtime creates a number of other risks including lost productivity due to idle employees, loss of customer confidence, liability and fraud due to lost records and data, and safety concerns due to no surveillance or critical communications. So what is 1 hour of network downtime worth to your company?

Having a continuity of communications plan in place should minimize the risks of network downtime, and help organizations like yours focus on their core business. To be effective, it should meet some basic criteria:

• Provide cost effective broadband access for multiple applications
• Provide near 100% uptime per remote locations
• Establish an always on back up network that is 100% diverse from the terrestrial network
• Keep communications running with constant access to data, video, voice and radio, even when local network services are down
• Provide a solution that is easy to manage, deploy and operate on an ongoing basis

To keep operations running in the event of a telecommunications disruption satellite has proven to be an ideal solution that provides continuity of communications and ensures critical applications stay online. With today’s latest technology, companies can seamlessly and cost-effectively integrate satellite into hybrid networks and combine it with common carrier technologies (DSL, cable, T-1, fixed wireless etc.). The network can be configured to support varying requirements and support different applications beyond network backup. Organizations benefit from having a highly reliable high availability network that ensures telephone and critical data applications always stay online. Overall, a satellite continuity solution provides the following benefits:

• Makes communications across locations easy
• Enables applications to perform optimally
• Minimizes lost revenue or additional costs from downtime
• Protects internal & customer data
• Ensures operations during short or longer incidents

With Spacenet, a leading provider of wireline and wireless networks, organizations now have more options for cost-effective and reliable network backup via satellite. It recently introduced the new Prysm Pro network appliance which enables seamless network backup between wireline and wireless networks.

As an example, Regis Corporation, the beauty industr's global leader in beauty salons, hair restoration centers and cosmetology education, selected Spacenet’s Prysm Pro to be used at over 7,000 nationwide locations to support automatic hybrid switching between its wireline and wireless technologies for network backup. In addition, it is simultaneously leveraging Prysm Pro for integrated WiFi hotspot services for customers, integrated Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) for VoIP functionality, and POS hardware for its retail applications.

Spacenet also offers transportable satellite communications providing the ability to deploy quickly to an emergency site and communicate effectively.

As an example, a large independently owned food retailer needed a reliable communications network to support its emergency response initiatives. The ultimate objective was to provide disaster relief in emergency situations including access to critical supplies such as medicine and food. The customer deployed Spacenet’s high performance satellite network in support of disaster-relief efforts during hurricanes Dolly and Ike. The transportable satellite communications solution enabled the retailer to support critical communications including high-speed broadband data during the hurricane relief efforts. The system worked extremely well and enabled data communications to be up and running within minutes.

Overall, satellite services can play a critical component in helping a company maintain communications in any situation. The right solution will enable your company to focus on its mission and avoid the risks of network downtime.

For more information, contact Spacenet at 866.480.2263 or visit www.spacenet.com/drj.

About Spacenet®
Spacenet is a leading provider of broadband network solutions for US based business, industrial and government customers. We offer a complete product and services portfolio for applications ranging from primary communications for corporate applications and secure data transfer, to hot stand-by solutions for continuity of operations and network backup, or field deployable solutions for disaster recovery and emergency management. For more information visit www.spacenet.com.

*Source: Medium Businesses Lose $867,000 a Year to Network Downtime, Infonetics Resarch, 2006

DRJ Proudly Presents

In lean times, it is important to find low-cost solutions for your tough problems. DRJ has compiled material to assist you in finding information quickly and easily from industry experts.

Service providers are an invaluable resource for low-cost solutions. We have assembled suggestions and recommendations from several vendors. These solutions offer an opportunity for you to view what is available and how it might help in your organization. For additional information on anything listed, please contact the vendor through the information provided.

In addition, you will find a variety of articles from the DRJ archives. Each includes different tips and recommendations for cost-cutting, budgeting, reducing expenditures and more.

"Appeared in DRJ's Winter 2009 Issue"

As business continuity planners, we know the importance of protecting our organization. But will everyone in the firm agree with that assessment? Will they back a business continuity plan? It is hard to achieve proper levels of protection without having full commitment from all involved.

Beginning with Sept. 11, 2001, the premise that a disaster is “a low probability, high consequence event” has become redefined in reality as “a high probability, very high consequence event.”

Developing a corporate business continuity program is a function of wide-ranging and critical operational concerns, including the need to drive higher revenues and profits, control costs, respond to increasing regulatory issues, and plan for unpredictable business disruptions or catastrophic disasters.

In my last column, I mentioned that Disaster Recovery Journal is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2007. This is quite a milestone for us, so I wanted to elaborate a little more on our celebrations.

The cover is a compilation of many photos we have collected over the past two decades. There have been a number of amazing disasters and recoveries that have occurred. Take a few moments and closely examine each photo. Where were you when those happened? Were you involved in the industry at that time? Were you in school or in a different field of work? A lot has happened in our lifetimes.

It is fun to reflect on the past. I can recall exactly where I was during most of the disasters we have featured. Some that stand out in my mind are the Chicago floods, Hurricane Andrew, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Los Angeles riots, the San Francisco earthquake and the great Midwest flood of 1993. I have written about these disasters many times. I hope by they remain in our memories and the lessons they provide will not be forgotten.

Other recent disasters, such as Hurricanes Charlie, Katrina and Rita, the 9/11 tragedy, and the tsunami, are fresher in our minds. We can better recall what was going on in our own lives and recognize how these events have changed business continuity.

If you have an interesting story to tell about a particular disaster or event of the past 20 years, drop me an e-mail at richard@drj.com. I would love to hear from our readers.

Bill Worsley, John Jackson and Ed Devlin wrote personal accounts of our history for this issue. All of these gentlemen have become great friends of mine over the years. They have contributed a lot to helping DRJ grow, and contributed much to our industry. I am very thankful they took time to reflect on our anniversary.
We started from humble beginnings and are proud of what we have been able to accomplish the past two decades. We are continually adding new offerings to continue the dream I had 20 years ago of helping educate the people in this industry.