Disaster Recovery Journal

Breakout Track 1

Details

Published on Friday, February 27, 2009

Written by Web Editor

 

Intermediate/Advanced

Jerry Reick, CBCP, Robert W. Baird & Co.

You’ve spent thousands of dollars designing, developing and publishing a BC or DR plan. Every year, you conduct one or two desktop exercises and one big test event at your hot site. Your plan passes the annual audit with no significant findings. But when you really need it, will it actually work? If this question keeps you awake at night, this session is for you. Explore the new reality that businesses face today and challenge the current notions of what BC means. Discover how making some adjustments to the philosophy and application of your BCP can pay big dividends. Stop waiting for “the big one” to find out if your plan works.

Jerry Reick is currently the business continuity manager for Robert W. Baird & Company, based in Milwaukee, WI. He has more than 25 years combined experience in software development, IT audit and controls, and business continuity planning.

 

Novice/Intermediate

John Kotas, CBCP, Allstate Insurance

A common problem with recovery plans seems to be that once they are written and tested, they are forgotten about. If plans are tested only once a year that means that a year of changes could take place that would make the plans useless in the event of a real disaster. Learn processes that help plans stay accurate. The plan maintenance process is a three phase approach that takes into account exercise results, change management activity, and the compliance process. The exercise process is a four phase approach that Allstate uses to test infrastructure and critical applications.

John Kotas has 25 years of experience at the First National Bank of Chicago, Bank One, and now at Allstate. His responsibilities are to develop all strategies and processes that Allstate will follow concerning their DR program.

 

Intermediate/Advanced

Eddy Sherman, Kitsap County, WA

Learn how Kitsap County, Washington built a disaster recovery hot site that would meet the RTO/RPO requirements for law enforcement, fire and rescue and essential government services. This comprehensive plan can work for the most complicated/ integrated environment or the simplest data center. It allows you to rebuild a single server or entire data center almost immediately. Learn about data replication and virtual server failover. We will also discuss the ROI of owning your own hot site and the ease of scheduling tests, not to mention allowing failover for upgrade testing. You will learn how to build your test scripts, test on the fly, assess the test and modify as you go. This solution is effective on a regional or nationwide basis. When all is said and done, you will be in charge of your H/A and D/R destiny.

Eddy Sherman, PMP, is a technology professional that has been involved in the technology and disaster recovery field for more than 30 years. He has written custom D/R solutions and utilized the latest/greatest commercial recovery management software packages.

 

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Robbie Atabaigi, MBCP, ITIL Foundation

‘Safety First’ is always the primary objective in planning and responding to an event. Drills and actual events have proven the human factor is not always predictable. This session will provide lessons learned regarding the human factor throughout the Business Continuity process (i..e, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery, Business Resumption, etc.), as well as some of the ‘tools’ that can be applied. Come join this interactive session and share your experiences as well.

Robbie is a manager with KPMG LLP’s Southeast Risk Advisory Services practice in the Atlanta office. She has more than 23 years of experience in developing and evaluating many aspects of enterprise risk management including Emergency Preparedness and Response, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity for prominent international companies. Robbie’s professional experience spans real estate, retail, and pharmaceutical, as well as critical infrastructure industries such as finance and utilities. Throughout her BC career, she has served on various boards and user groups. In addition, she speaks on a local and national basis for industry conferences, co-wrote an industry-related book, and has authored numerous articles relating to emergency preparedness and business continuity issues. In addition, Robbie was a certified American Red Cross Workplace Training instructor as well as a rescue specialist and is an active CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) member. Robbie has also participated and/or assisted with various government and transportation mock exercises.

 

Advanced

Phillip Van Saun, Univ. of California San Diego

People turn to their leaders when a crisis strikes. Leaders anticipate, plan and prepare. The best leaders make a pre-emptive strike and forecast the predictable surprises that their organization could encounter. They prepare to steer their company through any crisis with confidence. This presentation will provide an overview of research and practical application of crisis ‘decision advantage.’

Prior to serving as the director of continuity and emergency services and faculty director of the leading in a crisis program at UC San Diego, Phillip Van Saun was an assistant chief in the emergency operations section of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services..

 

Intermediate/Advanced

Michael Schroeder, CBCP, US Equities

More than 13,000 people come and go at the Sears Tower on a daily basis. Thousands more visit the 103rd floor observation deck. This presentation will include: Inspecting what you’re expecting; Customize your approach to emergency response at any scale; Identifying training needs and levels; Fine tuning each emergency response plan to shave off critical seconds and minutes; How and why to consider the psychology of occupants; Linking response levels; Common sense tips and the key ingredient to success. The attendee will walk away with a working knowledge of emergency response strategies from beginning to end. Valuable time saving techniques will be learned and can be applied in any environment.

Michael Schroeder oversees life safety operations at the Sears Tower. He is responsible for planning, training, response and recovery efforts for the buildings emergency response team as well as serves as the business continuity coordinator.