Disaster Recovery Journal

Do you want to tell your stakeholders that your backup plan is to shoot golf balls, shredded tires, knotted rope and other materials at the problem?  Since my initial post on May 11 regarding the Gulf Oil Spill , news sources from across the country have made it clear that a lack of backup planning have allowed this environmental catastrophe to grow out of control.  Today, as the leak continues to pour crude oil into the Gulf, the term "backup plan" is being thrown around between industry professionals, government leaders and community members affected by the spill.  The "blame game" will continue for years, but the need for proactive backup planning is clear today. 

The following excerpts detail some of the frustration regarding the recent lack of backup planning in the Gulf and shed light on the need for backup planning in your own organization:

Did you find a DRJ Spring World 2010 seminar particularly mind-blowing?  #drjspring.  Are you upset because people in the room next door were up all night arguing about PS-PREP?  #drjspring.  Wondering which local bar everyone is heading to at 5:00?  #drjspring.  Now, with one simple "hashtag", participants of DRJ's Spring World 2010 will be able to communicate and network with one another before, during and after one of the largest business continuity and disaster recovery conferences. 

Business Continuity professionals and organizations from around the world have turned to Twitter to interact with customers (or Followers) and share with them industry ideas and trends.  Similar to DRJ (known as @drjournal on Twitter) and yours truly (known as @avalution on Twitter), people are now able to communicate their thoughts, suggestions, questions, and feedback in real-time.  And, with the establishment of Spring World's own hashtag, conference attendees will be able to actively communicate their thoughts on the conference collectively. 

"Oh $#!+": The Importance of Mitigating Single Points of Failure (SPOF)

Almost everyone, at some point in their career, has experienced that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach when a critical document is lost to a computer crash or malfunction.  There are few worse feelings than the sense of helplessness and frustration felt after losing something that cannot be easily replaced or recovered.  Unfortunately, the "out of my hands" excuse no longer works for bosses, just as an "Act of God" defense no longer satisfies customers when their products or services are no longer available as contracted or expected.

It wasn’t that long ago that if you had asked me what a “tweet ” was, I would respond by telling you it was the sound a bird might make during the warm summer months. MySpace was definitely an imaginary circle of about three feet in diameter that individuals held as their personal comfort zone. YouTube? Of course this would be the piping under your sink that carried your faucet water away. Oh and wasn’t Facebook simply the picture album your parents proudly showed dinner guests, complete with your naked baby photos?

Now, if you pose these same questions to the average teenager , they would quickly (and proudly) produce a mobile phone and tell you what their closest friends were doing at that exact moment, or perhaps stream a video of the game winning touchdown their team had scored last night , or even let their “followers” on Twitter know that they were being asked the silliest question at that very moment .

Okay, here’s a thought…after a disaster 1 in 4 companies will never recover. Their business will cease to exist; it will shuffle off this mortal coil ; it will be an “ex-business” .  

Obviously the idea is to stay in business and emerge from any interruption with the self-satisfied grin of someone who has prevailed in the face of adversity. The big question is how do we achieve that ideal?

I think, and I’m hopeful people will agree, that the most important thing is to prepare for and have a disaster recovery plan in place. Not just your business, but also your family and even your community . The problem, as I see it, is that there are lots of different ideas regarding what constitutes being prepared and quite honestly, the idea can seem a bit daunting. Where do you start? How do you put it down on paper in a coherent fashion as part of your comprehensive disaster recovery plan ? Oh, and by the way disaster recovery is NOT just IT , so take that way of thinking, and lock it in a darkened room somewhere.

In the interest of prompting discussion and/or thought, let’s throw some ideas around.  I, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) , would suggest that there are three simple, but, important steps:

1.  Plan to stay in business
         - Start with the basics and keep it simple, look at how your company currently functions and which of those functions it cannot do without.
         - Identify potential disasters, plan accordingly, and look at everything from server/network failures, to power outages, floods or hurricanes (or whatever obnoxious weather you get in your particular corner of the country). Even look at complete loss situations like fires.
         - Consider financial disasters. What will happen if you face a lawsuit? How will you recover?
         - How and where will you get your employees back to work if your building is inaccessible (or flat out no longer there)?
2.  Talk to your employees
         - Encourage them to think about and plan for their families during a disaster .
         - Make brain-storming a part of the planning process and include staff from all levels of your business.
         - Identify the key people in your organization who will play a vital role in any recovery, and make sure they know what to do.
         - Use drills and exercises to test your recovery plan, make sure that it works, and that each person is capable of fulfilling their role.
         - Put some kind of contact plan in place . How will you communicate with your people when the phones and internet go down?
3.  Protect your investment
         - Make sure you have a contingency for utility interruptions .
         - Implement a security plan for your buildings and satellite locations.
         - Talk to your vendors about their recovery plans and work together to ensure mutual survival.
         - Make sure your insurance coverage extends to all manner of disasters , especially natural ones, and will cover you for recovery costs.

I realize that this is hardly a comprehensive list. I do, however, think it is a good starting point for those of you who are new to disaster recovery planning or are feeling rather overwhelmed by the whole thing. Even for those of you who have been doing this for a number of years I hope this will give you something to think about the next time you cast a critical eye over your plans.

If you would like more information, ideas, and/or checklists to help in your disaster recovery planning, please have a look through the resources available on our website or visit Ready.gov . Alternatively, you can call us on 1.877.364.9393 and ask to speak to one of our consultants about the Roadmap to Recovery .

In support of National Preparedness Month Agility is hosting free webinars throughout the month of September and we have an outstanding lineup of nationally recognized speakers. Join us next Wednesday 9/2 for Business Preparedness – Simple Steps to Ensure Continuity with guest speaker Rebecca Marquez, Acting Director of the Ready Campaign from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  You won’t want to miss it!  

- Ben Pritchard
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
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It’s coming to that time of year again, where everyone here at Agility starts getting all excited (more than usual anyway) about National Preparedness Month.  This marks our 5th year as an official sponsor of National Preparedness and it’s looking to be our best event yet. So without further ado, let’s take a look at September’s National Preparedness Month (NPM), a nationwide effort to encourage citizens to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. 

As you may know, during NPM, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will work with a variety of organizations to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and promote community involvement through events and activities across the nation.