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For Data Owners and Managers: 3 Essential Questions Regarding Business Continuity Planning

by Leslie Probst, Director of Infrastructure Solutions

Scenario - You, with your managers and stakeholders, have reached organizational consensus to set up a Disaster Recovery (DR) site to support Business Continuity in the event of some sort of major disruption to your operations or services. Management supports the initiative. By answering the 3 key questions below, you will be guided, at a high level, in planning and implementing the proper resources to support your Business Continuity Plan (BCP). BCP - MTD (Maximum Tolerable Downtime) will drive the resources and the budget.

  1. Have you; with your stakeholders - created the necessary plan(s) that will give direction and guidance to ensure that a variety of prioritized business functions and applications can withstand a wide range of predefined emergencies and resume operations at the alternate operations site?
  2. Have you; with your stakeholders - determined what will be the Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) of the prioritized applications and business processes which will resume at the alternate site?
  3. 3. Have you considered the comfort and safety of those people who will work at the alternate site (food, water, power, HV/AC for the duration of DR operations)?

The first priority for operations at the alternate site, before any IT resources are resumed or recovered, is to ensure that the staff has the necessary environmental resources to operate under the conditions presented at the alternate site for a pre-determined amount of time.

Summary: The prioritization of business processes and their applications coupled with the Maximum Tolerable Downtime for those processes will drive the resources needed for you Business Continuity Goals. That being said, make sure the people are taken care of first.

At, ActioNet, Inc. we can help ensure that you have all the essential ingredients to plan and implement all you Business Continuity and Business Resumption Plans and Processes.

Summer 2007