The attack on 9/11 caused the loss of more than 600 of the company’s workforce, and destroyed all of its data assets. “The company has since rebuilt and slowly began to regain its footing,” observes Brodkin. “It was a terrible, but a necessary lesson for all of us that a disaster can hit anyone, anytime, anywhere.” Regardless of size or scope of a busi- ness, business continuity planning is es- sential, particularly when it comes to corporate data and communications net- works, which are the backbone of most businesses. Damage it, and the business is temporarily immobilized – or worse. A straw poll conducted by CDW, a global technology solutions provider for pri- vate and public enterprises, recently sur- veyed 200 IT U.S.-based managers at medium and large businesses that experi- enced a significant network disruption in the past 12 months to examine how these disruptions affected their businesses. They were asked about the business impact of the disruptions and what, if anything, they are doing to improve their continuity of op- erations as a result of their experience. Responding businesses (82 per cent) reported that before their disruptions, they were confident their IT resources were pre- pared to support local business operations effectively in the event of a disruption, while 25 per cent of businesses (small, medium, and large) experienced a network disruption of four hours or more within the last 12 months, at an estimated cost of about $1.7 billion U.S. in lost profits last year. The main cause of business disrup- tions, as reported by the survey, was loss of power, followed by hardware failure and loss of telecom services. So, while most businesses say they are prepared for a net- work disruption, many are not ready to deal with the most common issues that cause network disruptions. CDW’s manager of server and storage solution architects, Jeff Godlewski, under- scores his survey results and what they mean to business owners and IT managers. “IT managers in particular can use it to help make a business case to their man- agement for investment in more compre- hensive BCP/DRP capabilities,” he says from his Illinois office.
Businesses may be overconfident – doing a good job of planning, but still ex-
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periencing difficulty during unplanned dis- ruptions, Godlewski continues. This high- lights the need for businesses to conduct regular business continuity or disaster re- covery plan testing to shore up vulnerabil- ities that show up only under stress. “Network disruptions can happen to them – in fact, probably will at some point – and that just backing up their data will not avert the financial and other business impact of an interruption that goes on for hours or days,” he asserts. “This issue would be mitigated by a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plan, which every business should have.” It’s a recommendation echoed by Mary Genyk, president of the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) Canada, a non-profit or- ganization providing education and training for business continuity and dis- aster recovery professionals.
“The key to recovering, successfully, from a disaster is to have a plan in place when the disaster strikes — a set of simple, effective guidelines and proce- dures for all people to follow. Just as a ship without a rudder is at the mercy of the tides, an institution without a plan is at the mercy of events,” she remarks. As president of Winnipeg-based MDG Crisis Management Consulting, Genyk works with organizations to prepare for crisis events before they happen. In building a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, she counsels businesses to create a Disaster Management Team, drawn from the enterprises’ executives, managers, department heads, and IT staff. This team functions as a strategic plan- ning and tactical response unit, assigning temporary responsibilities and levels of au- thority beyond their normal employment classification. A comprehensive training program for all personnel at all facilities, conducted at intervals (at least annually) should include: identification and opera- tion of utility shut-off devices; location of emergency staging areas; basic first aid and survival techniques; emergency re- sponsibilities plans for all positions; and written copies of final business continuity and/or disaster recovery plans distributed to branch and department leaders. “There is no one ‘right’ way to develop and implement these various plans,” insists Genyk. “But if you are not committed to
your chosen plan, it won’t go far for you.” Protecting essential data remains a cor- nerstone of effective business continuity. “If your database stops or disappears or is corrupted, you can’t progress, your busi- ness stops,” says Jeff Lorenz, vice-presi- dent, sales and marketing, business services at Primus Canada, a national data centre and managed services solutions provider headquartered in Toronto. “Ensuring that time-sensitive critical services or products are continuously delivered or not disrupted for longer than is permissible is a must.”
Lorenz spotlights some recent stressors for enterprise and IT leaders: the closures and restrictions associated with the G20 meeting of world leaders in downtown Toronto last summer; the near panic en- gendered by the swine flu (H1N1) pan- demic in 2009; and widespread power outages like the August 2006 grid mal- function that switched out the lights and communications capabilities of nearly a quarter million customers through southern and eastern Ontario. “Businesses should focus on what do they need to have operational in the event of a disaster, and what they think they can afford to be without, and how long they can afford to be without them,” says Lorenz, noting that one of the key busi- ness continuity services offered by Primus is offsite storage of back ups protected in a secure and controlled environment with built-in redundancy for disaster recovery purposes.
“It helps,” insists Lorenz, “ensure that you will be able to maintain continuity of your business practices, and reduce or even pos- sibly remove the effect such calamities could have on your organization.”
Jack Kohane is a freelance writer in T
oronto, Ont.
SOURCES CDW •
www.cdw.ca
Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) Canada •
www.dri.ca
High Vail Systems •
www.highvail.com MDG Crisis Management Consulting •
www.mdgcrisismanagement.com Primus •
www.primus.ca
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