|
There's different kinds of disasters. A security breach leads to a PR disaster. I hint at others various places in this post.
You could ask upper management what they think needs to be protected. How long can the business function without access to
* your computer systems * phone connections & Internet access * your offices, factories, warehouses (depending on nature of business) * your people and what they know * your records, documentation * raw materials of your business, inventoryin other words, if you have one thing but not another, can the business function, and if you have to shut down for a week or longer, what impact on ability to resume business afterwards
Also give some thought to what you depend on to do your work ... how much of that ought to be in a second location in case something happens to the first. You can backup a lot of records on computer, but if you lose the computer, what might you need, that having a backup is not good enough.
I had a PC crash. The PC repairman needed proof that I had a legal copy of certain software before he would reload it. My proof was in documents I could only access using the software involved.
Similar things can happen to a person. If your wallet is stolen, and you need to replace some documents that were in it, do you need for proof of identity, some documents that were in that wallet?
Where do you see the greatest risks ... weather like tornado or Katrina, you in an earthquake zone, down wind from nuclear power plant, nearby airport planes fly overhead & some day one might crash onto you ... your disaster plan might be geared to where you think greatest risk of disaster might befall you
I suspect that if you call your business insurance agent, and general tech support, they may have some check lists you can use. You might also pay a visit to local emergency services management & ask for guidance ... what is usually missing from other businesses when they have to come calling in a crisis? Do they know who to call? Should they know how many people usually in your building?
My company does not have a formal plan, although we have talked about our needs from time to time, and done some protections against lesser disasters.
* Backups, off site rotation* Making it possible for key employees to be able to telecommute via VPN, in case some medical epidemic arrives in our area, and the authorities want people staying home. * We periodically change key passwords, and there is a very small list of people who are told the new stuff. * Have a list of the home phone#s of co-workers, with reminder that this info is PRIVATE for company use, some people have unlisted phone #s. Include on that list, the local emergency services, where 911 is not available (yes 911 is not in all of USA), and how to contact tech support * Beside fire extinguisher on wall, where people know they can find it in a hurry, also have map showing alternative exits, and incidentally where is the nearest fire station, hospital, police station etc. * Where there are inner offices without windows, there can be devices in wall sockets that light up when there is a loss of power. You need one of those in association with exit signs. * If we were to lose our hardware, we cannot run our software on another platform (CPU serial #) but we know where hardware exactly like ours exists. There is a known time delay for tech support for some hardware. We can have spare copies of inexpensive equipment (modems for example), if we can't do the wait.
We're trying to put together a true disaster recovery plan so I thought I would ask everybody on this list (that has a spare thought or moment) if they could provide me with as much of their plan as generally possible. We have a 9406-810 and rack full of servers, a couple of printers, etc. I know this is general info but I'm asking for some general guidelines to follow in putting this together. Any help is much appreciated. Please excuse me if I don't respond to any questions right away as I am not in the office John A Candidi Rutgers Insurance Companies IT Director - Iseries Manager 856-779-2274 -- This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].
Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.
midrange.com
