IT business continuity plan

[cava83]

Hi,

Do any of you guys have one you've made?

Need to write one, wanted to see a couple of examples, if you don't mind,

Any info kindly appreciated,

Thanks,

G.

 

[McBunny]

yes
they arnt fun to do

do you have any current disaster recovery plans for IT


oh and IT disaster recovery isnt the same as business continuity just so your aware (well it isnt here)

 

[cava83]

Disaster recovery plans are done, they were made by our risk management department.

Business continuity does not sound like fun, found some ok articles but wanted to see examples so to speak.

Thanks for your input,

G.

 

[McBunny]

why are you doing buisness cot though your an IT bod are you not ?

id have thought you would need it done by someone with a better grip of what the company really does not saying you really dont but still

 

[Darren S]

How long is a piece of string? It really can be as bad as that. Typically you'll be handing the document into non-technical people or management. They will not care of the model numbers, connections, ports used etc. They are merely concerned with two stats in the event of business continuity failing.

• First, how much downtime (and hence how much money they will loose)
• Second, how much it will cost to fix (and hence how much money they will loose)

Break it down into easily readable chunks such as servers, network, comms, backups etc. Try not bombard them with detail - they will switch off and not give a monkeys about what you're saying. Short, sharp pointers such as "...and if the SQL Server was to fail, I have calculated that the business will loose between £125k-£140k per hour".

Very quickly, you gain their attention.

D.

 

[cava83]

McBunny and Darren S,

Thank you for your info,

Yes, I am a techie bod, however, small company, thus normally do a lot more.... no problem.

So for both of you, are your DR and business continuity plans different? McBunny, this appears to be the case for you.

Was going to break it down, not going to include ports and things like that, simple information to non IT management.

Do you guys have any examples? Obviously, I would not share this information on the internet and just use it as guidance.

 

[McBunny]

a bcp really has very little to do with IT thats what an IT disater recovery plan is for

a BCP deals with things like you have an earthquake and you loose the building how do you continue the buisness etc ie phone for portable buildings from here get this from there then it then links into the IT disaster recovery plan

 

[McBunny]

the IT bits that need to be in it are phone ICM to get them to deliver servers
phone BT to deliver telephone switchgear and commision tempoary line

and also a breakdown of how long it will take to get everything back

say
1 days domain back and user data
2 days exchange and sql back
3 days finance system


but obviously you change it to what your company requires

you see for me we are a manufacturing company if our factory burns down but not teh offices then IT has really no role in it and i cant make a call on what needs recovering and what doesnt

 

[Darren S]

a bcp really has very little to do with IT thats what an IT disater recovery plan is for

a BCP deals with things like you have an earthquake and you loose the building how do you continue the buisness etc ie phone for portable buildings from here get this from there then it then links into the IT disaster recovery plan

That's very interesting that, as we would wrap both instances up together. An earthquake happening or someone breaking in and stealing a server - would point to the same result. Lack of service and loss of trade.

Although you're right with the earthquake needing portable buildings etc, we see it merely as a different slant on the same problem.

Gabi - we don't have anything specific document wise that I could pass on. I don't think the powers at be would be too happy anyway!

D.

 

[McBunny]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster_recovery


as it says bcp isnt disaster recovery its another doccument that makes up the complete solution

 

[McBunny]

our DRP isnt finished its always WiP and i dont do the BCP so have nothing really to show for it


but i have had to doccument every step of getting each of our servers back up down to every click of the mouse !!!


have you ever actually tested your backups ? and done a propper disaster recovery test ?
we use these people to test twice a year http://www.icm-continuity.co.uk/

 

[Darren S]

our DRP isnt finished its always WiP and i dont do the BCP so have nothing really to show for it


but i have had to doccument every step of getting each of our servers back up down to every click of the mouse !!!


have you ever actually tested your backups ? and done a propper disaster recovery test ?
we use these people to test twice a year http://www.icm-continuity.co.uk/

FLOL! That would drive me INSANE!

D.

 

[McBunny]

it has me too lol

but in effect you really need it maybe not to our level but thats because there is only me that can do it and my boss needs that level of instruction to do it him self

if i died they would be screwed in that situation if i hadnt

 

[TwoSugars]

Not having a go at you guys but.....you all seem to confuse the word 'loose' with 'lose'. Just a pointer, don't get arsey

 

[McBunny]

you searched for this just to make that comment ?

 

[cava83]

Your mum is "loose"!

Is this in the right context? Sorry, English is my second language!

Not having a go at you guys but.....you all seem to confuse the word 'loose' with 'lose'. Just a pointer, don't get arsey

 

[cava83]

Hi,

Looking and doing the DRP now,

The one we have is extremely basic.

Does anyone have one I could have a look at?

Please note, this will not be distributed or copied, it's simply to have a look at it and make sure I am covering what I need to.

I know this is a lot to ask, but hopefully I can return the favour.

Thanks,

G.

 

[Mike_182]

Lol at my last place's DR plan - go down to PC world and buy anything that closely resembles a server and start building it!

 

[cava83]

Not quite what I am looking for

Lol at my last place's DR plan - go down to PC world and buy anything that closely resembles a server and start building it!

 

[ChrisR]

Lol at my last place's DR plan - go down to PC world and buy anything that closely resembles a server and start building it!

ours is/was pretty laughable as well.

Way before my time but they decided it'd be a good idea to have a storage unit with a shed load (probably 100+) desktop pcs sat in it.

I have no idea what they were thinking about tbh, what did they expect them all to connect to, or even be built properly, if the office had gone boom

 

[iain187]

that sounds like our server room haha.

i have no idea what our continuity or recovery plans are, ill try and find out but ive only been there for 2 weeks hehe