Of similar dire result, many companies email systems were unavailable - by itself great reasoning for moving this atomic business area into a cloud implementation - off site.
-- Keeping your powder dry.
When planning for disaster recovery site locations it is essential you consider diverse landscapes.
The 2005 Hurricane Katrina has many examples of companies who created their DR sites in what seemed like a reasonable location, but were proved wrong. In some cases the sites were over 250 miles away. And yet, when the disaster came to fruit these locations were also upset.
In a number of the failure cases the DR sites were located East of the primary facilities.
When the site location was selected, it appears that considerations for national weather patterns and ocean-side predictable wind patterns were not fully considered. As it happened the DR sites were also disabled due to the disaster's impact on the local infrastructures. In general, the global weather movement comes from a combination of pressure gradient forces between areas of different pressure and the Coriolis effect, caused by the rotation of the Earth about its axis. [1] The Coriolis force from the Earth's spinning is what causes low pressure systems to have a counterclockwise rotation in the North hemisphere. As the winds move inward towards the center of the pressure area it is deflected to the right. [2]
In reflection, it seems that NorthWest would be the most appropriate choice for the Southern coastal properties in the Northern hemisphere.
In fact, in the US the weather patterns can be predominately classified by region. The mountain ranges in the NorthWest area of the United States help to influence the movement of air masses. In many of the Western states the standard weather flow is from South to North. While often in the Central and Eastern portions of the country the patterns follow a North to South motion.
In most cases the weather moves from West to East. often with a Southerly drift nationally. Certainly on a regional basis there may be significant variations often based on different topographies and bodies of water. The West-to-East motion is due to the influence of the high-level jet stream on the pressure system. The jet stream activity above the pressure cell helps to direct the cells tendencies either North or South.
By giving consideration to the general characteristics of pressure systems . . . . .
Low pressure systems, like hurricane cells, have a counter-clockwise rotation to the body of air surrounding. It's this spinning action of the pressure cell that is a primary contributor to it's directional motion.
Identifying potential threats, assessing their potential impact, assigning priorities, and developing planned responses are the basic principles of sound business continuity planning.
Such reviews often categorize threats on a scale from high to low, according to both their probability of occurring and the impact each could have on the institution.
Certainly there are disasters of all sizes. An extensive list of potential threats should be developed.
A broken water pipe and a tornado differ by the extenent of the impact on the organization. Both need to have a defined plan of response. Each threat should be prioritized based both on the probability of occuring and the impact. The correct goal is one of business continuity. This includes facilities as well as the IT assets.
-- Where are you?
One of the biggest issues that has impacted those recovering from a disaster moment is communication.
Disasters by their nature may limit a persons ability to communicate with others. Often disasters causes disruptions in both land-line and cellular service. Establishing central points of contact outside the disaster area with toll free numbers to allow employees to advise of their situation. Text messaging is an alternative that has advantages over voice cellular services. Disruptions to cellular service may reduce the speed of delivery of text messages, but the delivery is typically persistent until complete. This is an important detail when service is intermittent.
Designating "recovery locations" for critical staff is appropriate. In cases where the staff must be together these facilties are essential. There will likely be some amount of staff that are unable to get to a facility.
All kinds of fun HR questions show up for sure - likewise I imagine the true Organization characteristics show true.
-- Restore civilization
Many of your employees may be dislocated from the offices for an extended period of time. All DR plans must include contigencies to support a large portion of the employee staff working off-site from the primary business location.
In a situation where the primary facitlity is unable to be accessed, the IT organization may have to support 50-100% of the staff with remote access to their business applications.
Certainly in the case of a facility shutting down, warehouse activities related to pick-pack-ship will have to be relocated. However, other elements like Order Management and Customer Service must continue uninterrupted.
Telecommute support is one element of the DR plan that can be easily tested outside of any disaster drills. Unless the Organization is able to have full scale facilities on standy-by outside the disaster area, alternatives must be devised. Since we have a RecoLoc for some portion of the staff, we must be able to create all the facilties required. Wireless is clearly a key component. The facilities don't necessarily need to be the same as the RecoLoc. The RecoLoc can be used as a point of departure.
When estimating the requirements for supporting a remote Workforce it is essential to consider the business activities distinctly.
Three primary areas come to front, Order Entry, Warehousing, Customer Service. These areas allow the Customer base to continue to order product, that may be shippable, but they can find out the status from Customer Service. Business units like HR, Legal, Sales, Purchasing may be running on a skeleton force in regards to their facilities requirement.
( To be continued ...)
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