Disaster Recovery, Crisis Response, and Business Continuity: A Management Desk Reference

291 Pages·2014·2.71 MB·English

by  Jamie Watters (auth.)

WATTERS
DISASTER RECOVERY, CRISIS RESPONSE,
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& BUSINESS CONTINUITY S
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A Management Desk Reference R

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You’re in charge of IT, facilities, or core operations for your organization when a hurricane or a fast-moving O
wildfire hits. What do you do? V
Simple. You follow your business continuity/disaster recovery plan. If you’ve prepared in advance, E
your operation or your company can continue to conduct business while competitors stumble and fall. R
Even if your building goes up in smoke, or the power is out for ten days, or cyber warriors cripple your IT Y
systems, you know you will survive. ,

But only if you have a plan. You don’t have one? Then Disaster Recovery, Crisis Response, and C
Business Continuity: A Management Desk Reference, which explains the principles of business R
continuity and disaster recovery in plain English, might be the most important book you’ll read in years. I
S
Business continuity is a necessity for all businesses as emerging regulations, best practices, and
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customer expectations force organizations to develop and put into place business continuity plans, S
resilience features, incident-management processes, and recovery strategies. In larger organizations,
R
responsibility for business continuity falls to specialist practitioners dedicated to continuity and the related
E
disciplines of crisis management and IT service continuity. In smaller or less mature organizations, it can
S
fall to almost anyone to prepare contingency plans, ensure that the critical infrastructure and systems are P
protected, and give the organization the greatest chance to survive events that can–and do–bankrupt O
businesses. N
A practical how-to guide, this book explains exactly what you need to do to set up and run a successful S
business continuity program. Written by an experienced consultant with 25 years industry experience in E
disaster recovery and business continuity, it contains tools and techniques to make business continuity, ,
&
crisis management, and IT service continuity much easier. If you need to prepare plans and test and
maintain them, then this book is written for you. You will learn: B
• How to complete a business impact assessment U
• How to write plans that are easy to implement in a disaster S
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• How to test so that you know your plans will work N
• How to make sure that your suppliers won’t fail you in a disaster E
• How to meet customer, audit, and regulatory expectations S
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Disaster Recovery, Crisis Response, and Business Continuity: A Management Desk Reference will pro-
vide the tools, techniques, and templates that will make your life easier, give you peace of mind, and turn C
O
you into a local hero when disaster strikes.
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ISBN 978-1-4302-6406-4
54499
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eBook
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Contents
About the Author                                             ix
Acknowledgments                                             xi
Introduction                                                 xiii
Part I: Introduction to Business continuity and Disaster
Recovery                                  1
chapter 1: Business continuity Management                     3
chapter 2: essentials of Business continuity Management          21
Part II: Plan for Business continuity and Disaster
Recovery                                33
chapter 3: getting started                                    35
chapter 4: Planning                                          49
chapter 5: It Disaster Recovery                               57
chapter 6: Business Recovery strategies                        81
chapter 7: supply chain                                      99
chapter 8: continuity suppliers                               105
chapter 9: education and Awareness                          115
chapter 10: governance and Reporting                         123
Part III: test and Maintain Your continuity and
Recovery Plans                          131
chapter 11: testing Principles                                 133
chapter 12: It Disaster Recovery testing                        147
chapter 13: Business Recovery testing                          163
chapter 14: crisis Management exercising                       177
chapter 15: Maintenance                                     191
viii Contents
Part IV: execute the Plan                         197
chapter 16: Manage a Disaster                                 199
chapter 17: Post event                                       215
Part V: Appendices                             221
Appendix A: criticality Levels                                  223
Appendix B: Roles and Responsibility Matrix                      225
Appendix c: suggested Business continuity Management timetable  229
Appendix D: Useful Resources and contacts                      231
Appendix e: continuity Assessment Questionnaire                235
Appendix f: crisis Management team Roles and Responsibilities    247
Appendix g: call cascade                                     253
Appendix H: Basic Business continuity Plan template              255
Appendix I: Business Impact Analysis Questionnaire              265
Appendix J: Business continuity Management standards           273
Appendix k: severity Levels                                   285
Appendix L: Mapping severity Levels to criticalities               287
Index                                                       289
Introduction
Business continuity and disaster recovery have emerged as critical aspects
of business planning in the past few years. it was born in high-risk and highly
regulated industries but is now spreading rapidly into all sectors and every
type of organization. Why? More and more businesses are affected by natural
and manmade disasters, more regulators expect to see recovery plans in
place for industries beyond health and finance, more organizations expect
to see continuity policies in place at vendor sites, and insurers drop rates for
businesses showing greater awareness of security protocols. More important,
in the age of 24/7 business, customers expect to be able to do business with
you when it’s convenient for them. never mind that your city just flooded; just
send me my goods or complete my transaction.
originally, business continuity and recovery planning were the domain of a few
elite consultants. Historically, consultants charged a premium for their skills
and knowledge to organizations. these companies had no choice but to pay
for custom consultancy engagements. now, with increased need for continuity
planning and more practitioners embedded inside organizations, business
continuity has effectively been commoditized—every business needs to plan
for unexpected events or pay the consequences. this commoditization is a
good thing because organizations need continuity plans in place quickly, at the
lowest cost and with the least pain.
this book covers the key aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery.
it is written so anyone can pick it up, read it, then go and do it. it tells you what
you need to do, gives you simple tools to use, and tells you what questions you
need to ask and from whom you should seek the answers. Just as important,
it provides checklists and templates that will help you put a credible plan in
quick order.
Why read this Book?
you have a job to do protecting your company from disasters, hackers, supply
problems, and anything else that might keep you from fulfilling your mission.
i want you to learn from my mistakes and quickly acquire the necessary
knowledge to get the job done. i want you to avoid the trial-and-error journey
that my peers and i had to suffer as we learned the hard way.
xiv Introduction
so if you want to learn all the essential aspects of business continuity while
avoiding the pain, then this book is for you.
there are lots of excellent books that tell you what you’ve got to do. this
book is for people who want to know how to do it.
the aim of this book is to explain (in simple terms) all the key elements of
business continuity and disaster recovery for people who need to:
• Learn the basics of business continuity fast
• Get something in place today so they’ll have a chance if
disaster strikes tomorrow
• avoid the principal mistakes people in your position often
make
• prepare solid plans that people find easy to use and
maintain
• identify and fix security and continuity gaps in your sys-
tems, processes, or people
• test your continuity plans and the people, suppliers, and
technology that your organization depends on
• Make sure your staff knows what to expect from the
organization if disaster strikes—and what the organiza-
tion should expect from you
• Become compliant with the demands of internal auditors,
external regulators, and business partners that expect them
to have solid, demonstrable continuity plans in place
• extend the principles of continuity into supplier organiza-
tions and business partners so that third parties are able
to meet your needs
• Keep all the plans, scripts, solutions, and other functions
up to date without making it into a full-time job
if it’s your job to accomplish any of these things, read on. t his book is for you!
Introduction xv
Who should read this Book
this book is relevant to anyone who is in anyway involved in business continuity,
crisis management, and disaster recovery (Dr).
this list includes:
• Business continuity managers
• Business continuity coordinators—people who look after
local plans and do the day-to-day administration and test-
ing for their department
• it staff and technicians who support business continuity or
Dr solutions and are involved in testing or have responsi-
bility for some element of the recovery of their business
• it architects and developers who are responsible for
including resilience into their designs and the solutions
they deliver
• executives accountable for the continued smooth running
of their businesses, funding business continuity efforts,
and making sure it meets underlying business needs
• staff who have a role to play in preparing plans, testing, or
have responsibilities in disaster recovery situation
• auditors who are responsible for making sure that the org ani-
zation’s continuity arrangements meet business needs
• suppliers that need to meet their customers’ needs in
regard to business continuity and Dr
• suppliers that sell business continuity or Dr services
practices to underpin Frameworks
there are many excellent business continuity management (BcM) frameworks.
Bs259991 and as/nZs 50502 are two good examples. each sets out what you
have to do and to some extent what you should learn. they also provide
a common vocabulary for you to use. the problem with standards and
frameworks, however, is that in general they don’t tell you how to do anything.
How do you assess a business impact analysis? How do you plan and deliver a
Dr test? How do you keep your staff informed? How do you keep your plans
updated?
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_25999
2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity
xvi Introduction
in this book, i mean to plug such gaps by sharing my experience and describing
what i and other experienced Bc/Dr people actually do.
For some people, BcM is an emotive subject; many practitioners are exacting
and fussy in what they do. to be frank, i’m not overly attached to what we do.
continuity planning is simply something that must be done in our day and age.
But i do care about getting results efficiently and effectively. i also like to do
that without upsetting or distracting too many other people! But it’s possible
to get bogged down in detail and perfectionism. to avoid that, do what i do
and keep your mind on the practical.
For this reason, if you read anything in this book and can think of a better way
of doing things, don’t think badly about me. instead think, “i should send this
idea to Jamie!”3 take the time to gather your thoughts and let me know so i
can improve what i do and then improve this book!
Why Listen to Me?
First, i’ve spent most of the past 25 years working in business continuity and
it disaster recovery–related roles, much of it in the financial services and
banking industry, and should have learned most of what there is to know.
so, what i’m offering you is the chance to exploit my mistakes and gain my
insight in days—not months or years!
one of the key issues i’ve faced, and an issue that will probably concern you
too, is how to deliver business continuity through people who have other
full-time roles that have nothing to do with business continuity—people for
whom business continuity is a pain and a distraction from their main role. if
that describes you, you’ve come to the right book. My overarching goal is to
make your job easier, something i can do by telling you how things play out in
the real world.
When creating a business continuity program, i’ve also come to realize it’s
essential to build it with the following principle in mind:
the program must address the deeper technical issues but without
needing full-time experts to make it work.
in short, i believe my job is to make business continuity simple and suitable for
people who only look at their business continuity/Dr plans once or twice a
year. so wherever possible i will aim to demystify business continuity, so that
when people come back to their plans nine months down the line, it’ll be fairly
easy to understand or implement. if you want to learn to make it simple, then
i’m your man.
3reach me through www.bcmdeskreference.com/
Introduction xvii
structure of the Book
the chapters are written so that you can either dip in as you need to or
you can read it section by section. the sections are organized as you should
ideally approach business continuity, so unless you have a specific need it’s best
to read the book in chapter order.
However, if sections or chapters don’t apply—for example, you don’t have any
third-parties contractors—you might want to skip them.
i’ve tried to highlight the relevance of each chapter at the beginning so you can
decide in a few moments if it’s worth reading on.
the book is organized in the following five parts:
• Part One: Introduction to Business continuity
and Disaster Recovery. introduces the basic concepts
and provides you with the who, what, when, where—and
a high-level how—of business continuity, crisis management,
and disaster recovery.
• Part two: Plan for Business continuity and Disaster
Recovery. explains how to plan for business continuity.
the section looks at both business continuity plans and
it disaster recovery plans.
• Part three: test and Maintain Your continuity and
Recovery Plans. examines all the testing and mainte-
nance that is relevant to business continuity with chap-
ters on it testing, business testing, and maintenance.
• Part four: execute the Plan. there’s no point in hav-
ing plans and solutions if you can’t deploy them at a time
of crisis. this section explains what you need to do to
make sure you steer your organization though whatever
disruption comes your way. More than that, it also covers
the return from contingency to normal operations.
• Part five: Appendices. Here you’ll find copies of use-
ful things like checklists, templates, and processes that i
describe in the book. you can use them to get your own
business continuity up and running. the appendices also
include some useful reference information and links to
other useful resources.
Let’s get started!
P A R T
I
Introduction
to Business
Continuity
and Disaster
Recovery