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Archive for the ‘Disaster Recovery’ Category

Dependence on information technology requires judicious disaster recovery planning to ensure survival of unplanned risks.  Planning for threats not known allows companies to efficiently make decisions in high stress emergency situations that contribute to the safety of employees, and reduce downtime of mission critical services and data loss.  According to Jim Hoffer, “only 6 percent of companies suffering from a catastrophic data loss survive, while 43 percent never reopen and 51 percent close within two years.”  A thorough disaster recovery plan can reduce, if not prevent data loss in catastrophic situations that often lead toward business failure.

The process of developing an effective disaster recovery plan follows a similar structure to the systems developments life cycle and proceeds as follows:

Organizational Strategic Plan
Analysis
Design
Implementation
Testing
Maintenance

It is important to take time to thoroughly complete each step in order as they are interdependent and look at different aspects of disaster recovery.  Disaster recovery planning should also be an interactive process with other members of the disaster recovery and IT teams to encourage input from multiple areas of experience and expertise.

The organizational strategic plan assesses which areas are most critical to business.  For example, recovering email and other communication services is far more important than ensuring all printers are operational.  Indentifying important assets aids in determining how to react to specific disasters and recognize areas of greatest threat.  Upon completion of an organizational strategic plan, a company should have a list of important assets with associated importance rankings.

Analysis considers how the company is affected by different threats and risks.  Some risks require more consideration than the same risk for a different company.  A company in San Diego may give a great deal of attention to earth quake preparedness, whereas a company in Fort Collins would me more concerned with ESD and lightning strikes.  To generate the most accurate and complete set of risks as well as their impact and importance, a brainstorming approach is often used where those involved in the disaster recovery process meet and write down every possible risk or threat.  Later this exhaustive list is reduced by eliminating risks that unrealistic, such as the sun exploding.  Also, risks can often be removed from analysis if they have a probability of greater than 90 percent or less than 10 percent, or an impact that is low enough to not be of concern.  If the probability is greater than 90 percent, the event is assumed to happen and a task must be created to mitigate the impact.  When evaluating the impact of risks, it is also important to look at the worst-case scenario and define the scope of the risk.  The product of analysis is a requirement recovery document which describes “the distinction between critical and non-critical IT systems and information, each possible threat, and the possible worst-case scenarios that can result from each disaster” (Haag and Cummings, p.328).

The next phase in creating a disaster recovery plan is the design phase.  In the design phase, a formal disaster recovery document is written which includes detailed plans and actions required to recover the company from risks identified in analysis.  The plan created in this phase should also identify important information such as who is responsible for what actions, where backup information is kept, emergency contact information, backup site locations, and other details.  According to Haag and Cummings, a disaster recovery cost curve should be used to determine the most cost efficient disaster recovery solution (p. 329).  Careful attention in this phase will reduce the amount of time spent in the remaining phases.

Implementation requires that the disaster recovery plan be distributed and put into action.  Depending on the scope of the disaster recovery plan, additional equipment and services may need to be purchased and employees trained.  The plan will not be functional if the required infrastructure is absent.

Like fire alarms and preparedness, a disaster recovery plan needs to be tested periodically.  Testing a disaster recovery plan keeps procedures fresh for employees and helps to identify areas of weakness and vulnerability.

Lastly, a disaster recovery plan needs to be maintained.  Areas identified as lacking, changes to information contained in the disaster recovery plan, and changes made within the company all need to be updated in the disaster recovery plan.  Many companies have disaster recovery plans; however, because they are not maintained and updated, will likely be discovered to be marginally useful during a disaster.

In summary, disaster recovery planning is essential to the success and survivability of companies that rely on information technology.  An effective disaster recovery plan allows companies to effectively react to disasters in order to reduce data loss and downtime of critical services, and improve employee safety.  A carefully designed disaster recovery plan can help prevent business failure that often results from disasters.

Milwaukee Flooding Water Damage Restoration Must Dos

If you are experiencing the ravages of the flood in your home, office or plant; it is a true nightmare.  It is very important to get a restoration contractor with a proven track record for saving wet documents, electronics and other essentials.  There are very critical procedures that must be implemented quickly or your total loss can be much higher than necessary.Â

The professionals that carry the industry’s highest certifications in water loss management are a must.  A competent water damage company must have an inventory of drying and dehumidification equipment that is state-of-the-art. It must be able to handle residential and commercial facilities; equipment should range from the residential 50 cubic foot models to the monstrous Desiccant 9000′s that are mobilized by flat bed trucks and capable of drying high-rise buildings or massive manufacturing plants.  Water damage must be completely and properly dried out or you will develop a mold problem that further elevates your loss.

 Health, Safety and Liability

Look for a disaster recovery services company that has containment, construction and remediation techniques that comply with EPA, NYC Health Department and IICRC guidelines.  Make sure they do extensive testing, take numerous moisture readings and are constantly evaluating and monitoring the entire remediation process to ensure that a certified clearance is achieved.

Look for a company with a strong track record; i.e. using proper evaluation, containment, removal, disposal and clearance procedures and a record of trusted and proven performance in the field of mold remediation.

Look for Certified Mold Remediators (CMR), Water Loss Specialists (WLS) and professionals with other certifications specializing in mold remediation.

The most important thing to do right now is to simply take action; even though disaster can leave to you to feel immobilized, it is essential that disaster recovery steps be taken as soon as possible. The action that you take will definitely help prevent complications such as destruction from humidity (this happens even to items that are not actually touched by flood waters).

Imagine a situation where you are in need of a medical emergency and there is no hospital that can take care of your medical condition immediately. Ideally, every hospital must have a business contingency planning that will help people cope with the repercussions of natural calamities or even manmade situations like accidents, acts of terrorism and so on. In their efforts towards an emergency preparation, every hospital must ensure that, they employ efficient doctors and other medical staff who can act wisely and rise up to the situation to handle medical emergencies.

Efficient Emergency Section

Accident and Emergency or Emergency Room, whichever way you want to call an Emergency Department, handles any medical emergencies with utmost efficiency. A team of highly efficient doctors and other paramedics form an integral part of this department, which makes it proficient to extend medical care to patients in life threatening conditions. As a part of emergency preparation, a hospital must also have well equipped ambulances to help the patients reach hospital in nick of time. The hospital must also have a business contingency plan that addresses loss of hospital facilities, personnel shortages, supply line breaks and so forth. They need a plan for recovery; they need a plan for speedy restoration.

Emergency Cases

An emergency condition is not applicable to every patient who enters the hospital without prior notice. Therefore, an inspection of the medical condition of the patient needs to be carried out. This is also known as triage, where trained medical staff analyzes the medical condition of the patient and depending on the severity, assigns the priority level. This is normally the first stage of treatment provided to patients. If the condition is assessed to be minor, the patient may complete treatment during this stage. But, if the condition is critical and life threatening, the patient is directed to the appropriate department directly. During a regional disaster, many more cases are critical; all when the hospital facility may be operating at sub-optimal conditions. Business contingency planning will lay out a course for speedy recovery for the hospital as a critically injured patient.

CPR

Many times during critical medical condition, patients acquire severe heart conditions. The section that handles such patients is called the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) section. This being the key area of any hospital must always be ready with the necessary equipment and staff to handle patients in critical conditions; even if the hospital is also critically injured.

Children’s medical needs are different from that of adults. Separate emergency treatments must be provided to them. This makes a separate pediatrics facility desirable to be able to treat children in critical health conditions.

In case of psychiatric conditions, emergencies might be of a different kind altogether. In such cases, there are high chances of patients turning violent, or posing a threat to others. Some of them even exhibit suicidal tendencies. In any of the cases, it is always advisable to treat and handle such patients in a separate room, or if required in a separate emergency room.

Contingency Planning

The contingency plan a hospital follows will largely define the recovery chances of patients brought in to the hospital in severe conditions. Hence, being prepared with the best team of medical staff and other state-of-art medical equipments betters the chances of survival. Fast decisions, those are as accurate as possible need to be made in the Emergency Room. Providing medical emergencies to those in a critical condition remains one of the foremost objectives of any hospital. It’s the emergency preparedness of hospitals that determines how well it is able to be a part of the disaster recovery services of a country. An emergency care unit should be able to handle victims straight from the battlefield or from a grave situation.

Hospitals are highly regulated and the various state rules require that hospitals have emergency plans for how to act and cope during crisis. However, often a plan to act quickly may not emphasize contracting with disaster recovery services in the contingency planning stage. So that the hospital (as patient) may recover as quickly as possible, it is important to consult with the “doctor†in advance; i.e. a qualified disaster recovery specialist. This lay out a plan that will help the hospital to reconstruct damaged facilities, clean up water damaged areas, prevent toxic mold from developing and so forth because an existing contract with a competent disaster services company will place this patient first in line during the recovery process. Thus complications that might have risen during the aftermath of a disaster will be prevented.