Business continuity
Hi,
Our office is an old building and we all have a laptop. In our report for our business continuity we have to write a scenario where our building might be on fire one day and we should know what to do in this case. As an example: buy new laptops of the shell and etc.
Would you know a template or scenarios like our in order to build a report?
By the way, our system is a Citrix Server which runs with our IT Outsourcing company. We have Windows 7 and 8 and Windows Server 2008.
Any ideas?
Our office is an old building and we all have a laptop. In our report for our business continuity we have to write a scenario where our building might be on fire one day and we should know what to do in this case. As an example: buy new laptops of the shell and etc.
Would you know a template or scenarios like our in order to build a report?
By the way, our system is a Citrix Server which runs with our IT Outsourcing company. We have Windows 7 and 8 and Windows Server 2008.
Any ideas?
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Hello Mallony, I hope my comment are still useful.
You do not provide enough information about your scenario so I will base my comment on the worst case scenario.
In the case of a fire that consumes all the building, you will be affected at different levels.
Just as Rojosho said, your RTO and RPO are the key factors to set correctly your strategy.
RPO - Recovery Point Objective: This set what is correct to the business in terms of information recovery. Some businesses can set their RPO to yesterday or last week, and some others can not loose even a single transaction. So, determining your RPO will give you for sure your objective in what to deliver.
RTO - Recovery Time Objective: This will tell you how much time can the business wait until you get back on your feet and run minimum operations again (settled on the RPO previously discussed).
Keep in mind that on a Disaster Scenario you will be aiming to the Minimum Continuity Objective and this cover only the positions and resources absolutely needed for normal operation. In this case, for a company with 25 employees, get back on business with 5 positions might be ok because they are critical for the operation, the other 20 can be handled outside the RPO and RTO.
Here are some ideas that you can use to handle common problems.
Remember, all the above is a general idea of how to create a Business Continuity Plan on a tight budget. In my perspective there is no template for Business Continuity, each company is so unique that it worth the effort to take the time in develop what you really need.
Cheers,
Jorge Rene Alvarado V.
ContinuiBiz
You do not provide enough information about your scenario so I will base my comment on the worst case scenario.
In the case of a fire that consumes all the building, you will be affected at different levels.
Computer terminals (Laptops)
Infrastructure (servers, network, routers, isp)
Information and critical recods (backups and documents)
Physical space (the office itself)
Just as Rojosho said, your RTO and RPO are the key factors to set correctly your strategy.
RPO - Recovery Point Objective: This set what is correct to the business in terms of information recovery. Some businesses can set their RPO to yesterday or last week, and some others can not loose even a single transaction. So, determining your RPO will give you for sure your objective in what to deliver.
RTO - Recovery Time Objective: This will tell you how much time can the business wait until you get back on your feet and run minimum operations again (settled on the RPO previously discussed).
Keep in mind that on a Disaster Scenario you will be aiming to the Minimum Continuity Objective and this cover only the positions and resources absolutely needed for normal operation. In this case, for a company with 25 employees, get back on business with 5 positions might be ok because they are critical for the operation, the other 20 can be handled outside the RPO and RTO.
Here are some ideas that you can use to handle common problems.
You can make agreements with hardware providers to lease you equipment during the crisis event.
You can buy in advance your budget in case of a disaster.
You can start moving your infrastructure to the cloud to be prepared for this scenarios.
You can write a step by step on how to easily activate contingency on infrastructure is its needed.
On Line documents repositories or document administration.
Home office in case of a crisis event.
Make agreements with hotels, warehouses or business centers to solve the physical space problem in the case of a crisis event.
Super important to keep in mind phones, PBX and communication. Sometimes set the call forwarding will do the work.
Remember, all the above is a general idea of how to create a Business Continuity Plan on a tight budget. In my perspective there is no template for Business Continuity, each company is so unique that it worth the effort to take the time in develop what you really need.
Cheers,
Jorge Rene Alvarado V.
ContinuiBiz
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