Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan for Smith Systems Consulting

Running Head: Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan for Smith Systems Consulting

Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan for Smith Systems Consulting

Elizabeth Torres-Perez

University of Phoenix

Risk Management- CMGT/579

Ted Glasser

Oct 12, 2008

Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan for Smith Systems Consulting

IT Disaster Recovery Plan - Design Services

Smith Systems Consulting is committed to returning to a normal mode of business operations as soon as possible after a natural or man-made disaster. The Design Services group is prepared to return to operations in its original location in the Smith Systems Consulting Building, or in an alternate location if required by the type and severity of the disaster.

Environmental Containment

The security of the Design Services group's assets is protected from vandalism, theft, and fire by a monitored security system. This system monitors all possible points of entry into the Smith Systems Consulting Building, as well as the status of fire detection sensors and automatic sprinkler systems. In the event a break-in or fire is detected, the contracted security monitoring service will request a response from the appropriate authorities. Protection against the frequent severe weather in the Houston Texas area is provided by storm windows and wind-resistant siding and roofing materials and construction techniques.

Key Asset Protection

According to the Asset Valuation table developed for the Design Services group, the most critical assets are customer data, the group's workstations and the availability of Internet access. To a lesser degree, the office space and furniture, telephone systems and the paper-based archival files are important to the operations of this group. Customer data is protected by a weekly full back-ups, and nightly incremental back-ups of all customer project data. Local back-ups are maintained, as well as online back-ups to a remote location. According to Whitman & Mattord (2005) "The first component of a backup and recovery system is the scheduling of the backups, coupled with the storage of these backups. The most common schedule is a daily on-site incremental or differential backup, with a weekly off-site full backup" (p. 223).

Individual workstations are protected by small Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to guard against short-term power outages, as well as the voltage surges and sags common in utility power systems. Workstations utilized by designers are equipped with RAID systems to protect against data loss due to the inevitable hard disk failure. The requirements for these systems was determined during the design phase using an SDLC process "[...the successful implementation of these safeguards is far simpler if they are designed into the system early in the development phase. Incorporation of these capabilities after implementation is often difficult, costly, and even impossible" (Fault Tolerance Reading Material, 2005, p. 1).

Sufficient casualty insurance has been purchased to cover the cost of replacing all workstations and the Commercial, Off the Shelf (COTS) software packages that members of the Design Services group use to design and document customer projects

Off-Premises Processing Capability

Off-Site processing capability is not believed to be necessary for the Design Services group for the majority of short-term/ low severity disasters. Should a disaster displace the Design Services group for a period of time, that process is described in the Business Continuity section.

Procedures/Responsibilities

The Design Services group manager is responsible for the initial development and the annual upkeep of the Disaster Recovery Procedure section for the Design Services group. This manger is also responsible for implementing the steps required to ensure the safety of all Smith System Consulting personnel, while recovering the assets of the Design Services group. This manager is also required to coordinate with other department mangers and the disaster recovery team leader as necessary. While each department manager is responsible for their section of the plan, the success of the overall plan depends upon the entire Smith Systems Consulting team. "Developing a solid disaster recovery plan requires the support and participation of upper-level managers, all business unit managers, legal counsel, and directors of all functional departments such as Human Resources, Facilities Management, IT, and Corporate Security" (Erbschloe, 2003 p. 5).

IT Business Continuity Plan - Design Services

The Design Services group is prepared to return to normal business operations quickly following any disaster affecting Smith Systems Consulting, using the Business Continuity Plan as a guide to the recovery efforts. According to Whitman & Mattord (2005) "Since it is not possible to avoid force of nature threats, organizations must implement controls to limit damage, and they must also prepare contingency plans for continued operations, such as disaster recovery plans, business continuity plans, and incident response plans to limit losses in the face of these threats" (p. 57).

Minimum Asset Inventory

The Design Services group requires a fairly standard inventory of assets for its employees. Each employee is required to have a standard office chair and desk with locking drawer system. Each employee requires a computer workstation with high speed Internet access equipped with the COTS software products necessary to produce and document the customer's products. Typically, this will include the Microsoft Professional Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) and Visio Pro for network diagrams. Web Designers will need the Adobe Dreamweaver Development Studio (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash) to produce professional, interactive websites. A minimum number of telephones would be required, with one instrument shared by 3-4 employees. A single FAX machine should be available to the Design Services group as some customers still make use of that technology, although it is very limited. A single high-speed network printer (color and B/W, A and B size paper) could be shared by all members of the Design Group.

Possible