Monday, December 3, 2012

Top Ten Tips for 2009 Hurricane Season Planning from SunGard Availability Services

ogarawo.wordpress.com
June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- With the onset of the 2009 hurrican season, has outlined its top ten tips for disaster By followingthese steps, organizations will be better preparedr to keep their systems, processes and peopler up and running during and afte r a major storm. "Today, many organizations are focusedon short-tern pressures to reduce spending, and because of may not be properly testing their recovery plans," said , directort of crisis management at SunGarf Availability Services.
"We have seen all too often organizationsd neglect key elements of theirf programs only to realize the grave consequenceswhen it's too As hurricane season approaches, it is imperativde that companies reexamine and re-test existing plans, making sure they aligbn with the current state of the businesx - from both IT and business proces perspectives - in case a major stormm should occur. For those organizationzs facing travel restrictions due tobudget constraints, new modeas of testing - such as remote or virtualized testing - provided cost-effective alternatives to more traditional methods." 1. Regularly test your disasterd recovery plan. Simply having a plan in placwe isnot enough.
Develop and regularly test your crisis communication plan so that the firs time it is executed is not during an Remember to test under realistic conditions and make the plan robusty enough to address extended recovery that may require utilizationj ofnew facilities, relocation of stafvf and involvement of outside 2. Revisit and reassign responsibilities. Factor in changes to your organizatiom caused by recent layoffsand restructurings. Assign new responsibilitiesa to employees based on the current organizational structure andavailabler resources.
Test this updated plan to ensure all toolse and protocols are in placs to operate duringa disaster, reaching out to all partsa of the organization and employe family members as well as government agencies and emergency responders. 3. Make sure your notification systejmis up-to-date. Critical during any potential notification should be an integral part ofan organization'sz disaster recovery plan. Make sure all contact numbers are allowing the organization to get in touchn with key personnel in the eventy ofan emergency. This will also help prioritized methods of communication and track which employees havereceivefd messages. 4. Put your peopl first.
Employees are the heart of an organization; however, many human resources aspects are frequently overlooked in disasterrecovery planning. Businesses must identify alternate locations where employees can go in the event a primary work locatioh is unavailable and address the physical safety andpsychological well-beinfg of employees. Assign backup rolew for the inevitable timesz when key players are not availablweor missing, and time-sensitive actions need to be taken. Employ crosxs training to have alternative contacts readgyto go. 5.
Don't wait to If an organization has access to hot orcold back-upl sites, a common mistake is to wait too long beforew declaring an emergency and relocatinh personnel. If an organizationn is located in an area for which a governmenrt evacuation order hasbeen issued, it shoulrd declare and relocate 6. Don't forget about your Develop procedures for technical recovery scriptx that will be deployed to help get your IT infrastructur e upand running. Make the scripts comprehensived and easy to understand so people who are not familiarr with them can easilyfollow 7. Keep your vendor list current.
Strictlyg enforce change management and contro l processes to help ensure vendof contacts are current so vital serviceas will be quickly availablewhen needed. 8. Considerr the impact outside ofyour organization. In the eventy of a disaster, will your vendorsw be able to perform theird roles in supporting your critical technical infrastructure andbusiness processes? Considerd looking at secondary providers as a precaution. Take time to evaluats whether support or maintenance contracts need to be extendec or have levels ofsupport modified. 9. Evaluatew readiness and completeness of offsitwedata storage. Paper records and backupo tapes may betotally lost, destroyed or unavailable.
Developp contingencies in the event deliveryyof offsite-stored data is Investigate using electronic media - through disk to disk backuo - to help safeguard and provide backup 10. Take the guesswork out of server Should adisaster occur, re-building servers from the groundf up consumes time and stretcheds internal IT resources. Consider workingv with a third-party provider that can simplify thesre processes by rebuilding your operatint systems on its ownservers - enablingv a speedy and more cost-effective "Just because hurricane season has begun does not mean there isn't time to prepare," said Mr. DiLossi.
"Organizations oftenm get overwhelmed by disaster recovery planning but inthe short-ternm they can take the first steps of updating notification coordinating with outside vendors/agencies and testing current plans. It cannot be said enougb times - test the way you recover the wayyou test." SunGardd Availability Services provides process expertise and automation combinexd with an enterprise-class IT infrastructure - a protocol-independentf network, hardened facilities and redundangt power systems. In addition, the companuy has a 100 percent success rate helpintg customers to recover inits 30-yeadr history.
SunGard Availability Services provides disaster recovery managedIT services, information availability consulting services and businesas continuity management software to more than 10,000 customeras in North America and Europe. With four millioh square feet of datacentef andoperations space, SunGard assists IT organizationsz across virtually all industry and governmen sectors prepare for and recover from emergenciesw by helping them minimize their computer downtime and optimizer their uptime.
Through direct sales and channel partners, we help organizations ensure their people and customers have uninterruptedd access to the information systems they need in order to do To learn more, visit or call 1-800-468-7483. SunGardr is one of the world'a leading software and IT services SunGard serves morethan 25,000 customerx in more than 70 countries, including the world'ss 25 largest financial services companies. SunGard provides softwarew and processing solutions forfinancial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGarde also provides disasterrecovery services, managed IT information availability consulting services and business continuity managementy software.
With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGarxd is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the larges t privately held business software and serviced company on the Forbes list of private Based on information compiledby Datamonitor*, SunGars is the third largestf provider of business applications softwar e after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurancer & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedentedfive times. For more please visit SunGardat . *January 2009 Technology Vendors Financiakl Database TrackerTrademark Information: SunGard and the SunGard logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGarsd Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S.
and othedr countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registereds trademarks of theirrespective

No comments:

Post a Comment