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Having a disaster response plan and having tested it are the real keys to surviving business disruptions. Last week, we looked at the importance of testing your plan. In this week's articles, you'll see how testing and simulations were/can be the key to survival for a variety of actual businesses, as their plans were severely tested - either in reality or on paper.

This company, which had well-rehearsed disaster response plans, was able to effect a successful recovery. (Item #1) A demonstration of business recovery unknowingly turned into the real thing. (Item #2) Is your company prepared for disaster? One company's experience, plus tips for preparing. (Item #3)

It's absolutely critical to include your vendors, as well as your employees, in the planning and testing process. (Item #4) Technology company managers learn important lessons from a simulation. (Item #5) This disaster occurred only on paper, but the learning that resulted was real. (Item #6)

As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, please email me at [email protected]

Best Regards,

Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp

Quote of the Week

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong"
- Benjamin Franklin -

Articles

1. Business continuity case study: Watson Wyatt
As veterans of several incidents and security scares - the London bombings in 2005, a widespread power outage in 2006 and the Bristol floods of 2007 to name just a few - Watson Wyatt had well rehearsed disaster recovery strategies. On Wednesday 12 June 2007 at around 1600 hrs, employees working at Watson Wyatt's London office in Tothill Street, SW1 heard a loud explosion, which many feared to be a bomb. Read how this played out.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0557.htm

2. Real-Life Experiences with Business Continuity
The manager of asset management was preparing for his quarterly meeting with investors. One of the topics he planned to highlight during his presentation was the company's business-recovery capabilities. Little did he know just how real a demonstration the investors would see. The company's IT business-continuity team was about to demonstrate its effectiveness in responding to unplanned events.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=102203

3. Business after disaster
Neal Hennegan, technology director for Covington, La.-based insurance services firm Gilsbar, Inc., has first-hand experience with implementing a disaster recovery plan and said it made a huge difference in getting his firm up and running again. Hennegan's firm, which employs 350 people, most of whom work out of its headquarters, had hired an independent business continuity consultant that it met with every two weeks. The firm had also retained Sungard Availability Services, which helped the firm implement a plan and conducted drills and rehearsal scenarios a couple of times a year.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/04/technology/disaster_recovery/index.htm

4. A 13-hour power outage puts disaster recovery plan to the test
On the night of Oct. 25, Richard Ridolfo, CIO of aviation consultancy Simat, Helliesen & Eichner Inc. (SH&E), received the call every executive dreads. Disaster had struck, the hub of his company's technology infrastructure was in the dark, and no one knew when it would be back online. The company survived with little impact to their business.
http://searchcio.techtarget.com.au/articles/19427-A-13-hour-power-outage-puts-disaster-recovery-plan-to-the-test

5. You'll Sneeze If Your Suppliers Get the Flu
A simulation at MIT of an avian flu outbreak in China underscores the need for companies to consider possible supply chain disruptions as part of their plans for handling emergencies. The simulation, hosted by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in April, was played out before an audience by a panel of managers from companies such as Intel and Cisco who deal with emergency situations.
http://csoonline.com/article/220906/You_ll_Sneeze_If_Your_Suppliers_Get_the_Flu

6. Pandemic test undertaken by financial services paints dire scenario
If a pandemic strikes the U.S., it will kill about 1.7 million people, hospitalize nine million, exhaust antiviral medications and reduce basic food supplies, according to a planning scenario developed by financial service firms preparing for such a catastrophe. This particular disaster occurred only on paper. But those grim numbers are some of the pandemic planning assumptions used by nearly 3,000 banks, insurance companies and security firms in a just-concluded, three-week, paper-based exercise that may have been the largest pandemic test of its kind.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044021