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IT Contingency
Planning
IT Contingency
Planning focuses on providing instructions, recommendations, and
considerations for organizational IT contingency planning.
Contingency planning refers to interim measures to recover IT
services following an emergency or system disruption.
Interim measures may
include the relocation of IT systems and operations to an alternate
site, the recovery of IT functions using alternate equipment, or the
performance of IT functions using manual
methods.
IT Contingency
Planning – IT vulnerability
IT systems are
vulnerable to a variety of disruptions, ranging from mild (e.g.,
short-term power outage, disk drive failure) to severe (e.g.,
equipment destruction, fire) from a variety of sources such as
natural disasters to terrorists actions.
While many
vulnerabilities may be minimized or eliminated through technical,
management, or operational solutions as part of the organization’s
risk management effort, it is virtually impossible to completely
eliminate all risks.
In many cases,
critical resources may reside outside the organization’s control
(such as electric power or telecommunications), and the organization
may be unable to ensure their availability.
IT Contingency
Planning – essential to organizational
survival!
Effective contingency
planning, execution, and testing are essential to mitigate the risk
of system and service unavailability. Accordingly, in order for
contingency planning to be successful agency management must ensure
the following:
- Understand the IT
Contingency Planning Process and its place within the overall
Continuity of Operations Plan and Business Continuity Plan
process.
- Develop or reexamine
their contingency policy and planning process and apply the
elements of the planning cycle, including preliminary planning,
business impact analysis, alternate site selection, and recovery
strategies.
- Develop or reexamine
their IT contingency planning policies and plans with emphasis on
maintenance, training, and exercising the contingency plan. There
are seven broad types that IT Contingency planning must consider.
These types are:
- Desktops and
portable systems
- Servers
- Web
sites
- Local area
networks
- Wide area
networks
- Distributed
systems
- Mainframe
systems.
Explore the Disaster Recovery
Toolkit
Contains 18 ready to use templates for successful
Disaster Recovery Planning / IT Service Continuity
Management
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