business continuity of operations planning coopBusiness Continuity Preparedness Handbook Executive Summary Business continuity planning or, for the federal government, continuity of operations planning (COOP), involves ensuring that a business is sustainable through a period of significant interruption caused by a disaster or any other disruptive event. It is essential for all types of scenarios ranging from system or component failure caused by a software upgrade to a man-made or natural disaster that broadly impacts an organization’s physical assets, buildings and/or people. When it comes to business continuity, taking a proactive planning approach is essential. Disruption of business from any type of “event” (e.g., pandemic influenza, hurricane, terrorist As a result of the increasing concern over the possibility of a pandemic influenza, the vivid images of the impacts from Hurricane Katrina, as well as the forecasts for the 2007 hurricane season, private and public sector enterprises are attack) could lead to immediate lost revenue and the potential for loss of customer confidence and market share. The reassessing and broadening their business continuity and contingency plans. financial impact to a business for each hour of downtime varies by industry, but the cost can be significant. In response to the growing concern around the risks of a pandemic influenza, launched a customer Program Team The statistics tell the story for why business continuity planning is important. For the sixth consecutive year, polled chief in December 2005 on pandemic planning under the auspices of ’s Business Advisory Council (ABAC). and its information officers and other senior IT executives at companies throughout the United States with more than $10 million in annual revenue for their views on disaster planning clients have shared their pandemic preparedness efforts, challenges and best practices. The key theme from these and business continuity trends. The following highlights some of the key findings from ’s 2007 Business Continuity Study: discussions is that taking a proactive approach to business continuity planning is essential in ensuring a firm can emerge •Overall, business continuity planning remains a priority for nearly 70% of responding companies in both 2007 and 2006 from a disaster with minimal impact to its customers, employees and stakeholders. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pandemic influenza viruses have •Nearly 25% of those surveyed say their company has suffered from a disaster demonstrated their ability to spread worldwide within months or weeks. As this document discusses, in the case of a pandemic influenza, if an organization waits until disease mutation occurs (e.g., avian flu strain becomes easily •Of companies that suffered from a disaster, 12% lost less than $100,000 a day, 3% lost $100,000 to $500,000 a day and 1% lost more than $1 million per day transmissible between humans), it could be too late to react. •Of companies with business continuity plans in place, nearly 60% have not tested them in the last 12 months •Viruses and worms remain the most significant threat to cyber security in the minds of IT executives surveyed •Electrical power blackouts are the single most common disaster, reported by 11% of companies surveyed Determining an Organization’s Business Continuity Preparedness An organization can begin to assess its own level of preparedness by asking the following questions: Mitigate Risk, Protect Mission-Critical Data •Has the business analyzed which business processes, Meet Regulatory Requirements •Do customers or business partners have regulatory applications and services are most critical? •Has the business assessed the impact of a mandated performance or availability service levels? •Has the business complied with all current or emerging potential disruption? •Has the business created a strategy to mitigate risk? •What security measures are in place? regulatory requirements or public policy mandates? Invest Wisely •Has the business quantified the potential costs of •Are key locations hardened and facilities conditioned? downtime or total business failure? •Has the business developed sound business cases to optimally invest in risk mitigation? Key Learnings – Preparedness Planning , along with its customers on the ABAC Program Team on Pandemic Preparedness, developed the following set of key learnings regarding business continuity planning for a health threat such as a pandemic influenza. While these principles were discussed in the context of the risks for a pandemic influenza, they apply to any business continuity scenario in the public or private sector. Planning Now is Essential Taking a proactive approach is vital to preparedness. Once disaster strikes, an organization’s ability to respond quickly Build Escalating Scenarios and Perform Simulation Exercises to Identify Gaps Many companies are conducting business continuity planning exercises using a range of scenarios to assess the impact of a and effectively may be critical in protecting its staff, profits, reputation and essential operations. Developing a plan that potential avian flu pandemic on their businesses. For example, they may have one scenario designed to simulate the disease protects the health and safety of employees and ensures that critical business functions remain operational requires a comprehensive and cross-organizational planning effort. breaking out slowly and a second that assesses a sudden break-out in several locations simultaneously. Scenario-based Review and Expand Existing Business Continuity Plans to Include a Landscape of Threats over Larger exercises help identify gaps and risks that might not otherwise be obvious. Build scenarios starting with a small outbreak and then move up to a worst-case scenario. Geographic Regions While many organizations have business continuity plans to deal with disruptions, they may not be prepared for an event that Communication is Crucial The ability to withstand any crisis may ultimately rest on the effectiveness of communication with employees, clients, could occur on a global scale. Existing business continuity plans should be reviewed and supplemented accordingly to meet the needs of a range of threats. suppliers and other key constituents. Senior executives should be ready to deliver the right messages. Utilize Credible Sources It’s important to identify reliable and credible sources of information early on in the planning process to Network Solutions for Business Continuity Preparedness Require Advance Planning and Implementation track developments. to Effectively Enable the Survivability of a Firm’s Critical Operations Develop Planning Phases with Trigger Points Organizations should create clearly-defined response-planning phases with trigger points for moving from one phase Companies should ensure they are prepared for any additional demands that might result from their contingency plans, such as increased virtual office work and associated increased demand on their Virtual Private Network (VPN). These concerns to another. For example, resources such as the World Health Organization (WHO) can be used as a reference point might include evaluating their current employee usage of the services, maximum expected increase in corporate infrastructure for defining phases and trigger points for pandemic influenza planning. usage under different scenarios, increases in additional services required and employee preparedness for telecommuting. It is also prudent to provide employees who must work in a virtual office scenario with multiple options (e.g., dial-up, DSL, wireless WAN) to access the corporate network. In the federal government an unplanned interruption could have an impact on our Value of This Handbook national security, citizen services and economic well-being. In fact, it is the policy of the If an organization’s self-assessment from the Business Continuity Preparedness questions identifies gaps in United States to have in place a comprehensive and effective program to ensure continuity preparedness planning or if the approach to business continuity is inconsistent with some of these key learnings, this Business of essential federal functions under all circumstances. All federal agencies must have a COOP capability to ensure the performance Continuity Preparedness Handbook provides a broad range of information to support business continuity planning efforts. of these activities during an emergency or situation that may disrupt normal operations. It examines business continuity in the context of two potential catastrophic events – a pandemic influenza and a hurricane A COOP is good business practice since it enables organizations to continue their essential functions across a broad spectrum of hazards strike – and highlights why taking a proactive approach to business continuity planning is essential for all disaster and emergencies. scenarios. This Handbook covers the following topics: •’s own business continuity preparedness efforts •Planning assumptions for a pandemic influenza and the 2007 hurricane forecast •Recommended business continuity best practices •’s business solutions to support client’s business continuity strategies • customer support during an “event” ’s Business Continuity Preparedness For , planning for and responding to crises is a way of life. has extensive experience in planning for and responding to a broad range of contingencies, from hurricanes to floods to acts of terrorism. Its business continuity preparedness efforts include the day-to-day operational activities required to ensure continued service to its customers, broad scenario planning as well as individual threat assessment and analysis, centralized command and control coordination responsibility, and specific, detailed recovery procedures for all critical functions. has a team of industry-leading, certified and experienced business continuity experts in place who are responsible for •Employees and Facilities – The welfare and safety of employees is of utmost importance to . The company implements strategies, based on best practices to reduce risk ensuring that ’s internal business continuity program supports its business objectives and strategy. This team, including ’s wireless unit, ensures that all critical work functions have exposures to people, processes, and property and to mitigate business impacts during crisis situations. takes steps to documented disaster recovery plans that are exercised every year. was certified by the Cellular Telecommunications and help limit the spread of the illness and support employees’ health needs. Internet Association’s (CTIA) voluntary Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery program in August 2006 for its compliance with •Business Function – helps ensure critical business functions remain operational and customers’ service is uninterrupted. ensures reliability of critical business disaster preparedness and planning best practices for the industry. Existing business continuity plans have been reviewed against a health pandemic scenario and are being supplemented functions and supporting infrastructures through a comprehensive response and recovery program. accordingly. Because of the uniqueness of the pandemic scenario compared to typical disaster scenarios, has provided focused •Network Infrastructure – As customers implement their own business continuity plans in the event of a pandemic, it could result in dramatic shifts in traffic patterns on ’s attention on understanding and evaluating the implications of this scenario on its business operations, its products and services, as well as its customers. As a company with operations on every continent, is closely monitoring avian flu developments via network. For example, many companies may rely on virtual offices and telecommuting to keep their businesses running. In local staff and contacts with world health organizations. As part of that planning, is undertaking extensive corporate-wide risk addition, many customers and employees may be displaced or relocate if there is a significant event. works to anticipate assessment, incident response and contingency planning for a potential pandemic, on three broad fronts: resulting shifts in voice and data for both wireless and wireline traffic patterns in order to evaluate alternatives to maximize network performance under these types of conditions. has built extensive redundancy into the network including hardware duplication in the Mobile Switching Centers with back-up generators, fuel and battery power, which supports these efforts. ’s Network Disaster Recovery Capabilities ’s Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) capability was specifically developed for rapid service recovery during a wide range of disaster Existing business continuity plans have been reviewed against a health pandemic scenario scenarios. Network Disaster Recovery provides business continuity and recovery capabilities for the Global Network including its and are being supplemented accordingly. Because of the uniqueness of the pandemic scenario compared to typical disaster scenarios, has provided focused attention on wireless networks and external clients. Since its inception, has invested over $500 million in its NDR program. understanding and evaluating the implications of this scenario on its business operations, its products The primary role of the NDR organization is to restore the functionality of an network office that is completely destroyed and services, as well as its customers. or compromised by a natural or man-made disaster. This type of restoration would exceed the normal capabilities of ’s network also uses Cells on Wheels (COWs), self-contained mobile cell sites, to provide extra cellular capacity to restore operations maintenance processes and would require long-term deployment of specialized equipment and resources. communications after a disaster. The mobile sites can be used to replace the service of a failed permanent site and they can NDR’s recovery equipment includes a fleet of specially-designed semi-tractor trailers that contain the same type of equipment be used to supplement the cellular capacity of an area that has increased demand. that is normally installed in ’s permanent offices. These technology trailers can be interconnected to recover the capabilities of a network office that has been heavily damaged or destroyed. The equipment is maintained in and deployed from ’s Infrastructure Technology Support Group (ITSG) organization provides infrastructure support to network offices that are at risk or that have been impacted by a disaster. warehouses strategically located around the U.S. and in EMEA. The ITSG inventory includes portable generators (3 kW to 2 MW), chillers, pumps and fuel cells. The NDR Team includes managers, engineers and technicians who have received special training in the physical The NDR fleet includes six mobile command centers, including two developed specifically for wireless recovery responses: Mobile recovery of the network. Members participate in several recovery exercises each year to sharpen and practice their skills Access Command Headquarters (MACH) I & II. The trailers can be rapidly deployed and set up within an hour of arriving at a using the disaster recovery equipment and processes. The exercises test as many of the NDR processes as possible, from recovery site. The command centers have data and voice communications capabilities (provided by the ECVs) and provide the initial team call-out, to equipment transportation and setup, totechnology turn-up and testing. The NDR team includes members who have been trained as hazardous materials technicians. This training allows them NDR’s incident command team with a fully-equipped and controlled office space during disaster responses. A base camp can be established that will provide responders with access to conduct recovery and maintenance tasks in contaminated environments while wearing specialized personal to a full kitchen, a dining facility and sleeping quarters. has a large inventory of MREs (meals ready to eat) and other supplies set aside for use during emergency responses. protective equipment. NDR establishes broadband and wireless voice and data connectivity from disaster sites using one or more Emergency Communications A Mobile Store is included in the program and is stocked with batteries, chargers and replacement phones; inventory that first Vehicles (ECV). An ECV uses a satellite link to provide NDR with command communications during the initial phase of a recovery responders need most in emergency situations. The objective: making sure wireless service can be restored as quickly as possible. effort. The ECVs have also been used to provide command and humanitarian relief communications capability to other responders at the request of the federal government. Pandemic Influenza Health Agencies and Government Agencies throughout the world are expressing concern about the possibility for a pandemic influenza emerging in the near future. Such pandemics occur several times in a century and cause widespread mortality, morbidity and social and economic disruption around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates a pandemic influenza has the potential to cause millions of deaths worldwide. Of particular concern is the emergence of a highly pathogenic strain (H5N1) of Human Avian Influenza. The first cases of the If that happens, it could be with limited warning. The WHO projection is that once a fully-transmissible human pandemic virus emerges, it could encircle the globe within three months. If an H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza were identified about 10 years ago, but there has been a significant increase in human cases since organization waits until disease mutation occurs, it could be too late to react, especially if new capabilities must be provisioned at 2003. As of September 10, 2007, the World Health Organization has reported 328 human cases with 200 deaths in Azerbaijan, that time. Procurement at time of disaster is not a good option, no matter what is needed, be it food, fuel, water or telecom Cambodia, China, Dijbouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. services. If people are not already equipped for virtual office (telework), with logins, IDs and authentication devices, this may Currently, there is no direct evidence that the H5N1 strain has mutated to a form that is easily transmissible between humans; not be an option. however, if that occurs, it is anticipated that spread of the disease will be rapid with a high potential for creating a global pandemic, on the scale of the Influenza Pandemic in 1918. Range of Impacts/Planning AssumptionsThere’s a range of potential impacts associated with a pandemic. Since there are so many unknowns with disease progression and Geographic Impacts The global nature of a pandemic makes most Disaster Recovery (DR) plans irrelevant. Most DR plans are based on a single region life cycle, it is prudent to consider and plan for a number of possible circumstances. An organization would not want to only prepare for or localized types of disasters (e.g., earthquake, flood) and can be addressed by failing over to an alternate site, shifting people, the worst case and then not be prepared for a less severe scenario. With any one of the following factors, the impact could fall anywhere using mutual assistance and aid, and/or transferring toll-free numbers. In a pandemic situation, it will not necessarily be the along the range, so the business should be prepared with a flexible approach to address the situation as it evolves. building that’s the problem, but rather the people. There may not be people at another location to transfer work to if high rates of Personnel Impacts A pandemic differs from a wide range of disaster scenarios and presents unique challenges and implications for business absenteeism materialize. Therefore, one must think about other strategies in terms of how resources can be more effectively utilized and how to prioritize functions. Organizations should plan for a range of disease patterns to spread. Outbreaks could be continuity planning. Most disaster scenarios affect buildings and infrastructure first, and then have a secondary impact on people. isolated, encompass an entire region, or in the worst case, there could be a simultaneous global outbreak. With a pandemic, the primary focus and impact is on people, with a secondary opportunity to impact infrastructure. The loss of a large and random element of the work force is expected for a sustained period of time under a true pandemic scenario. An Mobility Impacts There could be airline travel restrictions, local transportation restrictions (e.g., subways, buses, trucking) and, in the worst-case individual who gets sick can be expected to be ill for a period of at least one to two weeks. A community outbreak could last from scenario, there could be government-imposed restrictions (e.g., border closures, Martial Law) as a result of a pandemic. Plans for six to eight weeks and possibly three months. It’s also possible there could be multiple waves hitting the same community over a these impacts will vary by business. For example, functions that rely heavily on trucking could be impacted more severely by local period of one to two years. Experts predict that employees could react in different ways. There will be those who are sick and can’t transportation restrictions. come into work, those who can’t come to work because they are caring for sick family members, and people who are afraid to Infrastructure Impacts The range of impacts from a pandemic could lead to food/fuel rationing, supply chain disruptions, last-mile access congestion, come into work and come into contact with people who are potentially sick – referred to as the “Worried Well.” These disease and power failures. These would not only affect the ability to provide services to customers, but also the ability for people to characteristics and possible behavior patterns could result in high rates of absenteeism. Per the U.S. Department of Health and get to work. Human Services, absenteeism rates could reach 40% during the peak weeks of a community outbreak, with lower rates of absenteeism forecasted during the weeks before and after a peak. As such, an organization should look at how it will respond to Potential Impacts Associated with a Pandemic different absenteeism rates. •Personnel •Geographic •Mobility •Infrastructure Hurricane Strike Hurricanes provide another example of the need for proactive business continuity planning. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) extended range forecast for the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season indicates an above-average probability of a major hurricane landfall in the U.S. in 2007 with thirteen to sixteen named storms. Of these storms, seven to nine of them could become hurricanes and three to five of them could become category 3 strength or higher storms. The average Atlantic hurricane season brings eleven named storms, with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes. Per NOAA, it is currently not possible to confidently predict at extended ranges the number or intensity of hurricanes that will Hurricane-spawned disasters can occur even in years with near-normal or below-normal levels of activity. Examples of hit landfall, or whether a particular locality will be impacted by a hurricane in 2007. Therefore, businesses with locations in coastal years with near-normal activity that featured extensive hurricane damage and numerous fatalities include 1960 (Hurricane Donna), and near-coastal regions should always maintain hurricane preparedness efforts regardless of the overall seasonal outlook. 1979 (Hurricanes David and Frederic) and 1985 (Hurricanes Elena, Gloria and Juan). Moreover, the nation’s second most damaging Far more damage can be done by one major hurricane hitting a heavily populated area than by several hurricanes hitting sparsely hurricane, Andrew in 1992, occurred during a season with otherwise below normal activity. populated areas. Recommended General Business Continuity Best Practices All companies and government agencies, regardless of size, need to identify their mission-critical business functions and effectively manage the risk around them, whether from a pandemic, hurricane, earthquake or any other kind of crisis. Mission-critical business functions are those that enable an organization to provide vital services, exercise civil authority, maintain the safety of the general public, or sustain its industrial or economic base. Taking a proactive approach to business continuity is essential for being prepared to respond when disaster strikes. Plans should specify redundant systems, back-up sites, employee communications and alternative work sites. They also should include a process for maintaining customer communications immediately following the crisis and proceeding until things return to normal. The following outlines six key steps in preparing for any type of business continuity process. The more accurate a company can be Determine Recovery Strategies The next step is to define the firm’s business continuity strategies. For example, how does the organization want the business to in its planning, the more prepared it will be in the long run. Identify Critical Business Processes and Impacts The first step is to understand what functions are critical to the business and how different disaster scenarios could impact perform and what options are available? Does the firm keep the same service level agreements or does it prioritize work? In addition, alternate facilities and their desirable characteristics must be considered. The results of the Risk Assessment and the continuity of operations. For example, how could demand for products and services be affected? Will demand for products and identification of Recovery Strategies are instrumental in the development of Contingency Plans to address specific threats. services grow or decline? What is the impact to the organization in terms of leadership, capabilities, security and communications, It is also critical that these activities be accomplished in a methodical and consistent way across organizations so that all and what does that mean for the operation of mission-critical functions? The answers to these types of questions could parts of the corporation are preparing for the same scenarios, using the same information, and ensuring that the end-to-end determine the type of response required. This step is vital so that, with delegation of authority or orders of succession established, plan is functional. attention and resources can effectively focus on helping ensure a rapid response to the situation. Develop Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Plans and Provision DR Capabilities Perform Risk Assessment, Mitigation and Management To ensure a company is prepared to continue with critical Contingency plans should be developed to ensure interoperable communication and continuity of critical business operations business functions in a crisis, it is necessary to complete a functional Risk Assessment to ensure that it is addressing the with key suppliers/vendors, or other agencies, until normal operation can be resumed. Delegation of Authority and Orders essential functions first and making the appropriate investments, both in time and money. The Risk Assessment will identify of Succession ensure that businesses plan for the loss of leadership so that critical business operations could continue. the functions, processes, resources and suppliers/vendors which would have the greatest impact on a company’s ability Contingency plans should identify not only incremental strategic or procedural changes from existing business continuity plans, to serve its customers or an agency’s ability to achieve its mission objectives. It also involves the identification and assessment but also any gaps in capabilities that need to be addressed. It is important toimplement any new capabilities prior to of the potential threats, the existing vulnerabilities and the probability that a threat will exploit the identified vulnerabilities. the event occurring, to ensure that a business can successfully recover at time of disaster (e.g. wired failover to wireless WAN). This aids in the identification of relative risk exposure to different components of the business, so that fact-based decision making on mitigation plans can occur. Test, Train and Exercise Business continuity plans must be capable of implementation with or without warning. They must be tested on a regular For situations requiring a COOP implementation, public policy (FPC_65) states that agencies basis and tested in as real a way as possible to ensure they will be effective at time of disaster. This requires the development must determine essential functions, that is, those activities that cannot be interrupted for of a test plan for how a business will test capabilities and an Emergency Response Guidebook. It also involves not only 12 hours or must be resumed within 30 days. Essential functions also include any other conducting table-top simulation exercises, but actual recovery implementations to ensure that the capabilities will operate activities explicitly assigned by law or order of the President, or determined by an agency to effectively. Emergency Response Team members also need to be provided opportunities to acquire the skills to perform their be essential. assigned roles. Monitor and Improve Performance Situations evolve over time and are not static. An organization should consider how changes to a situation and the business environment could affect preparedness. To ensure a plan works at time of disaster, business continuity plans should be considered an organizational priority and reviewed regularly. In addition, changes to operations must also be reflected in their business continuity plans and Emergency Response Guidebook, whether they are systems upgrades, process changes or resource restructuring. Business Solutions for Business Continuity Strategies An increasing number of companies today are turning to experts for help with business continuity planning. Building on years of experience in managing and maintaining some of the world’s largest and most complex networks (including its own), offers a wide array of business continuity services designed to help clients ensure the continuous operation and availability of their critical business processes, mission-critical applications, data, work centers and networks. Business Continuity Consulting How Can Help The following provides information on some of the business solutions that can provide to support a client’s business Business Continuity Consulting helps clients identify and prioritize critical business operational processes and evaluate their current continuity strategies. Each solution provides a synopsis of the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery challenge and then how capability to keep these processes up and running in the event of a business disruption. Business Continuity Consulting focuses on can help address that challenge. It is essential to design and implement these solutions before any type of potential all aspects of business continuity: availability, reliability, scalability, recoverability, quality, design, performance and security. business disruption occurs. Factors such as solution design time, provisioning cycle times and lead times for hardware Business Continuity Consulting includes core competencies in business impact analysis, risk assessment, mitigation strategy, procurement should all be planned for accordingly. All companies, regardless of size, need to identify their critical information assurance, business continuity and disaster recovery planning, testing, emergency response and overall program business components and effectively manage the risk around them, whether from a hurricane, an earthquake or any other management. Business Continuity Consulting can help customers significantly improve their ability to respond to business kind of crisis. Unfortunately, many companies are still unprepared. ’s 2007 Business Continuity Study found that nearly disruption, even when the customer has regulatory obligations such as SOX (for public companies), HIPAA (for health care), GLBA 28 percent of U.S. businesses surveyed do not have business continuity plans in place, and stated that business continuity and Basel II (for the financial and banking industry), and FISMA (for federal agencies). The services portfolio also supports planning was not a priority. business continuity planning, which makes organizations more adaptive to change and helps to improve the customer’s competitive advantage. In addition, ’s business continuity services can help protect the government’s critical infrastructure Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge and the nation’s economy. Business Continuity Consulting can help: The more firms optimize critical processes, manage risk and prepare for business disruptions, the less likely they will encounter catastrophic impact from a business disruption. Many businesses lack in-house •Determine priorities for recovery of critical business functions •Assess and recommend actions to mitigate the risks to expertise on Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery planning. Engaging a team of business continuity critical business processes and technology components •Develop and design business continuity strategies and plans •Test and validate business continuity plans professionals can result in a faster and less expensive solution than approaching this critical task in-house. •Achieve a balance between cost and risk •Identify process gaps/deficiencies and opportunities for business continuity program improvement •Develop and project manage the implementation of an overall integrated business continuity program Collaboration – Conferencing collaboration. Additionally, these services can be used by a disaster response team as specific employees can be Natural or man-made disasters can affect the ability of any company to communicate. As businesses implement their pre-identified as delegated points of communications. continuity plans, they may find they want to consider audio, web meeting, video conferencing and/or wireless video as part •Corporate Crisis Management Service – For an added layer of security, offers firms the option of reserving ports on a separate network platform with priority access. This service is of their overall communications strategy for ensuring continued communications and operations as well as emergency response. designed for critical executive level communications to reach key business decision makers. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge •Web-Conferencing Services – These services allow for real-time project collaboration critical to the operation of a business. ’s web-conferencing services add a layer of During a disaster scenario, businesses may need to provide their employees and customers with collaboration effectiveness by allowing employees real-time viewing of business documents that support the ongoing alternatives to face-to-face meetings in the event of travel restrictions or social distancing policies. Additionally, businesses may have a need to disseminate critical business or operational continuity of business operations. In the event of an emergency, these same web conferencing ports are designed to continue to function along with their associated audio information to specific employees in real-time for effective disaster response coordination. conferencing ports and can be utilized for disaster-related collaboration. Key decision makers can collaborate on high- profile or emergency projects in order to keep mission-critical business operations functioning. Agencies must also support How Can Help interoperable communications to perform essential functions within the organization and with other agencies and customers. ’s Reservationless voice and web conferencing services can be set up in advance and used on a daily basis for all employees of a customer’s business. Businesses and government department/agencies can incorporate wireless one way video into their emergency response communications processes. •Wireless Video Share Service – Real-time simultaneous video and voice is now available on some wireless devices from and can dramatically improve effectiveness and responsiveness of emergency workers. For example, police can show an accident scene to a headquarters dispatcher or remotely •Audioconferencing Services – In the event of an emergency, businesses can continue to utilize the same audio conferencing service they use every day to conduct meetings and perform located commander so that more informed judgments could quickly be made about the type of additional resources to send to the scene. Collaboration – Messaging •Enterprise Paging – provides business customers with enterprise-grade reliability and performance to help ensure organizations’ mission-critical pages get through in the event of When planning for a pandemic event or any man-made or natural disaster, businesses need to consider their ability to an emergency. With the use of any standard enterprise paging application, businesses can send urgent notifications and pages maintain electronic communications, such as e-mail. During any type of disaster, maintaining communications with employees, to employees and other mobile workers over ’s wireless network. These enhanced paging capabilities include delivery customers and shareholders is critical to managing through an event to keep everyone informed, mitigate panic and maintain confirmation, two way messaging, multiple choice responses (such as “I’m OK” or “I need help”) and receipt of long messages – critical business functions. In order to minimize the impact of an event, enterprises need to develop a plan to maintain their messaging infrastructure. up to 450 characters depending on the paging protocol. With Enterprise Paging, mobile workers can receive urgent pages in the form of text messages on mobile phones, PDAs and wireless devices they already carry. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge In many types of disaster scenarios, businesses may need to relocate their local messaging •Wireless Priority Service – Teaming with Computer Sciences Corp., responds to the request of the National Communications System offices and offers authorized National infrastructure outside the impacted geographic area. If the messaging infrastructure is impacted, then Security/Emergency Preparedness personnel higher priority on calls made from their wireless phones in time of emergency. personnel outside the affected area will need to assume the responsibility of monitoring and managing the messaging services. In addition, the security of the Eligible personnel such as fire, police, the FBI, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and others are assigned a priority level. By dialing *272 plus the destination number, calls messaging service needs to remain intact. are flagged as urgent communication and will be connected over the next available channel through heavy network traffic. How Can Help has a portfolio of Messaging services to support a business during a disaster scenario: •Enterprise Messaging Service – ’s Enterprise Messaging Service provides a high availability and global hosting infrastructure for organizations to maintain their e-mail messaging infrastructure. The standard configuration is based on the Microsoft® Hosted Messaging and Collaboration architecture and ’s OC192 network, thus enabling tobring ‘enterprise-class’ messaging and collaboration to its customers in a scalable, redundant and cost-effective way. •Secure E-mail Gateway – ’s Secure E-mail Gateway service provides the security and integrity that a messaging infrastructure must display. Secure E-mail Gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam capabilities custom-tuned to meet the messaging needs of the business. provides the ability for the security and integrity of the messaging infrastructure to be controlled from a location outside the impacted area. The service can also provide an e-mail storage repository for a period of several days, until the local messaging infrastructure can be restored or relocated. Remote Access Services/Mobility SSL VPN is most appropriate for end-users who don’t have access to a company-provided machine and/or only require Studies estimate that if a pandemic becomes a reality, approximately 25-40% of employees may report to work from home due to illness or concerns with infection. For this reason access to a few web-enabled applications such as e-mail. several telework laws were enacted for federal, state and local governments to deploy effective strategies to ensure availability of •Access Any Time, Any Place – provides a range of access methods, including WiFi, Wired Ethernet, Wireless, Wireless WAN, ISDN, DSL and Dial. The Global Network personnel resources during an emergency. A Remote Access Plan becomes critical for supporting different types of employees and Client takes the guesswork out of which access method is available by automatically detecting available access methods the applications to which they may need access. This is true for addressing any type of crisis, whether recovering from a natural and connecting in priority order to the first available method. In addition, network congestion is minimized through the low disaster, such as a hurricane, or dealing with a man-made event such as a public-transit strike. A remote access plan should be over-subscription rate of DSL and the advanced monitoring of the dial network to help ensure adequate capacity. implemented in advance, at least in terms of the infrastructure, and include the ability to securely, simply and easily deploy •Wireless WAN Connectivity – As part of a disaster preparedness program, can provide the ability for enterprises to connect to network resources when wireline services to end-users on an as-needed basis. When natural disasters and unexpected events occur, it is absolutely vital that businesses respond quickly to maintain their customer service, minimize disruption to their business, and protect their business solutions are not available or are being restored, reducing the costs associated with downtime. Wireless Wide Area Network opportunities. With a contact center serving as the front door to their business, maintaining a fully functional contact center is the (WWAN) Connectivity from provides diverse, cost-effective backup for data applications, quick deployment for remote lifeline for how enterprises manage through crisis events. locations, temporary locations or mobile workers and consistent network connectivity. WWAN offers a truly diverse backup solution for mission-critical data when a landline outage occurs. Plus, with a WWAN solution, businesses can utilize their existing Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge security infrastructure and choose from a number of additional security options for network-to-network connectivity. When disaster strikes, a plan to provide remote access to critical applications is paramount to staying productive. Employees may scatter, whether moving to higher ground in the event of a hurricane or retreating to their home to avoid a pandemic. A remote access plan should be developed and tested in advance •LaptopConnect – When businesses need to extend offices into the field, can help with a wide range of LaptopConnect devices allowing users to connect their laptops to the digital to ensure that the different profiles of users have access to the equipment and software they need locally to wireless network. LaptopConnect devices let remote and mobile workforces use their laptops to stay in touch with the access the corporate network remotely. office, customers and business partners. When this solution is coupled with a remote activation tool such as Enterprise on Demand from , customers can quickly configure and deploy cards where and when they need them so that users can easily How Can Help provides a variety of access and VPN alternatives to meet the needs of multiple profiles. These services are designed to send and receive e-mail and access the Internet and critical business applications while they are on-the-go or if displaced in meet the remote access needs of users in both day-to-day business and in an emergency. Key services include: the event of a disaster. LaptopConnect cards are interoperable on the 3G BroadbandConnect and EDGE wireless networks providing the ideal mix of performance and coverage while giving the ability to quickly respond to customer and employee needs, •Remote VPN Access – By using to maintain and manage VPN access in the network, businesses know that regardless of the impact of a disaster toa particular site or sites, remote users improve productivity/reduce downtime, and drive continuous communication/collaboration when the unexpected occurs. will never lose connectivity. Network-Based IP Remote Access is a great fit for power users that require IPSec •Crisis Phone Program/Voluntary Suspend – As an integral part of disaster preparedness planning, offers customers a Crisis Phone Program tofacilitate remote access and mobility. encryption, need access tomultiple applications and have a PDA or laptop. also offers SSL encryption, allowing end-users access to specific applications via a browser from any location via any device (e.g., Handheld PC, PC, PDA, Apple®, This program provides devices for organizations to use solely in emergencies. Enterprise customers can manage costs by Mac®, any home PC, wherever Internet access is available). keeping devices on hand in a “voluntary suspend” mode, ready tobe activated only when a crisis or emergency arises. Contact Center network, initiates rules and procedures to provide network availability for uninterrupted service. has a number of When natural disasters and unexpected events occur, it is absolutely vital to minimize damage to employees, customers and the public, reduce disruptions to operations and protect essential product and service offerings that specifically address the challenges of business continuity. Within the toll-free network, provides a number of solutions that give customers a high degree of flexibility and control. Solutions offered within the assets. With a contact center serving as the front door to the business, maintaining a fully functional contact center can be the toll-free network include: lifeline for how enterprises manage through crisis events. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge • Route It!® – Provides organizations with the ability to manage toll-free calls virtually any way they need. As the need to respond to emergency situations arises, businesses can Businesses need to be protected against all of the vulnerabilities to a contact center that arise when develop new routing plans and invoke alternate business rules to direct calls to the most available resources at the time. disaster strikes. Networking infrastructure needs to be highly resilient. Call routing needs to be flexible •Alternate Destination Routing – Provides predefined network routing schemes that automatically re-direct calls when a busy or ring-no-answer condition is encountered. and adaptive in the event of limited resources. Call completion needs to be streamlined and highly automated to minimize agent involvement when people are impacted. •Next Available Agent Routing and Network Queuing – The combination of these two capabilities provides businesses the ability to queue calls in the network and route to How Can Help the customer location when agents become available. This feature extends and enhances the traditional premises-based ’s Contact Center Services are ideally suited to help businesses respond quickly to unexpected events. Through an array of advanced capabilities, ’s Contact Center Services capabilities and allows callers to wait for an available resource when active agents are unavailable. work to ensure continued client operations. With highly-skilled Consulting and Integration Solutions resources, works with • Contact Center Services – Provide a variety of hosted and managed service offerings that enable continued business operations during disruptive situations. These offerings include businesses throughout the Contact Center lifecycle, from pre-planning all the way to day-to-day operations for end-to-end optimization to ensure continued and non-disrupted business hosted and managed services that provide voice enabled self-service applications, automated routing, and multi-channel activities. ’s networking services are highly-scalable and resilient. Its portfolio of call routing solutions ensure that calls customer contact functionality. ’s Contact Center Services also provide quick and immediate response to adverse and can be automatically delivered to the appropriate destination. With an array of automation services, call fulfillment can be unexpected conditions while maintaining customer service. The dynamic distribution of call flows reduces the risk of accomplished in a highly efficient and effective manner. uses a “predictive, preventive and proactive” approach through its single-point-of-failure within the call center environment. Businesses can face uncertainty with confidence knowing that network service offerings. Based on predicting problems in advance and building intelligent systems and alarms into the their customer-facing operations are backed by world-class network reliability and resiliency. Hosting/Storage/ Application Management •Application Management – USi, an company, manages the key software applications companies rely on. It specializes in managed enterprise software solutions, eCommerce When planning for any type of disaster, public and private sector establishments need to consider a strategy for hosting applications and on-demand services. USi can host and manage customer retail web sites and enterprise applications applications at alternative sites to ensure continuous availability of data and reestablishment of business functions or resources. for enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other critical business functions. USi During an event, hardware, software, processes and personnel can be adversely impacted. In order to mitigate this risk, customers has the expertise to proactively monitor, maintain, helpdesk- support, patch, fix and update applications – so that in the need to develop a plan to relocate their application infrastructure and recover data. event of a disaster, clients can concentrate on their core business rather than getting their applications up and running. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge •Managed Data Storage Services – provides primary storage through its Ultravailable® and Storage Plus services for customers who either co-locate or host their IT infrastructure In a disaster scenario, such as an earthquake or terrorist attack, businesses may need to temporarily within an Internet Data Center (IDC). also offers backup and recovery data storage services through its tape and relocate their computing infrastructure outside the impacted geographic area. In the event of a pandemic, disk backup and restore capabilities which provides businesses with a secure and highly recoverable environment for their data. local personnel responsible for the application infrastructure could be impacted. Firms need to have the ability to relocate infrastructure, rapidly recover data A web interface provides the ability to manage and restore data, as needed. Backup copies can be directed to a specified and vital records, and maintain the availability of their mission-critical applications. location or an Internet Data Center. also provides the ability to control data replication and restoration from a location outside an impacted area. For customers not located within an IDC, offers Remote VaultSM Service, a How Can Help remote disk backup service that backs up the data on clients’ servers, PCs and laptops using their broadband Internet offers an unparalleled breadth of hosting and storage services in order to maintain application availability and ensure connection to an offsite location where it is available for recovery at any time and to any location. uninterrupted access to critical data and applications. also offers a complete range of storage services to meet Recovery Time and Recovery Point objectives. However, for the purposes of planning for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, there are •Data Mirroring/Replication – Using StorageConnectSM Service, provides the means for business enterprises to mirror/replicate their critical data infrastructure between a few services that should be strongly considered: two IDCs or between the customer’s primary data center and an IDC. For synchronous mirroring/replication •Hosting Services – provides a high availability and global Hosting infrastructure for businesses to locate their computing infrastructure. has the ability to design, implement, requirements, makes available its Ultravailable® network as its high-end, highly-available, fault tolerant, fully-redundant, optical networking solution. monitor, manage and report on the availability and performance of an application and web hosting environment across network, servers and applications. In addition, provides secure and conditioned space that has direct access to ’s OC192 network. Enterprise Recovery Services •End-User Recovery – ’s ERS End-User Recovery service is ideal for organizations that need alternate workspace for their employees, telecommunications capabilities and IT resources Maintaining a business continuity and recovery program requires expertise and resources that may not be readily available in to recover their business processes. End-User Recovery resources includes space, equipment and voice and data communications lines. house. Enterprise Recovery Services (ERS) offer a full portfolio of subscription-based disaster recovery services for systems and user work locations to help ensure businesses are prepared for any unplanned event that impacts their •Center-Based Recovery Solution – This solution offers conditioned office/space facilities strategically located throughout North America where the affected employees company’s operations. or COOP personnel can quickly resume business operations in the event of loss or disruption of their location. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge •Mobile-Based Recovery Solution – The Mobile Recovery Center Service is designed to save businesses time and to help keep their employees closer to home. During a disaster, A business depends on constant, uninterrupted access to key applications and critical data. To mitigate the personnel can focus on assessing the extent of damage caused by the disaster and implementing the contingency plan, while repercussions of a disaster, business continuity and recovery planning is essential to support continued the -provided Mobile Recovery Center is en route to their specified location. Mobile Recovery Centers are equipped access to business processes. Not only is it important to understand what to recover, whether it is information with office space, communications and open systems. systems or work group space for employees that have been displaced by a disaster, it is also necessary to know where information systems will be reconstituted or end-users supported. •ERS Quick Ship – can help identify the specific equipment and configuration an organization would need at time of disaster to recover its environment. can then arrange to have this equipment list inventoried and quick-shipped if an actual disaster should occur. How Can Help offers a choice for recovery utilizing center-based, mobile-based or subscriber location-based recovery options for information systems and employees, telecommunications capabilities and IT resources: •Systems Recovery – ERS System Recovery solution is ideal for organizations that need to recover distributed systems, Intel®-based platforms, and/or mainframe systems. The solution supports over 30 current and legacy platforms, as well as sophisticated storage environments, and the network to keep it all connected. Network Security unaffected locations during disaster scenarios. By using CCS as part of a business continuity solution a client’s network When planning for any catastrophic event, security should be at the top of the list of services to review. In order to minimize the and security infrastructure can be economically utilized to help ensure continued service during times of emergency. impact of an event, alternatives to local or premises-based solutions should be evaluated. CCS enables the seamless use of wireless applications during disaster recovery scenarios, providing the security and reliability elements that enterprises require regardless of transport medium. Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Challenge •Intrusion Detection and Prevention – can help protect a client’s networking infrastructure by detecting and responding to unauthorized attempts to access its network. In addition, During a disaster scenario, businesses may have new temporary locations and significantly increased numbers of employees accessing their network from remote locations. More than ever, businesses will be faced with can detect endpoints on the network that are propagating threats or violating security policy and revoke their access ensuring that secure access to the corporate WAN and LAN is available. In addition, local security infrastructure to the network. and trained personnel could be impacted by the event. Businesses need to have the ability to monitor andmanage the security infrastructure during the event. •DDOS Defense – has deployed a network-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) mitigation capability that can detect and filter out malicious traffic headed for a client’s premises. The service can provide 24x7 DDOS protection and uses the bandwidth of the network to separate the good How Can Help from the bad traffic. ’s security experience and resources are specifically designed to secure a firm’s WAN, LAN and Remote Access services. For the More information on all of these business solutions can be found at the f purposes of Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery planning, there are a few capabilities that firms should strongly consider: and . •Firewall Protection – ’s experts can help design and implement firewalls that will detect and filter out malicious traffic in the network before it gets to a client’s premises. can also provide solutions that allow remote workers as well as LAN users to access corporate applications in a secure manner. In addition, offers personal firewalls located on the users’ desktops or notebooks that provide a wide range of capabilities to grant secure and consistent access. ’s goal is to help businesses reduce the complexity in their security infrastructure which enables a higher success rate for maintaining secure access during an event. •Commercial Connectivity Services (CCS) – provides reliable standards-based connectivity between enterprise data center locations and its wireless network. It is through CCS connections that data traffic from wireless devices can be aggregated into one or more locations and transported to customer data centers. Geo-redundancy within the wireless network from ensures that traffic can be shifted to Customer Support In disaster planning, takes all appropriate actions to ensure operations remain in service for its customers while considering and addressing the needs of its employees and their families. Specifically around the risk for a pandemic, expects this to have a limited impact on its critical operations. has a largely centralized, automated monitoring and maintenance function that can be performed in virtual office environments. Most of the contact centers also have the capability to shift work between locations, even cities and countries, to maintain customer service. If a pandemic were to occur, would provide its employees with flexible options in order to maximize the efficient use of available, healthy employees including redirecting employees to work on critical functions and utilizing virtual office arrangements. The network is built to allow for the rerouting of traffic around trouble spots. has created models of network traffic patterns to help plan for a widespread virtual office scenario, evaluating alternatives to maximize network performance. The FCC established the Telecommunications Services Priority Program (TSP) in 1998 to help determine what lines should be or phone calls from representatives, and Interactive Voice Responses. Methods of communication vary based restored and maintained first in a crisis. Telecommunication lines most necessary for the nation’s security and emergency on the severity and proliferation of an event. typically communicates internally when an event occurs and then preparedness functions are assigned TSP codes by the federal government and are given priority for restoration and installation. communicates with its customers as appropriate information becomes available. will give critical circuits with assigned TSP codes top priority for restoration, as it does today. Customers can obtain updates directly from in a self-service fashion using as the front door to any updates regarding Under specific, significant disaster conditions, may then prioritize circuits for critical services infrastructure (such as power events. As a standard feature on , there is information about business continuity, both about how is prepared and plants, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies) and critical community support services (such as banks and grocery stores). ready through its NDR exercises, and about services that are available to customers to ensure their preparedness. has used this prioritization system during previous disasters and it is adjusted based on the actual situation. BusinessDirect® Telecom providers are typically given credentials to travel if there is a restriction in an area, so should be able to access BusinessDirect® is a suite of powerful online tools that can be particularly helpful for both communications and network components for maintenance or repair. also maintains an inventory of spare components, so it’s less reliant self-servicing for customers during times of disaster. BusinessDirect® can be used to reroute network traffic, test on suppliers. For any activity that requires employees to be at an alternate, public location, will provide them with circuits, report and track service problems, place emergency orders, and perform other customer-service related tasks. It is appropriate Personal Protective Equipment. would also work with each customer to negotiate an access procedure important tobe prepared tobe able touse the tools when they are needed. Therefore, customers should ensure they have access acceptable toboth parties, which protects both ’s customers and ’s employees. toand are familiar with the portal before an unexpected incident occurs. Customers can obtain access to the BusinessDirect® portal through their account representatives. Depending on the nature of a pandemic, including the severity, location and duration, provisioning intervals for some services During a disaster, will post critical information and messages for customers on the BusinessDirect® portal for easy access. may increase. During a true disaster, ’s primary focus would be on keeping existing customers’ services operational, as well In addition, self-servicing options could become more important than ever if there are reductions in staff due to increased as prioritizing emergency provisioning activities. Communications absenteeism rates. There are several ways in which businesses can use BusinessDirect® for self-servicing. The table on the During a disaster scenario, communicates with its customers through a variety of vehicles including , following page depicts how the BusinessDirect® portal and online tools may be used within your Business Continuity Planning and Recovery efforts. BusinessDirect®, broadcast e-mails, individual e-mails How The BusinessDirect® Portal and Online Tools May Be Used Within Business Continuity Planning and Recovery Efforts BusinessDirect® Capabilities Tool Name Applicable Service(s) Call Routing •Make changes to existing routing plans in real-time. Shift toll-free traffic to other contact centers to ensure that no calls are lost in a disaster •Control Toll-Free Routing •Route It!® • Toll-Free Service •Establish new routing plans. Add new terminations in near real-time and begin routing terminations almost immediately eMaintenance •Check networks for outages in real-time •Test circuits to see if they are performing properly •Submit trouble tickets to initiate repairs quickly • BusinessDirect® Map •eMaintenance •Most Domestic and International Data Services •Outbound Switched Voice Service (EM only) •Invoke Service Assurance Plans – toll-free call routing plans that are prepared in advance •Domestic and International Toll-Free Readyline Service •Dedicated Voice Service •Domestic and International Toll-Free MEGACOM Service •Most Managed Services eOrdering •Move, add, change and disconnect services on network • BusinessDirect® Map •eOrder •Most Domestic Voice and Data Services •Receive up-to-date network inventory •Get real-time status on orders • Toll-Free Service •IP-Enabled Frame Relay and ATM Services Performance Reporting and Monitoring •Originating and terminating details on calls reaching the customer’s premises •Analyze and Monitor Call Data •Analyze Toll-Free Call Attempts – •Frame Relay Service •ATM Service •Summary information on call attempts to the customer’s toll-free number Real-Time • BusinessDirect® Map •Private Line Service •IP-Enabled Frame Relay and •Real-time information on High-Speed Packet Service ports and PVC usage •Customer Network Management Service/Web Reports Interface ATM Services •Domestic and International •Monitor data circuits: for T1 circuits, configuration, performance and fault monitoring; for T3 circuits, configuration and fault monitoring •iGEMS T1-T3 Monitor •IP Network Usage Reports Monitor Toll-Free Voice Service •Dedicated inbound and outbound and Control Voice Performance domestic long distance voice trunk groups •Real-time fault notification on trunk and carrier outages •Site availability for routers; site-to-site latency by • Enhanced VPN Service Class of Service; near real-time usage for site latency and packet delivery by COS How Online Tools to Manage Your Wireless Environment May Be Used Within Business Continuity Planning and Recovery Efforts Online Tools Tool Name Applicable Service(s) Premier Enterprise Portal •Purchase, move, add and change wireless services, features and devices during and after a disaster based on customers’ contract and device preferences •Premier Resource Center, Premier Online Care •Most Enterprise Wireless Voice and Data Programs and Services •Individual, Corporate and Telecom Manager Online Stores •End-user self service for online wireless account management, bill payment and care any time Online Activation, SIM Inventory Management and Simplified Billing •Order inactive data Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards online before disaster strikes •Enterprise On-Demand Service For large wireless data deployments such as: •Online activation of the SIMs needed during an emergency •Field Service; ruggedized devices •Telemetry; meter reading devices •Online Billing – view a simplified bill •Online ticket entry, status and reporting •Dedicated Voice Service •Point of Sale; merchant devices •Mobile Professionals; LaptopConnect cards Service Coverage Maps •Provides interactive wireless network coverage map detail for wireless voice, data and partner networks •Coverage Viewer •-owned GSM, GPRS and EDGE wireless network service •Zoom to the street level to help establish service expectation if company resources are displaced •3G/BroadbandConnect wireless network •Unaffiliated carriers, partner coverage |
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