What to do when you show up for work and your building is gone.

Today's ITMA discussion was about Disaster Recovery.  What to do if your building disappears one day.  Oddly enough, as many people as I've asked in the past couple weeks, almost no one had a formal written plan.  Everyone is doing something, specifically regarding backups and getting the servers backup up and running. But very little else such as finding a facility, ordering desks, pens, making payroll, paying vendors, collecting revenue etc.

We started the discussion by reviewing what we are doing at DMLO.  After realizing we only had half a plan (the IT side) we decided to re-write our entire plan.  Here is a brief description or our process and some ideas that came up during our meeting.

1.  Make some assumptions and plan on adjusting as the need arises.  No plan can encompass all scenarios. We assumed we had 7 days to get some critical services functioning.  We also assumed the disaster will only impact DMLO and not the community at large.  Community wide disaster would have a much different priority list.  Vendor impact will play a significant part in how long it will take to implement the plan.  We will adjust as needed.

2.  Written  document consists of:

             Responsibility list (Bob - Tech, Kellie - Banking, AP/AR, insurance etc, Ruth - staff contacts, Directors-A list client contact info etc.)

             Disaster Recover Team contact info and plan implementation procedures.  "How do we get started".

             Contact lists (multiple list depending on areas covered).  My list contains the contacts I need to get equipment and the data accessible, other lists are other contacts.

3.  Written document is distributed to all directors/partners and they are instructed to store it in their homes or other safe location away from the office.  It won't do anyone any good if it's in your desk drawer.

4.  Other documents stored off-site (usb stick, dropbox etc) but not part of the DR document consists of procedures (backup restore, remotely change voice message system, other IT procedures) software license keys and vendor info, notes and implementation procedures etc that might be needed.  Even seemingly simple procedures (how to change your voicemail and swapping out the tapes in the tape drive as examples) are documented and outlined.  This will save time and help keep people calm.

Some issues we are still working on is how to we get our main phone number rerouted,  what is our priority list for applications and network services (what needs to come backup first), contacts info for tech firms that could host our servers and provide basic infrastructure (electrical, AC and Internet connectivity), initial first steps in launching the plan (what triggers the plan, who sets up initial meeting etc.) and of course testing.  How do you test your plan effectively without actually causing a disaster? 

Interesting enough, no one at today's meeting had any budget for implementing a DR plan.  The investment in a cold, warm or hot site seems to high for most firms to incure.  Difficult to ask for funds to invest in something you hope will never happen.
Feel free to add your comment or post questions.  Anyone wishing to see our final document please email me at bdaugherty@dmlo.com and I will send you a copy (soon as it's complete....or as close to complete as we're going to get it).