Cloud Contingency

In spite on number of benefits from Cloud solutions and CSPs (Cloud Service Providers), they are requiring continuity for business resilience. Usually approaches, continuity requirements and criteria’s as same as on-Premise Data Centers, relocation needs, geo-location demands. Creating a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is the least expensive insurance policy an organization can have; putting it in the cloud can help operationalize the plan so when an organization needs it, it can be executed!

Documenting key personnel: Consider which job functions are critically necessary, everyday. Think about who fills those positions when the primary job-holder is on vacation.

Telecommute or work anywhere: Consider what it will take to provide your critical staff (identified in Step 1) who cannot telecommute; then outline what partial or full capabilities would look like and the resources needed.

External supplier: Consider what changes you need to make with regard to external supplier such as utility companies, community offices (police, fire, water, hospitals), and the post office.

Critical equipment: Some businesses cannot function even for a few hours without phone communication. Do you rely heavily on your hotspots, Wi-Fi?  

Critical documents: Remember, you might be dealing with a total facility loss.  

Contingency equipment: Can the organization use a business service outlet for copies, company tailored laptops, printing, and other critical functions?

Contingency location: For those, who can’t work remotely, is there a business location available while the primary offices are unavailable? It could be a hotel. Many of them have very well-equipped business facilities you can use or maybe telecommuting for everyone is a viable option.

Create a “How-to”: It should include step-by-step instructions on what to do, who should do it, and how. A BCP is useless if all the information is scattered about in different places. A BCP is a reference document.

Communicate: The plan should be communicated to all stakeholders and team members that have a role or can be impacted through BCP.

Test the plan: Shift worker and workload to your alternate capability. Move operation workloads to your cloud solution and document success and failures. Pick a day and let everyone know what’s going to happen (including your customers, contractors, and vendors); then on that morning, act as though your office building has been destroyed. Scenario is Full recovery testing.

Plan to change the plan: No matter how good your plan is, and no matter how smoothly your test runs, it is likely there will be events outside your plan. For example, the hotel you plan to use for your contingency site is hosting a huge convention; Your IT consultant is on vacation. Etc.

Review and revise: Every time something changes, update all copies of your BCP.

@ccc, IA