Issue Archive: May/June 2007

This article isn't so much about a trend or direction in our industry as it is about one of the most serious problems I have seen over the years-the lack of realism in testing recovery programs. Reflecting on my 20-plus years with Comdisco, SunGard, and IBM, I have participated directly in, overseen, or audited hundreds if not thousands of tests for customers, including those many of you reading this article have conducted. Combine that with the tens of thousands of tests vendors have supported, and there is a tremendous base of information on the approach to testing and the success people have.

The power of an information availability solution lies in its ability to transform any non-productive, non-profitable downtime into the optimum level of value-producing business uptime. That’s what makes a business truly resilient.

When Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte organized what later became known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) back on July 26, 1908, his original 34 investigators probed cases in antitrust, peonage, and land fraud. Ninety-nine years later, its cadre of over 30,000 employees follows a somewhat higher mission: "To protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats and to enforce the criminal laws of the United States."

Some recent industry estimates have placed the average age of a data center in the U.S. at approximately 17 years. That's right, 17 years old. Seventeen years ago, George Bush (#41) was president, the mainframe was still king, and the server/laptop phenomenon had yet to catch fire. Add to that the fact that a data center initially opened in 1990 was likely conceived and designed almost two full years earlier, using the design standards and forward thinking common in 1988. And some data centers in this country are even older! Data centers designed more than 15 to 20 years ago contain a number of infrastructure design elements that typically present constraints in today’s demanding IT environment.

You have successfully created your business continuity framework! The organization now has a current business continuity plan! In the process, your organization may have spent a small fortune in consulting services or perhaps hiring a dedicated resource. The project is finally complete. And now you can heave a sigh of relief that it is all over. But is it?

On April 22, I went on a two-and-a-half hour bus tour called the "Road to Recovery" through the areas of New Orleans that were most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, including the Lower 9th Ward, Lakeview, and Bernard Parish. The tour was offered as part of the 2007 Continuity Insights Management Conference. Things are slowly getting better, even from when I was there this past January.

While there's no silver bullet, there are some characteristics that successful professionals share. Documenting these behaviors is intended to fuel your self-reflection, thought process, and discussion among friends and colleagues with the ultimate goal of motivating you to become an even more effective contingency planning professional.