Business Continuity and DR Plan for Kudler Foods
CMGT 579 CIS Risk Management
University of Phoenix
July 20, 2009
Business Continuity and DR Plan for Kudler Foods
Introduction
No one would have believed 20 years ago that one of the first responders to an emergency would be the IT department. However, dependence on technology has made the IT department one of the most valuable pieces of a business. Disasters that shut down mission critical applications for extended lengths of time could have devastating direct and indirect costs for any company. Therefore, business continuity plans are worth little without a stable disaster recovery plan ready to recover the systems that would otherwise be lost. The most secure of disaster recovery plans include backups of not only data but also operating systems, utility files, and software licensing. The role of the IT department is to ensure continuous operation of a business by providing the ability to successfully recover information systems in the event of a disaster. To accomplish the insurmountable task of disaster recovery the IT department needs to develop plans and procedures to recreate applications and systems after a disaster.
Teams should be formed to identify limitations and boundaries of planning and support needed for each department. Additionally, teams should assess impact analysis for various risks including natural disasters. Once the RTO and RPO metrics have been mapped to IT infrastructure, the DR planner can determine the most suitable recovery strategy for each application. RTO or recovery time objective is the time allowed for the recovery after a disaster occurs. RPO, or recovery point objective, is the point at which the systems needed to be restored.
After teams have been formed classification of systems and functions for recovery priority should be determined and responsibilities should be mapped out. For example, Frito Lay determines all priorities by a...