#264444 - 10/17/13 03:04 PM
Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 01/21/03
Posts: 2203
Loc: Bucks County PA
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#264445 - 10/17/13 04:49 PM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: MartinFocazio]
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Old Hand
Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 831
Loc: Anne Arundel County, Maryland
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Good article for the folks working to make the plans etc. I've found that the IT folks generally are more aware of the need to deal with planning and preparing (read spending money on) these types of rare but catastrophic circumstances.
In my experience, the first problem (and in some ways the hardest) is to get the "decision makers" and "budget people" to be willing to spend present day dollars on something that probably will not happen on their watch.
_________________________
"Better is the enemy of good enough."
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#264446 - 10/17/13 04:54 PM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: MartinFocazio]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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If you take out the few weather-specific references, this article sounds like it could've been written right after 9/11. I don't know, maybe these "IT" people or companies in this apparently Manhattan-centric article weren't even around then.
I remember many of the big banks and financial companies scrambled to set up pretty elaborate alternate offices outside Manhattan, mostly in New Jersey, after 9/11. I wonder how long those lasted until some bean counter decided it was an unjustifiable expense? Must cost a pretty penny to keep a ghost office mothballed, just in case.
And one big change since 9/11 is the explosion in cloud computing. Of course, the term "IT" encompasses lots of different functions beyond what cloud computing provides, but the ability to instantly and seamlessly transfer your computing needs to various data centers around the world allows even small companies now to have a high level of reliability and redundancy that only the big boys could afford ten years ago. You don't even have to own your own data centers. Just pay for what you need from third party cloud computing companies like Amazon Web Services.
The human element will always be the most unpredictable and irreplacable element to plan for, I think, and I agree that making it #1 is probably a good call.
I'm glad that I don't see any rats swimming around in that flooded Verizon lobby...
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#264449 - 10/17/13 06:41 PM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: MartinFocazio]
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Enthusiast
Registered: 08/03/12
Posts: 264
Loc: Missouri
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Amazing how we have to keep relearning the same lessons. When I was a clinical perfusion student in Houston in 1985, the chief perfusionist of Texas Heart Institute told my class of his experience during Hurricane Carla in 1961. An emergency heart surgery was under way when Carla hit Houston. The power failed and the emergency generators smoothly kept the power running to the cardio-pulmonary bypass pump; unfortunately the generators were in the basement of Texas Children's Hospital and when the flood waters filled the basement, the generators died. The perfusionists (one staff, one student) finished the case turning the pumps by hand. When I was a student there, the generators were located on the roof.
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#264457 - 10/18/13 02:25 AM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: MartinFocazio]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078
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Folks it seems have become a little too dependent on Information Technology and don't know or cannot prepare themselves to go just back even 20 years ago before all this Interweb and communications dependency came into existence. I didn't even have a telephone in the house until the early 1990s and I had only 4 TV channels to watch in the 1980s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJOdusfDCb0Data backup and security is really just common sense such as not putting Nuclear Reactors on active fault lines subject to Tsunamis, the real problem of course is having a 70 year power infrastructure with little resilience to storm perturbations whether it is Solar or even EMP, Wind or ice. There is not much that can be done about that for SMEs and even multinationals to keep data comms open and working even if your IT database centre is just peachy. Try getting a Bank Account with a Bank Statement Book or ask for your Employer to give wages in cash every week. They were able to do this 20 years ago. The Post Office was even more reliable back then. IT dependency really just adds to a lack of resilience due to the psychological panic it induces in the 'I have to have it done now' Society.
Edited by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor (10/18/13 02:38 AM)
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#264460 - 10/18/13 03:05 AM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
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Veteran
Registered: 03/02/03
Posts: 1428
Loc: NJ, USA
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Try getting a Bank Account with a Bank Statement Book
To be fair, Passbook savings accounts are still easily available in the U.S. They're mostly used for accounts directed towards youth, the elderly, migrant workers ("illegals"), Christmas clubs, and such. However, they're still offered to regular adult customers who simply want them. I know down south a lot of church groups still use them to manage church funds, which means in some communities, even today, they can still actually make up 10%-20% of a banks total deposits.
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#264468 - 10/18/13 08:19 AM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: MartinFocazio]
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Addict
Registered: 05/23/08
Posts: 482
Loc: Somerset UK
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Famous aphorisms of adam2
"do not put servers or other crucial IT equipment in basements. Basements fill with water, no matter what assurances may be given
Do not put servers or other crucial It equipment on the top floor, roofs leak no matter what assurances may be given
Do not put servers etc below toilets, washrooms, kitchens, showers, or plant rooms, as these facilities leak, no matter what assurances may be given.
Do not put servers or other crucial equipment in rooms with external windows. These will be broken by thieves, vandals, rioters, extreme weather, or terrorist bombs.
Test standby generators on FULL LOAD at least monthly
Replace the batteries in UPS systems at least as frequently as recomended"
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#264472 - 10/18/13 02:10 PM
Re: Emergency Preparedness for IT Departments
[Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
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Sheriff
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 12/03/09
Posts: 3840
Loc: USA
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The Post Office was even more reliable back then. My experience in the USA is different; mail delivery has become far more consistent and reliable than it was in the 90's.
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