Don’t let winter weather freeze your agency’s operations

David Hutchins

(Editor's Note: This article first appeared in GSN's "Essential Guide to Disaster Preparedness," which accompanied our November 2010 print issue.)

Last winter’s “Snowmageddon” set weather records across the mid-Atlantic region. The fresh memories of roofs collapsing under heavy snow, thousands affected by power outages and the shutdown of government agencies due to road closures, may leave many government officials wondering what they can do to keep their agency functioning during the coming winter months. 

While most agencies have developed disaster preparedness procedures, key components are commonly overlooked or not fully tested. Developing a solid and proven disaster preparedness plan is crucial to ensuring minimal interruptions to critical operations during disasters.

The following continuity of operations checklist can help agencies avoid costly downtime, reduce inconvenience to constituents and prevent disruption of services to the public urgently in need:

• Conduct a business impact assessment. Because even the most thorough disaster preparedness plan won’t be able to justify the cost of including every mission-critical process, agencies should inventory and prioritize processes for the entire organization.  For example, processes that need to be resumed immediately to prevent serious mission impact -- such as citizen services -- should receive an “A” rating. Processes that can be resumed within 24 or 72 hours should receive a “B” or “C” rating, respectively, and so on. 
• Take steps to protect data. Information is a critical asset for most organizations. Just as agencies should set recovery-time objectives for mission-critical services, so should they rank the impact of lost data. The greater the impact, the more often organizations should back-up data. Additionally, copies of data should be stored off-site, far from the primary data center.  
• Review power and cooling systems. Agencies should add uninterrupted power supply (UPS) to keep the most essential applications running until main power is restored, a secondary power source is deployed or the IT system is shut down. Cooling systems should also be supported by backup generators, as data centers can heat up quickly if equipment operates on backup power without adequate cooling, resulting in reduced lifespan of the equipment and unplanned system interruptions. Agencies should periodically ensure that automatic transfer switches are configured and should conduct regular battery inspections and replacement. 
• Identify and appoint a cross-functional preparedness team. Agencies should create a team from various departments to identify and prioritize critical processes, design and test the disaster recovery plan, and select an outside service provider. A recovery team, which will participate in recovery activities after any declared disaster, should also be developed. While the recovery team can be similar to the cross-functional preparedness team, the teams should not be identical, even within a small agency, and should include IT executives, outside service provider representatives and community members. 
• Document, test and update. The cross-functional preparedness team should develop a plan with logistical details, including directions to backup sites and a list of people with spending authority for emergency needs. The plan should clearly identify roles of individuals on the cross-functional preparedness and recovery teams and be tested in an environment that simulates an actual emergency. During testing, the written plan should be followed as closely as possible, with individuals carrying out the roles assigned to them, allowing leaders to spot problem areas that cannot be identified by just reading the plan.
• Consider telecommunications alternatives. Essential to any agency’s disaster preparedness plan is a contingency plan for telecommunications. Agencies should become familiar with their telephone service provider’s emergency power capabilities and may want to investigate auxiliary power sources, such as an uninterruptible power supply or battery backup, coupled with a surge protector. Call forwarding and adopting an 800 number helps improve accessibility during a disaster.
• Form tight relationships with vendors. Hardware, software, network and service vendors can help expedite recovery through priority replacement of telecommunications equipment, personal computers, servers and network hardware. Strong vendor relationships are especially important for small agencies, which may lack the resources that larger organizations enjoy.

Because change is constant and organizations are increasingly dependent on information systems, agencies should revisit each step regularly. A continuity of operations plan must keep pace with organizational changes and be regularly tested to ensure its usefulness and readiness in the event of a disruptive emergency.