Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster Recovery Plan

The majority of the administrative elements and many of the academic programs are heavily dependent and integrated with data processing to the extent that continued operation without data processing would require extensive alteration in methods of doing business. In the event that data processing services are interrupted for any extensive period of time, it is necessary that the University have a plan for continuing operations and reestablishing automated data processing.

A disaster recovery plan is a written contingency plan for responding to a disaster which has disrupted the data processing facilities. Its purpose is to provide a general guide based upon preplanned actions which will reduce decision making during the recovery process and enable resumption of normal operations in the most cost effective manner. The plan includes but is not limited to the following:

* a disaster project team with a list of basic responsibilities for the team members,

* a list of offices and programs in order of assessed critical dependence upon automated data processing (ADP),

* risk assessment of types of disasters,

* recovery priorities and operations,

* requirements analysis,

* plan update criteria and review schedule,

* hardware and software inventory,

* support agreements with agencies and vendors.

The planning is both a positive management tool and is required by Texas State Law.

Since the threat of hurricane is the single most risk to our campus, the University Hurricane Plan will take precedence where any conflict might arise with this plan or methodologies.

The Assistant Vice President for Technology is responsible for preparation of the preliminary disaster recovery plan. The Administrative Council will review the plan for the purpose of acceptance as University policy and recommend approval or recommend appropriate changes required for approval. The President, by law, is the authority responsible for disaster recovery planning.

Each office that might be impacted by an extended outage is required to assign a representative to the University ADP disaster recovery team. The representative will be the

trainer/liaison between the recovery and planning team, and the office or department. Each office is encouraged to prepare an operation methodology plan for its own needs should automated resources be unavailable for more than two days or during critical events.

Project Team

The Project Team consists of a Computer Center, Microcomputer Services, Media Services, Electronic Maintenance staff, and a representative from each critical department and Physical Plant. The project team is divided into the following sub-elements: Damage Assessment, Systems and Applications Software, Operations, and a Management Group.

The Damage Assessment Team is led by the ADP Manager of the Computer Center (backup leader is Network Manager). Other team members include the Physical Plant representative, Coordinator of Media Services, Electronic Maintenance, and the Coordinator of Microcomputer Services. The team is responsible for performing the damage assessment following a major or catastrophic disaster. The team is responsible for:

* identifying the extent of the damage to all systems including mainframes, microcomputers, media, and maintenance facilities,

* determining the condition of equipment,

* supply salvage,

* assessment of operational capability,

* definition of restoration requirements,

* scheduling and supervising salvage and restoration,

* scheduling and supervising staff as required within each primary area of responsibility.

The Systems and Applications Software Team is led by the Senior Applications Programmer. The Team members are the application programmers/analysts, user representatives, and system operators. The team members support the members of the damage assessment team and are primarily responsible for software alterations required to allow use of secondary sites. The team members will also serve on the operations team as required. The team is responsible for providing a general overview of second site requirements.

The Operations Team is led by the Senior Operator. All operations staff are members. The team members and responsibilities overlap with the Systems and Applications Software Team. Computer members of the Damage Assessment Team are to join the Operations Team as damage assessment winds down (usually within 48 hours). The Team is responsible for:

* establishing emergency production procedures at the secondary site,

* operating the secondary site if required,

* recreate as closely as possible original site operations including backup, security, data entry, information distribution and user assistance functions,

* advising users of the disaster and recovery and operations procedures,

* assisting users in recovery operations,

* assisting programmer/analysts