1. Disaster Recovery
AITR Meeting
Aug 25, 2009

2. This document explains the IT Infrastructure Partnership’s (ITP) disaster recovery (DR) services, with a special focus on the alternate "best effort" option
The presentation will cover:
Disaster Recovery introduction
Disaster Recovery solutions available for purchase
The best-effort Disaster Recovery option

3. The ITP offers a Disaster Recovery (DR) service to help agencies recover their IT infrastructure
Disaster Recovery is the processes, policies, and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to the Commonwealth of Virginia after a natural or human-induced disaster
Incident Management is the IT Service Management process that restores normal service operations of an application or system to minimize the impact on business operations with the goal of meeting pre- defined service level agreements.
Benefits of DR
Offers a customizable plan to restore services based on an agency's business and financial needs
Restores an agency's IT infrastructure quickly in order to minimize core business process downtime
Recovery is logical and consecutive to ensure that the right services come back online at the right times
Prior to the ITP's DR service, agencies were on their own to recover from a disaster. Now, the ITP offers six DR service options that create a viable DR plan for an agency
-Introduce IP re-addressing Team
-The new single network is “MPLS”

4. Disaster Recovery Plan Options
During the April 2009 meeting, six tiered Disaster Recovery options were presented that are available for purchase…
Disaster Recovery Plan Options
Tier Levels
Service Measure
Performance Target 1
Time to recover
Not to exceed 4 hours after a declared disaster 2
Not to exceed 24 hours after a declared disaster 3
Not to exceed 48 hours after a declared disaster 4
Not to exceed 72 hours after a declared disaster 5
Not to exceed 167 hours after a declared disaster 6
Not to exceed 168 hours after a declared disaster
Best Effort
None
No defined performance target
Today's
topic
Note: Level 2 and 4 are in place today [Level 2 for CESC services; Level 4 for remote sites recovered at SWESC]
… the best effort option was developed after the meeting as a result of feedback, and it will be discussed in more detail today

5. The best-effort service is what agencies will receive should they choose not to purchase a Disaster Recovery plan…
Agencies who do not purchase a formal DR solution will receive VITA's best effort to prepare for and reasonably recover their IT following a disaster
As part of the best effort service, a no-cost business requirements analysis and viable DR plan will be developed for the agency
Recovery is executed as a best effort as all tiered recoveries are executed
Recovery might not be at SWESC and might not restore agency operations based upon agency business objectives
The ITP will work to recover every agency as quickly as possible following a disaster in order to resume managing services
…agencies who choose the best-effort DR option will receive many of the same services are tiered customers.

6. The best-effort option provides agencies with a viable DR plan that is developed using a five-step process
Planning
Discovery & Design
Risk Assessment
Solution
Testing
Meet with Agency to discuss DR Service offerings
Select the best tier option for the agency
Use the system engineering DR questionnaire to gather agency business requirements
Identify technical solutions that meet agency business requirements
Develop a solution
Check proposed DR solution infrastructure against DR IT Risk Assessment Process
Identify and resolve gaps
Identify and present a viable final DR solution for agency after thorough technical review
Select agencies will receive periodic full disaster recovery testing

7. As part of the best-effort service, the ITP will create a viable DR plan for the agency and will provide limited testing for select agencies
Each agency's DR solution is developed, documented and thoroughly reviewed by all technical groups, including Server, Network, etc. It is then given to the agency. The solution:
Is entered into the VITA IT DR Plan for agency recovery
Takes the ‘guessing’ out of the agency recovery
A limited number of best effort agencies/systems will be selected for periodic full DR testing (agencies/systems are based on the Governor's Continuity of Government plan)
Selected agencies/systems receive the same level of testing as tiered customers, but without SLA measurements taken
Agency recovery will be based upon individual solutions
During testing, recovery will occur at SWESC
A final report is completed after the test
A Gap analysis/action plan is completed after the test and given to the agency

8. Additional Questions?

9. Appendix

10. A DR questionnaire is used to gather agency business requirements
Agency Name:
Contact Name:
Contact Phone:
Contact
Date Checklist Completed:
  This checklist is for the gathering of Agency DR requirements
Application
Data Supplied
Item
Yes No
N/A
Comments 1
What is the Application Software Name 2
Application type (File System, Online Transaction Processing, Data Warehouse, Web Host, etc. 3
Is there an Application Functional Description 4
Is there a listing of the Application Inputs and Outputs 5
Is there an existing DR Plan/COOP for the application 6
Is an offsite disaster recovery facility used? If yes, what type of site is it(hot site, warm site, cold site)

11. The ITP uses an IT risk assessment to recommend a viable agency DR solution under the best-effort service