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Blog Policy , IT
Service Management, and Disaster Planning Templates
Blog Template
With the advent of blogs, there is a need
to set rules of the road for the use of blogs by employees, contractors,
agents, supplies and others. This sample blog policy template contains specific
policy statements on what can and can not be done via blogs. There
are 13 specific guidelines defined as specific guidelines for personal
web sites and blogs which are on your enterprise's domains and those on
are on domains outside of your enterprise's control..
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
Disaster Planning template can used for any enterprise. The template and supporting material
have been updated to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. The Disaster
Planning Template comes as a Word document and includes:
IT Service Management Policy Template (ITISM
/ ITIL)
The IT Service Management
Policy Template contains policies, standards, procedures and metrics
that comply with the ITIL Standard. Chapters of the template include:
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Service Requests Policy
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Service Request Standard
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Help Desk Policy
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Help Desk Standards
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Help Desk Procedures
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Help Desk Service Level
Agreement
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Change Control Standard
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Change Control Quality Assurance
Standard
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Change Control Management
Workbook
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Documentation Standard
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Application Version Control
Standard
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Version Control Standard
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Internet, e-Mail and Electronic
Communication Policy
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Travel and Off-Site Meeting
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Blogs and personal web sites
In addition, the ITSM template includes
the Business and IT Impact Questionnaire, a Change Control Request
Form and an Internet Use Approval Form. It conforms with ITIL.
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[New Topic]
 Over 50% of all organizations have no plan
in place to recover their critical information should an unforeseen event occur,
and almost as many have no strategy to keep their business running following a
major disruption.
The findings are in just released research into data management practices. It
found 48 per cent of organizations admitted to having no business continuity
plan, and 51 per cent have no disaster recovery (DR) procedures.
This lack of DR
planning is consistent with surveys done out in 2007 and 2009. The current
research was compiled in an online survey of 1,000 companies last
October.
The survey found that some companies are following best practice in data
management: 18 per cent said they could restore mission-critical applications
within four hours if their network or data center were destroyed; 23 per cent
cited a recovery time of up to one business day and 22 per cent cited four
business days or more.
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more
Business Continuity Planning 101
The basic process for developing a business continuity plan is:
- Create a business continuity planning team:
Members should be from operations management, the chief security officer, the
IT department, legal staff, and human resources.
- Define leadership roles: Determine which
executives and employees are critical to operating the business (and
supporting customers) that need to have access to key systems and information
at all time.
- Assume the worst and plan for needed extra
capacity: Before an event occurs, businesses need to plan ahead
for increased network bandwidth and secured remote access requirements.
- Define emergency voice and data communications
solutions: There are many to choose from, but a SSL VPN is one of
the leading solutions to provide flexible, remote access, which is essential
to any business continuity plan.
- Define access points for operations, network and
IT: Create a business continuity portal for employees and
partners. If the company has an Intranet, this site becomes command central
from which employees can access information - HR policies, emergency contacts
and a "start here" feature should be included.
- Contract for a secondary back-up site: Should the
primary site be unavailable, companies should have a real-time mirror of data
and staff housed at a secure facility.
- Backup data: In the event that the secondary site
is unavailable, organizations should plan for multiple layers of failover.
- Plan to utilize smartphones and tablets: With mobile devices and "wireless
networks", IT departments can leverage these tools to ensure complete
connectivity in times of emergencies.
- Pre-arrange Internet meeting capabilities: In the
event of an office closure, employees still need to communicate internally or
with external parties (i.e. suppliers, customers). Implement the technology
before it is needed
- Review number of sites and VPN gateways:
Conducting an annual audit to provide a complete picture of your network and
the ability to address problem areas before a disaster strikes.
- Test and test again: These 'fire drills'
enable the business continuity team to see how the current system is working,
especially when employees are accessing information from remote locations
(i.e. from home, a relative's house, and hotel). Once complete, those in
management, IT and human resources can modify their business continuity plan
accordingly.
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more
Core backup and recovery concerns
 CIOs and IT Managers need to consider manadated compliance
requirements
- Question that need to be answered are:
- Is our data safe in transit and at rest?
- What prevents hackers from gaining access to our data?
- Is our data properly handled, stored, and deleted?
- Who can access our data?
- What are the benchmark measurements?
- Is our data backup strategy compliant?
- Will our recovery be successful?
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more
How long should it take to create a business continuity plan?
Business continuity planning is a continual process, and not something that
is done once and filed away to be used in an emergency. In error many
organisations treat the creation of a business continuity plan as a normal
project, subsequently deploying the plan and handing over to an operational
department for maintenance.
In most organizations, DR is the quintessential complex, unfamiliar task.
Disasters happen so rarely that recovery operations are the opposite of routine.
What's more the myriad, interconnected data, application and other resources
that must be recovered after a disaster make recovery an exceptionally difficult
and error-prone effort.
How
to create a business continuity plan...
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