U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Effective Disaster Recovery: The Next Best Thing to 'Business as Usual'

NCJ Number
217101
Journal
Homeland Defense Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2006 Pages: 24,26,28,30,32,34
Author(s)
Don Philpott
Date Published
November 2006
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article outlines actions needed to prepare for continuing essential government operations under a pandemic's quarantine conditions, and a hypothetical scenario is presented to illustrate the application of the recommendations.
Abstract
The imminent threat of an Avian Influenza pandemic has been recognized by a large majority of State and local governments. Such an outbreak could shut down any government office or facility where even one flu case has occurred. Essential government employees could be restricted to their homes or temporary shelters for an indefinite period. In such a crisis, however, it is essential that government agencies continue providing services to the public and keep Web sites operating to provide information and responses to citizen inquiries. An effective disaster recovery plan specifies and develops ways of doing this. Such a plan should first provide for data duplication and application through a remote failover data center. Second, a recovery plan should quickly establish employee access to such data without the delay required to rebuild the network. Third, it should be possible for employees to work from alternative locations, including their homes, by connecting to the failover system via the Internet. Fourth, employees should be able to access their desktops from a remote location and conduct conferences with fellow employees and other government personnel. Fifth, there should be means for government employees to continue services and information to citizens during disasters. The scenario presented to illustrate the application of these principles involves a hypothetical government agency that provides a large number of critical services to State residents. The scenario describes how this agency can handle any of the consequences of an Avian Influenza outbreak, i.e., quarantined offices, employees restricted to their homes, a data center that is inaccessible, or one that is operating but is off-limits to information technology.