Business Continuity Plan: Third Revision (2010)

The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) integrates business risk management, operational risk management, and business continuity. The plan recognizes a tiered approach to ensure the university is managed during a disaster that renders the technical infrastructure inoperable for a period exceeding two days. There are three important steps in managing the university during and after a disaster occurs. The first step will be implemented by activating the Campus Disaster Plan which ensures that health, life and safety issues are addressed prior to the activation of this plan. The BCP includes a two-tiered approach to managing and restoring functionality after a disaster with three primary goals:

  1. Facilitate continued performance of essential business functions of the university manually until the technical infrastructure can be restored.
  2. Activate the technical recovery plan that will be used to restore the technical infrastructure to full functionality.
  3. Implement data recovery strategies to update the Banner system to ensure it remains up to date.

Documentation

Current and previous revisions of the business continuity plan are available for download as PDF files.

Business continuity development team

This plan was developed by a cross-functional team to address the needs of the university in the event of a crisis (2-5 days) or a disaster (over 5 days) that renders the campus network and computer systems infrastructure inoperable.

  • Judy Williams, Communications
  • Mike Beaird, Law School Library
  • Larry Dickerson, College of Education
  • Charles Ford, College of Information Services and Systems Engineering
  • Jim Golden, College of Professional Studies
  • Dennis Fleming, IT Services
  • Samuel Howell, Educational and Student Services
  • Lynette Jack, Ottenheimer Library
  • Jim Menth, College of Information Services and Systems Engineering
  • Diane Newton, Finance
  • Cindy Milazzo, Administration
  • Jerry Stevenson, Provost
  • Jeannie Winston, Vice Chancellor for Information Services, Chair

Statement of purpose

The primary focus of this document is to provide a plan to respond to a disaster that destroys or severely cripples the University’s technical infrastructure operated by the IT Services Department. The intent is to restore operations as quickly as possible with the latest and most up-to-date data available.

Scope and limitations

The Business Continuity Plan will be executed after health, life and safety issues are addressed. Health, life and safety issues are addressed in the Campus Disaster Plan that is administered by the Associate Vice Chancellor of Administration.

Objectives

  • The development and testing of a well-structured and coherent plan which will enable UALR to recover as quickly and effectively as possible from an unforeseen disaster or emergency which interrupts normal business operations by rendering the technical infrastructure inoperable for a period exceeding two days.
  • Establish cohesive emergency response and crisis management plan.
  • Develop a communications plan to notify teams, activate the plan, assemble personnel, assess damages, and declare a disaster.
  • Define mission critical processes using a Business Impact Analysis.
  • Define manual processes that can be implemented until the technical infrastructure is restored.
  • Develop a plan to recover and restore the technical infrastructure to the UALR campus.
  • Establish criteria for making the decision to recover at a cold site or repair the affected site. Note: A cold site is an alternative location for computer and network equipment.
  • Describe an organizational structure for implementing the plan.
  • Provide information concerning the types of personnel who will be required to implement the plan and define the skills and knowledge required.
  • Identify the equipment, floor plan, procedures, and other items necessary for the technical recovery.
  • Communicate the plan to the campus community.

Assumptions

  • Health, life and safety issues are addressed by the Campus Disaster Plan
  • The library collection is not in imminent danger of loss
  • Restoration of utilities is addressed in the Campus Disaster Plan
  • This plan covers catastrophic events. Planned and unplanned downtime of less than two days are not addressed.
  • The Business Impact Analysis drives IT Restoration and Recovery Strategies.
  • Prevention is the most important aspect of continuity planning.
  • The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defines the amount of data that can potentially be lost in the event of a disaster. The RPO for the Banner system is one day or less.
  • The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the time frame in which the technical infrastructure is to be restored. The RTO is not quantified due to the lack of a redundant data center and the unknown variables of how long it will take to prepare a cold site in the event that Fribourgh Hall is damaged beyond use.
  • This plan will be reviewed and updated annually.

Recommendations

  • Conduct media relations training for senior management who may be required to interface with the media during a disaster (on-going).
  • Install a generator in FH and move air conditioning compressors to a more protected location (feasibility study is $6,500) (complete).
  • Move critical servers in FH to a location that is less susceptible to water leak from wet labs in the floors above the data center (complete).