-: Plans and procedures. 2 2
In this video, we're going to discuss 3 3
the various plans and procedures 4 4
that are used in the management of your enterprise networks. 5 5
This includes change management, incident response plans, 6 6
disaster recovery plans, business continuity plans, 7 7
system life cycle, 8 8
and standard operating procedures. 9 9
First, let's discuss change management. 10 10
Change management is a structured way 11 11
of changing the state of a computer system, 12 12
network, or IT procedure. 13 13
Change management is used to make changes to the secure 14 14
and known good baseline that exists in our network devices. 15 15
A good change management policy 16 16
is going to be designed to make sure that all the risks 17 17
are considered prior to implementing a change 18 18
to your systems or networks. 19 19
This ensures that our services remain stable, 20 20
reliable, and predictable, 21 21
even in the face of rapidly changing business requirements. 22 22
Essentially change management is a coordinated system 23 23
to account for any upgrades, 24 24
installations or network outages and repairs. 25 25
For example, let's assume that you need to upgrade a router 26 26
or switch in your network, 27 27
but you don't want to cause a bunch of unnecessary downtime. 28 28
Well, with change management, 29 29
we can ensure that all of our actions are pre coordinated 30 30
and approved by the relevant stakeholders 31 31
prior to us implementing a firmware upgrade. 32 32
After all, if I simply ran a firmware upgrade 33 33
in the middle of the workday, 34 34
I could cause a lot of unnecessary downtime for my end users 35 35
because they're relying on those devices 36 36
for their network connectivity. 37 37
This is because during a firmware upgrade, 38 38
that router switch is going to be taken offline 39 39
and it won't provide services to our end users 40 40
until the firmware has been properly flashed, 41 41
and then the configurations are reloaded. 42 42
Therefore we need to instead coordinate the firmware upgrade 43 43
for the right time so that it would be the least impactful 44 44
against our business operations. 45 45
For example, at most of my organizations, 46 46
we use the period between midnight and 4:00 am 47 47
to do our upgrades because 48 48
relatively few people are online 49 49
and working during those hours. 50 50
As you move through your change management process, 51 51
you're going to need to ensure 52 52
that the upgrade is being planned, approved as a change, 53 53
the relevant documentation diagrams are being updated 54 54
and our network documentation remains current 55 55
after we finish doing the change. 56 56
Next, we have incident response plans. 57 57
An incident response plan contains a set of instructions 58 58
to help our network and system administrators 59 59
detect, respond to, and recover 60 60
from network security incidents. 61 61
These types of plans 62 62
are going to address issues like cyber crime, data loss, 63 63
and service outages that could threaten our daily work. 64 64
Basically what we're doing here 65 65
is decide what we're going to do 66 66
if there's a security violation 67 67
and what are our response actions going to be? 68 68
Are we going to take the device off the network and wipe it 69 69
and then put it back on? 70 70
Are you going to handle it in-house? 71 71
Or are you going to fire an employee over it? 72 72
Are you going to call the police? 73 73
What is your plan going to be? 74 74
How are you going to respond? 75 75
Now, I don't have these answers for you 76 76
because all this is going to depend 77 77
on your organization's incident response plan 78 78
that you need to create. 79 79
When it comes to an incident response plan, 80 80
you need to cover six main steps or phases. 81 81
First; preparation, 82 82
second; identification, 83 83
third; containment, 84 84
fourth; eradication, 85 85
fifth; recovery, 86 86
and sixth; lessons learned. 87 87
Also, if you're intending to prosecute a computer crime 88 88
in conjunction with your incident response, 89 89
that's extremely important 90 90
that you maintain the chain of custody 91 91
over all the data and all the information being collected. 92 92
Next, we have disaster recovery plans. 93 93
A disaster recovery plan 94 94
is a documented structured approach 95 95
that documents how an organization 96 96
can quickly resume their work after an unplanned incident. 97 97
Now, these unplanned incidents 98 98
can be things like natural disasters, 99 99
power outages, cyber attacks, or other disruptive events. 100 100
Now a disaster recovery plan 101 101
will outline your processes and procedures 102 102
for shifting your operations 103 103
from your main headquarter facilities 104 104
to your disaster recovery sites, 105 105
such as a hot site, a warm site, a cold site, 106 106
or a cloud site. 107 107
Now remember a disaster recovery plan 108 108
is focused on business interruptions 109 109
that are caused by a disaster, 110 110
but these aren't going to include things 111 111
like everyday operational challenges. 112 112
For those types of challenges, 113 113
we instead need to look at a different type of plan 114 114
known as a business continuity plan or BCP. 115 115
Now a business continuity plan 116 116
is a document that outlines how a business 117 117
is going to continue operating 118 118
during an unplanned disruption in service. 119 119
Now, a business continuity plan is more comprehensive 120 120
than a disaster recovery plan, 121 121
and it contains contingencies 122 122
for lots of different business processes, 123 123
your assets, your human capital and business partners, 124 124
and essentially every other thing 125 125
and aspect that may be affected in your business. 126 126
Now, when you're dealing with a disaster recovery plan, 127 127
we're focused mainly on your technology and your facilities, 128 128
but a business continuity plan is much more in-depth 129 129
as it looks at how you're going to continue 130 130
all of your business operations. 131 131
In general, a disaster recovery plan or DRP 132 132
is going to be referenced 133 133
as part of your business continuity plan or BCP, 134 134
and the two will work very closely together 135 135
when you have a real disaster, 136 136
like a hurricane, a fire, or a flood that occurs. 137 137
Next, we need to consider the system life cycle plans. 138 138
System life cycle plans 139 139
also known as the life cycle planning 140 140
is going to describe the approach that you're going to use 141 141
to maintaining an asset 142 142
from its creation to its disposal. 143 143
Now, in the information technology world, 144 144
we normally have a five phase life cycle 145 145
that's used for all of our systems and networks. 146 146
This includes planning, design, 147 147
transition, operations, and retirement. 148 148
Phase one is planning. 149 149
Planning involves the planning and requirement analysis 150 150
for a given system, 151 151
including outlining the architecture 152 152
and identifying the possible risks. 153 153
Phase two is design. 154 154
Design is going to involve the outlining 155 155
of the new system or network, 156 156
including what interconnections there's going to be, 157 157
what technologies will be used, 158 158
and how it should be implemented. 159 159
This can even include some building of the new system 160 160
or even a prototype to validate the architecture 161 161
that we want to use. 162 162
Phase three is transition. 163 163
Transition involves the actual implementation, 164 164
which could involve coding some new software, 165 165
installing the systems, 166 166
or cabling up the networks and their configurations. 167 167
All of this is going to be a part of taking this asset 168 168
and moving it from a prototype or an initial build 169 169
into something that's ready for full production and use, 170 170
that's why we call it transition. 171 171
We're transitioning it into production and use. 172 172
Phase four is operations. 173 173
Operations is where the system or network 174 174
is now going to be used on a daily basis to do productive work. 175 175
In general, about 70% of a system's lifecycle 176 176
is going to be spent during operations. 177 177
Now, operations includes 178 178
things like the daily running of the asset, 179 179
as well as updating it, patching it, 180 180
fixing any issues that may occur and things like that. 181 181
This is often referred to as operations and support 182 182
because we're going to conduct our break fix actions 183 183
during this portion of the asset's life cycle. 184 184
Our fifth phase is retirement. 185 185
Retirement is the end of the life cycle 186 186
and it occurs when the system or network 187 187
no longer has any useful life remaining in it. 188 188
At this point, 189 189
a single device or your entire system or network 190 190
could be retired and the assets will be disposed of 191 191
as part of this retirement. 192 192
For example, if you had a network switch 193 193
that's been used for the last five years, 194 194
it's probably reaching the end of its useful lifespan. 195 195
So it needs to be replaced with a newer model, 196 196
and then we're going to retire that old switch. 197 197
Before we throw it away though, 198 198
it's important for us to think about that device 199 199
and how we're going to sanitize it 200 200
or clear it of any configurations or sensitive information 201 201
using our proper asset disposal procedures too. 202 202
Next, we have standard operating procedures. 203 203
Everything we spoke about so far 204 204
has been at a higher and more generic level, 205 205
but a standard operating procedure or SOP 206 206
is a set of step-by-step instructions 207 207
that are compiled by an organization 208 208
to help its employees carry out their routine operations. 209 209
Standard operating procedures aim to achieve efficiency, 210 210
quality output, and a uniformity of performance 211 211
while they reduce misconfigurations 212 212
and a failure to comply with regulations. 213 213
For example, our disaster recovery plan 214 214
might say that within 48 hours 215 215
of a named hurricane reaching our city, 216 216
we need to ensure that all of our diesel generators 217 217
have been refueled. 218 218
Now, this is a single one-line statement 219 219
from a disaster recovery plan or DRP, 220 220
but that statement doesn't tell you how to actually do it. 221 221
Instead, you'd pull out the standard operating procedure 222 222
named fueling the generators, 223 223
and this would tell you how to perform the operation. 224 224
So if I was told to refuel the generators, 225 225
I could pull out this SOP and follow it step-by-step, 226 226
step one; call the fuel company and schedule a delivery, 227 227
step two; turn off the generators 228 228
and open the storage tanks, 229 229
step three; put the diesel into the storage tanks. 230 230
You get the idea here, right? 231 231
Now, there might be 5 or 10 or 20 steps to this procedures 232 232
as part of this SOP, 233 233
but in a disaster recovery plan, 234 234
it's just one line that says, 235 235
you need to do this thing known as refueling the generators. 236 236
So remember when it comes to managing your networks, 237 237
there are lots of different plans and procedures 238 238
that you may come across. 239 239
We just covered a few in this lesson 240 240
that you may get asked about on the exam, 241 241
but in the real world, 242 242
there are many others too. 243 243
For the exam, remember, 244 244
we have change management, incident response plans, 245 245
disaster recovery plans, business continuity plans, 246 246
system life cycles, 247 247
and standard operating procedures, 248 248
to help us manage our networks. 249 249
(upbeat music)