1 00:00:00,150 --> 00:00:00,990 In this lesson, 2 00:00:00,990 --> 00:00:04,080 we're going to talk about continuity of operations plans. 3 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:06,810 Now, your organization's continuity of operations plan 4 00:00:06,810 --> 00:00:08,370 is going to ensure that your organization 5 00:00:08,370 --> 00:00:11,490 is able to recover from a disruptive event or disaster. 6 00:00:11,490 --> 00:00:13,920 This is a specialized field within an organization, 7 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:15,960 and one that takes a lot of planning and forethought 8 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:17,730 to keep your organization running smoothly 9 00:00:17,730 --> 00:00:19,560 during an event or incident. 10 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:20,880 Now, there are two major terms 11 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,400 associated with continuity of operations planning. 12 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:25,440 The first one is business continuity planning, 13 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,350 which is often spoken as business continuity plans, 14 00:00:28,350 --> 00:00:32,070 which themself are going to be abbreviated as a BC plan. 15 00:00:32,070 --> 00:00:33,630 Now, this business continuity plan 16 00:00:33,630 --> 00:00:35,700 can refer to the plans or processes 17 00:00:35,700 --> 00:00:38,400 that are used for your response to a disruptive event. 18 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:39,480 The second kind we have 19 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:42,840 is known as a disaster recovery plan, or DRP. 20 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:44,550 Now, these disaster recovery plans 21 00:00:44,550 --> 00:00:47,280 are going to specifically refer to any plans or processes 22 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,410 that are going to be used during a disaster. 23 00:00:49,410 --> 00:00:50,880 Now, a disaster recovery plan 24 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:52,770 usually is going to be considered a subset 25 00:00:52,770 --> 00:00:55,230 of a more complete business continuity plan as well. 26 00:00:55,230 --> 00:00:57,000 And so, you'll see often that people would just call these 27 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,000 a BC/DR or business continuity disaster recovery plan. 28 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,470 Now, when you think about a business continuity plan, 29 00:01:04,470 --> 00:01:06,930 this plan is going to be used for any disruptive event 30 00:01:06,930 --> 00:01:09,690 or any kind of response to a given threat. 31 00:01:09,690 --> 00:01:10,650 Now, for example, 32 00:01:10,650 --> 00:01:12,390 what would you do if your domain controller 33 00:01:12,390 --> 00:01:14,100 fell victim to a ransomware attack 34 00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:16,920 and all of your users could no longer log into your network? 35 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:18,780 Well, this would be a disruptive event, 36 00:01:18,780 --> 00:01:21,510 and it might actually activate your incident response plans 37 00:01:21,510 --> 00:01:23,490 and your business continuity plans, 38 00:01:23,490 --> 00:01:25,650 and that's really what we're talking about here. 39 00:01:25,650 --> 00:01:27,390 Now, your business continuity plans 40 00:01:27,390 --> 00:01:29,940 are all about creating a system of preventative actions 41 00:01:29,940 --> 00:01:32,220 and recovery steps in response to threats 42 00:01:32,220 --> 00:01:34,920 that could materialize and then disrupt your business. 43 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:36,450 Now, your business continuity plan 44 00:01:36,450 --> 00:01:38,790 may also cover your non-technical things too 45 00:01:38,790 --> 00:01:40,500 that would also end up disrupting your business, 46 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:42,210 so keep that in mind too. 47 00:01:42,210 --> 00:01:43,680 For example, in my business, 48 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,210 we rely heavily on our ability 49 00:01:45,210 --> 00:01:47,820 to take credit card payments online from our students. 50 00:01:47,820 --> 00:01:49,860 So, if a merchant processing account 51 00:01:49,860 --> 00:01:51,720 was going to be canceled for some reason, 52 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:53,070 this could actually affect our ability 53 00:01:53,070 --> 00:01:54,690 to take payments from our students, 54 00:01:54,690 --> 00:01:57,210 and this would have a major impact on our company. 55 00:01:57,210 --> 00:01:59,610 So, as part of our business continuity planning, 56 00:01:59,610 --> 00:02:01,860 we've discussed how we're going to immediately switch over 57 00:02:01,860 --> 00:02:03,750 to our backup credit card processor 58 00:02:03,750 --> 00:02:05,730 so we can continue our business operations 59 00:02:05,730 --> 00:02:07,350 and simultaneously work 60 00:02:07,350 --> 00:02:09,090 with our primary credit card processor 61 00:02:09,090 --> 00:02:10,500 to get them back online again, 62 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:11,520 and then get our credit cards 63 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,530 to be able to be processed once more. 64 00:02:13,530 --> 00:02:15,330 Now, if our primary credit card processor 65 00:02:15,330 --> 00:02:18,390 cannot get us back online within X number of days, 66 00:02:18,390 --> 00:02:20,700 then we're going to shift to a tertiary contract 67 00:02:20,700 --> 00:02:21,690 that we have set up, 68 00:02:21,690 --> 00:02:22,523 and that would allow us 69 00:02:22,523 --> 00:02:24,570 to continue our operations indefinitely, 70 00:02:24,570 --> 00:02:27,480 even though that tertiary processor may charge us more 71 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:29,070 for each processing transaction 72 00:02:29,070 --> 00:02:31,290 than our primary or secondary one does. 73 00:02:31,290 --> 00:02:32,550 But all of this becomes part 74 00:02:32,550 --> 00:02:34,050 of our business continuity plan. 75 00:02:34,050 --> 00:02:36,510 And as we go through, we're going to plan for our primary, 76 00:02:36,510 --> 00:02:38,640 our secondary, and our tertiary actions 77 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:39,540 that we want to use 78 00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:41,820 to be able to continue our business operations. 79 00:02:41,820 --> 00:02:44,490 Now, another example I saw in a previous organization 80 00:02:44,490 --> 00:02:45,750 that was focused on what they would do 81 00:02:45,750 --> 00:02:47,670 if there was protests in the streets. 82 00:02:47,670 --> 00:02:49,380 Now, this was an IT organization, 83 00:02:49,380 --> 00:02:50,850 and it may seem kind of weird to you 84 00:02:50,850 --> 00:02:52,980 that they're thinking about protests in the streets, 85 00:02:52,980 --> 00:02:54,000 but because their headquarters 86 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,250 was actually located near a major American city, 87 00:02:56,250 --> 00:02:57,930 they had this as a concern. 88 00:02:57,930 --> 00:02:59,010 Now, when there was protests 89 00:02:59,010 --> 00:03:01,140 and riots in the city back in 2020, 90 00:03:01,140 --> 00:03:02,850 they actually found that it disrupted their business 91 00:03:02,850 --> 00:03:03,683 because their employees 92 00:03:03,683 --> 00:03:05,910 couldn't get to the headquarters to do their job. 93 00:03:05,910 --> 00:03:07,350 So, now they decide, 94 00:03:07,350 --> 00:03:10,110 what are we going to do in case the streets get barricaded? 95 00:03:10,110 --> 00:03:12,240 Whether that's from protesters trying to make a point 96 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,310 or police try to hold back those rioters, 97 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:16,800 how are we going to get our employees to do their job? 98 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:18,360 Well, after that initial incident, 99 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:20,700 the company learned they need to have a backup plan 100 00:03:20,700 --> 00:03:21,540 for how they're going to keep 101 00:03:21,540 --> 00:03:23,430 their operations running all the time, 102 00:03:23,430 --> 00:03:24,263 even if their people 103 00:03:24,263 --> 00:03:26,520 can't physically get to the office building. 104 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:28,470 And so, that became one of the big considerations 105 00:03:28,470 --> 00:03:30,150 in their business continuity plan, 106 00:03:30,150 --> 00:03:33,150 and they actually have a section titled Riots and Protests 107 00:03:33,150 --> 00:03:35,850 and What Their Employees Should Do If That Happens. 108 00:03:35,850 --> 00:03:37,620 Now, we just spent a little bit of time here 109 00:03:37,620 --> 00:03:40,440 talking about the basic idea of a business continuity plan, 110 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:41,610 but let's touch on the concept 111 00:03:41,610 --> 00:03:43,680 of a disaster recovery plan too. 112 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,230 Now, a disaster recovery plan, or DR plan, 113 00:03:46,230 --> 00:03:47,580 is usually going to be a subset 114 00:03:47,580 --> 00:03:49,410 of your business continuity plan. 115 00:03:49,410 --> 00:03:50,580 The disaster recovery plan 116 00:03:50,580 --> 00:03:52,290 is going to focus on disruptive events, 117 00:03:52,290 --> 00:03:54,300 just like a business continuity plan would, 118 00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:56,100 but it's going to specifically focus 119 00:03:56,100 --> 00:03:58,350 on how to resume your operations more quickly 120 00:03:58,350 --> 00:04:00,240 after you have a disaster. 121 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,430 For example, our Dion training offices 122 00:04:02,430 --> 00:04:04,410 are located down in Orlando, Florida, 123 00:04:04,410 --> 00:04:06,360 which is very likely to suffer from hurricanes 124 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:07,920 because of its location. 125 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:09,240 Now, our business continuity plan 126 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,310 contains a disaster recovery plan portion 127 00:04:11,310 --> 00:04:13,020 that's focused on our response actions 128 00:04:13,020 --> 00:04:15,420 for things like hurricanes, fires, floods, 129 00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:16,980 and other things like that. 130 00:04:16,980 --> 00:04:19,470 So, if we have a hurricane down here in Florida, 131 00:04:19,470 --> 00:04:21,360 how are we going to be able to keep our offices open 132 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:24,600 and our servers online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? 133 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,720 And if we can't, what are we going to do in response to that? 134 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,100 What are we going to do if there's an earthquake, 135 00:04:29,100 --> 00:04:31,710 a fire, a flood, or some other kind of disaster? 136 00:04:31,710 --> 00:04:33,390 Now, all of these are things that we had to think about 137 00:04:33,390 --> 00:04:35,910 when we were creating our disaster recovery plan. 138 00:04:35,910 --> 00:04:39,000 So, for example, when we did our risk management analysis, 139 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:40,800 we determined it was just too risky for us 140 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:43,380 to host our servers in our on-premise environment 141 00:04:43,380 --> 00:04:45,930 because of our location is so hurricane prone, 142 00:04:45,930 --> 00:04:47,910 and we were worried about the threat of a power loss 143 00:04:47,910 --> 00:04:49,290 or network connectivity loss 144 00:04:49,290 --> 00:04:51,420 because a hurricane ravages the area. 145 00:04:51,420 --> 00:04:53,220 So, instead, we ended up building out 146 00:04:53,220 --> 00:04:55,320 our entire infrastructure in the cloud, 147 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,720 and we actually use Amazon Web Services to do this, 148 00:04:57,720 --> 00:04:59,700 and they provide us with continuity of operations 149 00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:01,020 by spreading all of our services 150 00:05:01,020 --> 00:05:04,320 across multiple AWS regions and availability zones. 151 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,480 This way, even if there was a severe disaster 152 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:07,620 in Orlando, Florida, 153 00:05:07,620 --> 00:05:10,950 our business operations can continue on unimpeded. 154 00:05:10,950 --> 00:05:11,970 Now, another thing we did 155 00:05:11,970 --> 00:05:14,610 is we actually split our staff across multiple locations, 156 00:05:14,610 --> 00:05:16,710 both within Florida, the rest of the United States, 157 00:05:16,710 --> 00:05:19,200 and a few other locations around the world. 158 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,870 For example, if you email us and ask a question, 159 00:05:21,870 --> 00:05:24,300 that's actually handled by our student success team. 160 00:05:24,300 --> 00:05:25,350 Now, our student success team 161 00:05:25,350 --> 00:05:27,570 is actually split evenly between the United States 162 00:05:27,570 --> 00:05:29,370 and the country of the Philippines. 163 00:05:29,370 --> 00:05:32,010 Now, if there's a power outage in our offices in Florida, 164 00:05:32,010 --> 00:05:34,320 our Philippines team can actually take over operations 165 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:36,570 and continue to work to make sure that you, our students, 166 00:05:36,570 --> 00:05:38,190 are being taken care of. 167 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:39,750 Similarly, over the last few years, 168 00:05:39,750 --> 00:05:41,040 we've seen that floods have happened 169 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:42,570 in the country of the Philippines. 170 00:05:42,570 --> 00:05:44,850 And when that happened, our US-based team 171 00:05:44,850 --> 00:05:47,370 was able to step up and cover for the Philippines team 172 00:05:47,370 --> 00:05:49,050 while they took a couple of days off of work 173 00:05:49,050 --> 00:05:51,030 to make sure they were safe, their family was safe, 174 00:05:51,030 --> 00:05:52,560 and their homes were taken care of 175 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:53,700 because our Philippines team 176 00:05:53,700 --> 00:05:55,170 had other more important things to do, 177 00:05:55,170 --> 00:05:56,280 and they couldn't get to work 178 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:57,660 because maybe their power was down, 179 00:05:57,660 --> 00:05:58,800 or their internet was offline, 180 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:00,570 or their house was being flooded. 181 00:06:00,570 --> 00:06:01,770 And in any of these cases, 182 00:06:01,770 --> 00:06:03,360 they need time to take care of that, 183 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,220 and we can do that by shifting the operations 184 00:06:05,220 --> 00:06:06,900 back to our Florida Center. 185 00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:08,040 By dispersing our operations 186 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:09,870 across multiple geographic regions, 187 00:06:09,870 --> 00:06:11,430 we're able to continue our operations 188 00:06:11,430 --> 00:06:14,160 even in the face of these kinds of disasters. 189 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:15,720 So, now that we've covered the differences 190 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:17,340 between a business continuity plan 191 00:06:17,340 --> 00:06:19,410 and the disaster recovery plan it contains, 192 00:06:19,410 --> 00:06:20,640 for the rest of this lesson, 193 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,280 I'm only going to refer to the business continuity plan. 194 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:26,070 But when I do, remember I'm really equally referring 195 00:06:26,070 --> 00:06:27,480 to both the business continuity 196 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,460 and the disaster recovery plan it contains 197 00:06:29,460 --> 00:06:31,080 because the only real difference here 198 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:33,630 is the type of event that you are going to be responding to. 199 00:06:33,630 --> 00:06:34,710 If it's an incident, 200 00:06:34,710 --> 00:06:36,930 then it's going to be a business continuity issue. 201 00:06:36,930 --> 00:06:40,290 If it's a disaster, it's going to be a disaster recovery issue. 202 00:06:40,290 --> 00:06:42,450 That's really going to determine which plan you're going to follow 203 00:06:42,450 --> 00:06:44,400 during your response actions based on the event 204 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:46,470 that you're actually taking actions against. 205 00:06:46,470 --> 00:06:48,600 Now, the development of your business continuity plan 206 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:50,010 is really going to be the responsibility 207 00:06:50,010 --> 00:06:52,560 of your senior managers within your organization. 208 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:54,180 It's up to them to drive this effort 209 00:06:54,180 --> 00:06:56,010 and ensure that it's being done properly. 210 00:06:56,010 --> 00:06:57,180 Now, without their support, 211 00:06:57,180 --> 00:06:58,770 the business continuity plan development 212 00:06:58,770 --> 00:07:00,780 is actually going to stall out and fail. 213 00:07:00,780 --> 00:07:02,880 For this reason, it really is the responsibility 214 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:04,830 of your senior management to help set goals 215 00:07:04,830 --> 00:07:05,790 for the business continuity 216 00:07:05,790 --> 00:07:07,170 and disaster recovery efforts 217 00:07:07,170 --> 00:07:09,630 that are being put under this senior management control. 218 00:07:09,630 --> 00:07:10,590 They're also going to make sure 219 00:07:10,590 --> 00:07:12,840 that a business continuity coordinator is being appointed, 220 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,240 and they're going to lead the business continuity committee 221 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,040 that develops these plans. 222 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:18,660 Now, this business continuity committee 223 00:07:18,660 --> 00:07:19,620 should have representatives 224 00:07:19,620 --> 00:07:21,870 from different departments across your organization, 225 00:07:21,870 --> 00:07:23,490 including your technology department, 226 00:07:23,490 --> 00:07:25,470 your legal department, your security department, 227 00:07:25,470 --> 00:07:26,760 your communications department, 228 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:28,830 and others, just to name a few. 229 00:07:28,830 --> 00:07:31,770 Now, this should not be just the IT people doing this thing 230 00:07:31,770 --> 00:07:34,650 because we all need to work together across the organization 231 00:07:34,650 --> 00:07:36,210 to ensure we know how we're going to continue 232 00:07:36,210 --> 00:07:37,500 to operate our business. 233 00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:39,090 Remember, we're not just covering 234 00:07:39,090 --> 00:07:40,560 the technology or the networks, 235 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,900 we are covering everything inside of the business. 236 00:07:42,900 --> 00:07:44,100 And this is the reason we need people 237 00:07:44,100 --> 00:07:46,320 from across the organization helping us. 238 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:47,940 This committee is going to be working 239 00:07:47,940 --> 00:07:49,320 to determine the recovery priorities 240 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,270 for the different types of events that could occur, 241 00:07:51,270 --> 00:07:52,620 whether they're going to be disruptive, 242 00:07:52,620 --> 00:07:53,610 and whether they're going to be covered 243 00:07:53,610 --> 00:07:54,900 by the business continuity plan 244 00:07:54,900 --> 00:07:58,080 or your disaster recovery plan if it's a disaster. 245 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,390 This committee is also going to seek out to identify 246 00:08:00,390 --> 00:08:02,040 and prioritize all of our systems 247 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:03,090 that we're going to need to support 248 00:08:03,090 --> 00:08:04,650 the continuity of our business, 249 00:08:04,650 --> 00:08:07,470 and then they'll report back to senior management. 250 00:08:07,470 --> 00:08:10,140 Now, another key part of a good business continuity plan 251 00:08:10,140 --> 00:08:12,390 is defining the scope of the plan itself. 252 00:08:12,390 --> 00:08:14,490 Otherwise, you could face scope creep. 253 00:08:14,490 --> 00:08:17,250 Again, this is another great job for senior management 254 00:08:17,250 --> 00:08:19,080 because they need to determine the level of risk 255 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:20,400 that they're willing to accept 256 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:22,260 based on the organization's risk appetite 257 00:08:22,260 --> 00:08:24,180 and risk tolerance thresholds. 258 00:08:24,180 --> 00:08:25,440 Now, the business continuity plan 259 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:27,120 will be broken down by business function 260 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:28,500 or geographical area 261 00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:30,720 if you're working in a very large organization. 262 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:33,150 But again, all these pieces have to be coherent 263 00:08:33,150 --> 00:08:34,500 and they must be able to operate together, 264 00:08:34,500 --> 00:08:36,450 especially during times of crisis. 265 00:08:36,450 --> 00:08:37,799 So, remember, when it comes 266 00:08:37,799 --> 00:08:39,780 to the continuity of operations plan, 267 00:08:39,780 --> 00:08:42,000 you're going to have two main parts of that. 268 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,220 One is going to be your business continuity plan, 269 00:08:44,220 --> 00:08:45,690 or your BC plan, 270 00:08:45,690 --> 00:08:46,523 and the second 271 00:08:46,523 --> 00:08:49,590 is going to be your disaster recovery plan, or DRP. 272 00:08:49,590 --> 00:08:51,540 When it comes to your business continuity plan, 273 00:08:51,540 --> 00:08:53,880 remember that this refers to the plans and processes 274 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:56,580 that are used for your response to a disruptive event. 275 00:08:56,580 --> 00:08:58,530 But when you're dealing with a disaster recovery plan, 276 00:08:58,530 --> 00:08:59,580 you're specifically talking about 277 00:08:59,580 --> 00:09:00,840 the plans and processes 278 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,750 that are going to be used to respond to a given disaster. 279 00:09:03,750 --> 00:09:04,800 That's really the biggest difference 280 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:06,510 between a business continuity plan 281 00:09:06,510 --> 00:09:08,010 and a disaster recovery plan 282 00:09:08,010 --> 00:09:10,680 because one, we're dealing with incidents and issues, 283 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:12,880 and the other, we're dealing with disasters.