Table of Contents

PROJECT QUESTIONS

What are the start and end dates of the project?

The current project scope is set to kick off on December 9, 2016 and be completed by March 31, 2017.  However, please keep reading with the next FAQ for a more in-depth discussion.

Will this be a one time project?

Our current thinking is that this will be an on-going, multi-phased project. 

The current project scope is to create a DRP for the College, the Office and Information Technology, and the departments.  We plan to have additional projects to follow to make sure the DRP plans are maintained and to expand the scope to cover other units such as CNS Bussiness Units, various Centers and Institutes, as well as other units and affiliates.

While efforts will be made initially to construct plans which are as complete and accurate as possible, it is essentially impossible to address all possible problems at any one time.  Additionally, over time the information contained in a plan will change, and the needs of the unit's disaster recovery will likely change as well.  As a result of these factors, plans will need to be reviewed and tested on a periodic basis to keep information updated, discover errors or omissions, make sure plans work properly, etc.  Hence, this project is considered to be an on-going project.

What are some of the activities we should do to prepare?

The first step is to assign a point of contact who will head up your DRP process.

You might also want to start communicating with your faculty and staff to introduce the process to them and enlist their help.

You might also think if there are any sub-units in your organization that would benefit in having their own separate DRP.  You might consider this for sub-units that are large, complex, or have significant differences from the rest of your unit.

What is the role of a point of contact (POC)?

It is important to note that the point of contact is NOT responsible for collecting and entering all the information themselves!  Key roles and responsibilities of a POC are:

1. Coordinate and oversee their plan
2. Delegate tasks within their unit as needed
3. Attend all POC weekly meetings (or send a proxy)
4. Adhere to the project timeline as best as possible
5. Diligently complete needed tasks and thoroughly answer questions in UT Ready to the best of their ability
6. Request help from the CNS OIT Team when needed!

No one person can answer everything in the DRP.   The POC will need to delegate and work with others in their unit to complete the DRP.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

What is a disaster?

A disaster is an event, caused by man or nature, which results in a unit not being able to perform some or all of their regular roles and responsibilities for a significant period of time.  Generally, a disaster might include such things as:

•  One or more critical systems are non-functional
• A building or area is not available for an extended period of time, even if all systems in it are functional
  

Some examples of events which might cause a disaster are:

• Fire
• Flash Flood
• Pandemic
• Power Outage
• Acts of war or terrorism
• Theft or vandalism
• Hurricane, tornado, or wind damage  

What is a critical function?

A Critical Function is an activity that is essential to the core mission of your unit. For disaster planning, a Critical Function is one that must be continued through disaster, or resumed soon after a disaster-event, to ensure either the viability of the organization or its ability to serve its customers. The methodology used in UT READY defines four levels of criticality:
 

• Critical 1:  Must be continued at normal or increased service load. Cannot pause. Necessary to life,  health, security. (Examples: inpatient care, police services)
• Critical 2: Must be continued if at all possible, perhaps in reduced mode. Pausing completely will have grave consequences. (Examples: provision of care to at-risk outpatients, functioning of data  networks, at-risk research)
• Critical 3: May pause if forced to do so, but must resume in 30 days or sooner. (Examples: classroom instruction, research, payroll, student advising)
• Deferrable: May pause; resume when conditions permit. (Examples: elective surgery, routine building maintenance, training, marketing).

What is a normal function?

These are functions that a unit normally performs, critical or otherwise. Here are some typical examples:

• laboratory research
• classroom instruction 
• purchasing 
• paying employees 
• course scheduling  
• facilities repair 
• grant accounting

What is the difference between a process and a (critical) function?

We all need to make sure we identify functions, not processes.  Processes are the steps needed to accomplish a function. For example, the function “provide meals for resident hall students” is accomplished through the processes of “buying food, food storage, cooking, serving, and clean up.”

How complete or detailed should my DRP be?

Your plan will never be “complete” because you can’t know exactly what disaster will take place at what scale. The UT Ready application will prompt you for the appropriate level of detail, and most of those details will be things that your group easily knows or can figure out. Be Brief: most questions are best answered with one-to-several sentences or bullet points.

Can I use UT Ready on a mobile device or tablet?

While we have not compiled a list of supported devices, it should work on most web browsers including most popular mobile devices.

Does UT Ready run in the cloud?

Yes, your DRP will ultimately be stored on a cloud service on a secure server run by HualiCo.

POLICIES

How will my department be accountable for managing a disaster recovery plan for critical IT services?

All units will be held accountable in three ways:

1. The College of Natural Sciences will require all units to maintain a plan and will review plans annually.
2. Each year every unit is required to complete an IT Risk Assessment (using ISORA).  In this assessment process, you will be asked to provide a status of your disaster recovery planning efforts.  Departmental Technical Support Coordinators (TSCs) and department heads can view previous year's responses for their department via:  https://isora.security.utexas.edu/
3. The Office of Internal Audit can also request to review your department's Disaster Recovery Plan at any time.

Where can I find more information about IT policies related to disaster recovery ? 

The following is the UT Austin Security Standard that addresses Backups and Disaster Recovery:

 https://security.utexas.edu/policies/irusp#standard6

The Minimum Security Standard for Systems (section 4.1) specifically speaks to backups for systems:

 https://security.utexas.edu/policies/standards_systems#section4.1