I am seeking assistance in understanding how the changes over the last few years in global weather patters are being taken into account in risk assessments, BCP and ultimately the invocation of DR plans. Historically many organisations have relied on a plan where shared facilities are provided on a first come first served basis. Much of the reasoning for this is based on cost and the risk assessment of the plan being invoked at the same time as others. Have the changes in weather patters challenged this approach and have invocations failed because more organisations are invoking at the same time?
You need to be a member of Global Risk Community to add comments!
Replies
This all well and good when you have an office based organisation. I work in a major hospital located on a flood plain(employs 12,500+ staff and a 1m patient interactions per year) we cannot have an alternative location. Surgeons cannot yet work from home and critical care patients can't even be easily moved. For us impact mitigation, early warning, horizontal evacuation and other in house strategies are critical. We monitor weather patterns daily as they have the potential to impact on our operations as well as contribute to an increase in demand for healthcare services.
Severe weather events with a huge increase in surface water flooding caused by excessive rainfall which cannot be cleared by the existing drainage systems can cause local problems in terms of patient and staff access and a possible impact on key process carried out in our basement areas (many radiation treatment facilities are placed there for a number of reasons).
Therefore weather is a critical risk for us in many ways.
Picture the weather as an object, like an automotive
An object normally has a value, character, etc.
The road an automotive [object] moves on could be made smooth or rough depending on the construction, that the ground undergoes hence influencing the pattern of movement for that automotive, the passenger’s weight ,height and other value in the automotive could also play a key role on the movement without a method of reading this would be difficult to tell.
Technology is the answer you need to solve such a equation.
My work which has been published on complex data, new algorithms could be read on the net www. http://ritternbitter.gnbo.com.ng/_item?item_lbl=computers
Jonathan, I accept that external connectivity could be a restriction. I'm aware of BCP's with a combination of agile / remote working and dedicated site back-up and some with just one of the preceding solutions. Remote working is dependent on broadband connection which is now become the de facto standard for connection. Where processing speed are critical, and a standard broadband "home" package does not offer the necessary speeds, then it is possible to make broadband connectivity arrangements (with suitable security in place) with organisations in the local of the workers home area. I have seen this in place within a BCP on a reciprocal basis for a few select members of staff without resorting to a to contracting with a bespoke recovery site provider.
Thank you to all of you for your input to this question. Home working for office workers has always been an option where applications can be replicated remotely and access to secondary data centres is possible. However where complex systems and external connectivity are requirements these can not normally be replicated in a home environment and line speeds are still an issue. Given the impact of Sandy on New York and the fact that the stock exchange was up and running relatively quickly I am assuming a large number of member firms had dedicated back up sites; but was this the case for the smaller member firms. Certainly in London a number of firms still rely on shared facilities; but there again London has not yet been hit by a city wide outage. Your continuing thoughts are welcome.
This issues is dynamic and extensive ,with the problem being multiply and expanding it is only advised to use a innovative solution to study and calculate facts ,i really hope someone will bring in a solution about the task at hand.
Dear Jonathan
As you know part of risk assessment goes around disaster risk preventive patterns which then engages all what you call weather patterns (it's not all based on patterns but majority of it, is!). Change patterns on weather closed system on earth is going to be with us as they were from the beginning, when we want to bring them into account when we need to put a strategic plan in place (by all prospects, risk, DR, BC...)? it has already been started but using Geo information as a big part of business strategic analysis, solutions and initiatives. The continuance on this road involves Geo-Weather real time information delivery services ( Google, as i assume to be the one to offer!) and soon it will be just a simple part of your excel to bring into account all geo-weather info that might be classified as applicable in your analysis.
Hello John, great point you make. I recently visited a region that was flooded very heavily and about 40% of the businesses there were using 2 shared services located in the same region for their DR. Needless to say there is some serious considerations that are being addressed in particular how you choose a shared service, companies you are sharing with and what if scenarios that may impact your DR service provider.
Many of the responses have been about the weather itself rather than about the shared recovery facilities themselves which I think is at the heart of Jonathan's question. Increasingly external recovery sites for office based staff have less importance in a denial of access scenario as technology means that the vast majority of staff can work agilely / remotely, of course this is dependent on how close they work to the office site. So I see the oversubscription of recovery sites as a much lower risk.
Citing diluted input from technical experts and useless rules in fact illustrates a central problem: the gulf between fact-based reasoning/planning and the power of a few who control land use, building codes, and the fate of public areas. There are many examples of codes/rules/regulations whose benefit exceeds cost. The following two examples come to my mind: 1) building codes in Boulder CO requiring that structures (public and private) be engineered to withstand cyclone force winds; 2) national building requirement in Japan that structures have vibration sensors that automatically shut-off natural gas feed on detecting an earthquake. Engineers, builders and other professionals can list many more. Also, one would hope that disputes are driven by reasoning for safety, utility and public good rather than strictly for profit. Fact is, we are all facing increasing insurance premiums because of the cumulative burdens of Hugo, Katrina, and now Sandy, even though most of us did not live there or were directly affected. This is public cost sharing (a.k.a. mandated fees) for aggregate land use decisions made by people (corporations are "people" too) whom we may never meet. I suggest we each take the opportunity to review and, if needed, rationally dispute rules that do affect us locally. More widely, now is the time to collect and use more input from scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals to improve public disaster modeling, planning, mitiagtion and governing.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next