IT Lessons from Snowmageddon

A new report by CDW-G suggests that there may be some valuable lessons for federal IT leaders in the aftermath of last week's snowstorms that shut down federal agencies in the Washington, D.C., area for more than four days. The report, "Seven Habits of Highly Resilient Organizations," provides activities that federal IT executives should undertake to ensure that interruption to agency operations during weather disruptions or other emergencies is minimal.

"Often, first actions are directed toward the protection of physical property," the report states. "But more important than an organization's physical property is ensuring the integrity of its data, communications capabilities and the information technology infrastructure to support both -- regardless of the circumstances surrounding a disaster."

IT leaders should start by conducting a business impact assessment, in part by creating an inventory and prioritizing critical processes for the entire agency, the report states. IT executives also should take steps to protect data by backing it up frequently, storing multiple copies of data off-site, and upgrading the backup equipment to a faster version that reduces the time it takes to complete a backup cycle. "Once data is backed up, organizations will need to carry out a practical and well-tested plan to retrieve the information," CDW-G states.

Agencies also should add uninterrupted power supplies for critical servers, network connections and selected personal computers to keep most essential applications running, and identify and appoint a cross-functional preparedness team and recovery team of various IT experts who can identify and prioritize critical IT processes, the report states. IT executives also should document, test and update the disaster preparedness plan, form relationships with vendors, and consider telecommunications alternatives, such as wireless phones and satellite phones, in developing a disaster preparedness plan.

While agencies with robust telework programs were able to sustain operations during last week's snowstorm, most were crippled for the better part of a week. Could your agency have been better prepared to redeploy employees to work from home, and would it have been better off as a result?