Disaster Recover Plan: We Have One…Should You?
Power outage, either routine or from a calamity, is one of the catalysts that can initiate the Kochis Fitz Disaster Recovery Plan. Bay Area residents certainly recall the inconvenience when the 1989 earthquake knocked out electrical and phone systems. Happily, most systems were running in most places in a day or two. Should downtown San Francisco have such an outages again, Kochis Fitz has a plan to keep the business running even if we can’t get to the office and even if the office has no power.
Our disaster recovery plan provides for immediate, accurate, and measured response to emergency situations, maximizes the safety and well being of firm personnel, and provides our clients with as seamless a service experience as possible.
Data Back-up.
Client data that resides on our server is backed up every night, and access to the data on the tape is electronically restricted. The daily back up tapes are taken off site nightly, a different monthly back up is taken off site to a second location, and every six months the back up tape is sent to a third location that is not only secure but temperature controlled to insure the integrity of the tape. Back-up data is kept off-site for six years.
While extremely costly in the past, vendors of online back-up services are vying for business with ever more sophisticated and cost effective storage methods. These vendors all copy files, securely, through the Internet to a data storage facility outside of our geographic area. We are considering adopting the use of online back-ups, analyzing issues such as accessibility, encryption, security, capacity, cost, and reliability. Our arrangements are meant to ensure that all necessary records will be available to meet operational and regulatory requirements, including email and client contact information.
Current investment data (prices, positions, transactions), and most historical data, are, of course, available though the portfolio custodians, and all custodians we work with also back up their files.
Communicating with Employees
In the event of a disaster that occurs during work hours, we would of course be able to tell our employees where to go if we needed to vacate the office, and whether or not to return to work the next day. However, if the disaster should occur outside of normal work hours, a not-unlikely scenario, it would be difficult to communicate with each of our employees in a timely fashion. Consequently, we have set up a toll free number that employees can call for instructions and updates about the office and our service to clients, as well as leave messages as to their status and whereabouts.
Offsite Workplaces
If downtown San Francisco is not available, Kochis Fitz employees can work from remote locations once we can access the data across the Internet---as our staff are currently equipped to do, using passwords to access the secured data.
Home Preparedness
Our annual review of our disaster recovery plan at Kochis Fitz reminded us that, as individuals, we may need to update our own home emergency preparedness. This led to our investigation of the resources available to make this easier.
We found a valuable tool for San Francisco Bay Area residents at www.quake.usgs.gov. This website compiles information from the Red Cross, the US Geological Survey, the SF Office of Emergency Services, and Homeland Security, among others.
Besides fascinating geologic maps and highly motivating earthquake damage photos, this excellent website features useful lists such as:
- Personal Disaster Kit (energy bars, cash in small bills…),
- Household Disaster Kit (drinking water, lighting, pet food….),
- Reducing Home Hazards (heavy art above your bed, gas pipes…),
- Disaster Recovery Kit (essential documents to keep in safe deposit box).
Additional websites, some with much broader scope, include:
Making it Easier
To get the job done, you might want to buy a ready-made survival kit. Hardware stores and do-it-yourself stores have pre-made kits with their own reminder system to tell you when to replace your supplies. Online sources are listed by Google right next to the above-referenced website listings.
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