Government Technology - July 2008 - (Page 38)

Aside from data storage, does your organization have backup computing resources that would be unaffected by a local or regional emergency? 27% No 21% Don’t Know 53% Yes In addition to educating internal staff, state CIOs should work across organizations to coordinate across the state as a whole, he said. “The state probably has its own disaster recovery plan. As an IT organization, the CIO’s office should cross that boundary and make sure its [disaster recovery] plans are in sync with what’s going on in the state as well,” Leatherby said. “I think that may be where some of the CIO offices fall short: They just look at their critical staff when they’re looking at [disaster response/business continuity] and education.” Understanding interdependencies when planning for continuity of government operations is an important component to preparation, said Holdeman. For example, even though most survey respondents (81 percent) said key staff members can access resources they need remotely, it’s likely they won’t be able to remotely access the network all at once. In some cases, this is due to infrastructure issues the organization cannot control. In a pandemic flu situation, if everyone signs on from home, providers may not be able to keep up, he said. “If you’re in a cable-based system, you’re actually sharing bandwidth with everybody in your neighborhood,” he said. “So it isn’t just based on what you’ve put into place; it’s the infrastructure that’s within your community.” Working with other public and private organizations can help planners’ understanding of these interdependencies, he said. JULY_08 “Some would say, ‘Well we’re doing what we can within our realm of control,’ which is appropriate, but then you have to understand — through these public-private partnerships — what the limit is,” Holdeman said. “Don’t just be thinking, ‘We’re going to save our bacon by having this in place.’” Cross-organizational relationships are difficult, however, and require time and energy. According to survey results, close to 60 percent of respondents have relationships in place with other government agencies to assist with disasters, and the variance between state and local respondents was negligible. But when it comes to having similar relationships with private-sector entities, the response between state and local governments varied significantly: More than 50 percent of state respondents claimed those relationships existed, while only a third of local government respondents had relationships in place with private-sector entities to assist in a disaster. Leatherby, who is also the author of two NASCIO reports on disaster recovery — IT Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Tool-kit: Planning for the Next Disaster and Pandemic Planning and Response for State IT: Where’s My Staff? — said communicating with private-sector partners before an incident is critical. “One of the big recommendations we made in our report was to make sure that you have prepositioned contracts in place with your vendors and to make sure all your ducks are in order with your outside contractors and things of that nature,” said Leatherby. According to Holdeman, a lack of resources is one reason local governments may struggle more when working with the private sector. “It’s probably a degree of how many resources the local government has opposed to the state,” he said, adding that often local government emergency management organizations consist of only one person, and in some cases, organizations devote less than a full-time equivalent (FTE) position to the job. “It’s part of an FTE, and it’s not his or her primary duty.” Reaching outside of the organization to find solutions also can be a cultural challenge for government, Holdeman added. Sometimes it’s merely a factor of how much energy Does your organization have agreements in place with other government entities to assist with continuity of government operations in the event of a disaster? Percentage of state government respondents Percentage of local government respondents Total percentage of respondents Yes No Don’t know 61% 17% 22% 63% 21% 16% 59% 19% 22% Does your organization have agreements in place with private-sector entities to assist with continuity of government operations during a disaster? Percentage of state government respondents Percentage of local government respondents Total percentage of respondents Yes No Don’t know 51% 10 % 39% 33% 47% 21% 43% 25% 33% 38 http://govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - July 2008

Government Technology - July 2008 Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions for ... Generation 2.0 at Work Dangerous Convenience Tainted Justice? Are You Ready? E-Discovery Basics Smart Docs Advanced Math Online Video Blues Spectrum Personal Computing Products signal:noise

Government Technology - July 2008

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