E-Business and DR Planning: 
More Art than Science

By Jon Toigo

Companies doing business on the Web are urged to examine their Web hosting, application service provisioning, and b-to-b service provisioning agreements closely. Asking the following questions may save enormous headaches downstream, if and when interruptions occur:

• Does the service contract explicitly assign the responsibility for an outage to the service provider, or is the responsibility "shared" -- among the customer, service provider, and/or the provider’s providers (i.e., third party hardware, software or network vendors)? Shared responsibility clauses may be an open door for time delays and finger pointing if an outage occurs.
• Is a timeframe for service restoration in the event of an outage explicitly stated in the contract? Avoid "best effort" clauses or other open-ended statements that do not bind the service provider to a guaranteed result.
• Are "enhanced recovery options" such as redundancy or mirroring available? Can they be cost justified by the potential financial impact of an outage? Can "enhanced recovery options" be leveraged to sweeten the deal that is being made with the vendor?
• What is the current load on service provider facilities? Can the Web hosting service or ASP or portal provider honestly guarantee recovery at an alternate facility? Is the facility or network "overbooked?"
• How is the guaranteed service level to be monitored? What notifications are provided for disaster potentials that are not immediately obvious (say, half of the country cannot visit the e-commerce site due to a networks service interruption)?
• What redress is provided by the service provider for outages? Is a pro-rated discount on the monthly bill adequate to offset the loss of business that accrued to an outage period?
• Does the provider have an internal business continuity plan? Has it been audited for routine testing and currency?
• If the service provider offers backup services to other service providers, how does this potentially affect the availability of resources for your business?
• Will the service provider assist you if an internal interruption occurs that does not directly involve the services they provide to you under contract?
• For b-to-b portals, have the portal providers taken any measures to ascertain the continuity planning readiness of member organizations? Like any supply chain relationship, b-to-b partners establish interdependencies that can have a ripple effect if disaster impacts a partner.

The above list of questions is an excerpt from an article printed by Enterprise Systems.  The list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give e-business enthusiasts a starting point for considering the business continuity impact of new ventures. The business potential of the Web is only now being explored. Like any adventure into uncharted territory, the risks are as abundant as the potential returns.

About the Author
Jon William Toigo is an independent consultant and author with nearly 20 years of practical IT experience.  This article has been reprinted with permission by Enterprise Systems.  To read the full manuscript, go to www.esj.com