P2P

12 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 If you'd like to chat in more detail, you are most welcome to reach out to me via the ILTA Community. With Hope, Plans never work like you think. Be nimble and ready to change directions quickly. • Have a backup plan. As a green beret once told me, "Have a plan. You must have a plan and be ready to execute. But, it NEVER works out like you planned. Be ready to think, adapt, and move in another direction." • Have alternative options. You'll want to have two or more avenues of approach to tackling the problem. And, stay flexible to change direction quickly if necessary. • There is no better time to change directions or abandon a course than when you realize it isn't going to result in your desired goal. By the way, this is a good rule to follow for general projects. Events come in three main categories, as previously mentioned. • System or Service outages – usually due to some system failure. Unfortunately, many of these incidents are self-inflicted; think about that recent airline system outage. Good Change Management procedures and training can help reduce most self- inflicted system outages. • Extended power outages – With the proliferation of "Work-From-Home," this one is less of a detriment if an office building loses power. However, a power outage at your data center would be terrible. A professional co-location facility or cloud service would be the preference due to their configuration with generators, multiple routes of communication, and other redundancies. • Inaccessibility to the building location(s) – Similar to a power outage, there are other reasons why your building/office may become unusable—fire, water damage, a major gas leak in your area, traffic problems, contaminations, safety lockdowns, weather, construction snafus, and more. Again, with the advent of the WFH norms, an office can generally just continue operations from home offices. It is my sincere hope these resources and experiences help you to prepare and recover from your next major business disruption event. And if you are a highly experienced BC/DR professional, please join the ILTA Communities and share your tips and strategies; you might just make the difference in another organization's survival during a disaster. ILTA F E A T U R E S Skip Lohmeyer is an accomplished IT leader, adept at implementing business strategies and rallying teams to improve the leveraging of information technology to meet corporate and client objectives. Experienced at orchestrating large-scale projects and delivering effective long- and short-term strategies regarding technology operations, staffing, budgets, and optimal business solutions to support and enhance the organization. Published, award- winning author and leader. MBA with Honors. Skip is currently the Chief Information at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP. Skip Lohmeyer

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