Peer to Peer Magazine

www.iltanet.org 28 Peer to Peer CASE STUdIES A s was true for many law firms in major cities in the u.s. and abroad, september 11, 2001 (9/11) was a wake-up call to put sonnenschein's disaster recovery/business continuity house in order. At the time, the firm's financial and other key systems were centralized in the Chicago office in the 108-story Sears Tower (now Willis Tower). That exposure prompted concern about the quality and comprehensiveness of then-current business continuity plans, both from technology and business standpoints. LIGHT BULBS GO OFF Business continuity (BC) strategy sessions began immediately following 9/11. But the project really took off at ILTA's annual conference in 2002. There, firm personnel attended a session that helped us define and begin working on a foundation and the cornerstone of our BC plan from a technology perspective. Though the crisis of 9/11 triggered the project, we quickly began to assess the day-to-day realities of any type of business interruption, big or small. AnD SO IT BeGInS Working alongside industry partners, Sonnenschein began developing and implementing comprehensive business continuity plans with a focus on uptime. We determined those services that were critical to protect –– for our firm, that included Exchange Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, our document management system, our financial system, our HR system, Windows File Sharing and multiple custom applications. Sonnenschein developed a comprehensive plan that included a dual data center to support the entire firm. With 1,700 users in 13 different locations, we required a centralized infrastructure with co-located services in two separate but equal sites. We were excited to see that we could reduce costs, consolidate our hardware and reach the ultimate goal of 24/7 access to applications and data. While our primary focus of the co-location facility is business continuity, the redundant data center's service as a disaster recovery facility is of great importance. We desired two facilities of equal design, capacity and architecture. Our dual data centers make us less vulnerable and ensure uninterrupted business operations. Another major initiative for our IT team was to consolidate and centralize Microsoft Exchange firm wide. Centralizing Exchange servers from all offices to central data centers provides many benefits including reduced complexity, enhanced business continuity, and easier management with software upgrades and optimized data storage. IT TAKeS A VILLAGe From the outset of planning, we involved stakeholders from many departments. While the various IS teams focus on the technology aspects of BC, our crisis management teams and risk professionals are key players in creating and maintaining our plans. Every professional area of the firm is involved in testing and upgrading the plan. The support of the firm is instrumental in the success of any BC/DR plan. We are fortunate that our business impact "while the various IS teams focus on the technology aspects of BC, our crisis management teams and risk professionals are key players in creating and maintaining our plans." by Eric Anderson The Best Laid Plans of Sonnenschein

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