Glossary - RecoveryPlanner

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A
Alert	Notification that a disaster situation may occur, a stand by for possible activation of the Recovery Plan. Notification that an interruption may occur due to planned events such as a system upgrade or due to expected events such as a hurricane warning.
Alternate Facility Provider See Also: Alternate Recovery Facility	A company owning an Alternate Facility (Hot Site/Cold Site).
Alternate Recovery Facility See also: Business Recovery Site; Hot Site; Cold Site	The Alternate Recovery Facility supports the quick resumption of "mission critical" business functions that are affected by a disaster. It houses the required equipment and resources (less personnel) needed to recover the critical business functions of an organization affected by a disaster. These facilities also offer businesses the ability to test Plans without disrupting business functions at a permanent Site.
B
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)	An all encompassing plan that provides the capability for an effective way to provide services and support to a company's customers during a disaster or other major outage.
Business Function	Fundamental activities of a business unit, including a group of activities designed to accomplish specific goals. Examples include mail distribution, message center operations, check/cash processing, payroll, and inventory management. Often used interchangeably with Business Process.
Business Interruption	Any event, whether anticipated (i.e., public service strike) or unanticipated (i.e., blackout) which disrupts the normal course of operations at a business location.
Business Process	Fundamental activities of a business unit, generally consisting of a group of business functions designed to accomplish specific goals. Examples include sales, production, accounting, product distribution, and customer service/support. Often used interchangeably with Business Function.
Business Recovery Manager	This person is responsible for the overall recovery process of an organization. This person ensures that the Plan is effective, comprehensive, and meets the organization's recovery objectives. The BRM is also responsible for maintaining the Plan and acts as a liaison with third party providers of continuity service.
Business Recovery Plan (BRP)	A document providing a detailed blueprint that defines the resources, actions, tasks, and data required to manage the business recovery process in the event of a business interruption. It includes steps that allow for the smooth transition from your company's offices to an alternative backup site.
Business Recovery Site See also: Alternate Recovery Facility; Hot Site; Cold Site	A location, other than the normal facility, used to process data and/or conduct critical business functions in the event of a disaster.
C
Cold Site	An Alternate Facility providing the shell without the infrastructure. This is a data center or office space facility equipped with sufficient pre-qualified environmental conditioning, electrical connectivity, communications access, configurable space and access to accommodate the installation and operation of user's own equipment by critical staff required to resume business operations.
Command Center	A temporary office-type facility located apart from the normal business facilities from which disaster recovery/business resumption activities can be effectively coordinated and managed. The emergency management team and/or section manager are instructed to assemble at the command center immediately following an event. A command center will typically be a location with ample voice communications capabilities as well as office space, furniture, and office equipment to support emergency management team members. The command center may be the assembly/briefing point for personnel involved in the initial recovery effort and should, at least in the initial stages of recovery operations, be the location from which the media (press, television, radio) and executive management are kept appraised of the situation. The command center can be located in an alternate recovery facility, mobile facility, in another building, or in a facility such as a hotel or conference center, remote from the normal business facilities. If the event does not warrant immediate evacuation, a conference room in the facility can be used to determine what action should be taken.
Contingency Procedures	Alternate procedures in case something goes wrong with the original process.
Critical Applications	Critical application(s) are manual, data processing, word processing, or personal computing applications which support essential business functions without which an organization might not survive.
D
Declaration Fee	A one-time fee, charged by an Alternate Facility provider, to a customer who declares a disaster.
Disaster Declaration	The formal notification process which takes place after it is determined that recovering normal operations at the primary site within a acceptable time period is not possible or feasible. The declaration process involves decision-making carried out by the Management Coordination Team upon recommendation from the Appraisal Team. Once enacted, the recovery effort begins to escalate as outlined in the documented Recovery Plan.
Disaster/Disruption	Any event that creates an inability on an organization's part to continue its critical business functions for some predetermined period of time. An interruption in or denied access to services, supporting resources, vital records, or other items necessary to support critical business functions for a predetermined length of time.
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F
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H
Hot Site	An alternative computer facility outfitted with the equipment and resources (less personnel) to recover the critical business functions of an organization affected by a disaster. It is fully equipped and configured to user specifications and ready for use upon notification. These alternate recovery facilities house the required hardware , network, voice/data communications, and other equipment necessary to fully support an organization's immediate needs in the event of an emergency or disaster. Hot site is a term which originated in the data processing environment, but the concept applies equally well to the designation of an alternate location for an office, a work space, an industrial area, etc. The hot site is a location, equipped to support a function which is available in the event of an emergency situation.
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L
LAN (Local Area Network)	A group of computers that are connected by cable and share data, software, and storage devices. This data communications system is confined to a limited geographic area (usually within one building or a group of buildings) with moderate to high data productions and usage rates. There may be many different computers or kinds of computers as well as printers and other devices in the network. LANs are necessary to client/server computing.
LAN Ready	Enhanced wiring infrastructure to support the recovery of industry-standard Ethernet or IBM Token Ring-based LAN applications utilizing customer-supplied equipment.
Line Rerouting	A service offered by many regional telephone companies allowing the client to quickly reroute the network of dedicated lines to an alternate facility.
M
Mission-Critical Application	A product, service, or activity identified as essential to the company's success. Its unavailability or failure to be performed within a specific time frame significantly affects the firm's: Assets Earnings Ability to meet regulatory requirements and contractual obligations Competitive edge Stockholder, staff, customer, market, or public confidence
Mobile Recovery Facility	A transportable operating environment (often a large trailer), outfitted with computer and telecommunications equipment which is transported to and set up at a chosen location.
N
Notification Fee	A one-time fee charged by an Alternate Facility provider to a customer who declares a disaster.
Notification Procedures	Procedures for implementing the call sequence to the alternate recovery facility that ensures proper communications at the onset of an interruption.
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R
Recovery Time	The period from the disaster declaration to the recovery of the critical functions.
S
Server	A computer providing a service for LAN-based applications such as file access, printer sharing, or electronic mail.
Stand Alone Application	AN application that is local to a PC; not on the network.
Subscription	Contract commitment providing an organization with the right to utilize a vendor recovery facility for recovery of their mainframe processing capability.
Subscription Fee	Normally, monthly fees paid for the privilege of using an alternate recovery site (hot site or cold site) under some prearranged agreement, i.e. on a first-come, first-served basis.
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W
WAN (Wide Area Network)	Like a LAN, except that parts of a WAN are geographically dispersed, possibly in different cities or even on different continents. Public carriers like the telephone company are included in most WANs; a very large one might have its own satellite stations or microwave towers.
Workstation	A terminal or personal computer or similar single user equipment which is connected to a larger processing element in a network.
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