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By Marie Sawa & Carol Walker

It was business as usual the week of November 9-13, 2009, when FundSERV and its network partners participated in an extensive business continuity exercise. It was the first time all of FundSERV's business and network operations were conducted from its secondary site for an extended period of time.

This exercise was the culmination of five years of business continuity planning (BCP). It began with a comprehensive risk analysis in 2004, and the establishment of a secondary site, with a dedicated back-up data centre and a highspeed link to the primary office, the following year.

Between 1996 and 2004, FundSERV's business continuity plan (BCP) focused almost exclusively on core system disaster recovery. Fully redundant "hot" backup systems were installed in the primary data centre and "warm" backup systems were available for offsite recovery. Workstations were available to only a limited number of critical support staff on a first-come first serve basis.

Between 1998 and 2003, the Quebec ice storm, the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2003 blackout challenged conventional business continuity planning. Those events exposed the need to include contingencies for all critical business functions and resources, including telecommunications, facilities and staff, in addition to critical systems.

With a goal to achieve full offsite, real-time redundancy for core systems as well as staff and business processes, FundSERV intensified its business continuity planning in 2004. Greater focus was placed on the protection of intellectual capital and the overall business infrastructure. After a successful network failover exercise on the weekend of April 18, 2009, a similar exercise during a business week was the logical next step.

"While such large scale tests can be intimidating for our staff and customers, they are an integral part of our business continuity planning process. Continuous practice enables continuous improvement and ensures that everyone knows what to do when a real emergency occurs," says Amir Jafri, vice-president of technology.

Plans are now underway to have two full business continuity exercises in 2010, the dates of which have yet to be determined.

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