Disaster Recovery

The purpose of the Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan (“IT DRP”) is to establish the high-level process to restore IT systems, applications, and infrastructure of University of Notre Dame Australia (“The University”) following a major disruptive event. This IT DRP is aligned with the University’s overall Business Continuity and Risk Management Framework.

Scope

The IT DRP provides the framework and processes to enable a consistent approach and resource allocation to facilitate notification, assessment, recovery and process improvement from various IT disaster events or incidents. This document addresses incidents that are natural, man-made or unplanned major technical issues which may affect critical IT systems and or business services.

Objectives

This IT DRP aims to accomplish the following key objectives:

  • Limit the magnitude of any loss by minimising the duration of a critical application or service interruption
  • Assess damage, or active alternative system / applications to continue critical operations
  • Recover data and information imperative to the operation of critical applications
  • Manage the recovery operations in an organised an effective manner
  • Prepare technology / business staff to respond effectively in IT disaster recovery situations.

Related Documents

This IT DRP compliments and aligns with other established continuity processes and should be read in conjunction with the following:

  • Data Breach Policy
  • Business Continuity Plan (“BCP”)
  • Business Impact Analysis (“BIA”)
  • Critical Business Applications
  • Vendor Contact List
  • Critical Incident Management Policy
  • Critical Incident Management Procedure

Critical Systems and Dependencies Activation and Recovery Plan

Disaster Recovery Procedure and Testing

This Disaster Recovery Procedure provides a structured approach that should be followed by the University to identify and assess IT DR incidents, and commence recovery of the critical IT systems, applications and infrastructure in case of a disaster to ensure continual operations and resume mission critical functions.

Disaster Recovery Procedure Procedure Definitions

Definitions

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum acceptable length of time that elapses before the non-availability of the system severely affects the organisation. The RTO does not necessarily specify the expected time for full recovery of the system. It may represent the objective for recovery to a reduced but agreed level of service.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

The recovery point objective (RPO) is the point in time in which data must be restored to resume processing. The RPO does not necessarily specify the expected time to a full recovery of all data of the system.  It may represent the objective for recovery to a reduced but agreed set of data.

Maximum Tolerable Outage (MTO)

The Maximum Tolerable Outage is the maximum amount of time a system or systems can be unavailable before its loss will compromise the organisation’s objectives or survival.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

The documented procedures that guide the University to respond to Critical Incidents in order maintain and restore critical University functions. The critical University functions within each business streams are broken down by criticality threshold level – Gold level, Silver level and Bronze level

Critical Incident

A matter that has been deemed so by the Deputy Vice Chancellor. It may be a traumatic event, or the threat of such (within or without Australia), which causes extreme stress, fear or injury as defined by the University’s Critical Incident Management Policy.

Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT)

Those responsible for directly managing and directing the incident. This may include liaising with emergency services, coordinating evacuations, notifying staff or student emergency contacts, and managing internal and external communications.

Need help?

If you have any questions about Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan (“IT DRP”), please contact your IT Service Desk.

For assistance with technical, audio visual and project support, please contact IT Services. Our team are available:

  • Phone Support: Call us between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM at 1800 878 903.
  • Service request: Log a support request through our IT Service Portal