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Develop an Outline for a Business Continuity Plan for an IT Infrastructure

Introduction

The purpose of a business continuity plan (BCP) is to identify and assess the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities that threaten a company so you can minimize both internal and external exposure to them and so you can mitigate them. A BCP’s goal is to document processes for prevention and recovery. In this lab, you will explain the goals of a BCP, align the business impact analysis (BIA) with the BCP’s scope, identify the BCP’s major parts, and develop a BCP outline for a given scenario.

Learning Objectives

Upon completing this lab, you will be able to:

• Defi ne the goals and purpose of a business continuity plan (BCP) for an IT infrastructure • Align the business impact analysis (BIA) to defi ne the scope of the business continuity plan (BCP) for an

IT infrastructure • Identify the major parts of a business continuity plan (BCP) unique to the scenario and IT infrastructure • Develop a business continuity plan (BCP) outline for a given scenario and vertical industry

LAB

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Deliverables

Upon completion of this lab, you are required to provide the following deliverables to your instructor:

1. BCP Lab #8 text document;

2. Lab Assessment Questions & Answers for Lab #8.

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D evelop an O

utline for a Business Continuity Plan for an IT Infrastructure

Hands-On Steps

1. From your computer workstation, create a new text document called BCP Lab #8.

2. Review the Mock IT infrastructure for a health care IT infrastructure servicing patients with life-threatening conditions (Figure 8.1).

3. In your text document, discuss some of the major threats and vulnerabilities that might threaten areas of the Mock IT infrastructure in Figure 8.1.

4. Create an outline of the BCP sections and sub-topics that apply to the Mock IT infrastructure. Include these topics in your outline:

• Initiation of the BCP (introduction, definitions, BCP organizational structure, BCP declaration, BCP communications, and information sharing)

• Business Impact Analysis (risk assessment and analysis prioritizing business functions and operations aligned to IT systems, applications, and resources)

• Business Continuity/Disaster Readiness/Recovery (RTO, RPO, business continuity benchmarks, disaster recovery planning [DRP as a sub-set of a BCP plan], and recovery steps and procedures for mission-critical IT systems, applications, and data)

• Develop and Implement the Plan (the plan is a living and breathing document that requires annual updates and change control revisions; implementation and the instructions for how to engage the BCP are part of this section)

• Test and Update the Plan (the most important part of a BCP or DRP is to test the plan with a “mock” business continuity disruption or disaster scenario; tabletop reviews of the processes and proce- dures can be conducted to inform all BCP and DRP team members of their roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities)

5. Submit the text document to your instructor as a deliverable for this lab.

Figure 8.1

Mock IT infrastructure for Lab #8

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Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics

The following are the evaluation criteria and rubrics for Lab #8 that the students must perform:

1. Was the student able to define the goals and purpose of a business continuity plan (BCP) for an IT infrastructure? – [25%]

2. Was the student able to align the business impact analysis (BIA) to define the scope of the BCP for an IT infrastructure? – [25%]

3. Was the student able to identify the major parts of a BCP unique to the scenario and IT infrastructure? – [25%]

4. Was the student able to develop a BCP outline for a given scenario and vertical industry? – [25%]

70 Lab #8 | Develop an Outline for a Business Continuity Plan for an IT Infrastructure

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