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6. EVALUATION of STRATEGIES NOT RECOMMENDED AND STATE WHY INAPPROPRIATE:

I. Evaluate Each Strategy NOT Recommended: Document the following for each strategy NOT recommended:

· Relocation to a vendor facility:

Reasons that this strategy is not appropriate:

· This strategy involves moving to an unknown location ATOD, and the company is not comfortable with this level of uncertainty.

· The facility is provided by the vendor on a first come first serve basis, and there may be competition for optimal sites adding another layer of unacceptable uncertainty

· This approach requires a monthly ‘per seat’ expenditure, whether in use or not.

· Testing ATOD may prove challenging.

· The company, not the vendor, bears responsibility for the activation of telephone lines and imaging PCs in advance, necessitating resources and expenditures.

· This strategy does accommodate the 1-week RTO, but provisions for timely vendor facility readiness are not guaranteed thereby rendering this option unacceptable.

· Find an external alternate site ATOD

Reasons that this strategy is not appropriate:

· This strategy comes with many risks and long lead times.

· One must locate an appropriate site ATOD, which may prove difficult as competition for accommodations ATOD may be high.

· This approach requires a complete build-out including office construction, painting, flooring, meeting spaces, HVAC, electrical wiring, and cabling necessitating the employ of external skilled trades resources ATOD. Worker shortages ATOD and collective bargaining unit issues complicate these processes and jeopardize readiness. Expenses related to the build-out are prohibitive.

· The acquisition of office equipment and peripherals ATOD may require unacceptably long lead times

· Testing ATOD will be difficult.

· This strategy with an RTO of ≥1-month does not satisfy the Legal Department mandated RTO of 1 week.

· Employees working from home

Reasons that this strategy is not appropriate:

· This approach, typically used to provide a remedy for short-term outages, allows employees to work from home using company-issued computer hardware and software.

· This strategy relies on employees’ home internet connectivity, which may not be stable or secure.

· This approach requires testing prior to disruption to ensure operative reliability. Testing processes may be cumbersome and result in overburdening of the Help Desk

· The security and confidentiality of Legal Department data and communications may be at risk if exposed to unsecured home networks or if an employee prints documents and does not secure or dispose of them properly.

· The necessary Business Continuity may become threatened by an unreliable home Internet Service Provider (ISP) or disaster or disruptions affecting the region in which the employee resides.

· This option meets the 1-week RTO but is unacceptable because of the aforementioned risks.

· Reciprocal Agreement

· The Reciprocal Agreement is typically a non-contractual verbal arrangement established between two similar organizations or two internal departments located within a proximity of 75 to 100 miles from the respective primary site. [Prof G please fix this] The agreeing entities maintain similar environments, hardware, and software environments while having surplus capacity and processing time. They agree to use one another’s specified systems ATOD to support the continuity of critical business functions during disruptions, but these circumstances present a competitive environment for space and resources which threaten the stability required for the Legal Department. Comment by Author: This does NOT apply to Work Area Recovery as that is your Internal Strategy. Instead, Reciprocal Agreement is ONLY BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES.

· Data confidentiality concerns unacceptable for the Legal Department arise from shared environments present under Reciprocal Agreement conditions.

· Systems accessibility and testing at another company’s facility may prove difficult.

· Legal risks associated with difficulties in enforcing verbal agreements is unacceptable to the Legal Department.

· The absence of a 1-week RTO guarantee renders this option unacceptable.

7. WRAP-UP OF ANALYSIS

I. What advantages would there be for your recommended strategy? What are the disadvantages of this strategy?

· Advantages:

· The use of a company-owned and operated site ensures data security and maintains information confidentiality critical for the Legal Department.

· The ability to transition to the new location and resume operations seamlessly is practical and cost-efficient.

· No fees or extended lead times associated with external vendor facilities.

· No risks associated with work-from-home arrangements.

· Employees may remain at the facility indefinitely.

· The Dallas, TX location is accessible by many forms of transportation to support employee movement from the HQ area.

· Hotel accommodations available nearby the facility.

· The Internal Alternate Facility strategy meets the mandatory 1-week RTO with minimal financial overhead.

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· Disadvantages

· Extensive planning and preparation required to establish and configure the Internal Alternate facility.

· Front-end capital investment required to set up the Internal Alternate Facility.

· The Dallas, TX area may be subject to extreme weather conditions posing some risk.

· Employees either unable or unwilling to travel ATOD

· Testing may interfere with production at the other facility

· Technical issues could arise such as: PC’s in storage may not work, they image may not be current, if inventory is not properly managed they may not have enough ATOD