I was asked by a bus driver about things to come:
 
  Count on it; the violence in the cities will not get better and will
  get worse.  The recent incident will be just a taste of the kind of
  thing that will happen so often that the papers won't even report them
  until the body count goes above 100 or more.  Count on random acts of
  violence without purpose or reason.  And expect the imposition of
  Martial Law in major cities.  Making a prediction like this is
  about as difficult as predicting a falling egg will crack while it's
  on the way to the floor.
 
When I said it, it was *1980* and I was referring to the
*Miami Riots*.
 
On Friday the New York World Trade Center was damaged by an explosive
device in one of the first major terrorist attacks within the United
States.  (There have been earlier, minor ones.)
 
As a result of the damage some major communications suppliers and service
providers were temporarily out of service and some had to move to other
quarters.  (Of course there's an advantage; some may discover it's so much
cheaper to operate in New Jersey in place of New York City that they might
not come back!)
 
So the question for those of you on this news group should be thinking
about is what plans do you have for disaster or catastrophe?  Where is
your organization's disaster plan and when was it last updated?  Does your
organization even *have* a disaster plan?  If not, solicit input into what
will be needed to temporarily survive emergency conditions pending recovery.
 
If you've been having trouble getting your office to pay for the cost of
having emergency resources in the event of disaster, this is a PRIME
OPPORTUNITY to get them to do so.  Take advantage of this clearly
obvious chance to upgrade your disaster plans to allow you to recover in
the event that there is an event which could close down your facility or
damage your site.  Remember, 90% of places that don't bring their
computers back up within 72 hours don't survive the disaster.
 
One possiblility is, in lieu of or in addition to using a hot site (a
location with functionally identical hardware that is running and
available) or a cold site (a computer room cabled and with flooring but
having no hardware) with rented computers, could be to make swap
agreements with other companies outside of your area for partial
facility use arrangements with sites using the same hardware
as you are to allow each other to use part of the other's
capacity in the event your own system is made inoperative.
 
Any non-competitive user of the same hardware in general who is at least
10 or more miles from your site is a good choice.  You should try to
obtain several agreements with other companies to allow your organization
the ability to do temporary running of critical production work on
the other place's site.  Critical is probably no more than 20% of your
applications - the stuff that if not done immediately, might mean you
never reopen - daily clearances of funds, accounts receivable collection,
and so on.
 
Remember what "non-competitive" means.  A Mercedes-Benz dealer in
Cincinnati is not competing with with a place that sells Yugos, even in
the same town.  But a Cadillac dealer in Minnesota is (usually) not
competing with one in Ohio.  Two charities covering the same problem may
be competitive no matter where they are, but a charity for homeless
children and a organization soliciting college scolarship funds
might not be.
 
If your machine is heavily overloaded, you may want to try to get a larger
one installed or off-load some of it to another or additional machine
in order to have some surplus capacity.  You will need it if someone else
comes along asking for help.
 
You might want to use an agreement to allow you to offload some of your
work onto another site in order to allow another place suffering from a
temporary disaster to have the temporary use of part of yours.  You can,
of course, charge them whatever the other place is charging you for use of
their facility for the difference in processing, just as you would charge
them for the use of yours or they would charge you if you had to use
theirs.  For a non-profit organization this may be of assistance to a
company; if they have to borrow from your computer, they would pay for the
extra costs involved, but if you have to borrow from them, they may be
able to deduct additional costs as a charitable contribution.  Cooperative
agreements between charitable organizations may be the best choice where
they do not have the funds to support paying for a hot site even though
they need the capacity if disaster strikes.
 
This is a hot, clearly obvious issue and you need to take advantage of it
in order to make sure you can recover from disaster if it ever happens.
Not just terrorist attacks, but fire, earthquake, flood or other
disaster which occurs *without warning* or with little warning.
 
Certainly, use of a commercial hot site is probably the the best and most
appropriate choice, if your organization can afford it, although it may
think that it does not not have the extra funds to spend on this sort of
thing especially as it may be considered something they may never use.  It
can be pointed out that if the company's hot site is in a location that
takes a hit, then you may be in even worse trouble.  Ten agreements with
ten places that aren't competitors may offer insurance to all of them
that a disaster in an area won't wipe them out.
 
Right now, there are some simple, inexpensive things you can do to stave
off possible disaster in case there is a problem in your area or region:
 
1.  Have your organization open one (or more) clearance account(s) at
    one (or more) bank(s) in areas outside of your local area, and
    specifically in a different Federal Reserve Bank district.
    You may be safe and sound in Lebanon, KS, but if a bomb shuts down
    the Dallas area, your bank might not be able to process checks;
    Same for, say a Phoenix company until it discovers that its bank
    can't use its clearance account with the (earthquake damaged) Federal
    Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
 
2.  Have a CB radio in your office.  If someone in your office is licensed
    for Ham Radio, buy them a unit to keep in the office.  Get a Cellular
    phone if your office doesn't have one.  This way, it may be possible
    for your office to keep in touch elsewhere; you may also be able (in
    the case of the CB or Ham Radio, to give assistance when someone can't
    get through to someplace hit by a natural or man-made disaster.)  If
    you have several Cellular carriers in your area, get a number
    assignment from each of them.
 
3.  Check what kind of UPS you have and how long it will last if totally
    out of power.  Check the batteries on it for the expiration time.
    Do you have or can you borrow a standby generator which would be
    sufficient to run enough critical applications to keep your place
    running until alternate siting can be put into place?  How much fuel
    for it do you have on hand?  Can you get to it in case of earthquake,
    civil disorder, flood?  If it's a gas generator, find out about
    converting to Diesel which is much safer to have stored on hand, and
    is less likely to be a target for looters than gasoline.
 
4.  When was the last time you had a test of a complete shutdown due to
    no power?  If it's been more than a couple of years, it may be time
    to simulate such a shut down.  Some places discover equipment which
    has been in continuous operation for so long that the equipment may
    have trouble restarting from a cold shutdown.
 
5.  Contact all of the companies you license software and get written
    authorizations, if your licenses don't cover it, for temporary moves
    to different computers.  Just tell them the truth: you want the
    ability to use a temporary site in case you get hit with an incident
    like the World Trade Center.  You may need to get special authorization
    keys or you may need to get them to give you emergency numbers to call
    to get them.  My personal preference would be toward having a special
    authorization code you have on hand for temporary use; if the software
    won't operate without special keys, and your supplier can't be
    reached, you could end up closing if you can't recover whatever programs
    you are running.
 
I would be happy to discuss this further with anyone having any questions.
---
Paul Robinson
Tansin A. Darcos & Company
Internet:  [log in to unmask]
Telex:     6505066432MCI UW
Telephone: (202) 310-1011