Patent Application
20100287010
The present invention relates generally to disaster recovery management, and more specifically to management services that support physical disaster recovery operations.
Disasters can be caused by hurricane, tornado, flood, terrorist attack, war, etc., and may impact many different types of physical services or resources. For example, a severe hurricane can impact housing, food supply, water supply, roads, public transportation, electric power lines, gas supply, sanitation, hospitals, schools, telecommunications, etc. A recovery operation typically follows each disaster, and may be managed by a local, state or federal agency such as FEMA. The recovery operation attempts to restore all physical services and resources that existed prior to the disaster and also provide physical services and resources for emergency and interim relief.
Known types of recovery operations prioritize the restoration of services and resources based on the criticality and urgency of each service and resource. A document entitled “Disaster Recovery Planning” by Peter Fallara discloses that recovery of resources and business processes should be prioritized based on time sensitivity and criticality, beginning the recovery with the most critical/low tolerance process. The process may begin before the disaster strikes with a risk assessment. Risk management identifies the business processes, threats and vulnerabilities, and classifies them by how critical they are to the overall business. With this information, the next step is to determine the impact a particular process has if it is unavailable for a period of time. A determination is also made as to the effect the failed process has on other business resources and processes.
Most recovery efforts require information processing, information analysis and other management services for physical recovery operations. The physical recovery operations include (a) search and rescue operations, (b) restoration of transportation infrastructure and services, (c) remote evacuation services, (d) command operations, (e) restoration of power supply infrastructure and services, (f) restoration of telecommunications infrastructure, (g) restoration of sanitation services, (h) restoration of food and water sources, (i) damage, (j) morgues, (k) safety infrastructure, (l) security services, (m) media services, (n) local, state and federal coordination, (o) military support, (p) procurement operations, (q) construction, (r) funding, and (s) notification processes. In the past, there have been difficulties in prioritizing the information processing, information analysis and other management services that support the physical recovery operations.
An object of the present invention is to better prioritize services or resources associated with a disaster recovery.
Another object of the present invention is to better prioritize information processing, information analysis and other management services in support of physical disaster recovery operations.
The present invention resides in a system, method and program product for prioritizing a multiplicity of management services which support physical disaster recovery operations. Criticality of each of the management services is determined. An urgency of recovery of each of the management services is determined. Respective numbers of services which support or depend on each of the management services is determined. A priority to perform each of the management services based on (a) the criticality of each management service, urgency of each management service and number of services which support or depend on each management service is determined.
In accordance with a feature of the present invention, in one example, the priority to perform each management service is based on the criticality multiplied times the urgency multiplied times the number of services which support or depend on each management service.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the figures.
Disaster recovery management program 30 manages physical disaster recovery operations by providing information processing, information analysis and other management of physical recovery operations. Program 30 can manage physical disaster recovery operations such as (a) search and rescue, (b) transportation restoration, (c) remote evacuation, (d) command operations, (e) power restoration, (f) telecommunications restoration, (g) sanitation restoration, (h) food and water restoration, (i) damage assessment, (j) morgue services, (k) safety facilities restoration, (l) security facilities restoration, (m) media restoration, (n) local, state and federal personnel management, (o) military protection, (p) procurement operations, (q) construction, (r) procurement of funding and (s) notification operations.
Database 32 is defined before a disaster occurs, and lists in a first column each management service that may be needed to support a disaster recovery. For each such management service, database 32 lists the criticality of the management service, the urgency of the management service, and which other management service(s) or other service(s) support or depend on the management service listed in the first column. The “criticality” of the management service is the importance of the management service and the corresponding physical service or resource being managed to human safety, well being, number of people affected, public health, financial cost and economic impact. Based on experience, research and logic, a person specifies the “criticality” of each management service and enters the specification into database 32. The “urgency” of the management service is the importance of prompt performance of the management service and prompt recovery of the corresponding physical service or resource being managed. For example, evacuation of stranded people and restoration of safety facilities (such as hospitals) are more urgent than reconstruction of housing so management of the evacuation of stranded people and management of safety facilities are more urgent than management of reconstruction of housing. Based on experience, research and logic, a person specifies the “urgency” of each management service and enters the specification into database 32. A person also determines from experience, research and logic which other services support or depend on recovery of the management service listed in the first column. For example, management of morgues is supported by both management of search and rescue efforts and management of medical support. As another example, management of medical support operations is supported by management of search and rescue operations. As another example, management of restoration of electric power is dependent on management of pumping out flood water because electric power cannot be restored until the flood water is removed. As another example, management of public transportation is dependent on management of cleanup and management of road reconstruction because public transportation cannot be restored until debris is removed from roads and the roads are reconstructed. The following Prioritization Table lists an example of the foregoing data in database 32:
Priority=(Criticality×Urgency×(#Support or Dependent))/Sum(Criticality+Urgency)
where “#Support or Dependent” is the number of services that support or depend on the listed management service.
In the illustrated embodiment, the services that support or depend on the management service listed in the first column of the Prioritization Table are listed in the last column of the Prioritization Table. In this example, there is a single service which supports each of the Management Services except as follows. There are two services which support each of the “Power Analysis and Management”, “Telecommunications Analysis and Management”, “Sanitation Analysis and Management”, “Morgue Analysis and Management”, and “Security Analysis and Management” management services. There is no service which supports the “Funding Management” management service. Although not listed in example of the Prioritization Table specified above, there can be dependent management services in the last column instead of or in addition to the supportive management services in the last column.
Next, disaster recovery management program 30 lists and displays the management services in their priority order, and also lists and displays the priority score of each management service, based on the results of the calculations performed in step 102 (step 104). In the illustrated example, the following is the priority order and score for each of the management services:
Next, disaster recovery management program 30 highlights any of the management services whose priority score calculated in step 102 exceeds a predetermined threshold (step 110).
Disaster recovery management program 30 can be loaded into computer 10 from a computer readable media such as magnetic tape or disk, optical media, DVD, memory stick, semiconductor memory, etc. or downloaded from Internet 40 via a TCP/IP adapter card 42.
Based on the foregoing, a system, method and program product for managing disaster recovery have been disclosed. However, numerous modifications and substitutions can be made without deviating from the scope of the present invention. For example, deployment of emergency generators could be substituted for restoring electrical services. Therefore, the present invention has been disclosed by way of illustration and not limitation, and reference should be made to the following claims to determine the scope of the present invention.
