Case Study: Bank Solutions Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

The case study discusses the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity planning in a bank setting. The key issues/challenges/risks identified are the need for a recovery strategy, alternate processing, risk mitigation, and technology recoverability. A recommended security strategy includes developing an enterprise-wide Business Continuity Plan (BCP), prioritizing critical operations, integrating the institution's role in financial markets, and updating the plan regularly. The proposed solutions involve designing high-availability architecture, quantifying performance parameters, and deploying alternative media for secure wireless systems.

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Case: Bank Solutions Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: A Case Study for CSIA 485
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Case study 1
Step 1: Describe the key issues/challenges/risks from this case study.
Answer
When the disaster recovery or the business continuity is started, there are various problems that
are faced in its implementation and the people have to make several plans for helping the
companies and for executing the processes successfully.
The key issues/challenges/risks from this case study are:
Within the strategy of the disaster recovery, there has to be a recovery strategy that has to be
considered for the alternate processing. The Hot-Site plan discussed in the plan and the
alternatives are also discussed in case the primary location is not available for providing the
services related to the recovery of the disasters for various system environments. Also, one more
issue needs to be addressed within the strategy of disaster recovery for ensuring that the
company is taking all the required and reasonable measures for identifying and mitigating the
potential risks that are there within the processing environment (Sadgrove, 2016). Avoiding risk
is an essential and important element in the process of disaster recovery.
The BCP’s include elements of life safety, technology recoverability, and risk, etc. that are both
internal to the firm and it is external to the clients. These plans are made so that the consumers
can access their funds in a prompt manner during the business disruptions. The company can
face problems like the isolated technology problem, regional issues like the hurricane, etc.

Case study 2
Step 2: Based on the information provided in the case study, describe and document the
recommended security strategy to mitigate the issues/challenges identified.
Answer
For an effective plan, many steps need to be followed, and if they are not laid down properly,
many risks can be faced by the companies and create problems in the future.
The steps include:
 Development of the BCP on the enterprise-wide level and giving the objectives of the
business and the critical operations a priority that is very essential for the recovery.
 The plan of BCP has o include resumption, recovery, and maintenance of the various
aspects of the business (Furfaro, 2016). It should not just limit itself to the recovery of
the components of technology.
 The role of the institution in the financial markets needs to be integrated.
 The BCP must be updated regularly as per the changes in the processes of business, the
recommendations of the audit and the lessons that are learned from the testing.
 A cyclical and process oriented approach will be adopted that will contain the business
impact analysis, assessment of the risk, management, mentoring and the testing too.
 All the factors have to be considered, and then the ‘crisis' needs to be decided.
The activities of BCP have to be overseen by the Board of Bank and the senior management here
is responsible for the plan. They will see the way in which the critical business functions have
been prioritized, the reviewing for the adequacy of the business recovery annually (Council,

Case study 3
2012), the way in which risks are managed and controlled, allocation of the appropriate
personnel, etc.

Case study 4
Step 3: Describe the proposed security solutions and relationship to the case study.
Answer
The solutions that will be made have to design with high-availability; there should not be even a
single point of failure. Also, the performance of the architecture for the technology solution
needs to be quantified. The company should be able to measure it whenever required, and the
parameters should be quantifiable.
The processes that are required involve- the architecture for the data center solution, the
architecture for the DR solution, the architecture for the near site, the architecture for the
enterprise network and security, the architecture for the branch or delivery channel.
These processes cannot be handled without the support of the bank that needs to take up the audit
for the performance and the availability of the solutions deployed for the architecture so that it is
ensured that there is no point of failure in this. The architecture that has been deployed needs to
get an audit done by the bank for the mission critical applications and the services so that the
concerns can be resolved in the timely manner (Snedaker, 2013). The bank needs to investigate
the outages that the plan may face from time to time and this needs to be dome periodically.
Finally, the bank also has to ensure the availability of the appropriate technology solutions for
measuring and monitoring the functioning of the products.

Case study 5
Step 4: Document a detailed, proposed timeline for addressing each element of the strategy
that you identify. Provide estimates for implementing recommended strategies, with
rationale. Include what resources are necessary for completing each task in the timeline.
Answer
Activity Time
Development of the BCP 1 month
The design and implementation of the BCP 2 months
Application of the BCP across organizations 1 month
Testing the BCP plan 1 day in every quarter
Following up check for the plan check of BCP 1 day in every quarter
1. For developing the plan, the objectives needs to be set, and the roles have to be allocated
to the people so that the processes can start and the activities can be carried out.
2. The design and implementation require the capital, financial, human and the technical
resources so that the software and other required things can be purchased and installed.
3. The application of the BCP requires things to carry out, processes to start and it requires
monitoring too.
4. For testing, the experts are needed who can see the working and feasibility of the plan.
5. For following up, a manager or a senior person is required who can take care of the BCP
and ensure that it is being utilized properly.
6.

Case study 6
Step 5: Provide a high-level recommendation regarding the next steps to take in mitigating
risks identified.
Answer
For the step further, the company can proceed with the help of the below mentioned objectives:
 There can be many points of entry and geographically diverse cables
 The relay circuits are framed in which the network interconnections are not required as
they cause the delay in the concentration points between the frame relay providers.
 The separate power sources are required to be installed for the equipment with the
generator along with the uninterrupted supply of the power (Kumar, 2013).
 The separate connections to the backup locations.
 To deploy the alternative media like the secure wireless systems.
 The local services need to be put to more than one carrier of the telecommunications or
the diverse physical paths to the independent offices that are central.
 Then, the suppliers are needed separately for the infrastructure needs of the hardware and
the software.
 Regular use of multiple facilities in which traffic is continually split between the
connections (Kumar, 2013).

Case study 7
References:
Council, A. (2012). Business continuity planning.
Furfaro, A., Gallo, T. and Saccà, D., 2016, August. Modeling Cyber Systemic Risk for the
Business Continuity Plan of a Bank. In International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and
Security (pp. 158-174). Springer International Publishing.
Kumar, D., Rai, A. K., Mishra, H., & Srivastava, P. (2013). Business continuity planning: a new
road to nurture business growth. International Journal of Computer Theory and
Engineering, 5(1), 151.
Sadgrove, K. (2016). The complete guide to business risks management. Routledge.
Snedaker, S. (2013). Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT professionals.
Newnes.