Business Continuity Planning for Data Centers and Systems: A Strategic Implementation Guide

Chapter 9. Government's Role: Summary of National Infrastructure Protection Plan of 2006

It is worth discussing the government's role in the world of business continuity and mission-critical facilities. Some believe the government has participated too much in parameters and protocol for siting and planning. Many believe it has not gone far enough in guiding or mandating levels of redundancy required and minimum distances for business continuity planning (BCP) sites from primary sites.

Two big drivers for recent legislation and visibility for mission-critical facilities siting and infrastructure integrity are the Enron/MCI insider bad behavior and the events of September 11, 2001. The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation and subsequent law that was a reaction to bad-guy behavior on Wall Street did identify some facility and information technology (IT) benchmarks that are now landmarks for financial compliance and indirect facilities that support IT kit that confirm that compliance. The falling of the towers inspired partnerships of best practices to identify and solve the challenges of how to keep the free markets operating without government intervention, efficiently and with reasonable liquidity. The challenges identified included but were not limited to IT, human, facilities, outside plant (OSP) telecom, and OSP power.

A summary of the "national strategies" for what to do and how to do it is outlined by the Homeland Securities Doctrine July 2002. It establishes the nation's strategic ...