Disaster Recovery Planning and Research Bulletins

This ECAR research bulletin suggests a framework to provide resiliency in higher education by placing such considerations up front in the evaluation, selection, and design of information technology (IT) services and building them into the business practices of the institution. Resiliency is the product of technology, people, and processes that minimize the impact of an event and make transparent that which would otherwise adversely disrupt the normal operation of services for students, faculty, or staff.

This ECAR research bulletin addresses a unique strength of higher education: its commitment to sharing ideas and promoting open access to knowledge. These values shape IT in higher education as well, as evidenced by many high-profile collaborations such as the Internet, Internet2, and open or community source applications such as Sakai and Kuali. Institutions work with one another on a broad range of projects and services including wide area networking, shared data centers, or disaster recovery. Some institutions share staff, while others outsource their IT operation to a fellow institution. Using findings from the 2007 ECAR study on IT collaboration, this bulletin explores the challenges that suggest that collaboration may become an even more prevalent strategy in the future.

This research bulletin discusses the advantages, benefits, and costs of business continuity certification. Based on data from the 2007 ECAR study of business continuity in higher education, the Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) International, journals, presentations, and interviews with business continuity professionals, the bulletin reviews the roles of certified professionals and the processes for obtaining and maintaining certification.

In August 2006, EDUCAUSE brought together a group of thought leaders from higher education and the private sector to explore and share effective strategies and behaviors on the important topic of business continuity in higher education. One of these leaders is Catherine Lewis, the information technology administrator who led New Orleans–based Xavier University through the August 2005 disaster of Hurricane Katrina and helped restore academic continuity for the institution. Lewis shares her perspective and insights in the form of this research bulletin.

In a comprehensive survey of higher education information technology support for business continuity conducted in May 2005, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research gathered responses from 340 institutions in the United States and Canada on a wide range of business continuity issues, including recovery time objectives (RTOs) and related practices. In this research bulletin, we present our findings on RTOs to give a sense of how institutions are approaching them and what benefits they might bring.

This research bulletin describes business continuity planning at the University of Minnesota. It examines key institutional factors related to business continuity: drivers, decision criteria, planning processes, critical inter- and intra-organizational relationships, timing, and consultation. The elements of the institution's Operational Continuation Plans are outlined, and the strategies and impact of these plans are discussed. Finally, the bulletin describes the implications of business continuity planning to higher education.

This research bulletin explores how two Texas higher education institutions—the University of Houston and the Baylor College of Medicine of the Texas Medical Center—recovered in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison, which dropped nearly 37 inches of rain in Houston and flooded both campuses. The bulletin addresses the role that information technology (IT) and the IT leadership and staff played in campus-wide recovery efforts and the refocusing of institutional priorities in response to the disaster.