If our internal customers say we need to be able to resume paying claims within four hours following a fire in the data center, then we have to go out and develop a recovery plan that meets that business objective. A fter struggling for a generation to make colleagues aware of the crucial role information technology can play in the success of a business, CIOs must now face the consequences of having proved the point. To the extent that they have done what they set out to do, CIOs are on the hot seat. Systems must not fail-or, if they do, customers expect them to be brought back online immediately. Coming to terms with the inevitability of downtime, and calculating its cost, are two more items on the CIO's to-do list.
Some industries are more vulnerable to computer downtime than others.
Ill. Each group requires its own planning strategy. They take a system down for minutes or an hour or so, but they're not catastrophic. Scott McMahon, MIS manager at Integram St. Louis Seating in Pacific, Mo., is one for whom an operating failure can be extremely costly. If we don't continue to keep that pipeline full, we will shut down the Chrysler plant. They can't drive the vans off the assembly line without seats in them.