Re: Web hosting for Emergency notification/DR

["Abels, Margaret R" <mrabels () INDIANA EDU>]

I hang out on this security list to keep up with security related items now that I am working mainly on DR/BC 
initiatives, so I'll just add that many discussions are happening between institutions on co-hosting each other's DNS 
and/or web presence.

There are several lists where these arrangements are discussed on a regular basis such as the Educause BC and the 
Educause Salsa DR Internet2 lists. I think Rodney Peterson at Educause can provide some guidance on those resources.

We, our messaging team, has a long standing reciprocal agreement for DNS hosting with another university, but I don't 
know the details of that agreement. If you're interested I can see if someone is willing to share the details with you 
on what the arrangement is...and how it works.

More recently, our University Public Relations group, has been discussing agreements to host an emergency only web page 
for us, should we have a larger regional disaster in the Midwest. I haven't received a status on that effort recently, 
so I don't know how that is working out.

It's a hot topic because most of us can't afford a vended solution and partnering makes sense because both institutions 
benefit from a readiness perspective. We all need regionally diverse partners to survive the onslaught of terrible 
things happening on our campuses today.

Let me know, offline, if you'd like more details about how our agreement works and how the DNS hosting is designed to 
work. I'll have to pull another resource, but usually folks are good about sharing things around here, where 
appropriate.

Marge


Marge Abels, CISSP
Business Continuity Program Manager
Information and Infrastructure Assurance
Office of the Vice President Information Technology & CIO
Indiana University
812-855-6609

-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Ken 
Connelly
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 10:16 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Web hosting for Emergency notification/DR

Hurricanes can cut a pretty wide swath.  Our major concern is tornados (and this week, floods), which tend to be more 
localized.  We house a server at a sister institution here in Iowa, about 100 miles from here, for the sort of thing 
you're talking about.  Is some sort of mutual sharing arrangement a possibility for your needs?

- ken

Michael Fox wrote:
> We are trying to find a hosting site that we can use for emergency/DR purposes. The plan is to have some templates 
> created for specific situations and have them ready on the hosted site. The hosted site would have a re-direct on it 
> to our active website for day to day business. During an emergency where we are down or told we will be down (due to 
> weather, power issues, etc.) we would take off the re-direct, use the template that is created for that specific 
> situation, point DNS to the hosted site and wait for the propagation.
>
> We are on the east coast and we are susceptible to Hurricane and tornadoes so we are looking for a site that is not 
> as susceptible to disasters (I know everybody has their own set of disasters to deal with), like out in Utah :).
>
> My problem is that our legal department says that we cannot enter into a contract that has an indemnity clause in it. 
> I haven't found a hosting (commercial) site that doesn't have this clause and I've asked a few if they would remove 
> it and got the response, NO.
>
> So I would ask, has anybody done this (with the contract restriction), how, with whom, or what other ways could this 
> be accomplished?
>
> Any help or ideas would be appreciated. (Hurricane season is upon us.)
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
>
> Mike Fox
> Georgia Southern University
> Information Technology Services
> Office of Information Security
> mfox () georgiasouthern edu
> (912)478-1592
> Jeremiah 29:11-16
>
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--
- Ken
=================================================================
Ken Connelly             Associate Director, Security and Systems
ITS Network Services                  University of Northern Iowa
email: Ken.Connelly () uni edu   p: (319) 273-5850 f: (319) 273-7373