UIT Strategic Priority: Continuity of Operations - University of Houston
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Continuity of Operations

OVERVIEW

UH must be prepared for timely restoration of critical IT services to support essential functions in the face of an emergency or a service disruption. This means investing in technologies that involve not only the uninterrupted operation of critical systems and services, but also implementing the right set of processes to achieve continued operations.

UIT has processes and procedures in place, outlined in the UIT Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), to assure service continuity. These include quantifying the business impact of our 11 critical core services and 25 critical information resources, setting a high target of 99.9% service availability for core services, implementing 24 x 7 x 365 monitoring services through the IT Availability Center (ITAC), assigning clear roles and responsibilities for incident management and outlining appropriate communication channels.

ALIGNMENT

  • With the University — Policy: The UIT COOP outlines the preparedness, response, assessment, recovery and mitigation of UIT resources. The UIT COOP is consistent with established practices relating to interoperability of emergency response actions, and aligns to the UH Emergency Management Policy MAPP 06.01.01 and UH Continuity of Operations Policy MAPP 06.01.02.
  • With the State — Continuity of Operations: The UIT COOP complies with recommendations from the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) agency.
  • With National Entities: The UIT COOP incorporates the use of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) National Response Framework (NRF), Incident Command (IC) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1600® Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs to facilitate interoperability within the university and between responding mutual-aid agencies.

UIT Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)

11 Critical Services - 25 Critical Information Resources

UIT Service Availability Dashboard available at 
https://uh.edu/infotech/about/performance/dashboard/

CURRENT STATE

  • We have consistently met our 99.9% service availability SLA for critical core services and applications such as AccessUH, myUH (PeopleSoft), LMS (Blackboard [Canvas since June 2023]), Email, Web Farm and Emergency Services.
  • UH has mature incident and change management processes to quickly address service affecting incidents and proactively communicate with customers when planned outages will occur.
  • Service availability, outages and resolution are communicated to our customers by email and through the UIT Service Dashboard.
  • Thanks to UIT continuity planning, all the necessary resources were already in place to make the rapid shift from face-to-face classes to online instruction at the onset of the pandemic.

PATH TO SUCCESS

  • Success is measured by achieving our target service level agreements (SLAs) for critical core services and information resources.
  • The Continuity of Operations program is expanding to align best practices among the UH System campuses (UH, UH-Clear Lake, UH-Downtown and UH-Victoria).
  • Incident management processes and procedures are continually being evaluated to identify areas for improvement.

FY2022 INITIATIVES

  • Remain responsive to growing service needs in our critical core services and applications.
  • Focus annual UIT COOP exercise on highest risk areas and identify areas for continued improvement.
  • Initiate the expansion of the Service Continuity program to include UHCL, UHD and UHV.

99.9 Percent Service Availability