Notifying the Enterprise about Outages

1. James Voorhees April 2009 Notifying the Enterprise about Outages SANS Technology Institute Presentation

2. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Tasks • When users at <COMPANY NAME> cannot use a service, someone must • Tell the people who can fix it • Tell the people who need to know

3. SANS Technology Institute Presentation The NOSC • Network Operations and Security Center • Monitors the network 24/7/365 • If something goes down, they know • Maintains notification lists • Documents each outage

4. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Outage! • NOSC sees it in its monitoring tools • Or the NOSC is told by system owners • They must tell the NOSC before a planned outage happens • Or as soon as they learn of an unplanned outage

5. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Action: Find the Fixer • The NOSC maintains a list of contacts for each system • If a system or service goes down, the NOSC informs the contact • The contact can then fix the system • Or find the person who can

6. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Then, Inform • The Outage List is informed • This is a list of people and groups who are affected by most outages or can end them. • It includes systems and network people and the Help Desk • The NOSC tells them • What the outage is • When it happened • Why it happened • Also, what is being done and how long it will take

7. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Senior Management • If a major outage lasts 12 hours, Senior Management wants to know. • Like the Outage List, the NOSC tells them what happened, when, and why • And who is doing what

8. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Updates • When the situation changes, the Outage List is informed • Senior Management is updated every 12 hours. • This is done until the outage ends

9. SANS Technology Institute Presentation Questions? • Contact the NOSC: • nosc@<CompanyName>.com • 703-555-1212