Business Continuity Plan

Business Continuity Plan

Overview

This Business Continuity Plan (BCP) ensures HeliosDB-Lite operations can continue during and after disruptive events, protecting business functions, stakeholders, and reputation.

Scope

This plan covers:

• Development and engineering operations
• Customer support services
• Infrastructure and operations
• Corporate functions

Business Impact Analysis

Critical Business Functions

Function	RTO	RPO	Impact of Disruption
Production database service	5 min	1 min	Customer data unavailable
Customer support	4 hours	N/A	Support tickets delayed
Development	24 hours	N/A	Release schedule impacted
Sales/Marketing	48 hours	N/A	Revenue pipeline impacted

Dependency Matrix

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Critical Dependencies                        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Database Service                                               │
│    ├── Cloud Infrastructure (AWS/GCP)                          │
│    ├── DNS Services                                             │
│    ├── Certificate Authority                                    │
│    └── Monitoring Systems                                       │
│                                                                 │
│  Development                                                    │
│    ├── GitHub                                                   │
│    ├── CI/CD Pipeline                                           │
│    └── Development Environments                                 │
│                                                                 │
│  Support                                                        │
│    ├── Ticketing System                                         │
│    ├── Communication Tools                                      │
│    └── Documentation                                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Continuity Strategies

Strategy 1: Geographic Redundancy

• Primary: US-East region
• Secondary: US-West region
• Tertiary: EU region (for EU customers)

Strategy 2: Remote Work Capability

All team members equipped for full remote work:

• Laptop with development environment
• VPN access to all systems
• Communication tools (Slack, Zoom)
• Documentation access

Strategy 3: Supplier Diversification

Service	Primary	Backup
Cloud hosting	AWS	GCP
DNS	Route53	Cloudflare
Email	Google Workspace	Backup SMTP
Communication	Slack	Discord

Activation Procedures

Activation Criteria

Event	Activation Level	Authority
Single component failure	None	Automated
Service degradation	Level 1	Operations
Partial outage	Level 2	VP Engineering
Full outage	Level 3	Executive team
Regional disaster	Level 4	CEO

Activation Process

Event Detected
     │
     ▼
Assess Impact ──▶ Minor? ──▶ Normal Incident Response
     │
     ▼ Major
Activate BCP Team
     │
     ▼
Determine Level
     │
     ▼
Execute Procedures
     │
     ▼
Monitor & Adjust
     │
     ▼
Recovery & Lessons Learned

Response Procedures

Level 1: Service Degradation

Duration: Up to 4 hours

1. Activate on-call team
2. Implement workarounds
3. Communicate with affected customers
4. Restore normal operations
5. Document incident

Level 2: Partial Outage

Duration: 4-24 hours

1. Activate BCP team
2. Failover to redundant systems
3. Customer communication (status page)
4. Coordinate with affected teams
5. Regular status updates
6. Recovery planning

Level 3: Full Outage

Duration: 24+ hours

1. Executive notification
2. Full DR activation
3. Customer communication (direct)
4. Media/PR coordination
5. Extended team mobilization
6. Daily status calls

Level 4: Regional Disaster

Duration: Extended

1. All-hands notification
2. Employee safety verification
3. Alternate site activation
4. Business function prioritization
5. Extended operation mode
6. Recovery planning

Communication Plan

Internal Communication

Audience	Channel	Frequency	Owner
BCP Team	Slack #incident	Real-time	IC
Engineering	Email + Slack	Hourly	VP Eng
All Staff	Email	Daily	HR
Executives	Phone/Slack	As needed	CEO

External Communication

Audience	Channel	Frequency	Owner
Affected customers	Email	Immediate	Support
All customers	Status page	Real-time	Ops
Partners	Email	Daily	BD
Media	Press release	As needed	PR

Communication Templates

Customer Notification:

Subject: [Status Update] HeliosDB Service

Current Status: [Investigating/Identified/Resolved]

We are currently experiencing [brief description].

Impact: [What customers may experience]

Actions: [What we are doing]

ETA: [Expected resolution time]

Updates: status.heliosdb.io

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Team Responsibilities

BCP Team Structure

Role	Responsibilities	Primary	Backup
Incident Commander	Overall coordination	VP Ops	Director Eng
Technical Lead	Technical decisions	CTO	Sr. Engineer
Communications	Internal/external comms	VP Marketing	PR Manager
Customer Success	Customer communication	VP CS	CS Manager
HR/Safety	Employee welfare	HR Director	HR Manager

Contact Information

Maintained in secure, offline document available to all BCP team members.

Recovery Procedures

Service Recovery

1. Assessment: Evaluate damage and requirements
2. Prioritization: Critical functions first
3. Restoration: Systematic service restoration
4. Verification: Testing and validation
5. Return to Normal: Full operations resume

Data Recovery

See: DISASTER_RECOVERY.md

Facility Recovery

1. Assess facility status
2. Activate alternate site if needed
3. Coordinate equipment/supplies
4. Resume operations
5. Plan permanent recovery

Testing & Maintenance

Testing Schedule

Test Type	Frequency	Participants	Duration
Tabletop exercise	Quarterly	BCP team	2 hours
Communication test	Monthly	All staff	30 min
Technical DR drill	Monthly	Engineering	4 hours
Full simulation	Annually	All teams	1 day

Plan Maintenance

Activity	Frequency	Owner
Contact list update	Monthly	HR
Procedure review	Quarterly	Operations
Full plan review	Annually	Executive team
Post-incident update	After each incident	IC

Training

• Annual BCP awareness training for all staff
• Quarterly deep-dive for BCP team
• New hire orientation includes BCP overview

Appendices

Appendix A: Emergency Contacts

[Maintained separately in secure document]

Appendix B: Vendor Contacts

Vendor	Service	Support Contact	Account ID
AWS	Infrastructure	aws.amazon.com/support	[ID]
Cloudflare	CDN/DNS	cloudflare.com/support	[ID]
GitHub	Source control	github.com/support	[ID]
PagerDuty	Alerting	pagerduty.com/support	[ID]

Appendix C: Checklist

Initial Response:

• Incident confirmed
• BCP team notified
• Impact assessed
• Level determined
• Procedures initiated

During Incident:

• Regular status updates
• Customer communication
• Resource coordination
• Documentation maintained

Recovery:

• Services restored
• Verification complete
• Stakeholders notified
• Normal operations resumed

Post-Incident:

• Lessons learned meeting
• Plan updates identified
• Documentation updated
• Training needs assessed