All hands on deck for Disaster Recovery exercise

The Auckland based SNOC is supported by a back up ENOC at the nearby Takapuna Cable Station where services can be migrated in the event of a major crisis or loss of service situation. SNOC services can also be temporarily migrated to an Optus RNOC in Sydney Australia as required.

During the exercise, the Southern Cross Crisis Management team were told that a major earthquake had hit Auckland New Zealand and were then instructed to respond to the news as though they were responding to a real life event.

The exercise involved migrating the SNOC network management systems to the Rosebery Network Operations Centre (RNOC) in Sydney, sending SNOC staff to the backup ENOC at Takapuna Cable Station and then transferring all services over to the ENOC.

"The exercise was considered to be a success because all of the key tasks identified were achieved within the two hour window allocated," said Network Operations Director Dean Veverka.

"We found the exercise very useful because it proved our ability to manage the network from two back up sites and gave us the opportunity to test the back up equipment and procedures that would be used if the SNOC did need to be evacuated in a real life situation."

Mr Veverka said normal management of the cable system was simultaneously maintained by the SNOC throughout the exercise to ensure that the day-to-day running of the network was not impacted in anyway.

Southern Cross plans to run a new Disaster Recovery Exercise every 12 months from now on, with more regular Restoration Exercises also being held every 3-6 months, he added.