Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and its affiliates (collectively, “Dimensional”) have a defined set of procedures for responding to an emergency or natural disaster that could affect Dimensional’s normal operations. The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan includes procedures and written guidelines designed to sustain Dimensional's critical functions and to restore normal operational functions as soon as possible.
Dimensional’s first priority is quick resumption of trading, fund operations, and telecommunications. In a short term outage, alternate offices may be used to complete pre-defined critical processes and take on essential functions. In a longer outage, staff at the affected site may be deployed to other Dimensional sites to further recovery to normal operations. The Business Recovery Team, comprised of key executive, technology, legal, trading, and operations personnel, will direct the recovery and facilitate communication with outside parties. During an event all Dimensional departments are responsible for ensuring completion of their critical processes and for maintaining communication with their clients and stakeholders. Department plans contain procedures and contact lists to help meet this responsibility.
Dimensional employs two offsite datacenters and two primary office locations in the US, with additional offices in Vancouver, London, and Sydney. All sites are connected by an MPLS network with backup/redundant data connections at each site. Telephone communications are provided by a corporate wide VoIP system with failover and forwarding capabilities. For outages that can’t be addressed by the VoIP system, outside telecom carriers provide disaster routing solutions to handle incoming calls. This technology diversification enables Dimensional to maintain its business operations even if one of the offices or data centers is disabled or experiences an outage.
Because data security and access to information are high priorities, Dimensional utilizes hardened datacenters from top-tier providers in separate locations. The primary datacenter houses all major applications with the secondary datacenter mirroring critical information continuously and providing redundancy for most critical systems. This allows for rapid transition to the secondary datacenter in the event of an outage at the primary data center. Dimensional's recovery plans outline the restoration of systems in a tiered, sequential manner. Systems that support critical processes will be restored first with a recovery time objective (RTO) of two to four hours. The remaining systems will be restored according to their relative priority. Lower tiered technologies that are business necessary, but not critical, have an RTO of three to seven days.
Dimensional’s data backup policy ensures that critical data and systems are backed up daily, stored offsite, and maintained for up to seven years depending on regulatory requirements.
In case of an event that disables access to a Dimensional office, other offices may assume certain operational functions. Various offices may be reached at:
Austin: (512) 306-7400
Santa Monica: (310) 395-8005
London: +44 (20) 7016-4500
Sydney: +61 (2) 8336-7100
Vancouver: (604) 685-1633
The recovery plan and this summary are subject to revisions. A hard copy may be obtained on request. This statement was updated March 31, 2010.
Summary
Dimensional's plan seeks to address the results of various causes of a business disruption. Business disruptions include any event that prevents access to Dimensional’s primary office space, limits Dimensional’s use of its technology systems, or affects Dimensional’s communication ability. Dimensional’s first priority is quick resumption of trading, fund operations, and telecommunications. In a short term outage, alternate offices may be used to complete pre-defined critical processes and take on essential functions. In a longer outage, staff at the affected site may be deployed to other Dimensional sites to further recovery to normal operations. The Business Recovery Team, comprised of key executive, technology, legal, trading, and operations personnel, will direct the recovery and facilitate communication with outside parties. During an event all Dimensional departments are responsible for ensuring completion of their critical processes and for maintaining communication with their clients and stakeholders. Department plans contain procedures and contact lists to help meet this responsibility.
Dimensional employs two offsite datacenters and two primary office locations in the US, with additional offices in Vancouver, London, and Sydney. All sites are connected by an MPLS network with backup/redundant data connections at each site. Telephone communications are provided by a corporate wide VoIP system with failover and forwarding capabilities. For outages that can’t be addressed by the VoIP system, outside telecom carriers provide disaster routing solutions to handle incoming calls. This technology diversification enables Dimensional to maintain its business operations even if one of the offices or data centers is disabled or experiences an outage.
Because data security and access to information are high priorities, Dimensional utilizes hardened datacenters from top-tier providers in separate locations. The primary datacenter houses all major applications with the secondary datacenter mirroring critical information continuously and providing redundancy for most critical systems. This allows for rapid transition to the secondary datacenter in the event of an outage at the primary data center. Dimensional's recovery plans outline the restoration of systems in a tiered, sequential manner. Systems that support critical processes will be restored first with a recovery time objective (RTO) of two to four hours. The remaining systems will be restored according to their relative priority. Lower tiered technologies that are business necessary, but not critical, have an RTO of three to seven days.
Dimensional’s data backup policy ensures that critical data and systems are backed up daily, stored offsite, and maintained for up to seven years depending on regulatory requirements.
In case of an event that disables access to a Dimensional office, other offices may assume certain operational functions. Various offices may be reached at:
Austin: (512) 306-7400
Santa Monica: (310) 395-8005
London: +44 (20) 7016-4500
Sydney: +61 (2) 8336-7100
Vancouver: (604) 685-1633
The recovery plan and this summary are subject to revisions. A hard copy may be obtained on request. This statement was updated March 31, 2010.