[registrars] Budget item -- business continuity plan

[Eric Brunner-Williams]

Folks,

In the first 30 minutes of the call Kurt called attention to the impact
of the business continuity plan had on the budget -- hardware, software
and so foth.

That set off alarm bells for me.

In the {info|biz|name|coop|museum|aero|pro} bidding cycle, ICANN's staff
(chiefly Louie) wrote technical expectations into the registry pro forma
that were very, very expensive to the winning bidders. In the .org rebid
this was repeated. In the current round this is still the case, though
the experience with .museum (and quite a few ccTLDs) makes it obvious that
a registry can function on a shoe-string.

I'm concerned first that ICANN's BCP isn't costed as a line item, that it
has been bundled into a bunch of cost centers. To paraphrase Kurt, it is
"wicked big, but we don't know how big it is."

I'm concerned second that ICANN's gold-plate-with-other-people's-money
culture is may be present in this, as it has been over the past four years
of registry technical requirements.

I imagine that ICANN's BCP should resemble the BCP for any business of a
similar size -- get 50 seats operational within some few days, with all
24/7 function (servers) alredy colo'd and replicated as part of a seperate
24/7 operational plan. Does anyone see ICANN as something more complex and
recovery time-critical than some lawyers, accountants, sales reps, and a
bunch of admins? I don't, so if I'm missing something, please let me know.
The expense of the BCP should have, no MUST HAVE, a rational relation to
the value of the expected down-time.

The IETF is responsible for the IANA function, and I'm writing the current
Chair (Haral Alvestrand) to determin if there is a BCP requirement in the
contract or side-agreements to manage the IANA function, and if so, the
details of the(se) contractual requirement(s), if any.

For those of you on yesterday's call, Kurt's musing that the cost of the
BCP includes replication of the L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET and the IANA compters
is not credible, which is why I cut him off when he started running down
an litany of high-profile items.

The cost of this activity must be known, and the necessity and utility
issues considered in the full light of day.

Eric