NITC has a contingency management program that ensures a computing environment is available for customers to operate requested mission critical processes in the event of a disaster. NITC continually tests and refines its capability to restore critical operations in an event that would threaten the continuance of customer's mission critical programs.

Disaster recovery exercises for customer requested operations are conducted twice a year at the emergency relocation facility. Customers are encouraged to participate in these exercises for the purpose of validating IT application recovery procedures for their mission critical programs. Mid-range computer applications may also be tested during these exercises; however, mid-range systems must be coordinated on an individual basis to ensure the appropriate hardware is in place at the emergency relocation facility.

In the event of a disaster at the NITC, an operating environment similar to the normal operating environment, consisting of the most current backup of the operating system, commercial-off-the-shelf software, and a connection to the USDA backbone network, will be provided to customers within 72 hours of declaring a disaster.

Customers will be given access to the computer systems at the emergency relocation facility to recover critical applications that have been previously backed up and secured at an off-site storage location. NITC personnel will be available for technical support to assist customers in the recovery of their data.

The NITC will coordinate closely with customers who desire to test their IT disaster recovery capabilities.

http://www.ocio.usda.gov/nitc/about/cont_plan.html