UC Ready, UC Berkeley's unique business continuity planning tool, has been recognized by the UC Office of the President with the 2010 Power of 10 Award for leveraging the skills and energy of a single campus to benefit all UC campuses.

All ten UC campuses have been using UC Ready since January 2009, and each campus now has a robust continuity planning effort across their departments using Berkeley's methodology and Berkeley's tool. Also using UC Ready are the UCLA and UC Davis Health Systems, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources, and UC Office of the President itself.

From UC Ready to Kuali Ready

The UC Ready tool was conceived in 2004, when Berkeley's Office of Continuity Planning needed a way to assist departments across campus to become more disaster-resilient. Using the techniques of "business continuity planning", the tool pioneered a new approach to disaster-readiness in higher education. To the traditional focus on preserving life, health, and property, a new dimension was added: how to harden our teaching, research, and service mission against disruption.

Designed by the Office of Continuity Planning and built by IST's WebApps team, version 1 was launched in 2006 and named Restarting Berkeley. Development costs were provided by FEMA. Version 2, named The Berkeley Continuity Planning Tool, followed in 2007. Launched in 2009 and funded by the Office of the President, version 3, named UC Ready, made the tool suitable for use throughout the UC system.

In April 2010, version 4 was launched for national distribution by the Kuali Foundation. Campuses across the U.S. and Canada are now signing up for this new service. In return for an annual subscription fee, four-year and two-year institutions receive unlimited use of the tool, branded with their own name and graphics. In a new extension of Berkeley's long relationship with Kuali, we are hosting the Kuali service in the campus data center and providing full customer support, with our costs covered by the Kuali Foundation.