Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - A Business Not a Technology

Hackers, hurricanes, fires, floods, power outages, denial of service attacks, application failures, employee errors, sabotage, and now terrorism help desk focus on the need for '' a plan for business continuity.

In the late 1990s, as companies prepared for the year 2000, many IT managers, risk managers, chief financial officers, and business leaders realized that it was not possible to recover computer systems, networks, and data. It was not enough. As the year 2000 approached, it became more apparent that a disciplined approach was needed to recover not only data and systems but also business processes, facilities, and workforce to restore and maintain critical functions.

The starting point is risk assessment. Identify and define your critical business processes and systems. Review vulnerabilities and identify steps for recovery and recovery. For your data, be sure to store it in secure, separate locations. Evaluate various storage solutions, including storage arrays, data replication systems, new virtualization systems, network-attached storage devices, and managed storage. Also, please pay close attention to your telecommunications providers to ensure that they have integrated diversity and redundancy into their networks and that they have well-developed and tested emergency plans.

The risk assessment will begin to ask real questions about the business impacts and losses that could result from the disruptions. Critical mission impacts, essential business functions, processes, and records must be identified. It is also time to determine acceptable resource requirements and recovery times.

Various recovery strategies must be evaluated to achieve their costs, reliability, and the time required to recover their objectives. Include physical, technological, legal, regulatory, and personal considerations when evaluating alternatives. Common points of failure are lack of executive and budget support and insufficient employee participation. With your data, employees are your most valuable asset. You can find a significant "Top Management Considerations in Crisis" checklist at www.globalcontinuity.com (enter lists in the search box, click DR & BC checklists).

Business continuity planning seems expensive and can take time. However, the loss of your company's functions, processes, and systems, as well as your business, customer, and financial data, can be devastating. Build your plan. Train, test, train, and test again.