Business Continuity and Disaster Recover
I recently went to a seminar in Indianapolis on business continuity and disaster recovery. I had previously taken a class on this in undergrad but I found this to be very enlightening. In the seminar we talked about ways to keep business continuity and surprisingly these are pretty simple. Most of these are common sense items that seem to get little attention in a business.
There are many benefits that come from having a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. These benefits include and are not limited to:
o Competitive advantage
o Insurance savings
o Technology efficiencies and savings
o Improved processes
o Client confidence
o Employee attitude
o Increased stockholder value
o Peace of mind
In this seminar the instructor Pete Heles made it very clear that there is a difference between business continuity and disaster recover. Business continuity is the need for an organization to continue to function even after a disastrous event. Disaster Recovery is the ability to respond to an unplanned interruption and implement a technology and communications recovery plan and successfully restore an organization’s critical operation functions.
When most people think of a disaster within a company they think of the major catastrophes that could happen, these however, are not the ones that are likely to occur. What you have to do is make a list of all of the disasters that could happen, from natural disasters such as tornados and floods to little disasters such as a servers going down or a PBX. You then have to put a rank on them based on what is most likely to occur. This puts your disasters in check and lets you focus on the ones that are more likely to occur.
Once you have a list of disasters that may affect your business you should then do a site survey. You start with a walkthrough and survey of facilities. You should have an outside set of eyes to help with this survey to catch things you may miss. Lastly you will want to have a site survey checklist which will list items you should check to prevent such a disaster. A lot of disasters can be detected in this early process.
In order to have a good business continuity plan and disaster recover you need a couple of items. First you need executive sponsorship, leadership, teamwork, and a roadmap. The conference in Indianapolis provided us with a binder filled with the proper roadmap to achieve a successful plan.
I think the seminar that my classmates and I attended was very informative and gives us an advantage over other graduate students. I am taking a class next semester that will incorporate what I have learned from this conference and apply it to a real world situation. I am glad we got the experience and am excited to make a difference in a local business.