Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Running a business is a challenging job. There are so many factors involved — money, people, infrastructure, and technology — that it can often be challenging to keep track of each of them. Of course, you assign responsibilities to keep constant oversight, and you try your level best to keep any discrepancies from hampering your workflow.
However, what happens during times when you are anticipating a potential disaster? Even though you may have predicted a potential risk and taken measures to mitigate it, it can still affect the company. What do you do in such cases?
What is Business Continuity?
Companies go through various ups and downs in their journey to success. It is always motivating to see a project do well; it pushes you and your team to do better. But what happens when you are confronted with a significant issue? You cannot stop running your company. You have to work your way around it.
This is essentially what business continuity is. It is the ability to run all basic operations during and after a disaster. The organization plans a risk management process that has guidelines that allow departments to run certain essential functions and ensure that no disruptions take place during critical operations.
The disaster could be anything — serious and dangerous cyber attack, supply chain failure, or resource outage. The organization's job is to identify what functions must keep going to keep the company afloat.
Business Continuity Plan
To keep things stable, there should be a business continuity plan in place. The organization must take the responsibility to devise and implement a contingency plan wherein only the essential, most integral functions can continue without interruption, and everything gets restored within a short recovery time.
The following things should be included in a business continuity plan.
#1 Objective of the Plan
The first step is to define the plan's objective along with a glossary containing all terms essential to the organization. It should also specify who should have access to the project.
#2 Risk Management Methods
You analyze all potential risks and put them in order per priority. Also, please list methods that will help you mitigate the risks and prevent them in the future.
#3 Business Impact Analysis
It would be best if you also analyzed the impact of the risk and how it’s going to affect the company. Then, identify and analyze what business functions need to be safeguarded and which need to run during the disaster.
#4 Risk Response Team
Assemble a team that will be ready to solve any queries or emergencies during a crisis. You can create an internal risk response team if you have enough employees. If not, you can always consult an external risk management team.
#5 Emergency Contact Information
It is crucial to create a list of all the people who need to be contacted. These include internal staff, their families, external contacts and clients, emergency services, insurance providers, banking services, etc.
What is Disaster Recovery (DR)?
Apart from business continuity, you should also have a plan that helps you get back on track and continue the other operations within the organization. Business continuity and disaster recovery go hand in hand. Some consider disaster recovery a part of business continuity. After the company is faced with a disaster, the staff should be able to replicate all data and recover information from a backup location not affected by the disaster. The idea behind a disaster recovery plan is to regain access to all IT operations.
Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan
To execute this plan, it should have the following components.
#1 Recovery Team
First off, assign a team that will be responsible for executing, managing, and overseeing the disaster recovery plan. Make sure to state each member’s responsibilities clearly.
#2 Risk Assessment
Analyze the risk and figure out what measures can be taken to mitigate the hazard. If it’s a cyber-security attack, you must take steps to safeguard your data and information.
#3 Backup
Assess what data should have a backup, assign the responsibility for doing so to a team member, and find out how and where the blockage will be used and implemented.
#4 Mission-Critical Operation Identification
This goes in tandem with the business continuity plan. Underline and prioritize all functions that are vital to the organization. Those will be the only ones working during the disaster.
#5 Testing and Optimization
It is always essential to keep your plan up to date. Implement new and improved strategies. If the team has predicted another risk, analyze it and create a contingency plan accordingly.
What is the Difference Between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery?
First, it should be acknowledged that both serve a similar purpose, i.e., to help an organization overcome all the challenges faced during and after a disaster.
There is a fine line that differentiates the two. A business continuity plan is designed to run all core functions during the disaster so that the business does not entirely shut down. Disaster recovery, on the other hand, is the process that keeps IT operations afloat by protecting data through the process of duplication and replication. Both business continuity and disaster recovery plans can run simultaneously to support business operations safely during turbulent times.
To Sum It Up
It is not always easy to avoid a disaster. What we can do is be prepared to face it and recover from it. Having these two strategies ready is essential. Think of them as your company’s lifejacket. The recovery process is slow, but if you have the right strategy, you can deal with the issues better. It will ensure that you’re not losing out on valuable data assets. So, research more on how to create the right business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan for your organization and save your business from any future troubles.
