Business Continuity
Understanding Business Continuity
When the sky is falling on your business, can you make it through the storm?
For the average business owner, business continuity is looked upon as a
secondary system that is put in place to protect the investments the
business has made. Since the platform doesn't have much to do with a
business' day-to-day operations, often times some aspects of a business'
continuity strategy are overlooked; a major mistake that the business
owner will realize when it is suddenly too late.
Understanding the elements of a comprehensive business continuity
strategy is advantageous for any business owner or executive that is
tasked to ensure the business' operations are sustained. To design a
solution that is right for your organization, you will first have to
pinpoint the elements that make up a successful continuity strategy, and
thoroughly implement them.
Why Enact a Business Continuity Plan?
The fact is
that your company's health is a human issue. A healthy business that
supports numerous workers not only provides a good or service to
consumers, it provides food, shelter, transportation, education, and
more for the people employed there and their families. This is true for
every business, which is why it is crucial to have some assurances in
place when tragedy strikes. When data is lost or when systems that these
people and their families depend on fail, there needs to be a strategy
to get operations up and running again fast. Whether you have two
employees or two thousand, operational sustainability is crucial to
every single one of their livelihoods.
What are the Elements of a Business Continuity Strategy?
A working and thorough continuity strategy is not just a set of
protocols that are enacted when something terrible happens. It is a
continually changing, fluid strategy that will allow you to sustain
operations through any number of issues that have the potential to
hinder your organization's progress. Each element of a continuity
strategy is the direct result of another element, while being the cause
for another.
Element I - Initiation
In the initiation phase of
a business continuity strategy the concerned party needs to determine
what exactly the objective of the continuity plan is, the general scope
of the coverage under that plan, and who in the organization is going to
carry out the protocol's outlined in the plan.
Element II - Analysis
In the analysis phase, you
will conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) and a threat and risk
analysis (TRA), and as the plan begins to come together the analysis of
any impact scenarios that have been carried out allows an organization
to adjust the other variables to best protect against the major threats.
The BIA will essentially separate the critical organizational functions
from those that aren't critical to the sustainability of operations.
Once those have been determined each critical function will be assigned
a recovery point objective (RPO) and a recovery time objective (RTO).
The recovery point objective of a function is the acceptable amount of
data loss that the organization can allow, while the recovery time
objective is the acceptable amount of time it will take to restore the
data needed to sustain operations. Under the BIA, an organization will
also want to identify a maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPOD).
This is the maximum amount of time that an organization has to restore
core systems before the stakeholders of the endeavor begin to consider
their investments to be in serious jeopardy.
The TRA will pinpoint potential threats that face a business. Some of
today's major threats include:
- Cyber attacks
- Sabotage or user error
- Power cut
- Hardware failure
- Sickness
- Natural disasters
- Fire
- On or off-site utility outage
Each of these (and often many more) have to be considered in order to
properly determine the recovery objectives for each threat. This way,
you have a complete understanding exactly where your organization stands
when it is beset with some sort of adversity.
Element III - Continuity Plan Design
Once the
groundwork is finished, the plan can start to be designed. The first
element an organization should consider is who will be responsible for
the implementation of the continuity plan if it needs to be launched. At
this point a team should be assembled and assigned very specific roles
that all carry essential tasks. You will want to identify who is in
charge of what and be sure that all members of the continuity team know
how to contact other members of the team to enhance the prospects of
successfully launching the program proficiently and quickly.
During this part of the plan, decision makers will also want to develop
some strategies, such as:
- A backup and recovery strategy
- Continuity execution strategy
- Escalation, notification, and activation strategies
- Administration strategy
By pinpointing the solutions that will be needed, the continuity team
can begin to plan which solutions they would seek out as a part of the
continuity strategy.
Element IV - Implementation
In the design phase,
the team will pinpoint the solutions that are needed to provide the best
chance at complying with their continuity goals. In this phase of the
project, however, all the planning and designing of the solution is
finally implemented. Some of the variables that need to be set in motion
at this stage of the project include:
- Emergency response procedures
- Detailed recovery procedures
- Continuity activation procedures
- Purchase of recovery resources
- Ensure recovery team's responsibilities
Now that everything is in place and the whole team understands their
responsibilities, it is crucial that an organization does not become
complacent. While there may have been a thorough design and thorough
understanding of the plan, to execute a plan requires the final step in
the business continuity strategy.
Element V - Testing and Maintenance
An
organization that doesn't frequently test the limits of its continuity
plan may run into problems with their continuity plan when it's needed.
A comprehensive business continuity plan requires careful and
conscientious consideration of every element in order to work properly.
By testing and maintaining the continuity plan periodically, an
organization can ensure that when the worst happens, that they are ready
to react quickly.
To protect the people that depend on your business, a thorough and well
designed continuity plan is a must. If you are having issues with the
design of your continuity plan and would like help putting together the
solutions and practices you will need to ensure you are protected for
the worst, call Argentum IT's knowledgeable consultants at (502) 473-9330. We can help your organization protect itself from whatever the
future holds.
For the average business owner, business continuity is looked upon as a secondary system that is put in place to protect the investments the business has made. Since the platform doesn't have much to do with a business' day-to-day operations, often times some aspects of a business' continuity strategy are overlooked; a major mistake that the business owner will realize when it is suddenly too late.
Understanding the elements of a comprehensive business continuity strategy is advantageous for any business owner or executive that is tasked to ensure the business' operations are sustained. To design a solution that is right for your organization, you will first have to pinpoint the elements that make up a successful continuity strategy, and thoroughly implement them.
Why Enact a Business Continuity Plan?
The fact is
that your company's health is a human issue. A healthy business that
supports numerous workers not only provides a good or service to
consumers, it provides food, shelter, transportation, education, and
more for the people employed there and their families. This is true for
every business, which is why it is crucial to have some assurances in
place when tragedy strikes. When data is lost or when systems that these
people and their families depend on fail, there needs to be a strategy
to get operations up and running again fast. Whether you have two
employees or two thousand, operational sustainability is crucial to
every single one of their livelihoods.
What are the Elements of a Business Continuity Strategy?
A working and thorough continuity strategy is not just a set of
protocols that are enacted when something terrible happens. It is a
continually changing, fluid strategy that will allow you to sustain
operations through any number of issues that have the potential to
hinder your organization's progress. Each element of a continuity
strategy is the direct result of another element, while being the cause
for another.
Element I - Initiation
In the initiation phase of
a business continuity strategy the concerned party needs to determine
what exactly the objective of the continuity plan is, the general scope
of the coverage under that plan, and who in the organization is going to
carry out the protocol's outlined in the plan.
Element II - Analysis
In the analysis phase, you
will conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) and a threat and risk
analysis (TRA), and as the plan begins to come together the analysis of
any impact scenarios that have been carried out allows an organization
to adjust the other variables to best protect against the major threats.
The BIA will essentially separate the critical organizational functions from those that aren't critical to the sustainability of operations. Once those have been determined each critical function will be assigned a recovery point objective (RPO) and a recovery time objective (RTO). The recovery point objective of a function is the acceptable amount of data loss that the organization can allow, while the recovery time objective is the acceptable amount of time it will take to restore the data needed to sustain operations. Under the BIA, an organization will also want to identify a maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPOD). This is the maximum amount of time that an organization has to restore core systems before the stakeholders of the endeavor begin to consider their investments to be in serious jeopardy.
The TRA will pinpoint potential threats that face a business. Some of today's major threats include:
- Cyber attacks
- Sabotage or user error
- Power cut
- Hardware failure
- Sickness
- Natural disasters
- Fire
- On or off-site utility outage
Each of these (and often many more) have to be considered in order to properly determine the recovery objectives for each threat. This way, you have a complete understanding exactly where your organization stands when it is beset with some sort of adversity.
Element III - Continuity Plan Design
Once the
groundwork is finished, the plan can start to be designed. The first
element an organization should consider is who will be responsible for
the implementation of the continuity plan if it needs to be launched. At
this point a team should be assembled and assigned very specific roles
that all carry essential tasks. You will want to identify who is in
charge of what and be sure that all members of the continuity team know
how to contact other members of the team to enhance the prospects of
successfully launching the program proficiently and quickly.
During this part of the plan, decision makers will also want to develop some strategies, such as:
- A backup and recovery strategy
- Continuity execution strategy
- Escalation, notification, and activation strategies
- Administration strategy
By pinpointing the solutions that will be needed, the continuity team can begin to plan which solutions they would seek out as a part of the continuity strategy.
Element IV - Implementation
In the design phase,
the team will pinpoint the solutions that are needed to provide the best
chance at complying with their continuity goals. In this phase of the
project, however, all the planning and designing of the solution is
finally implemented. Some of the variables that need to be set in motion
at this stage of the project include:
- Emergency response procedures
- Detailed recovery procedures
- Continuity activation procedures
- Purchase of recovery resources
- Ensure recovery team's responsibilities
Now that everything is in place and the whole team understands their responsibilities, it is crucial that an organization does not become complacent. While there may have been a thorough design and thorough understanding of the plan, to execute a plan requires the final step in the business continuity strategy.
Element V - Testing and Maintenance
An
organization that doesn't frequently test the limits of its continuity
plan may run into problems with their continuity plan when it's needed.
A comprehensive business continuity plan requires careful and
conscientious consideration of every element in order to work properly.
By testing and maintaining the continuity plan periodically, an
organization can ensure that when the worst happens, that they are ready
to react quickly.
To protect the people that depend on your business, a thorough and well designed continuity plan is a must. If you are having issues with the design of your continuity plan and would like help putting together the solutions and practices you will need to ensure you are protected for the worst, call Argentum IT's knowledgeable consultants at (502) 473-9330. We can help your organization protect itself from whatever the future holds.
