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What is the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?Business Continuity focuses on identifying what business processes and related technology is critical to the organization from outside the walls of the Data Center. For example, recovering critical financial operations ensure bills are paid and deposits are made. In addition, Business Continuity planning addresses how many critical staff are required and how/where they will work, what type of technology must be assessed and staged, and numerous other details associated with team organization, resource allocation, policies and procedures, to name a few. Disaster Recovery, or as we call it, Technology Recovery, focuses specifically on recovery of information technology systems, infrastructure, applications and connectivity, or simply put, anything inside the walls of the Data Center.Do I really need to do a BIA before I can do a Business Continuity Plan?Often clients ask us to “just write us a Business Continuity Plan.” To accomplish this, it is absolutely necessary to identify all of the organization’s business processes, related Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Critical Timeframes. The Business Impact Analysis, or BIA, is the collection of data that allows the organization to determine where (and more importantly how much) funding will be needed to design a viable organizational and operational recovery strategy which is the foundation of a Business Continuity Plan.Should my Business Continuity Plan include technology recovery?Unless your organization does not require any information technology systems to conduct day-to-day operations, technology recovery is a must for a viable Business Continuity Plan.What does eWaste mean and how does it relate to business recovery?A relatively new term to U.S. industry, eWaste is quickly becoming a discipline in and of itself. As our culture becomes more focused on the health of our planet, we must monitor and manage the massive quantities of technology equipment that will soon become obsolete, phased out, and disposed of. The challenge is how to responsibly manage your eWaste as you move forward with new systems and recovery strategies. Our business associates in the European Union have developed guidelines and procedures to address this issue. It is only a matter of time before the same requirements are established here in the US.What is “homesteading?”Recently, we have been assisting our clients with re-designing their recovery strategies to move their critical technology systems out of third-party vendor hosting sites and back into a facility that is owned/operated by the organization. Although this option may not be feasible for all organization, many are able to recognize significant cost savings by re-thinking and re-structuring their technology systems to be more robust and easier to recover, under their own roofs.I have an Emergency Response Plan, why do I need a Business Continuity Plan too?In the wake of numerous natural disasters like hurricane Katrina, ice storms, and tornadoes, organizations have developed or revised Emergency Response Plans. These plans should outline the immediate response to an incident, with a focus on human safety. Business Continuity Plans should be designed to pick up where the Emergency Response Plan ends; directing the recovery of the operational and organization activities of the company once immediate incident response is complete.What should be included in my Business Continuity Program?Today, most organizations must adhere to regulatory requirements of some type. Many have developed an Emergency Response Plan, or a Disaster Recovery Plan (specific to inside the Data Center) or an outline of business processes and level of criticality. Each of these documents is certainly better than nothing; however, a comprehensive Business Continuity Program should include the following:
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