Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans define how an organization will prepare and recover from a disruptive event, whether an event might be a natural disaster such as a flood or a fire or simply a power outage.

Business continuity plan defines how the organization will continue to operate or “make money” after a contingency and the disaster recovery plan defines the processes by which you resume regular business activities following the event. It is a common practice to join both terms under the acronym BC/DR.

BC/DR plan requires the involvement of management, business leaders and IT leaders to determine what kind of plan is necessary and which systems and business units are most crucial to the organization. The plan should consider people, processes, logistics, systems and communications.

Besides resuming normal operations after an event, which should be the aim of BC/DR, it is important to anticipate how long it will take, how much it will cost and what processes and activities will be performed during the recovery phase.

Protecting and recovering data and information systems is a critical aspect of a BC/DR plan for most organizations. It is not enough to have a backup plan or tool. Have you tested a recovery or simulated a cold start? Are you backing up all your assets, including workstations, laptops and mobile devices? Will you be able to restore your data and applications in a different hardware? How long will it take to restore? These are just few sample questions that should be addressed while preparing the plan.

It is recommended to update and test the BC/DR plan on a semi-annual basis because of the constant evolution of technology and changes in regulations and processes.

At Apex Academic Technologies we have experience in designing, testing and implementing BC/DR plans understanding the needs and challenges of medium and small business.

Francisco Disilvestro
Apex Academic Technologies
Director
03 8692 0004