The COVID-19 pandemic made many businesses realize how important it was to be prepared and ready for an eventual crisis. Good news: even though you can't predict what could happen in the future, you can prepare for most case scenarios thanks to two tools:
Business continuity is a business's readiness to maintain critical functions after an emergency or disruption. In other words, according to Investopedia, "A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster."
Business continuity should be a top priority because maintaining critical functions after an emergency or disruption can make a big difference in success and failure for a business. Organizations must get a continuity strategy before something happens to save money and time, as it will able companies to ensure operations even during a crisis.
As seen above, there are many aspects of business continuity, technology being one of them. Cyber attacks can cost organizations much, and contrary to what most people think, they actively target small and medium companies. A good continuity plan should include a cybersecurity strategy to deal with cybersecurity threats: data breaches, loss of access, ransomware attacks, malicious insider incidents, etc. A great and comprehensive business continuity plan inherently comes with a good disaster recovery strategy.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of events and disasters that could touch any organization:
It can feel overwhelming, but if you tackle every item one by one, you'll be able to create a comprehensive business continuity plan. See the steps to follow below.
Even though a Business Continuity Plan is an internal process, don't hesitate to use templates, as they can be beneficial to ensure everything is noticed. We selected free Business Continuity Plan templates for you:
A great Business Continuity Plan can help keep your organization active even through emergencies and disasters. However, it is also vital to design a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Strategy to address issues afterward.
Disaster recovery is an organization's method of regaining access and functionality to its IT infrastructure after natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or even business disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. AWS describes Disaster Recovery as "the process by which an organization anticipates and addresses technology-related disasters."
A disaster is an unexpected problem resulting in a slowdown, interruption, or network outage in an IT system. Outages come in many forms, including the following examples:
These disasters disrupt business operations, cause client service problems, and result in revenue loss. A disaster recovery plan helps organizations respond promptly to disruptive events and provides key benefits.
Good Business Continuity Plan and effectively managed Disaster Recovery tools are essential for businesses to stay up after a crisis. Companies that make Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery priorities are much less vulnerable to being wiped out by a cyber attack, be part of them.