Disaster Recovery Journal

When it comes to cloud computing, expectations are high for 2013. Businesses of all sizes—from garage-based startups to multinational corporations—are putting their resources into utilizing cloud computing technologies and services to help them deliver products and services, while reducing overhead operating costs. 

Nearly 50% of all enterprises in North America and Europe are predicted to set aside budgets for cloud investments this year. Additionally, 50% of software development companies are planning to deploy applications in the cloud. According to a research report by 451 Market Monitor, the cloud computing marketplace will reach $16.7 billion in revenue this year, compared to a revenue of $8.7 billion in 2010. 

Today I will look at our predictions 5 and 6, which have some degree of overlap.

Firstly we predicted that “ISO 22301 will start to take off, with certificates issued in more than one country”. Hardly a difficult prediction I know, but still an opportunity to test the often argued premise that many companies had delayed certification to BS25999 because they were waiting for an ISO standard.

The term “cloud computing” refers to any activity or service that involves the “cloud.” No—not a literal cloud! This metaphorical cloud is a virtual system that is accessible online, where users can perform a wide variety of IT tasks. Cloud hosting is just one of the many utilizations of this technology. 

Cloud hosting allows a website to no longer be limited to a single server, as previously seen with dedicated and VPS hosting. A cloud-hosted website will have access to multiple cloud servers. One of the greatest benefits of cloud hosting is the virtually unlimited processing power, as users can always scale up if necessary. 

We are very happy to announce that the Disaster Recovery Journal is now available in a mobile version. Our mobile version is just like the hard-copy print edition that you read and enjoy.

Available for Android and Apple devices, Disaster Recovery Journal mobile gives you:

There has been some puzzled faces questioning our BC prediction number 4 – “Contingency Planning will become fashionable again as a part of a broader understanding of Business Continuity which includes Continuity Capability and Crisis Response”.

Without stealing the thunder of my colleague Lee Glendon who is researching this proposition and will issue a discussion paper on the topic later during BCAW 2013, I think it is becoming obvious that conventional BCM as defined by a management system does not cover the full range of BC thinking. British Standards are working on a Crisis Management Standard (BS11200) and an Organizational Resilience Standard (BS45000) so we can only assume that they agree with us.

By Stacy Gardner, Avalution Consulting
Article originally posted on Avalution Consulting’s Blog

Standards…ugh! Even though the business continuity profession appears to be paying some attention to the topics of standards development and organizational certification, you may be tempted to skip over these articles and ignore the opportunity to review new or revised standards when released (especially if you feel organizational certification isn’t right for your organization). However, many reasons exist as to why all organizations (and BC practitioners) should not only pay attention to standards, but also seek opportunities to incorporate applicable elements of them into their programs to improve performance and enhance credibility.

While it is impossible to avoid disasters that are out of your control, the affect of such disasters can be minimized with a disaster recovery plan.  Disaster recovery plans are essential for businesses that value resiliency and that understand the importance of spending money now to protect against the threat of a potential disaster in the future.  You never know when disaster may strike and it may happen at a very inconvenient time.

One way to ensure that your disaster recovery plan is comprehensive and flexible is to invest in colocation hosting.  While colocation hosting may seem like a more expensive alternative to running your own servers in- house, you are actually getting more value for your money if you look at it from a disaster recovery standpoint.  But, what are the benefits of colocation hosting for disaster recovery and why might you choose this solution for your business?

Well, we are now several weeks into the new year and, as crisis management and business continuity professionals, we are happy to see 2012 in our rear view mirrors. Maybe it is just the relative recentness of Hurricane Sandy, or the fact that she devastated such a wide and highly populated area in the United States, but 2012 seemed to have been a very busy year for business continuity planners. And, this is not just in terms of responses to a number of disasters, but also in terms of preparing for high-risk events such as the London Olympics, the US Presidential Party Conventions and several Political Summits throughout the region.

I guess some of the reasons we were so busy are good reasons. I am witnessing a much higher level of awareness for the potential of business interruptions occurring from mass gathering events. I have been somewhat impressed with the levels of preparedness from both the public and private domain for events such as the Olympics and the Conventions. It seems people are starting to realize the benefits of the private and public sectors working together in preparation for these events. Coordinating work schedules and being aware of commuting challenges and potential mass gatherings, coupled with work from home solutions and proactive strategies for shifting work-flows and employees away from the congestion during the most active event times, seem to all have helped businesses and communities cope with the challenges of hosting such events.

Well, it is flu season again in the United States and in Corporate America that means it is Pandemic Flu Preparedness Planning Season again. However, please do not confuse the Seasonal Flu with a Pandemic Flu. This website from Flu.gov includes a terrific table at the bottom of its page, defining the difference between the two.

Over the past few months, Safe Harbor Consulting has been active with a number of clients in updating their Pandemic Plans and conducting Pandemic Response Simulated Exercises. One common opportunity for improvements in these programs is with regards to the inclusion of Threat Level Tables within their Plans.

In the Fall 2012 issue of the Disaster Recovery Journal we focussed on enterprise resiliency - researching and writing about this topic from a range of angles and perspectives. We thought it would be useful to pull some highlights from this issue to help you to better understand enterprise resiliency and what it means for your organization.

Enterprise resiliency is not something to take lightly nor is it something that is easy to achieve. But as you'll read, there are methods and principles you can put into practice in your businesses that will go a long way in achieving true enterprise resiliency.