| Beyond the Definitions of BCP and DRP |
| By Vicki Thomas |
| January 25, 2012 |
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Since you’re a visitor to the DRJ blog and website, it is generally understood that you’re here to learn more about the business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP). The easiest way to get the basics on these two critical aspects to the longevity of any company or organization is to read the DRJ Glossary. The DRJ Glossary provides a solid grounding on the key terms associated with BCP and DRP. For the purposes of this blog post, it is useful to include the definitions of each here: Business Continuity Plan: Process of developing and documenting arrangements and procedures that enable an organization to respond to an event that lasts for an unacceptable period of time and return to performing its critical functions after an interruption. Disaster Recovery Plan: The management approved document that defines the resources, actions, tasks and data required to manage the technology recovery effort. Usually refers to the technology recovery effort. This is a component of the Business Continuity Management Program. So, these are the basic bare bones definitions for BCP and DRP. But what do these two terms really mean for your organization? It is one thing to read the definitions, review the rules and regulations, review the GAP document, and participate in webinars - it is taking this information beyond listening/education and putting it into action is where we get to the real meanings of BCP and DRP. (In this blog post we’ll take a look at BCP and next week take a deeper look at DRP.) Taking a broader look at BCP, there is the practice of business continuity planning. This is where the action really needs to take place with evaluation, risk assessments, needs analysis, and priority definitions to determine how to keep your organization or company operating. This continued operation goes beyond opening the doors to your head office, business continuity is the actual program that according to the DRJ Glossary does the following:
So what does this mean for your organization or company? It means that the onus is on you to ensure that your company/organization is prepared to maintain operations and function during a threat, disaster, outage or other service interruption. This includes ensuring that employees are aware of the situation impacting them, that third-party vendors and organizations are kept up-to-date with the status of your organization, and ultimately providing a clear and consistent message to all involved. What this all boils down to is that your organization/company and colleagues need to do some work. It is not enough to understand the definition of BCP and to have a list of contact names with cell phone numbers in the event of a threat, disaster, outage or other interruption. Instead you need to make sure that every aspect of your business can continue from project management to sales fulfillment to help desk support and production. It should be noted that there are no cookie-cutter business continuity plans out there. Just like your products and services are unique - so must your business continuity plan be. When working on your business continuity plan you need to take a step back from the day-to-day and think about your organization and how you interact, communicate and do business with others - how you do this will have a definite impact on the structure of your BCP. For example, think about the following:
By building a BCP that takes into consideration your organization/company as whole, you will have comprehensive and effective business continuity plan that can be counted on to work when and if you need it. (Of course we haven’t touched on the training and awareness needed internally and externally - but this is a topic for another time!) (Next week we’ll look at DRP and how it is critical to the effectiveness and longevity of your IT services and infrastructure.) Vicki Thomas is an Associate Editor with Disaster Recovery Journal. Comments (0)
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