Disaster Recovery Journal

In every company there are decision-makers and decision-influencers. Often it is the decision-influencers who see the need for the service/solution and who work to convince the decision-makers to agree and sign the contract.

So, how does this apply when making decisions about your disaster recovery and business continuity plans? What is the normal process for your organization when making decisions that will have a large impact on the longevity and success of your company?

Like any niche business, this one of Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning has its own jargon and terminology. Often for people new to thinking about and considering how their company can be best protected in the event of a disaster, this jargon becomes overwhelming.

So to help clear the air and keep things simple, lets review some of the key terms of our industry – hopefully making it easier for you to discuss Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning with your colleagues.

When you think of disaster what do you think of? Chances are you put flood, massive power outage, fire, and pandemic at the top of your list. These are all events that really we can't control - the hurricanes are going to happen, the power does go out, fires happen sometimes due to human error, and health crisis are still one of the large mysteries of life. So for these events that may or may not happen, you understand the need to have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan. Since you're reading this blog post, I assume you have such a DR/BCP in place to keep your business working efficiently when "disaster" strikes. 

One of the ongoing problems in business continuity is articulating the business case in a way that resonates with executives and others in our organizations and doesn't require a twenty slide PowerPoint presentation.  In an attempt to help, "BC Stories - Elevator Pitches and Object Lessons" is a continuing series of posts based on timely and relevant news stories.  The idea is to give business continuity professionals ideas for informal conversations that highlight the need for planning while identifying potential pitfalls.

A simple search for "Gulf oil spill" in your favorite search engine will return dozens of links for sites that document the response (or lack thereof) to the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  News reports over the past several days have criticized groups ranging from BP to the U.S. Government for their involvement in what the Unified Command is calling a "massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster".  Accidents can happen and unexpected events will always impact business operations, but proactive business continuity planning and documented recovery plans can help make the water a little less murky.

One of the ongoing problems in business continuity is articulating the business case in a way that resonates with executives and others in our organizations and doesn't require a twenty slide PowerPoint presentation.  In an attempt to help, "BC Stories - Elevator Pitches and Object Lessons" is a continuing series of posts based on timely and relevant news stories.  The idea is to give business continuity professionals ideas for informal conversations that highlight the need for planning while identifying potential pitfalls.

One of the ongoing problems in business continuity is articulating the business case in a way that resonates with executives and others in our organizations and doesn't require a twenty slide PowerPoint presentation.  In an attempt to help, I will periodically post items under the title "BC Stories - Elevator Pitches and Object Lessons" as I find them in the news or wherever they turn up.  The idea is to give business continuity professionals ideas for informal conversations that highlight both the need for business continuity activities and some potential pitfalls of ignoring them.

An article posted March 24^th on cnn.com provides an object lesson on the need for regular testing of critical infrastructure  in order to effectively respond in an emergency, as well as an opportunity to engage people in your organization on the need for a formal exercise plan.  Basically, even if an organization has invested significant resources in its technology, things can still go wrong. Often, changes to support systems or network infrastructure can have unintended consequences that prevent access to even the most redundant and resilient systems.  The article, Wikipedia back up after server meltdown, highlights this issue.