AN ELCOM SHORT BRIEFING ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
What is Business Continuity Planning?
Business Continuity Planning is the planning and provision of alternative business facilities and resources to be used in the event of a systems failure, natural disaster or other occurrence that causes interruption to the regular activities of a business.
Potential risks
A company’s ability to trade can be severely limited or curtailed completely by circumstances impacting any critical element of its systems. Natural events such as flooding or hurricanes can cause physical damage to infrastructure or simply prevent staff access to site. Local issues such as accidents or crimes can also sometimes prevent access for protracted periods.
Failures in computer hardware can cause disruption as can loss of wide area links, preventing users from dispatching goods, delivering services or issuing invoices. Power failures are generally short-lived although problems have been experienced in the City of London during very warm weather when demand for air conditioning resulted in the local grid being unable to keep up with demand. Power failures and surges can also be responsible for data corruption.
Continuity of the system
For a company to maintain its internal computer systems, a number of separate elements must be protected. Access to company data such as customer records and stock listings is essential. To support this, it is necessary to protect the hard drives and servers on which the data resides. In order that the systems may run, power must be guaranteed and network links must be maintained to allow access. Finally the staff must have physical access to the system in order to work normally.
Lateral Thinking
Many companies that have taken steps to protect themselves from systems disruption find that those measures prove insufficient. For example, a company close to the Buncefield oil depot found that their site was inaccessible for several months following the events of December 2005. They had kept a daily backup of data in a fire safe in the basement when what proved necessary was access to a complete replacement office with technical infrastructure, servers and the backed-up data.
Another issue that can cause problems is the use of the same internet service provider at all company sites. Disruption to that provider can result in a company being unable to communicate electronically from any site, regardless of location.
Benefits
The benefits of a well thought-out business continuity plan are threefold. Not only does it greatly mitigate any risk to the company by having both the strategy and the necessary contracts in place, but it also provides an opportunity to test plans and for staff to rehearse the activities necessary to restore failed systems. Finally, a fully-documented and tested business continuity plan can significantly reduce the insurance premiums charged to cover such eventualities. For public companies, an effective BC strategy is essential for regulatory compliance.
How can Elcom help?
Elcom ITG can offer a consultative approach to any element from reviewing disaster recovery plans to assisting with the creation of a full business continuity strategy.
We can arrange provision of daily off-site data backup, hosting of duplexed servers or rented replacement systems in regional computer centres. Alternatively, Elcom can provide for rapid replacement of server or communications equipment, for a complete mobile computer room to be trucked to a site or even for alternative office facilities with full infrastructure to be available on demand.
For further information on how Elcom ITG can protect your business, please speak to your account manager on 01256 697222 or contact us on marketing@elcom.co.uk.
