Business continuity has a very contested definition. It seems that everyone has their own unique explanation of what business continuity, or BC, means.
From our point of view, BC is a company’s ability to continue daily operations if impacted by an unexpected incident or disaster that takes down core business systems. A solid BC plan revolves around implementing protocols and technologies to restore business functions in a predetermined amount of time, also known as Recovery Time Objective. And identifying an acceptable level of data loss, or Recovery Point Objective. For most businesses, they feel that since they have backups of their data, they have a BC solution. For some, this might be acceptable. But not every business can afford to have their systems down for weeks or days. Or even hours. Therefore, a true BC solution is vital to keep your doors open and customers happy.
So, what does a true business continuity solution look like? A solid BC plan should consist of, at a minimum, hybrid data backups and a disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery is strategy that allows an organization to maintain or quickly resume mission-critical functions following a disaster. We often see businesses implement one or the other. But unless the two are combined, you do not have an intelligent BC solution.
What types of incidents does an intelligent BC plan protect against?
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Network interruptions: If you server crashes or your internet provider suffers an outage you could be dead in the water. If your business relies on constant connectivity, network up time should be high on your list of priorities.
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Disasters: Both natural, like a fire or tornado, and local, like a server failure or power surge, can take a company offline. A BC solution can have you up and running in hours or even minutes, not days.
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Human Error: People are the leading catalyst of downtime. It could be an accidental deletion, opening an infected email or an act malicious intent. A BC solution can mitigate these risks.
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Cybercrime: Cyberthreats, new and old, are a consistent hazard to all businesses. Frequent and consistent backups are essential to keeping cyberattacks from leading to expensive downtime or critical data loss.