FEATURE: BUSINESS CONTINUITY

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Kevin Krige, Head of Datacentre and Cloud Service, BT in Africa, says the list of potential threats to businesses continues to grow.

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery( BCP / DR) capabilities are therefore more relevant now than ever before, as businesses contend to become more resilient and agile in an increasingly uncertain world. In fact, governance and regulatory requirements, compliance against global best practice standards, supply chain concerns and the potential impact on revenue, brand and reputation, have all helped move business continuity higher on the boardroom agenda. However, businesses are also beginning to realise that their existing plans and procedures may no longer be adequate in light of these new threats.

Revamping business continuity

Spurred by business needs – to protect, prevent, be resilient, agile and survive – business continuity capabilities allow the mission critical functions of the business to continue operating during and after a disruptive event.

However, having the right capabilities in place before a disruptive event does require some predictive planning; and developing or revamping a business continuity strategy can therefore be a complex undertaking.

At the very least, this process must involve assessing the business’ current resilience and recovery capabilities against recognised industry best practice and relevant standards. It cannot be overstated that being under prepared can quickly result in an unacceptable impact on an organisation. As such, it is advisable to undertake a Business Impact Analysis( BIA) to better understand the business demands in relation to Recovery Time Objectives( RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives( RPO). This process will also provide keen insights into the Business Continuity Risk Assessment.

Effective business continuity management requires a careful understanding of the appropriate people, process, technology, information and supplies in delivering mission critical activities. As often it is the inability to thoroughly assess these factors and identify weaknesses that leads to poor management of disruption, something that can escalate to threaten the operations of the business.

By analysing every facet and identifying areas for improvement, a business will be better placed to implement strategic changes – where necessary – that will ultimately improve the resilience of the business’ infrastructure and its processes, and at the same time help maximise on

52 INTELLIGENTCIO www. intelligentcio. com