Business Continuity: Can yours survive?

I was talking to a colleague the other day when the subject of disaster recovery came up. Like vAusTek he works with a lot of companies in this line of work and is amazed just how many do not have any business continuity / disaster recovery plan in place. We are not talking about just the small businesses, but businesses with $100 Million in revenue plus as well. It seems like most want it, but for some reason or another have never went past the idea of it.

Unfortunately a disaster recovery plan is not something you can develop after a disaster occurs. People tend to forget just how much their business would be disrupted. It is not just databases, files, and applications that are gone. What about communication? Phones, email, and all resources are gone. Access to customer data? How much could that cost you?

When I have worked with clients to do a discovery they are shocked on just how many critical systems they have and how much potential loss there is if a disaster happens. The first thing they will say is that they have backups. That is great if your building and servers are still there. What if they are not?

There is that word though that leads them to keep putting it off, “IF”.

Think about that word though and how it fits elsewhere...

• IF you are in a car wreck, you need insurance.
• IF you house burns down, you need insurance.
• IF you have to go in to the hospital, you need insurance.

Having a well-documented Business Continuity Plan is an insurance plan that your business will continue if everything is lost.