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The 15 Best Business Continuity Software and Tools for 2024

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Solutions Review’s listing of the best business continuity software is an annual mashup of products that best represent current market conditions, according to the crowd. Our editors selected the best business continuity software based on each solution’s Authority Score; a meta-analysis of real user sentiment through the web’s most trusted business software review sites and our own proprietary five-point inclusion criteria.

The editors at Solutions Review have developed this resource to assist buyers in search of the best business continuity software and tools to fit the needs of their organization. Choosing the right vendor and solution can be a complicated process — one that requires in-depth research and often comes down to more than just the solution and its technical capabilities. To make your search a little easier, we’ve profiled the best business continuity software providers all in one place. We’ve also included platform and product line names and introductory software tutorials straight from the source so you can see each solution in action.

Note: The best business continuity software is listed in alphabetical order.

The Best Business Continuity Software

Platform: Archer Business Resiliency

Description: Archer Business Resiliency enables users to identify and catalog their organization’s mission-critical processes and systems, as well as develop detailed business continuity and disaster recovery plans to protect their business from disruption. The platform offers incident management capabilities, which gives users the ability to quickly evaluate the criticality of an incident, determine the appropriate response procedures, and assign response team members based on factors such as business impact and regulatory requirements. Additionally, Archer Business Resiliency offers a coordinated and automated approach to business continuity and disaster recovery planning, testing, and execution.

Learn more and compare products with the Solutions Review Data Pr otection Buyer’s Guide.

Platform: Arcserve Continuous Availability

Description: Arcserve offers several different backup products, including Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), Arcserve Replication and High Availability, Arcserve UDP Cloud Direct, UDP Cloud Hybrid, and a legacy offering. UDP provides comprehensive Assured Recovery for virtual and physical environments with a unified architecture, backup, continuous availability, migration, email archiving, and an easy-to-use console. Arcserve Continuous Availability ensures business continuity with asynchronous, real-time replication and automatic failover to prevent downtime and data loss. Recovery testing can be fully automated or performed on a scheduled basis.

Platform: Asigra Cloud Backup

Description: Asigra is built for cloud computing environments and designed to offer backup efficiencies by allowing enterprises to capture, ingest, and store less data. Designed for compatibility with public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures, the Asigra platform is equipped with agentless software architecture, global deduplication, and data compression technology along with NIST FIPS 140-2 certified security. Asigra also offers ransomware protection, business continuity, and compliance management. These platforms offer bi-directional malware detection, deep MFA, immutable retention, and variable repository naming. In addition, the vendor reduces recovery time objectives and eliminates silos of backup data.

Platform: Axcient x360Recover

Description: Axcient offers a single solution that incorporates data protection, disaster recovery, archiving, and test/dev. Axcient x360Recover offers flexible deployments and ease of management to MSPs. The vendor also provides two self-service platform options that can be managed by a single user: Axcient Business Recovery Cloud, which is the legacy solution, and Axcient Fusion. Axcient Fusion is built to run on the public cloud, and both platforms offer one-hour and eight-hour RTO options. Axcient enables users to mirror their entire business in the cloud, thereby simplifying data access and restoration, failovers, and virtualization.

Castellan Solutions

Platform: Castellan Platform

Description: Castellan Solutions provides business continuity software to organizations of all sizes. The vendor’s SaaS platform enables users to leverage automation and intelligence to solve operational resilience, crisis management, and emergency notification challenges in a single centralized location. Additionally, through fully integrated business impact analyses, risk assessments, and plan development functionality, users can set business continuity requirements and create visualizations summarizing the entire, end-to-end value chain. The solution also offers embedded alerts and emergency notifications.

Platform: Cohesity SiteContinuity

Description: Cohesity is a data management company that manages, protects, and extracts value from enterprise data. The provider’s flagship tool, Cohesity DataProtect, safeguards a wide range of data sources on a single web-scale platform. The solution can be deployed on-premises on qualified platforms in the data center, public cloud, and on the edge. Cohesity SiteContinuity is the automation and orchestration engine that powers Cohesity’s unified data protection portfolio. The tool delivers near-zero RTO with hot standby and automated recovery of a single application or an entire site within minutes on a secondary site or cloud.

Platform: Commvault Complete Data Protection

Description: Commvault provides data protection and information management software to help organizations protect, access, and use all of their data economically. The provider offers Commvault Complete Data Protection, which is an all-in-one solution combining Commvault Backup & Recovery with Commvault Disaster Recovery for enterprise-level data protection software. The solution provides backup, replication, disaster recovery orchestration, copy data management, scale-out architecture, ransomware protection, migration support for data and application, and a web-based user interface. Additionally, Commvault Complete Data Protection delivers fast VM, application, and storage snapshot replication with flexible RPO/RTO.

Platform: Datto Unified Continuity

Description: Datto offers backup and disaster recovery appliances, Software as a Service ( SaaS ) data protection, and managed networking products. Datto is offered for data on-prem in a physical or virtual server or in the cloud via SaaS applications. Datto Unified Continuity offers a suite of business continuity platforms, including SIRIS, ALTO, Cloud Continuity for PCs, and SaaS Protection. The vendor is completely channel-driven and recently released SIRIS 4, a business continuity and disaster recovery solution built for MSPs. Datto also boasts nine data center locations worldwide, including the U.S., Canada, Iceland, the U.K., Germany, Australia, and Singapore.

Platform: FalconStor StorGuard

Description: FalconStor provides data protection and recovery services. FalconStor StorGuard enables storage virtualization and optimizes efficiency across heterogeneous storage and networks, deliver centralized management and continuous availability of primary data for business continuity. The platform’s built-in WAN-optimized replication with compression provides improved efficiency and cost reduction. The provider’s tool, RecoverTrac also automates complex and error-prone manual disaster recovery operations, allowing any associated applications and services to be brought back online as quickly as possible.

Fusion Risk Management

Platform: Fusion Framework System

Description: Fusion Risk Management’s Fusion Framework System enables users to leverage objective risk insights that help to audit, analyze, and improve business operations. The platform also offers continuity planning capabilities, allowing users to sequence their actions based on dependency and what-if analysis, rather than static plans. Additionally, Fusion Framework System enables users to prioritize, set, and maintain impact tolerances to learn over time what their organization can withstand with regard to disaster.

Platform: Oracle Risk Management Cloud

Description: The Oracle Risk Management Cloud delivers automated advanced security and transaction monitoring to strengthen financial controls, ensure the separation of duties, stop fraud, and streamline audit workflows. The solution enables users to create a risk-intelligent culture at their organization by collaborating with business owners through periodic surveys, assessments, and dashboards. Additionally, users can calculate risks by using analysis and context models in order to determine the best course of action.

Premier Continuum

Platform: Premier Continuum ParaSolution

Description: Premier Continuum is a business continuity software solution provider, aiming to help clients increase their level of organizational resilience. Its flagship platform, ParaSolution centralizes, standardizes, and automates business continuity management operations. To enhance efficiency, ParaSolution offers a quick-start data improt engine, pre-built templates, assessment templates, fully configurable workflows, real-time plan updates, and an ISO 22301 self-assessment tool. The platform also provides a BC module that integrates BIA, risk assessment, crisis management, and reporting, as well as vendor risk assessment capabilities.

Platform: Quantivate Business Continuity

Description: Quantivate is a leading provider of web-based business continuity, risk management, and compliance software and service solutions. The vendor’s product portfolio includes a comprehensive suite of applications for business continuity, vendor management, enterprise risk management, information security, and internal audit management. Quantivate offers a wide range of business continuity services in its Governance, Risk, and Compliance Suite, including emergency operations center plans, continuity of operations plans, hurricane plans, full business impact analyses, threat and vulnerability assessments, RPO/RTO documentation, exercises, and a maturity roadmap.

Veritas Technologies

Platform: Veritas NetBackup Resiliency Platform

Description: Veritas Technologies provides backup and recovery, business continuity, information governance, and storage management tools. Its flagship NetBackup product is a single and scalable solution that can protect physical, virtual , and cloud workloads. Multitenant support is optional, and the solution is available on a converged platform that requires minimal administration, even in large environments. The NetBackup Resiliency Platform offers automated, orchestrated recovery for multi-tier applications in the cloud and on-prem with added APIs to optimize time and resources. Additionally, the solution ensures compliance with stringent SLAs through audit reports and non-disruptive recovery rehearsals.

Platform: Zerto IT Resilience Platform

Description: Zerto offers an IT Resilience Platform, which combines backup, disaster recovery, and cloud mobility into one converged solution. Through an enterprise-scale, the provider’s software platform delivers continuous availability, which minimizes downtime. Additionally, IT Resilience simplifies workload mobility to freely protect, recover, and move applications across hybrid and multi-clouds. Users can replace their legacy solutions through Zerto’s single platform. Zerto also powers resiliency offerings for Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and AWS. The provider was recently acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

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This article was written by Tess Hanna on December 26, 2023

Best Business Continuity Software
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Tess Hanna is an editor and writer at Solutions Review covering Backup and Disaster Recovery, Data Storage, Cloud Computing, and Network Monitoring. Recognized by Onalytica in the 2021 "Who's Who in Data Management," and "Who's Who in Automation" reports. You can contact her at [email protected]

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How to craft an effective business continuity plan

Let me take you back in time to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Punk music was gaining popularity, and the Sex Pistols entered the punk rock scene with the force of a shooting star, capturing fans’ attention.

How To Craft An Effective Business Continuity Plan

But as quickly as they arrived, they quickly left the scene. When they broke up in 1978 after a period of internal conflicts, legal troubles, and their frontman’s imprisonment, fans were left both shocked and surprised.

Just like the Sex Pistols, plenty of companies experience rapid growth and success, only to face unexpected challenges and internal conflicts that result in their downfall.

In this article, we’ll draw inspiration from the Sex Pistols’ turbulent journey to explore the concept of business continuity planning (BCP). We’ll look at what a BCP is, why you need one and delve into the strategies and contingency measures that can help you maintain your rhythm and continuity, even when faced with the inevitable storms that can disrupt your operations.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan describes how you’ll continue your business when disaster hits. It is a structured strategy outlining how your organization will maintain essential functions when disaster strikes, to ensure minimal downtime and guarantee that operations continue.

Why do you need a BCP in place?

The BCP is crucial and revolves around ensuring your resilience and ability to continue operating in the face of unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other emergencies.

Let’s look at it a bit closer, and understand some of the key reasons to have a BCP better:

Minimize downtime

Protect revenue and reputation, compliance and legal requirements, resource allocation, maintain customer service, employee safety.

A BCP helps you minimize downtime. It does this by providing a structured approach to quickly recover and resume your critical business functions.

Example: You’re a retail company with an extensive online presence. If your website experiences a cyberattack that takes it offline, a well-prepared BCP outlines the steps to take to mitigate the attack, get your website back up in no time, and allow you to continue serving your customers.

No one likes disruptions as they result in revenue loss and can damage your reputation. A BCP helps you protect against financial losses and keep customer trust.

Example: You’re the owner of a restaurant chain with multiple locations and one of your branches has a food safety crisis. A BCP can guide you in managing the crisis, ensuring food safety compliance, and communicating effectively with customers to maintain trust in the brand and other locations.

Some industries, like the financial, and pharma industries, have regulatory requirements that mandate businesses to have BCPs in place. Failure to do so has legal and financial consequences.

Example: You’re the owner of a FinTech company. You are required by regulators to have robust BCPs to ensure customer data security and financial system stability.

When a crisis hits you need the right resources to get you back up and running. A BCP helps allocate resources effectively during a crisis, ensuring that personnel, equipment, and materials are used efficiently to address the most critical needs.

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Example: You’re a manufacturing company hit by a sudden supply chain disruption because the Suez Canal is blocked again. You use your BCP to allocate available resources to meet customer demands and minimize production delays.

When all hell breaks loose you want to make sure customer experience takes a minimum blow. A BCP outlines measures to maintain customer service and communication, so customers receive timely updates and support.

Example: You run an airline and there is a labor strike. Your BCP tells you how to manage customer inquiries, rebook affected passengers, and maintain a level of service.

Let’s not forget about the well-being of your employees. During a crisis, this is a top priority. A BCP includes procedures for evacuations, remote work arrangements, and employee support.

Example: There is a fire at your workplace. The BCP outlines evacuation routes, assembly points, and contact information for employees to report their safety status.

Business continuity planning: Steps for success

That’s a lot of reasons, right? Now that we addressed the necessity and urgency of having BCP, let’s look at 5 steps to creating a successful one:

Analyze your company
Assess the risk
Create the procedures
Get the word out
Iterate and improve

1. Analyze your company

In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity.

You then assess the financial impact of disruptions. This involves asking yourself the question, “How long can I operate without generating revenue and incurring recovery costs?”

As this step covers your whole company, it’s important to get key stakeholders involved from the beginning.

2. Assess the risk

Now you have a good overview of your critical processes and the impact of disruption. At this point, pivot your attention to the risks they face, how well you can handle when things don’t work as usual, and how long you can manage if things go wrong.

The goal here is to understand what could go wrong and find ways to avoid, reduce, or transfer them. This assessment will help you strengthen your preparedness and resilience.

3. Create the procedures

Once you analyze and assess, you need to create procedures.

Develop detailed, step-by-step procedures to minimize risks to your organization’s people, operations, and assets. This can include changes to your operating model, such as using alternative suppliers or implementing remote work options.

4. Get the word out

A plan is just a plan and no one will know how to act if you don’t communicate.

This step is all about communication. Integrate the BCP into your operations, policies, and company culture, and train, test, and communicate with your employees.

And don’t forget that communication is not limited to your company only. Communicate with external stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and so forth.

5. Iterate and improve

Before implementing your BCP ensure its effectiveness.

Don’t worry there are plenty more options to test your BCP. Consider involving external stakeholders or vendors as it makes exercises more realistic. Frequently train those who are accountable for executing the BCP.

After experiencing a real incident or conducting a training exercise, update your plan to improve its ability to protect your business. Keep in mind that both your organization’s development and the circumstances you operate in change, so a regular review isn’t a luxury but a necessity.

How to structure your continuity plan

Now you have a high-level understanding, let’s look at how to structure your business continuity plan.

You can find a copy of the template I use here .

Make sure to include the following sections in your BCP:

Version history

Executive summary, functions and process prioritization, plan activation, governance and responsibilities, recovery plans, crisis communication plan, emergency location and contents, review and testing.

This section shows the revision history. It includes the version numbers of the changes made, by whom, when, and who approved the changes. The revision history allows anyone reading the BCP to understand how it has evolved over time.

The executive summary provides a brief summary of the key objectives, goals, scope, and applicability of the BCP.

This chapter outlines the critical functions and processes in scope of continuation in case of a disastrous event.

This section refers to the risk and business impact assessment outcome. Its aim is to set out what triggers the activation of the plan.

Governance and responsibilities talks about who has to act when the BCP is activated. It includes the members, a description of their responsibilities, contact details of the BCP team, and the chain of command during a crisis.

This section builds upon the business continuity strategies, specifically the one chosen when a disaster occurs. It describes the detailed recovery plans for each critical function, the procedures for restarting operations, resource allocation, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

Here you cover the internal and external communication strategies. You also address employee awareness and training activities.

Now there is a good chance the disaster will require your crucial activities to temporarily continue at a different location. This section covers all details about the location and what needs to be available at the location.

The BCP is to be tested to reduce the risk of missing things or even worse failing. Here jot down the testing procedures and document results and lessons learned.

This section includes all appendices. Think about the following

Supporting documents, such as contact lists, maps, and technical specifications
References to external standards, guidelines, or regulations
Training programs for BCP team members
Review of insurance policies
Financial reserves and funding for recovery efforts
Procedures for keeping the BCP documentation up to date

Business continuity plan example

Earlier this year, the Koninklijke Nederlands Voetbal Bond (KNVB), which is the Royal Dutch Football Association, was hit by ransomware. The cyberattackers threatened to share personally identifiable information captured and the KNVB paid over one million euros to avoid this from happening.

What could have been done to mitigate the ransomware attack risk?

The Risk of the attack to succeed could have been mitigated with:

Regular data backups
Segmentation of networks
Intrusion detection systems

How to ensure business continuity in case of ransomware?

In response to the ransomware incident, and to allow for continued business as usual as soon as possible, steps could include:

Isolating affected systems
Activating backups
Notifying law enforcement
Engaging with a cybersecurity incident response team

Key takeaways

A business continuity plan (BCP) is like a safety net for your business when things go haywire. It helps you keep going, avoiding downtime, revenue loss, and reputation hits. On top of that, it’s a legal must in certain industries.

To make a solid BCP, just follow five steps: figure out what’s crucial for your business, spot the risks, plan how to bounce back, make sure everyone knows the plan, and keep fine-tuning it.

Structurally, your BCP should have sections like history, a quick guide, what’s most important, when to activate it, who’s in charge, the nitty-gritty recovery plans, how communication is done, where to go in a crisis, how to test the BCP works, and some extra info.

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The Backbone of Resilient Organizations: Demystifying Business Continuity

What is business continuity.

No matter what business you’re in, unexpected disruptions can happen. Outages, natural disasters, supply chain failures, cyber incidents, equipment failures, and other physical and technical issues can all disrupt your ability to function and thrive.

To ensure your business is ready for unexpected events, you need to know what to do when things go wrong—and this is where business continuity comes in. Read on to learn more about business continuity, including disaster recovery, and what to include in your business continuity plan. Also, find out about business continuity management and business continuity solutions.

What is business continuity and why is it important?

Business continuity is an organization’s readiness to continue functioning during times of disruption. Business continuity is important because it reduces the potential impact of a disruption on customers, employees, and partners.

Having a business continuity plan (BCP)—which includes the analysis, technology, documentation, training, key team members, and procedures involved in resolving potential crisis situations—is vital for ensuring business continuity. A BCP includes goals focused on minimizing the potential impact of a crisis on a company’s financials and reputation—and maintaining industry, regional, and global compliance standards and regulations.

What’s the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?

While business continuity and disaster recovery are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same thing.

Disaster recovery is a key part of a business continuity plan and is focused specifically on systems, data, and IT infrastructures. It includes technology, strategies, and processes for saving, restoring, and recovering data and protecting against cyber threats.

For a BCP to be successful in reducing downtime, mitigating risks, and remediating issues like data loss and corruption, disaster recovery measures are crucial. While both involve processes, people, and technology, business continuity offers a much wider scope to encompass the steps necessary for maintaining operations across every part of a business.

What should be included in a business continuity plan?

There are three components of a business continuity plan to consider:

Resilience—developing business functions and infrastructures to be prepared for an unexpected situation.
Recovery—setting up backup and recovery solutions for your applications, systems, and networks; determining what systems should be prioritized in the event of a disaster; and choosing a third-party vendor for additional help and resources if necessary.
Contingency—creating steps for what to do if a disruption occurs. This includes setting up a chain of command with key people and defining their responsibilities when it comes to communication, technology, third-party contracting, and coordinating temporary spaces. Keep these in mind at every step in the planning process to help ensure your BCP covers the full scope of your business.

With these three key components in mind, take the following steps to start building your business continuity plan:

Run a business impact analysis (BIA), which examines your current business functions, processes, and technology. An analysis will uncover potential vulnerabilities, risks, and threats you might encounter. Doing so helps identify areas of improvement and what to prioritize. After an analysis, you may consider making additional technology investments as well.
Outline and assign responsibilities for who will delegate, act, and support in the event of a crisis. These individuals will execute any necessary steps, be points of contact, gather resources, and guide efforts to minimize downtime for affected business functions.
Determine alternative forms of communication in case your standard means of communication are impacted by an outage or downtime.
Prepare backup equipment in case of damage or outages to prevent business-critical functions from stopping.
Understand and follow business continuity standards, which are legal and regulatory requirements determined for an industry. These are helpful when determining what steps you need to take in scenarios such as a breach or data loss. Creating a plan isn’t the last step—to make business continuity an important part of your organization, you also need business continuity management.

What is business continuity management?

Business continuity management includes the processes you put in place to set up and maintain your business continuity plan. It should include the following:

Creating policies that define the scope, objectives, and principles of business continuity. These should always keep the customer in mind to ensure you’ve documented what business-critical functions may impact customers and who is involved in customer service communication in the event of an outage or disruption.
Assembling business continuity teams throughout your organization who can communicate and enforce policies and procedures that are put in place. These employees will take part in ongoing reviews and tests to make sure everything and everyone is properly prepared for an incident.
Supporting a culture of business continuity by educating your entire organization about risks, policies, and documentation available. Offering ongoing training is an important way to increase awareness and gather data to see if there are any gaps or areas in need of improvement.
Maintaining up-to-date compliance standards and best practices to make sure your processes, workflows, and employees all work within the correct industry standards as they relate to data. If a business doesn’t keep up and an unexpected disruption occurs, there’s the risk of increased financial damages, legal costs, and fines.

Keeping track of all the continuously developing parts of a business continuity plan can be daunting for a growing organization. To reduce the time and effort involved, many businesses invest in business continuity solutions.

What kind of business continuity solutions should I consider?

The business continuity solutions you choose should be based on your organization’s needs. Depending on the industry you’re in, the size of your company, and your business-critical functions, you’ll find a range of software and resources available. These options include:

Cloud-based storage solutions, which provide a secure, remote location to back up and run workflows and applications, as well as store data. If there’s a breach or error causing data loss, you can access what you need from the cloud.
Backup and recovery tools for making copies of the data, applications, and systems within your IT infrastructure. If anything is deleted, corrupted, or shut down during a disruption, you can restore them and minimize downtime. These solutions offer different options for running backups, including automatically on a schedule, instantly, or as needed.
Virtualization tools that replicate environments and workspaces. If there’s an outage or device issues, employees can still access their applications and run processes as normal, reducing downtime that may affect services.
Contracts with third-party providers, such as disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) and backup-as-a-service. Based on your agreement, a provider can run data backups, host your IT infrastructure, and offer support in the event of a disaster. These services are typically offered with a subscription or a pay-as-you-use model and include support from IT and cybersecurity experts.
Unified communication tools to support collaboration across your entire organization. With one platform for connecting frontline workers, customer service agents, and other key members of your continuity teams, it’s easier to keep everyone up to date on disruptions and manage shifts and schedules to make sure the right people are available.

Business continuity should be a priority for any growing business looking to ensure the safety and security of their employees, technology, and data. To support the planning process, there are several solutions available to make business continuity planning easier. Though you can’t predict or prevent every disruption, with the right tools, a solid plan, and an educated team, business continuity can save you time, money, and resources across your organization.

Learn more • Developing your business continuity plan • Business continuity and disaster recovery

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Business continuity planning (bcp), what is business continuity.

In an IT context, business continuity is the capability of your enterprise to stay online and deliver products and services during disruptive events, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks and communication failures.

The core of this concept is the business continuity plan — a defined strategy that includes every facet of your organization and details procedures for maintaining business availability.

Start with a business continuity plan

Business continuity management starts with planning how to maintain your critical functions (e.g., IT, sales and support) during and after a disruption.

A business continuity plan (BCP) should comprise the following element

1. Threat Analysis

The identification of potential disruptions, along with potential damage they can cause to affected resources. Examples include:

2. Role assignment

Every organization needs a well-defined chain of command and substitute plan to deal with absence of staff in a crisis scenario. Employees must be cross-trained on their responsibilities so as to be able to fill in for one another.

Internal departments (e.g., marketing, IT, human resources) should be broken down into teams based on their skills and responsibilities. Team leaders can then assign roles and duties to individuals according to your organization’s threat analysis.

3. Communications

A communications strategy details how information is disseminated immediately following and during a disruptive event, as well as after it has been resolved.

Your strategy should include:

Methods of communication (e.g., phone, email, text messages)
Established points of contact (e.g., managers, team leaders, human resources) responsible for communicating with employees
Means of contacting employee family members, media, government regulators, etc.

From electrical power to communications and data, every critical business component must have an adequate backup plan that includes:

Data backups to be stored in different locations. This prevents the destruction of both the original and backup copies at the same time. If necessary, offline copies should be kept as well.
Backup power sources, such as generators and inverters that are provisioned to deal with power outages.
Backup communications (e.g., mobile phones and text messaging to replace land lines) and backup services (e.g., cloud email services to replace on-premise servers).

Load balancing business continuity

Load balancing maintains business continuity by distributing incoming requests across multiple backend servers in your data center. This provides redundancy in the event of a server failure, ensuring continuous application uptime.

In contrast to the reactive measures used in failover and disaster recovery (described below) load balancing is a preventative measure. Health monitoring tracks server availability, ensuring accurate load distribution at all times—including during disruptive events.

Disaster recovery plan (DCP) – Your second line of defense

Even the most carefully thought out business continuity plan is never completely foolproof. Despite your best efforts, some disasters simply cannot be mitigated. A disaster recovery plan (DCP) is a second line of defense that enables you to bounce back from the worst disruptions with minimal damage.

As the name implies, a disaster recovery plan deals with the restoration of operations after a major disruption. It’s defined by two factors: RTO and RPO .

Recovery time objective (RTO) – The acceptable downtime for critical functions and components, i.e., the maximum time it should take to restore services. A different RTO should be assigned to each of your business components according to their importance (e.g., ten minutes for network servers, an hour for phone systems).
Recovery point objective (RPO) – The point to which your state of operations must be restored following a disruption. In relation to backup data, this is the oldest age and level of staleness it can have. For example, network servers updated hourly should have a maximum RPO of 59 minutes to avoid data loss.

Deciding on specific RTOs and RPOs helps clearly show the technical solutions needed to achieve your recovery goals. In most cases the decision is going to boil down to choosing the right failover solution.

See how Imperva Load Balancer can help you with business continuity planning.

Choosing the right failover solutions

Failover is the switching between primary and backup systems in the event of failure, outage or downtime. It’s the key component of your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

A failover system should address both RTO and RPO goals by keeping backup infrastructure and data at the ready. Ideally, your failover solution should seamlessly kick in to insulate end users from any service degradation.

When choosing a solution, the two most important aspects to consider are its technological prowess and its service level agreement (SLA). The latter is often a reflection of the former.

For an IT organization charged with the business continuity of a website or web application, there are three failover options:

Hardware solutions – A separate set of servers, set up and maintained internally, are kept on-premise to come online in the event of failure. However, note that keeping such servers at the same location makes them potentially susceptible to being taken down by the same disaster/disturbance.
DNS services – DNS services are often used in conjunction with hardware solutions to redirect traffic to a backup server(s) at an external data center. A downside of this setup includes TTL-related delays that can prevent seamless disaster recovery. Additionally, managing both DNS and internal data center hardware failover solutions is time consuming and complicated.
On-edge services – On-edge failover is a managed solution operating from off-prem (e.g., from the CDN layer). Such solutions are more affordable and, most importantly, have no TTL reliance, resulting in near-instant failover that allows you to meet the most aggressive RTO goals.

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What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

Published: December 30, 2022

When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic.

executives discussing business continuity plan

The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. While you shouldn't start every day expecting the worst, you should be relatively prepared for anything to happen.

A business crisis can cost your company a lot of money and ruin your reputation if you don't have a business continuity plan in place. Customers aren't very forgiving, especially when a crisis is influenced by accidents within the company or other preventable mistakes. If you want your company to be able to maintain its business continuity in the face of a crisis, then you'll need to come up with this type of plan to uphold its essential functions.

In this post, we'll explain what a business continuity plan is, give examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan, and provide a template that you can use to create a well-rounded program for your business.

Table of Contents:

What is a business continuity plan?

Business Continuity Types
Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Plan Template

How to write a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Examples

A business continuity plan outlines directions and procedures that your company will follow when faced with a crisis. These plans include business procedures, names of assets and partners, human resource functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders. The goal of a business continuity plan is to handle anything from minor disruptions to full-blown threats.

For example, one crisis that your business may have to respond to is a severe snowstorm. Your team may be wondering, "If a snowstorm disrupted our supply chain, how would we resume business?" Planning contingencies ahead of time for situations like these can help your business stay afloat when you're faced with an unavoidable crisis.

When you think about business continuity in terms of the essential functions your business requires to operate, you can begin to mitigate and plan for specific risks within those functions.

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Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning is the process of creating a plan to address a crisis. When writing out a business continuity plan, it's important to consider the variety of crises that could potentially affect the company and prepare a resolution for each.

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Business Continuity Plan Basics
Understanding BCPs
Benefits of BCPs
How to Create a BCP
BCP & Impact Analysis
BCP vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

Frequently Asked Questions

Business Continuity Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

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What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters—fire, flood, or weather-related events—and cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

Determining how those risks will affect operations
Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
Testing procedures to ensure they work
Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature, the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain.

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes.

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15 - 17.

Ready. “ IT Disaster Recovery Plan .”

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15-17.

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Understanding the Essentials of a Business Continuity Plan

In the face of unforeseen disruptions, a robust business continuity plan (BCP) is essential to preserve the trust of stakeholders. If you are able to seamlessly continue operations even in the face of sudden challenges, stakeholders are reassured of the company’s resilience and commitment to their interests.

In this blog post, we offer a comprehensive guide to business continuity planning, how it can benefit organizations and share key insights into Developing and Maintaining an Effective business continuity plan.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is an essential blueprint that outlines how a company will continue operating during an unplanned disruption in service. It’s more than just a reactive strategy; it’s a proactive measure to ensure that critical business functions can continue during and after a crisis. The purpose of a BCP is to provide a systematic approach to mitigate the potential impact of disruptions and maintain business operations at an acceptable predefined level.

The role of a BCP is crucial in maintaining operations during unforeseen events such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or any other incident that could interrupt business processes. By having a well-structured business continuity plan, organizations can:

Minimize downtime and ensure that essential functions remain operational
Protect the integrity of data and IT infrastructure
Maintain customer service and preserve stakeholder trust

Why is a Business Continuity Plan Important

Immediate Response : A BCP ensures that there is a predefined action plan, minimizing downtime and demonstrating control over the situation.

Transparent Communication : Keeping stakeholders informed during a crisis promotes transparency and maintains confidence in the company’s management.

Inclusive Planning : Involve stakeholders in the business continuity plan development process. Their insights can enhance the plan’s effectiveness and ensure their needs are addressed.

Consistency in Service : By prioritizing critical operations, a BCP helps maintain the quality and consistency of services or products, which is important for customer retention.

The absence of a business continuity plan can lead to a domino effect of negative outcomes, including a tarnished reputation and the potential loss of future business. Stakeholders remember how a company responds in a crisis, and a well-executed BCP can be the difference between a temporary setback and a long-term impact on the company’s image and relationships.

Elements of a Business Continuity Plan

When exploring various business continuity plan examples, certain common elements emerge as critical for their effectiveness. These elements serve as the backbone for a robust BCP plan, ensuring that businesses can maintain operations and protect their reputation during unforeseen events. Here are some of the key components found in successful BCP examples:

Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis : Identifying potential threats and assessing their impact on business operations is a foundational step in any BCP plan.

Crisis Communication Plan : A clear communication strategy is essential to manage stakeholder expectations and maintain trust.

Recovery Strategies : Detailed procedures for restoring business functions and services post-disruption are indispensable.

Employee Training and Awareness : Ensuring staff are well-prepared and knowledgeable about the BCP plan is crucial for its successful implementation.

Case studies of successful BCP implementations often highlight how these elements are tailored to fit specific business models and industries. For instance, a financial institution may focus heavily on data security and regulatory compliance within their BCP, while a manufacturing business might prioritize supply chain alternatives and on-site safety protocols. Regular testing and adjustment of these plans are also a common thread, underscoring the importance of adaptability and continuous improvement in business continuity planning.

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Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery

It’s important to distinguish between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan. While both are vital, a BCP is broader and focuses on the continuity of the entire business, whereas a disaster recovery plan is more technical and concentrates on the recovery of specific operations, such as IT services. Understanding these differences helps organizations allocate resources effectively and ensures comprehensive preparedness for any type of disruption. Understanding when to activate a business continuity plan (BCP) versus a disaster recovery plan is crucial for maintaining operational resilience.

To ensure a comprehensive crisis management strategy, consider the following integration points:

Pre-emptive Planning : Establish clear triggers for when each plan is activated. For instance, a BCP might be initiated in the face of a supply chain disruption, while disaster recovery would come into play during a data breach or server failure.

Unified Communication : Both plans should have a coordinated communication strategy to inform stakeholders and employees about the status and steps being taken.

Regular Testing : Conduct joint drills that test both the BCP and disaster recovery plans to identify any gaps or overlaps in procedures.

Continuous Improvement : Use insights from drills and actual incidents to refine both plans, ensuring they evolve with the changing business landscape and technological advancements.

By integrating both plans, organizations can navigate crises with agility and confidence, minimizing downtime and protecting their reputation. Tools like Creately, with features such as real-time collaboration and visual project management, can help create and maintain these critical plans, ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page and ready to act when necessary.

Crisis Communication Strategies within Business Continuity Planning

A business continuity plan (BCP) is not just about responding to the crisis at hand, but also about how you communicate during the disruptions and the decisions you make. Here are some best practices to ensure your crisis communication and decision-making processes effective:

Clear Communication Channels : Establish predefined channels for internal and external communication. This ensures that messages are consistent and reach all stakeholders promptly.

Designated Spokespersons : Identify individuals who are authorized to speak on behalf of the company during a crisis. This helps maintain a unified voice and message.

Factual Updates : Provide regular, factual updates to keep stakeholders informed. Avoid speculation and commit to transparency.

Decision-Making Protocols : Implement decision-making protocols that are clear and allow for swift action. This includes having a chain of command and predefined criteria for making critical decisions.

Training and Simulations : Regularly train your crisis management team and conduct simulations to prepare for potential scenarios. This ensures that when a crisis does occur, your team is ready to act effectively.

By integrating these best practices into your BCP plan, you can maintain control during a crisis, make informed decisions, and communicate effectively with all parties involved. Remember, the goal is to protect your company’s operations, reputation, and stakeholder relationships during unexpected events.

Utilizing Business Continuity Plan Templates and Tools

When it comes to developing a robust business continuity plan (BCP), leveraging templates can offer a significant head start. These templates serve as a foundational framework that can be customized to align with the specific requirements of your business. Here’s why using BCP templates is advantageous:

Efficiency in Development : BCP templates provide a structured approach, ensuring that all critical elements are considered without starting from scratch. This saves valuable time and resources.

Consistency Across the Organization : Templates help maintain a uniform response strategy, which is crucial for coherent and coordinated action during a crisis.

Ease of Customization : While templates offer a general outline, they are designed to be adaptable. This means you can tailor them to reflect your business’s unique operational processes, risk profile, and recovery objectives.

Incorporating features like crisis response directions into your BCP template is essential. With Creately you can,

Visualize these procedures on an infinite canvas, ensuring clarity and accessibility for all team members.
Easily modify the plan as your business evolves, with the drag-and-drop functionality, making regular testing and adjustment a seamless process.
Create a central repository of information by having docs, links and attachments in the notes panel of any shape in your diagram.

Key Insights for Developing and Maintaining an Effective Business Continuity Plan

A robust business continuity plan (BCP) is not a ‘set it and forget it’ document; it requires ongoing attention and refinement. Here’s why regular testing, updates, and staff training are non-negotiables in business continuity:

Financial Protection : By regularly testing your BCP, you can identify and rectify gaps that could otherwise lead to significant financial losses during a crisis. It’s not just about having a plan, but ensuring it works effectively when you need it most.

Reputational Safeguarding : Your company’s reputation is on the line when disaster strikes. A well-rehearsed BCP means your team can respond swiftly and competently, preserving stakeholder trust and customer loyalty.

Customization for Evolving Threats : The threat landscape is constantly changing. Regular BCP reviews allow you to tailor your plan to new types of risks, ensuring your business remains resilient against the unforeseen.

Empowered Employees : Training staff on the BCP turns theory into practice. When every team member knows their role in a crisis, response times improve, and confusion is minimized.

Remember, a BCP is a living document. It thrives on the feedback loop created by regular drills and updates, ensuring that when a crisis does occur, your business is prepared not just to survive, but to continue operations with minimal disruption.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

Business Continuity Simplified

By Andy Marker | December 17, 2018 (updated October 24, 2021)

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Unexpected work interruptions can cripple a business and cause millions of dollars in expenses and lost business. Learn about the importance of business continuity planning and management from experts.

In this article, you’ll learn the definition of a business continuity plan and the primary goal of business continuity planning . Additionally, you’ll learn the steps involved in business continuity planning and about the business continuity lifecycle .

What Is Business Continuity Management?

In business continuity management (BCM) , a company identifies potential threats to its activities and the threat impact. The company then develops plans to respond to those threats and continue activities through any crisis.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) describes how a business will continue to run during and after a crisis event. The BCP details guidelines, procedures, and work instructions to aid continuity.

To learn more about writing a plan, see our how-to guide to writing a business continuity plan .

What Is Business Continuity Planning?

Business continuity planning (BCP) refers to the work a company does to create a plan and system to deal with risks. Thorough planning seeks to prevent problems and ensure business processes continue during and after a crisis.

Business continuity planning ensures that the company deals with disruptions quickly, and minimizes the impact on operations. Business continuity planning is also called business resumption planning and continuous service delivery assurance (CSDA) .

What Is the Primary Goal of Business Continuity Planning?

The main goal of business continuity planning is to support key company activities during a crisis. Planning ensures a company can run with limited resources or restricted access to buildings. Continuity planning also aims to minimize revenue or reputation losses.

A business continuity plan should outline several key things that an organization needs to do to prepare for potential disruptions to its activities, including the following:

Recognize potential threats to a company.
Assess potential impacts on the company’s daily activities.
Provide a way to reduce these potential problems, and establish a structure that allows key company functions to continue throughout and after the event.
Identify the resources the organization needs to continue operating, such as staffing, equipment, and alternative locations.

Business Continuity Planning Steps

A business continuity plan includes guidelines and procedures to guide a business through disruption. The efforts to create a plan are the same for large or small organizations. A simple plan is better than no plan.

The basic steps for writing a business continuity plan are as follows:

Create a governance team.
Complete your business impact analysis (BIA) and risk assessment documents.
Document your plan. Remember to include detailed guidelines and procedures that cover key processes and facilities.
Test and update the plan regularly.

The Business Continuity Management Lifecycle

Business continuity management includes preparing for and handling unexpected events. BCM has a six-step lifecycle. This cycle repeats during both in regular business times and crises, as you take the right steps to keep activities always running.

The BCM lifecycle includes the following points:

Mitigate Risk: Proactively identify business continuity risks to your company, and plan how your company will respond.
Prepare: Train staff on your business continuity plan and ensure they understand what they need to do to help the business respond.
Respond: Ensure that your company and all employees respond appropriately to a crisis. Be prepared to adapt in the moment.
Resolve: Ensure that the company plans how to communicate effectively with staff and that it does so appropriately during the crisis.
Recover: Inform employees, customers, and other important people about the status of the crisis and your company’s response.
Resume: Communicate with employees and others after the crisis ends.

What Are Business Continuity Risks or Events?

Also called business continuity events, business continuity risks are the most common events that can disrupt a company’s regular operations — these can be natural and human-made crises. Defining these risks is a vital part of business continuity planning.

Such events might include the following:

Severe weather
Natural disasters (tornadoes, floods, blizzards, earthquakes, fire, etc.)
A physical security threat
A recall of a company’s product
Supply chain problems
Threats to staffing and employee safety
Accidents at an organization’s facilities
Destruction to a company’s facilities or property
Power disruptions
Server crashes
Failures in public and private services (communications, transportation, safety, etc.)
Environmental disasters, including hazardous materials spills
Network disruptions
Human error/human-made hazards
Stock market crashes
Cyber attacks and hacker activity

Any of these triggers can result in broader problems for a company, such as danger or injury to staff and others, equipment damages, brand injury, and loss of income and net worth. Business continuity management and planning address and mitigate these contingencies.

What Is a Business Continuity Strategy?

A business continuity strategy is more often called a business continuity plan. The strategy includes the processes and structure a company uses to manage an unexpected event.

Some people consider business continuity strategy to be a step in the planning process. In the strategy phase, business continuity planners describe the overall approach a company should take to prevent, manage, and recover from a crisis.

An Overview of Business Continuity Management and Planning

There are several goals, key elements, and benefits to business continuity management and planning. The primary goals of management and planning are as follows:

Build Company Resiliency: Doing so means that your company’s tools, buildings, and operations are resistant to — and not greatly affected by — most disruptions.
Create a Plan for Recovery (with Contingencies that Aid in That Recovery): If a major event does cause problems, you should have a plan for how to recover quickly. That plan will include contingencies. For example, you should plan for how key operations will resume if there is a widespread power outage.

Business continuity management and planning generally cover the following areas, with differences depending on the organization and industry:

Disaster Recovery: Disaster recovery involves recovering technology after a disruptive event. You can learn more about disaster recovery and download free templates in our comprehensive article .
Emergency Management: Emergency management focuses on avoiding and mitigating catastrophic risks to staff and communities.
Business Recovery: Considered part of business continuity, business recovery centers on short-term activities after a disruptive incident. The short-term is sometimes defined as less than 60 days.
Business Resumption: This describes the longterm phase of recovery (60 or more days after an even), wherein the company returns to near-normal conditions.
Crisis Management: Crisis management focuses on communicating with stakeholders during and after a crisis, and controlling damage during the event. To learn more, read our comprehensive guide to crisis management .
Incident Management: Incident management is an ITIL (previously known as Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework for reducing or eliminating downtime after an incident.
Contingency Planning: This covers outlier risks that are unlikely to occur but which could have disastrous results.

“A well managed business continuity management program will help protect people, assets, and business processes,” says Scott Owens, founder and managing director of BluTinuity , a business continuity firm based in New Berlin, Wisconsin. “It may not be able to prevent all incidents. But it can reduce the likelihood of incidents, decrease response time, and lower the cost and impact of an incident.”

Key Elements of Business Continuity Management

All business continuity management programs should include a number of key elements, which serve to ensure that your plan is positioned for success and that you regularly update and improve it.

These important elements include the following:

Governance: This is the structure and team your business sets up to create and monitor the program.
Business Alignment: This section details how your company’s current business continuity management and planning processes compare to expert approaches and industry standards.
Continuity Strategy and Recovery Strategies: Include a detailed plan that assesses risks to your organization and how you can recover, should those risks become reality.
Plan Documentation: Provide details on the plan that everyone in your company can access. To get started, see our roundup of free business continuity plan templates .
Tactical Implementation: This section includes details on the specific ways your company plans to recover from certain types of incidents.
Training: In this section, detail how you will train your staff to understand the business continuity plan and their role in it.
Testing: Include real-world simulations of a crisis event, and test how your company and its employees respond and the effectiveness of your business continuity plans.
Maintenance: Make changes to the plan where necessary to increase its effectiveness.
Monitoring: This section details how you will continue to compare industry standards and expert advice to how your plan is working.

To learn about formal requirements for business continuity planning and management, see our comprehensive article on the ISO 22301 standard .

The Costs of Business Continuity Management

The costs to do an appropriate job of business continuity management can be significant. However, some reports say that the cost of unforeseen downtime may be as much as $2.5 billion a year for Fortune 1000 companies.

Kurt Engemann, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Business Continuity and Risk Management at Iona College in New York, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management and author of Business Continuity and Risk Management: Essentials of Organizational Resilience . In the book, he says that costs for business continuity preparation do not only include the groundwork to assess a company’s risks and plans to manage those risks. Rather, they also cover the needed backup facilities and equipment and company assets for emergency response. In addition, costs must cover resources for training employees and testing the plan.

Some experts have estimated that business continuity management and planning within only the crucial information technology aspects of companies can cost two to four percent of the information technology budget. But the costs are necessary, and worth it in the long run, according to business continuity experts.

“There is an initial outlay of a modest amount of money that will lessen the financial impact of a possible future crisis,” Engemann writes in his book. “Similar to an insurance policy, the financial benefit of BCM must be viewed from a long-term prospective.”

When an organization’s top executives complain about the costs, Owens says, “Ask them what it would cost their organization for an hour of downtime. Or eight hours. Or 24 hours. Chances are the cost — financial, operational, and to brand and reputation — of having key business functions unavailable for an extended period are significant. They will most likely find business continuity management to be worth the investment.”

Benefits of Business Continuity Management

Like Engemann, Owens points out that there are significant benefits to the investment organizations make in business continuity management, including the following:

Mission Critical Processes: If you understand your key processes, you can plan to protect them and prioritize their recovery.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Laws or regulations require companies in some industries to implement a formal business continuity management system.
Satisfying Demands from Other Organizations: Some groups and companies may require that your company sets up BCM before they do business with you.
Insurance Payments: To get the maximum payments from an insurance policy after an event, a company must have suitable business continuity management policies in place.
Reputation Management: Your business’s brand will be greatly helped or hurt, depending on how an unforeseen event affects its operations.
Competitive Advantage: A strong business continuity plan can offer your company the advantage over peers who are not as well prepared.
Seamless Recovery: Cloud-based technologies make data backup, remote work, and business recovery affordable and accessible. Groups and businesses of all sizes can benefit from such tools. See our article on cloud computing for business continuity to learn more.
Time Savings: Planning prevents teams from scrambling at the last minute to cobble together a recovery effort. Strong planning helps you get back online — and back on track — faster.

Michael Herrera, CEO of MHA Consulting , a business continuity and disaster recovery firm, cites two other significant benefits:

Keeping Customers and Avoiding Major Financial Losses: Getting operations back to normal quickly after an event means your company loses less money.

“Your customers aren’t as patient as you think they are,” Herrera explains. “They expect you to have a business continuity system and they expect you to be up and running. Their patience does run out.”

Improving Day-to-Day Operations: Herrera says his firm’s clients often discover how business continuity planning gives them insights into the day-to-day operations of their company. “It really can help you with process improvement and getting a good understanding of what your business does every day.”

Additionally, strong business continuity planning will enable you to do the following:

Officially declare a disaster and alert senior management.
Assist in the development of an official public statement regarding a disaster and its effects on a business.
Monitor your business’s progress and present the recovery status.
Provide ongoing support and guidance to teams with pre-planned operations.
Review critical processing, schedules, and backlogs to keep everyone up to date on status.
Ensure businesses have both the resources and the information to deal with an unforeseen emergency.
Reduce the risk that an emergency might pose to employees, clients, and vendors, etc.
Provide a response for both man-made and environmental disasters.
Improve overall business communication and response plans.
Summarize both the operational and the financial impacts resulting from the loss of critical business functions.
Allow businesses to plan for a loss of function that has potentially larger, more severe consequences.

See our article on the importance and benefits of business continuity planning to read more expert examples of how business continuity can bolster your company.

Key Business Continuity Management and Planning Considerations

Companies don’t have to face business continuity planning alone. There are a variety of tools and services that can help, including the following:

Consultant Services

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of consultants and companies that can provide help with developing your business continuity plan. Below are a few things to think about in choosing one:

How experienced are they? How long have they been around?
What’s their reputation as a company? What do their clients say about them?
Are they focused on a specific industry or area of business continuity, or do they have experience with a range of industries and a broad spectrum of business continuity?
How do they think about business continuity (as a somewhat separate practice or something that needs to be ingrained within your organization)?
How aligned is their advice with standards in your industry?

Business Continuity Software

There are also hundreds of pieces of business continuity software on the market. Here are some things to consider:

Are you looking for software that will automate the development of plan components, or software that offers more in-depth help during the planning phase?
What is the history of the software and the company behind it? How long has this particular software been on the market and what is the history and the reputation of the company behind it?
Is the software being continually updated and improved?

Below are some specifics to consider as you test drive the software:

Does it have an easy-to-use interface?
Does it cover all aspects and components of business continuity, including business impact analysis and risk assessment ?
Does it include sufficient storage for your company’s supporting documents?
Does it provide secure portable access via mobile or other technologies, if a crisis interrupts your information technology systems?
Does it provide strong data analytics?
Is it secure and private?

Primary Things Your Organization’s Business Continuity Management System Should Accomplish

While your business continuity management system will have various elements and details, there are some primary things it should do for your organization. They correspond to the key elements listed earlier in this article.

For example, a BCM system should help do the following:

Understand your company’s needs for business continuity and disaster preparedness. A BCM system should be able to assist company leaders in understanding the need for a business continuity management policy.
Understand which processes should be recovered and in what order.
Establish business continuity metrics to gauge success.
Plan for communicating with customers, staff, and other stakeholders.
Determine what tools, technology, and staffing are required to restore activities and support customers.
Establish remote-work support or relocation plans for staff and activities.
Implement ways to continually assess and manage continuity risks.
Monitor and review how its business continuity management system is working.
Continually improve the system.
Respond effectively in a real-world crisis, and allow the business’s critical operations to continue and all operations to resume quickly.

Although nobody wants to think about disasters or the effort needed to prepare to meet and mitigate crises, the alternative is the potential loss of reputation, income, or the entire business. In sum, planning translates to determining your key processes, equipment, and tools, and applying basic recovery strategies.

The Importance of Senior Organizational Leaders Strongly Supporting Your Business Continuity Management and Planning

Your senior leaders must strongly support your company’s business continuity management plan for it to succeed. Such leadership is key as storms, floods, pandemics, and data breaches increase in force and frequency.

“Make sure senior management is committed to the planning, development, execution, and implementation of a business continuity/disaster recovery program,” says Paul Kirvan , a business continuity consultant and a fellow of the Business Continuity Institute with 25 years of experience in business continuity work. “Otherwise, it simply won’t happen. Such programs work best if they have top-down support and funding, as opposed to being developed from the ground up.”

Business Continuity Plan Test Types

Testing verifies the effectiveness of your plan and provides training for participants. To ensure better communication, include suppliers, vendors, and other stakeholders in exercises. If appropriate, also consider including local emergency preparedness officials.

There are four types of testing, and each requires increasing levels of planning, resources, and focus. You should try to run each type of drill regularly.

Plan Review: Plan reviews are often the first test applied to a new plan. In this test, top management and some key BCP personnel review the relevance and completeness of a plan. Such a review can verify risk and BIA results, and help you check for gaps and inconsistencies among continuity documents.
Tabletop or Structured Walkthrough: A tabletop test requires more preparation and time. It provides a role-playing exercise for recovery teams.
Simulation or Walkthrough Drill: In a walkthrough drill, your continuity team physically completes the type of tasks they'd find in a crisis. They may practice evacuating a building during a fire, restoring a backup, or switching to another communication frequency.
Functional or Live Scenario: Functional tests include a complete physical drill of continuity plans. Live tests may focus on one aspect of the plan or include the complete plan. They may include one part of the company or all team members.

Be sure to document what happened in the test so everyone involved in the exercise — and especially those who created the plan — can understand what did and didn’t go well, and can revise as necessary.

Business Continuity Management Policy Statement

A business continuity policy statement is a written document that outlines an organization’s business continuity management program. The policy statement should be communicated to all employees and should be signed and endorsed by the organization’s senior management.

See real-world examples of a business continuity policy statement .

Cultivating Awareness of Business Continuity Plans

The best business continuity system is useless if no one knows about it. Find ways to promote your plans in daily company activities, and discuss business continuity regularly in company and team meetings. Also, be sure to include the business continuity manager in cross-functional planning meetings so they can represent the business continuity perspective. Above all, exercise your plan, test your plan, and then test again.

What Is the Importance of a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is vital to ensure that your company mitigates downtime during a crisis. Resuming activities quickly after an event also helps ensure your company’s financial health.

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan

It is crucial that your company set up a group of people to help create your business continuity plan. The group should include senior leadership, experts, and staff. A simple, practical plan is the best plan. At a minimum, include continuity team roles and duties, and team member contact information. You should also add guidelines and checklists for dealing with unforeseen events.

Daily business functions rely on many resources — human, utilities, machines, and even paper, pens, and pencils. Business recovery after a disruptive event is no different. See our in-depth article on writing a business continuity plan for a complete list of resource types you may want to include in a plan.

You can ask certain questions as you form your strategy, and a business continuity plan usually includes common resources and elements. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Business Continuity Plan Template

This template can help you document and track business operations in the event of a disruption/disaster to maintain critical processes. The plan includes space to record business function recovery priorities, recovery plans, and alternate site locations. Plan efficiently for disruption and minimize downtime, so your business maintains optimal efficiency.

Download Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF

You’ll find other most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates, in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats in this article .

What Is a Business Impact Analysis and Why Is It an Important Part of a Business Continuity Plan?

A business impact analysis (BIA) is one of the most important parts of business continuity planning. The analysis considers how an unforeseen disruption could affect a company. BIA results also suggest how a business can recover from a crisis.

The business impact analysis will include details on the following:

Recovery time objectives that outline the organization’s goals relating to how quickly various services and processes will resume after an event
Financial impact of an incident
Impact on customers
Other possible impacts of an incident
How the organization will prioritize recovery steps
How the organization will prioritize critical services or products
Identification of potential revenue loss
Identification of additional expenses the organization will incur because of the event
Identification of insurance an organization has or needs to have
Identification of an organization’s dependencies on other agencies, companies, and providers

See our business impact analysis toolkit to find guidelines and templates to get started.

Risk Mitigation for Business Continuity

Risk assessment is one of the first steps in preparing your business continuity plan.

Risk management includes identifying and ranking risks, and risk control includes identifying policies and procedures to avoid and contain risks.

To learn more about risk management , read our comprehensive guide.

The Importance of Periodically Testing an Organization’s Business Continuity Plan

Even the best business continuity plans are useless if you do not continually test them in real-world mockups. Testing helps you continuously improve procedures, and also keeps plans synched with current business context.

Robert Sollars, a security trainer and consultant from Mesa, Arizona, says, “You must exercise your plan and train your employees in it. This can be costly and unwieldy at times, but it is an absolute must. I liken this to buying a Lamborghini and letting it sit in the garage, never starting it up, never driving it, never doing anything but admiring it. Your plan must be taken out and test driven at least two to three times per year. If you don’t test it, then when the real thing pops you will realize what the books, consultants, and experts have told you is useless for your organization. Testing it allows you to figure out the bugs and tweak the necessary items to make it more efficient and effective.”

Owens adds, “If you haven’t tested your plans, you aren’t ready for a disaster.”

You can do some testing through simpler table top exercises — for example, by talking through hypothetical incidents with your team. But Owens and other business continuity experts say organizations should also periodically do exercises that more closely mimic a real-world event.

“Organizations need to move … to progressively more complex scenarios, involving cross-functional teams and interdependent systems and processes,” he writes in a blog post about business continuity. “This is the only way that a company can get outside its comfort zone to truly understand if what they have designed will really work. My preference is to involve role-playing, actors, and include participation from vendors, business partners, and local law enforcement when appropriate. This will almost always result in lessons learned and opportunities to improve the plan, which is another great outcome.”

The most important result from testing your plan is an understanding of where theoretical solutions won’t work in real events. This understanding will then allow your organization to amend the plan to be more effective.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan Governance Committee?

Many companies set up a business continuity plan governance committee, which consists of staff members and senior leaders (their continuity efforts is vital). Governance tasks include writing the business continuity plan and supervising ongoing plan maintenance.

The committee is often responsible for the following duties:

Approving the governance structure of the committee
Clarifying the roles of committee members and others working on the plan
Overseeing the creation of working groups to develop and implement the plan
Providing overall direction and communicate important information to employees
Approving the continuity plan and essential specifics within it
Setting priorities within the plan

The committee often includes the following members:

A senior leader from the business, often the sponsor
A business continuity manager and assistant manager
The company employee, or outside consultant, who will serve as overall coordinator of the business continuity plan
The company’s security officer
The company’s chief information officer, or information technology leader
Representatives from the company’s business department, to help with the business impact analysis
An administrative representative

How to Cultivate Resilience in Your Organization

A resilient organization has the tools and abilities to survive a disruptive event, and also regularly looks for new threats and adapts to changes in the organizational and industry landscape. Resilience experts recognize two types of resilience: reactive resilience uses a company’s existing processes to meet and overcome a crisis; proactive resilience anticipates disruptions and considers methods to prevent problems.

Real World Example: Lessons Learned About Business Continuity from the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001

Organizational leaders and business continuity experts learned a lot from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Worst of all, the attacks killed thousands of people. But they also severely disrupted communications, financial transactions, and some commerce in New York City and throughout the world.

The following are among the lessons learned:

Business continuity plans must be tested frequently, and updated where needed.
The plans must assume a wide range of threats.
The plans must take into account how much companies, agencies, and other entities depend on each other.
Key people from any organization must be available and reachable when an incident happens.
The ability to communicate, especially through landline phones, cell phones, and the internet, is vital.
Sites that organizations use for backup of their digital information should be located at a distance from their primary information technology site.
Employee support and counseling may be important during and after a crisis.
An organization should store copies of its business continuity plan at a location apart from its primary location.
Security perimeters around the scene of an incident may be large, which may affect employees’ access to organization facilities for long periods.

Legislation Governing Some Business Continuity Management and Planning

The United Kingdom did approved the Civil Contingencies Act in 2004, which requires businesses to have business continuity plans in place.

Some industries do have regulatory bodies that may impose business continuity requirements within those industries. For instance, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private self-regulatory organization overseeing the U.S. financial securities industry. FINRA established FINRA Rule 4370. This rule requires securities firms to create and maintain written business continuity plans. Utility bodies, such as North American Electric Reliability Corporation ( NERC ) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ( FERC ), also require continuity plans.

Guidelines, Standards, and Resources Providing Guidance on Business Continuity Management and Planning

Organizational leaders can use a number of standards set by industry and other groups to guide their business continuity planning and management programs. Below are some commonly used standards:

ISO 22301 : Developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a standard-setting body, this group of standards sets out appropriate business continuity management practices. Learn more about how this standard can help businesses of all sizes in our guide to ISO 22301 .
NFPA 1600 : Developed by the National Fire Protection Association, the standard is one of the most widely recognized in the U.S. on emergency preparedness and business continuity.
National Institute of Standards and Technology SP 800-34 : Sets contingency planning standards for federal information systems in the U.S.
SPC-2009 — Organizational Resilience : Security, Preparedness and Continuity Management Systems provides critical business and infrastructure security standards developed by the American Society for Industrial Security.
ISO 27000 : Standards for security in information technology systems, which include standards for business continuity in information technology. Learn more about ISO 27000 and find free checklists and templates .
DRI International : Professional Practices for Business Continuity Management
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Continuity Guidance Circular: Continuity Guidance for Non-Federal Entities: An 86-page formal document, the circular presents FEMA’s perspective on how businesses can prepare for disasters.
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety: Open for Business Continuity Toolkit: This site offers a video, FAQ, and downloadable continuity planning tools.

What Is the Business Continuity Institute?

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), based in the United Kingdom, is a non-profit professional organization providing education, certification, and leadership on business continuity management. The Institute has more than 8,000 members in more than 100 countries.

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How to create an effective business continuity plan

A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an event.

Professional Meeting: Senior Businesswoman and Colleague in Discussion

The tumultuous events of the past several years have impacted practically every business. And with the number of extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and geopolitical conflicts continuing to rise, business leaders are bracing for the possibility of increasingly more frequent impactful incidents their organizations will need to respond to.

According to PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey , 96% of 1,812 business leaders said their organizations had experienced disruption in the past two years and 76% said their most serious disruption had a medium to high impact on operations.

It’s little wonder then that 89% of executives list resilience as one of their most important strategic priorities.

Yet at the same time, only 70% of respondents said they were confident in their organization’s ability to respond to disruptions, with PwC noting that its research shows that too many organizations “are lacking the foundational elements of resilience they need to be successful.”

A solid business continuity plan is one of those foundational elements.

“Every business should have the mindset that they will face a disaster, and every business needs a plan to address the different potential scenarios,” says Goh Ser Yoong, head of compliance at Advance.AI and a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at the professional governance association ISACA.

A business continuity plan gives the organization the best shot at successfully navigating a disaster by providing ready-made directions on who should do what tasks in what order to keep the business viable.

Without such as a plan, the organization will take longer than necessary to recover from an event or incident — or may never recover at all.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused by a natural disaster, civic unrest, cyberattack, or any other threat to business operations.

A business continuity plan outlines the procedures and instructions that the organization must follow during such an event to minimize downtime, covering business processes, assets, human resources, business partners, and more.

A business continuity plan is not the same as a disaster recovery plan , which focuses on restoring IT infrastructure and operations after a crisis. Still, a disaster recovery plan is part of the overall strategy to ensure business continuity, and the business continuity plan should inform the action items detailed in an organization’s disaster recovery plan. The two are tightly coupled, which is why they often are considered together and abbreviated as BCDR.

Why business continuity planning matters

Whether you operate a small business or a large corporation, it’s vital to retain and increase your customer base. There’s no better test of your capability to do so than right after an adverse event.

Because restoring IT is critical for most companies, numerous disaster recovery solutions are available. You can rely on IT to implement those solutions. But what about the rest of your business functions? Your company’s future depends on your people and processes. Being able to handle any incident effectively can have a positive effect on your company’s reputation and market value, and it can increase customer confidence.

Moreover, there are increasing consumer and regulatory expectations for both enterprise security and continuity today. Consequently, organizations must prioritize continuity planning to prevent not only business losses, but financial, legal, reputational, and regulatory consequences.

For example, the risk of having an organization’s “license to operate” withdrawn by a regulator or having conditions applied (retrospectively or prospectively) can adversely affect market value and consumer confidence.

Building (and updating) a business continuity plan

Whether building the organization’s first business continuity plan or updating an existing one, the process involves multiple essential steps.

Assess business processes for criticality and vulnerability: Business continuity planning “starts with understanding what’s most important to the business,” says Joe Nocera, principle in the cyber risk and regulatory practice at PwC, a professional services firm.

So the first step in building your business continuity plan is assessing your business processes to determine which are the most critical; which are the most vulnerable and to what type of events; and what are the potential losses if those processes go down for a day, a few days, or a week.

“This step essentially determines what you are trying to protect and what you are trying to keep up for systems,” says Todd Renner, senior managing director in the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting.

This assessment is more demanding than ever before because of the complexity of today’s hybrid workplace, the modern IT environment, and the reliance on business partners and third-party providers to perform or support critical processes.

Given that complexity, Goh says a thorough assessment requires an inventory of not only key processes but also the supporting components — including the IT systems, networks, people, and outside vendors — as well as the risks to those components.

This is essentially a business impact analysis.

Determine your organization’s RTO and RPO: The next step in building a business continuity plan is determining the organization’s recovery time objective (RTO), which is the target amount of time between point of failure and the resumption of operations, and the recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of data loss an organization can withstand.

Each organization has its own RTO and RPO based on the nature of its business, industry, regulatory requirements, and other operational factors. Moreover, different parts of a business can have different RTOs and RPOs, which executives need to establish, Nocera says.

“When you meet with individual aspects of the business, everyone says everything [they do] is important; no one wants to say their part of the business is less critical, but in reality you have to have those challenging conversations and determinations about what is actually critical to the business and to business continuity,” he adds.

Detail the steps, roles, and responsibilities for continuity: Once that is done, business leaders should use the RTO and the RPO, along with the business impact analysis, to determine the specific tasks that need to happen, by whom, and in what order to ensure business continuity.

“It’s taking the key components of your analysis and designing a plan that outlines roles and responsibilities, about who does what. It gets into the nitty-gritty on how you’re going to keep the company up and running,” Renner explains.

One common business continuity planning tool is a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, the location of data backups and backup sites, where the plan is available and who should have it, and contact information for emergency responders, key personnel, and backup site providers.

Although the list of possible scenarios that could impact business operations can seem extensive, Goh says business leaders don’t have to compile an exhaustive list of potential incidents. Rather, they should compile a list that includes likely incidents as well as representative ones so that they can create responses that have a higher likelihood of ensuring continuity even when faced with an unimagined disaster.

“So even if it’s an unexpected event, they can pull those building blocks from the plan and apply them to the unique crisis they’re facing,” Nocera says.

The importance of testing the business continuity plan

Devising a business continuity plan is not enough to ensure preparedness; testing and practicing are other critical components.

Renner says testing and practicing offer a few important benefits.

First, they show whether or how well a plan will work.

Testing and practicing help prepare all stakeholders for an actual incident, helping them build the muscle memory needed to respond as quickly and as confidently as possible during a crisis.

They also help identify gaps in the devised plan. As Renner says: “Every tabletop exercise that I’ve ever done has been an eye-opener for everyone involved.”

Additionally, they help identify where there may be misalignment of objectives. For example, executives may have deprioritized the importance of restoring certain IT systems only to realize during a drill that those are essential for supporting critical processes.

Types and timing of tests

Many organizations test a business continuity plan two to four times a year. Experts say the frequency of tests, as well as reviews and updates, depends on the organization itself — its industry, its speed of innovation and transformation, the amount of turnover of key personnel, the number of business processes, and so on.

Common tests include tabletop exercises , structured walk-throughs, and simulations. Test teams are usually composed of the recovery coordinator and members from each functional unit.

A tabletop exercise usually occurs in a conference room with the team poring over the plan, looking for gaps and ensuring that all business units are represented therein.

In a structured walk-through, each team member walks through his or her components of the plan in detail to identify weaknesses. Often, the team works through the test with a specific disaster in mind. Some organizations incorporate drills and disaster role-playing into the structured walk-through. Any weaknesses should be corrected and an updated plan distributed to all pertinent staff.

Some experts also advise a full emergency evacuation drill at least once a year.

Meanwhile, disaster simulation testing — which can be quite involved — should still be performed annually. For this test, create an environment that simulates an actual disaster, with all the equipment, supplies and personnel (including business partners and vendors) who would be needed. The purpose of a simulation is to determine whether the organization and its staff can carry out critical business functions during an actual event.

During each phase of business continuity plan testing, include some new employees on the test team. “Fresh eyes” might detect gaps or lapses of information that experienced team members could overlook.

Reviewing and updating the business continuity plan should likewise happen on an ongoing basis.

“It should be a living document. It shouldn’t be shelved. It shouldn’t be just a check-the-box exercise,” Renner says.

Otherwise, plans go stale and are of no use when needed.

Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified.

Prior to the review, solicit feedback from staff to incorporate into the plan. Ask all departments or business units to review the plan, including branch locations or other remote units.

Furthermore, a strong business continuity function calls for reviewing the organization’s response in the event of an actual event. This allows executives and their teams to identify what the organization did well and where it needs to improve.

How to ensure business continuity plan support, awareness

One way to ensure your plan is not successful is to adopt a casual attitude toward its importance. Every business continuity plan must be supported from the top down. That means senior management must be represented when creating and updating the plan; no one can delegate that responsibility to subordinates. In addition, the plan is likely to remain fresh and viable if senior management makes it a priority by dedicating time for adequate review and testing.

Management is also key to promoting user awareness. If employees don’t know about the plan, how will they be able to react appropriately when every minute counts?

Although plan distribution and training can be conducted by business unit managers or HR staff, have someone from the top kick off training and punctuate its significance. It’ll have a greater impact on all employees, giving the plan more credibility and urgency.

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10 best business continuity software solutions

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Agility RecoveryPlanner: Agility
Archer Business Resiliency: Archer
Castellan Business Continuity Management: Castellan
CL360 Business Continuity: CL360
Fusion Framework System: Fusion
NAVEX One IRM: NAVEX
ParaSolution Business Continuity Platform: ParaSolution
SAI360 Business Continuity Management: SAI360
LogicManager Business Continuity Management: LogicManager
Quantivate Business Continuity Management: Quantivate

Business continuity software vendors

What are business continuity management program solutions, how does bcm software work, business continuity software: pros and cons, featured partners, 1 uniqkey - business password manager.

Many software providers offer BCM solutions that assist organizations in planning for and responding to disasters. The following BCM platforms are among the leading products within the category.

Agility RecoveryPlanner

The Agility RecoveryPlanner software suite provides a complete business continuity management planning package to assist organizations in maintaining compliance with BCM standards and requirements.

The scalable and customizable software assists firms of all sizes active within all industries with performing business impact analyses and risk assessments, creating and managing continuity plans and fulfilling compliance reporting requirements, among other functions.

SEE: Hiring Kit: Database engineer (TechRepublic Premium)

To assist firms in planning, Agility provides the BIA checklist as shown in Figure A to prospective customers on its website .

RecoveryPlanner is appropriate even for organizations that have already implemented business continuity plans. Because the Agility software simplifies data collection — including by encouraging collaboration across departments — and prioritizes operations processes, firms will find it easier to maintain and update plans, manage essential vendors and more efficiently manage crises.

Multiple pricing packages are available, and a work-from-home option can be added to each. The Basic Notifications Package includes the company’s Preparis Agility Alerts and its Business Continuity Training Center, Tabletop Testing Templates, Document Storage, Self-Contained Mobile Command Center and Ship-to-Home Laptops, while the Enhanced Planning Package adds a 10-user license for the Agility Planner and the Annual Business Continuity Plan Review component. A Premier Resilience Package, which adds Expert Consulting Services and an Annual Facilitated Tabletop Testing component, is also available.

Contact the company’s sales team for pricing information, which varies based on numerous factors, including which packages a customer selects. For more information on Agility, complete the company’s Contact Us page or call Agility at 1-866-364-9696.

Archer Business Resiliency

Archer Business Resiliency offers organizations a BCM solution that aligns operations continuity planning, IT disaster recovery, crisis management and incident recovery services with an organization’s overarching business goals. The vendor’s emphasis on automation assists customers in rapidly responding to disruptions and assists coordinating recovery efforts when crises occur.

In keeping with ISO 22301 business continuity standards, Archer Business Resiliency aligns operational continuity planning and recovery efforts with internationally accepted requirements and seeks to grade and surface risks before incidents occur, as shown in Figure B. The company’s approach also supports the flexibility necessary for adapting to businesses’ changing needs and requirements as circumstances evolve and change.

Archer pricing is dependent upon several factors, including the specific package components selected, the type of technical support selected and the number of users within the organization. For more information on Archer, complete its Contact Us page .

Castellan Business Continuity Management

Designed for integration within everyday operations and emphasizing automation, Castellan Solutions’ Castellan Business Continuity Management combines program governance and automation features with system integration and cloud-based services to deliver robust and reliable BCM functionality. Castellan’s solution also includes such security-conscious features as support for single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and data security standards.

As should be expected from a BCM solution, Castellan provides business impact and risk management assessment assistance (Figure C), planning and strategy guidance and testing expertise. Reporting and dashboard functionality is customizable and seeks to identify gaps where identification and correction will better prepare customers for crises. Mobile incident support, emergency notifications and communication and crises dashboards are other features designed to assist command and control operations when incidents occur.

As is typical for BCM software solutions, pricing is dependent upon components selected and the number of users within a customer’s organization. For more information on Castellan, complete the organization’s Contact page or call the company at 1-800-478-7645.

CL360 Business Continuity

CLDigital’s CL360 Business Continuity Management provides forms, templates, workflows and a comprehensive application that assists organizations in collecting essential operations continuity information from users, processes, systems, applications and vendors, among other sources.

The CL360 software subsequently analyzes that information to help generate visual dependency maps, surface risks, and identify gaps in planning and coverage. Recognizing the complexity of business impact analyses and risk assessments, CL360 Business Continuity software provides customers support features — including field insights and wizards — that assist teams in efficiently completing BCM tasks.

Understanding business continuity requirements change over time, CL360 is a no-code platform that permits customization and updating via simple drag-and-drop operations and pre-prepared tools. Subsequently, maintaining currency is easier and takes less time as new vendors and technologies are added or old suppliers and platforms are terminated.

For CLDigital CL360 pricing or more information on the CLDigital CL360 Business Continuity software solution, call the company at 1-866-321-5079 or complete its Contact form .

Fusion Framework System

Featuring integration compatibility with such popular platforms as Salesforce and ServiceNow, Fusion Risk Management’s Fusion Framework System includes prebuilt connectors and two-way communications with multiple third-party applications to better permit emergency notification and response for critical workflows. Fusion’s Community Connector simplifies connecting customers, partners and employees to better manage operation disruption risks.

Like other BCM solutions, Fusion guides businesses through continuity planning, organization preparedness reviews, risk and impact assessments, tolerance configuration, and prioritization and dependency mapping. The offering also provides context mapping features, which better assist businesses in understanding how they fulfill essential workflows and processes.

For Fusion pricing or more information, call the company at 1-847-632-1002 or complete its Contact form .

NAVEX One IRM

Formerly marketed as Lockpath, following its acquisition by NAVEX, the BCM solution is now integrated within the NAVEX One Platform’s Integrated Risk Management solution. With components for surfacing and resolving third-party risks, building an automated risk assessment system and monitoring compliance requirements, the NAVEX One platform approaches BCM challenges from a broad integrated risk management perspective.

NAVEX encourages customers to begin the process by reviewing its core IRM questionnaire online , which explores an organization’s business continuity planning status and preparedness to work with a third-party risk manager. With APIs designed for organizations to select and apply as needed, NAVEX One strives to be an easily administered proactive platform that enhances continuity and risk visibility while also freeing technical employees’ time and reducing corresponding daily operational management expenses.

Pricing is dependent upon multiple factors, including which products a customer selects. Product examples from which customers can select include integrated compliance management, hotline service and incident management, policy and procedure management and third-party risk management. For more information on NAVEX One, call the company at 1-866-297-0224 or complete its Contact Us page .

ParaSolution Business Continuity Platform

Another comprehensive solution that incorporates traditional BCM components as well as an optional ISO 22301 Certification compliance module, among other features, Premier Continuum’s ParaSolution Business Continuity Program offers business continuity, crisis, supplier and IT disaster recovery management features. Whether requiring risk and business impact assessments, crisis planning or guidance structuring emergency recovery processes, ParaSolution is designed to adapt to an organization’s specific needs.

During a crisis, ParaSolution’s mobile app assists an organization’s stakeholders in obtaining the most current emergency information. The tool also offers prebuilt forms and workflows to address dependencies and assist recovery when incidents occur.

SAI360 Business Continuity Management

Noting the variety of threats to a business’ operation include cyber attacks, natural disasters and breaches introduced by third-party vendors, the SAI360 Business Continuity Management platform assists establishing accurate risk assessment and mitigation frameworks with tools that automate BCM processes to improve efficiencies and aid automated incident response. With global scalability and support for multiple languages, SAI360 provides an intuitive software solution that also supports regular recovery testing, dashboard generation and even comprehensive worksite training.

The product offers forms and reporting, as well as authorization processes, that match a business’ existing workflows. Combined with proprietary algorithms and customized reports, SAI360 can speed response actions and minimize disruption when catastrophes do occur, including using its mobile platform as shown in Figure D.

For more information on SAI360, complete the company’s Contact Us page or call SAI360 at 1-312-546-4500.

LogicManager Business Continuity Management

LogicManager’s Business Continuity Management is a taxonomy-driven solution, as demonstrated in Figure E, that seeks to track essential internal operations that must be recovered should a disaster occur, as well as other dependencies integral to maintaining business continuity, including with vendors and suppliers.

Multiple LogicManager modules are collected within its Business Continuity Management Software Solutions platform, including the company’s Business Impact Analysis tools, Business Continuity Planning development software, disaster scenario planning exercises, and testing software and incident response tools.

The company’s BCM platform offers a wealth of traditional risk management, gap analysis, business continuity planning and disaster recovery features that are carefully integrated to simplify access to essential disaster recovery information. It also assists in performing continual reviews as well as completing corresponding dependence-determination, workflow and recovery process updates. The platform’s disaster recovery process supports identifying and capturing adjustments and enhancements while performing a recovery to to recover efforts.

In keeping with its taxonomic approach, LogicManager associates business-impacting risks and controls directly with business continuity and disaster recovery plans to help firms better understand the relationship between such essential elements.

The software aids in demonstrating BCP compliance with auditors and regulators, too. Such functionality also assists general reporting for corporate governance purposes.

Designed to align BCM planning with the organization’s specific needs, LogicManager also integrates with common human resources information systems to automate updating crisis management call trees. Staff need not continue manually updating key stakeholder names, addresses and contact information as a result. Subsequently, the solution assists in reducing the investment needed to build and maintain proper business continuity plans and recovery processes and helps ensure accuracy and efficient responses when crises arise.

LogicManager offers customers flexible pricing to help meet individual company’s unique risk management and business continuity needs. Complete the company’s pricing request page for or call LogicManager at 1-617-530-1210 for more information.

Quantivate Business Continuity Management

Featuring the range of typical BCM features organizations would expect from a comprehensive solution, Quantivate Business Continuity software includes risk assessment, risk scoring, business impact analysis, scenario-replicating exercises, real-time updates, vulnerability analysis and a mobile application to assist recovery when a disruption occurs. The vendor’s package also includes helpful scoping and operational tools, including a business process library, business continuity templates, a disaster plan editor and centralized storage for business continuity plans, disaster recovery documents and other corresponding BCM materials.

Quantivate also offers optional consulting services. Organizations needing assistance can contract the worldwide provider of governance, risk and compliance technology and services to help guide BCM efforts.

For example, Quantivate’s consultants can assist customers in scheduling and conducting personnel interviews when developing business continuity plans, designing disaster recovery workflows and crafting crisis management processes. The company’s business continuity experts can also perform full business impact analyses, host threat and vulnerability assessment meetings, document critical recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives, perform gap analyses within existing BCM and recovery strategies, and inform and educate stakeholders and participants as to their roles and responsibilities.

Whether seeking to improve simple spreadsheet and document-based business continuity planning, better identify and resolve recovery gaps, formalize BCM and disaster recovery processes or modernize corresponding BCM planning, workflows and communication, Quantitative Business Continuity Software is well positioned to assist organizations of all sizes working in most every industry. As noted earlier, customers can outsource BCM planning responsibilities to Quantitative, which employs its own software with proprietary processes to fulfill those tasks.

For more information on Quantivate or to obtain pricing information, complete the company’s Request a Demo page , call 1-800-969-4107 or email [email protected].

BCM solutions help with the advanced planning and preparation organizations undertake to minimize business disruptions due to disasters and enable rapid recovery when a catastrophe occurs.

BCM includes not only the software and hardware components employed to maintain and recover business operations but also the risk and crisis management strategies, contingency planning, business recovery policies, and procedures implemented and continually updated as part of an overall comprehensive operations continuity effort.

BCM software assists organizations by providing a complete framework by which they can review, prepare for and minimize any outages or downtime resulting from crises whether disasters occur due to human error, purposeful malicious activities or natural disasters.

BCM solutions typically help organizations navigate a complete range of essential business continuity elements, including: Performing operations impact assessments; surfacing and tracking risks; developing, monitoring and testing contingency plans; drafting and maintaining business continuity plans and procedures; generating emergency alerts; managing crisis communications; and guiding recovery actions when disasters occur.

BCM solutions assist organizations in identifying operations and preparedness needs, spotting operational coverage gaps, establishing contingency processes, and effectively responding to disasters to minimize if not eliminate downtime and outages.

There are no downsides to using BCM software, as it lays the groundwork for addressing all the corresponding requirements and processes, while also providing visual maps to assist with planning and mobile applications to speed recovery when incidents occur.

Stay aware of the right software with these recent articles on the eight best enterprise accounting software suites and a guide to the best data intelligence software .

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5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

A business continuity plan provides a concrete plan to maintain business cohesion in challenging circumstances. Click here for the key steps that can help you formulate a formidable BCP.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is defined as a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. This article explains what a business continuity plan is today, its key benefits, and a step-by-step guide to creating a formidable plan.

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), key benefits of having a business continuity plan, step-by-step guide to building a formidable business continuity plan (bcp) in 2021.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. Such a plan often aims to address the need for updated business norms and operational standards in unpredictable circumstances such as natural disasters, data breach/ exposures, large scale system failures etc. The goal of such a plan is to ensure continuity of business with no or little damage to regular working environments, including job security for its employees.

It covers everything from business processes, human resources details, and more. Essentially a BCP provides a concrete plan to the organization to maintain business continuity even in challenging circumstances.

Below are key reasons why businesses need to have a BCP today:

BCP’s relevance has gone up considerably after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and was also a major testing time for organizations that did have such a plan in place. The organizations which had a business continuity plan in place were better able to cope during these unprecedented circumstances better than those who did not have any such plans.
The recorded number of natural disasters has increased from 375 in 2016 to 409 in 2019 Opens a new window . Globally, the loss because of natural disasters was $232 billion in 2019, according to a study by Aon Opens a new window .
The number of cyberattacks has also increased in all geographies and all business verticals. MonsterCloud reported that cyberattacks have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. All this means that the organizations have to be better prepared to fight disasters. The importance of BCP can hardly be exaggerated in this context. Preparing a BCP is imperative for any enterprise, big or small, today.

The end goal of a BCP is to ensure that the essential services continue to run in the event of an incident. For instance, if there is an earthquake where your customer service representatives operate from, your BCP will be able to tell you who will handle customer calls until the original office is restored.

Also Read: What Is Disaster Recovery? Definition, Cloud and On-premise, Benefits and Best Practices

Difference between a business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DCP)

A BCP is often confused with a disaster recovery (DR) plan. While a DR plan is primarily focused on restoring the IT systems and infrastructure, a BCP is much more than that. It covers all areas and departments of the organization, including HR, marketing and sales, support functions.

The underlying thought behind BCP is that IT systems can hardly work in silos. Other departments also need to be restored to cater to the client or for meeting the business demands.

“Many people think a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is the same as a business continuity plan, but a DRP is only a small, yet essential, a portion of a full BCP. A DRP focuses solely on restoring an organization’s IT infrastructure while minimizing data loss. On the other hand, a BCP is a comprehensive guide on how to continue the mission and business-critical operations during a time of an unplanned disruption (natural disasters, pandemics, or malware),” says Caleb Pipkin, a security expert at Logically .

Whether a business is small, big, or medium-sized, it needs a ‘plan B’ to recover quickly in the event of a natural disaster or a crisis and can survive the disruption. BCP helps you dust yourself and get back to business quickly and easily. It means that the enterprise will be better placed to address their customers’ needs even in the wake of a disaster.

On the other hand, the lack of a plan means that your organization will take longer to recover from an event or incident. It could also lead to loss of business or clients. Let’s look at some key benefits of BCP.

1. It is a roadmap to act in a disaster

A well-defined business continuity plan is like a roadmap during a disruption. It allows the firms to react swiftly and effectively and maintain business continuity. In turn, this leads to a faster and complete recovery of the enterprise in the shortest possible timeframe. It brings down the business downtime and outlines the steps to be taken before, during, and after a crisis and thus helps maintain its financial viability.

2. Offers a competitive edge

Fast reaction and business continuity during a disruption allow organizations to gain a competitive edge over its business rivals. It can translate into a significant competitive advantage in the long run. Further, your clients will be more confident in your ability to perform in adverse circumstances allowing you to build a long and sustainable relationship with your business partners.

Developing competence to act and handle any unfavorable event effectively has a positive effect on the company’s reputation and market value. It goes a long way in enhancing customer confidence.

Also Read: Top 8 Disaster Recovery Software Companies in 2021

3. Cuts down losses

Disasters have a considerable impact on all types of business, whether big or small. Business disruption can lead to financial, legal, and reputational losses. Failure to plan could be disastrous for businesses. You may lose your customers while trying to get your business on track. In the worst circumstances, you may not be able to recover at all. A well-defined business continuity strategy minimizes the damage to an organization and allows you to bring down these losses as much as possible.

4. Enables employment continuity and protects livelihoods

One of the most significant consequences of a disaster is the loss of employment. The loss of livelihood can be curtailed to an extent if the business continues to function in the event of a disaster. It leads to greater confidence in the workforce that their jobs might not be at risk, and the management is taking steps to protect their jobs. It helps build confidence in senior management’s ability to respond to the business disruption in a planned manner.

5. Can be life-saving

A regularly tested and updated BCP can potentially help save the lives of the employees and the customers during a disaster. For instance, if the BCP plan for fire is regularly tested, the speed with which the workforce acts can help save lives.

6. Preserves brand value and develops resilience

Possibly the biggest asset of an organization is its brand. Being able to perform in uncertain times helps build goodwill and maintain its brand value and may even help mitigate financial and reputational loss during a disaster.

BCP curtails the damage to the company’s brand and finances because of a disaster event. This helps bring down the cost of any incident and thus help the company be more resilient.

Also Read: 10 Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)

7. Enables adherence to compliance requirements

Having a BCP allows organizations to have additional benefits of complying with regulatory requirements. It is a legal requirement in several countries.

8. Helps in supply chain security

A precise BCP goes a long way in protecting the supply chain from damage. It ensures continuity in delivering products and services by being able to perform critical activities.

9. Enhances operational efficiency

One of BCP’s lesser-known benefits is that it helps identify areas of operational efficiency in the organization. Developing BCP calls for an in-depth evaluation of the company’s processes. This can potentially reveal the areas of improvement. Essentially, it gathers information that can benefit in enhancing the effectiveness of the processes and operations.

Also Read: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on preparing for a disaster like never before. We make the job easier for you by listing out the key steps in building a formidable business continuity plan:

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

Step 1: Risk assessment

This phase involves asking crucial questions to evaluate the risks faced by the company. What are the likely business threats and disruptions which are most likely to occur? What is the most profitable activity of your organization? It is vital to prioritize key risks and operations, which will help mitigate the damage in the event of a disaster.

Step 2: Business impact analysis

The second step involves a thorough and in-depth assessment of your business processes to determine the vulnerable areas and the potential losses if those processes are disrupted. This is also known as Business Impact Analysis .

Essentially, Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that helps the organization define the impact if critical business operations are interrupted because of a disaster, accident, or emergency. It helps in identifying the most crucial elements of the business processes. For instance, maintaining a supply chain might be more critical during a crisis than public relations.

While there is no formal standard for a BIA, it typically involves the following steps:

Collating information: As a first step, a questionnaire is prepared to find out critical business processes and resources that will help in the proper assessment of the impact of a disruptive event. One-on-one sessions with key management members may be conducted further to gain insights into the organization’s processes and workings.
Analysis: This is followed by analyzing the collected information. A manual or computer-assisted analysis is conducted. The analysis is based on an interruption in which crucial activities or resources are not available. Typically it works on the assumption of the worst-case scenario, even when the chances of a risk likelihood are low. This approach is followed to zero in on the systems that, when disrupted or interrupted, threaten the organization’s very survival. This way, these processes are prioritized in the business continuity plan.

The analysis phase helps identify the minimum staff and resources required for running the organization in the event of a crisis. This also allows the organizations to assess the impact on the revenue if the business is unable to run for a day, a week, or more. There might be contractual penalties, regulatory fines, and workforce-related expenditure which need to be taken into account while finding out the impact on the business. Further, there might be specific vulnerabilities of the firm, and they need to be considered in the BIA.

Preparing a report: The next step is preparing a BIA report, which is assessed by the senior management. The report is a thorough analysis of the gathered information along with findings. It also gives recommendations on the procedure that should be followed in the event of a business disruption. The BIA report also shares the impact on the revenue, supply chain, and customer delivery to the business in a specific time frame.

The business impact analysis report may also include a checklist of all the resources, such as the names of key personnel, data backup , contact information, emergency responders, and more.

Presenting the report: Usually, this report goes through several amendments before being cleared by the senior management. The involvement of senior management is crucial to the success of the business continuity plan. It sends out a strong signal in the organization that it is a serious initiative.

Also Read: Will Extreme Weather Events Affect Your Business? Lessons From the Texas Winter Storm

Step 3: BCP Testing

Several testing methods are available to test the effectiveness of the BCP. Here are a few common ones:

TableTop test: As the name suggests, the identified executives go through the plan in detail to evaluate whether it will work on not. Different disaster types and the response to them are discussed at length. This type of testing is designed to make all the key personnel aware of their role in the event of a disaster. The response procedure is reviewed, and responsibilities are outlined, so everybody knows their roles.
Walk through: In this type of testing, the team members go through their part in the plan with a specific disaster in mind. Drills or a simulated response and disaster role-playing are part of this. This is a more thorough form of testing and likely to reveal the shortcoming in the plan. Any vulnerabilities discovered should be used to update the BCP accordingly.
Disaster simulation testing: In this type of testing, an environment that simulates an actual disaster is created. This is the closest to the actual event and gives the best case scenario about the plan’s workability. It will help the team find gaps that might be overlooked in the other types of tests. Document the results of your testing so you can compare the improvement from the previous tests. It will help you in strengthening your business continuity plan.

Frequency of testing – Typically, organizations test BCP at least twice a year. At the same time, it depends on the size of your organization and the business vertical you operate in.

Step 4: Maintenance

A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise. It needs to be maintained , so the organization’s structural and people changes are updated regularly. The key personnel might move on from the firm, and this would need to be updated in the Business Impact Analysis and BCP. The process for regular updating of the documentation should be followed to ensure that the organization is not caught on the wrong foot in case of a business disruption.

Also Read: Offsite Data Replication: A Great Way To Meet Recovery Time Objectives

Step 5: Communication

Sometimes executives tend to ignore communication while preparing a BCP. It is a crucial aspect, and your BCP should clearly define who will maintain the communication channels with the employees, regulators, business partners, and partners during the crisis. The contact information of the key people should be readily accessible for the BCP to work without any trouble.

In the end, the organizations should accept that despite preparing a formidable business continuity plan, several factors beyond your control may still affect its success or failure. The key executives might not be available in the event of a crisis; both the primary and the alternate data recovery sites might have been affected by the event; the communications network might be damaged, and so on. Such factors are common during a natural disaster and may lead to the limited success of the business continuity plan.

The success of a business depends on it acting swiftly and efficiently when confronted with an unanticipated crisis. Any failure to do so results in a financial and reputational loss, which takes up a long time to recover. It can be avoided if the organization quickly gathers itself during a disaster. A business continuity plan is then of paramount importance for a business of any size. At the same time, it is crucial to ensure that the BCP is not a one-time exercise. It needs to be continuously evaluated, tested, amended, and maintained so it doesn’t let you down when you need it the most.

Did you enjoy reading this article? Comment below or let us know on LinkedIn Opens a new window , Twitter Opens a new window , or Facebook Opens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

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Business Continuity Application

What is a Business Continuity Application?

A business continuity application is software used to help develop, manage or implement an organization’s business continuity plan and maintain its operations during a crisis or other unexpected disruption.

Business continuity application software tends to fall under one of two general categories. The first are applications that help an organization analyze its risks in various crisis scenarios and then develop a business continuity plan (BCP) to minimize operational disruptions. Examples in this category include software that can help analyze and estimate the real costs and other impacts of an outage to a particular business function. Applications in this category are often known as “business continuity management applications.”

The second are applications that an organization uses to implement various facets of its BCP and manage its operations during a crisis. A data backup and recovery tool is one example of a business continuity application in this latter category. These are sometimes known as “business continuity solutions.” In some cases, these two categories work together as part of an integrated solution.

In both cases, these technologies are part of an organization’s overall strategy and toolkit for ensuring operational continuity and resilience in the face of unexpected or unwanted risks to its mission.

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Business continuity management applications.

The foundation of a robust BCP is an in-depth analysis of the organization—its processes and workflows, its physical assets, its different departments and their business functions, not to mention all of the interdependencies among different teams and services. This evaluation can be a vast undertaking, especially in larger organizations. A business continuity management application can help guide and track that analysis, as well as create the necessary protocols, processes and communications for implementing and managing a BCP during a crisis. A business continuity management app, then, is a software tool for not only developing a plan but also managing its implementation when needed. Key examples of business continuity planning needs that these applications address include:

Risk assessment and/or threat modeling: While crises such as an infectious disease outbreak might potentially impact any organization, other risks and threats are more specifically connected to location, industry and other factors. A business continuity management application can help identify and assess an organization’s particular risks or threats and how they might disrupt its operations.
Business impact analysis (BIA): This methodology for resilience planning examines critical business functions and assesses the real costs—whether financial or quantified in a different unit of measurement—of disruptions to those services.
Process and workflow development : With risks properly assessed and their disruptive impacts quantified, you can then begin to build, test and optimize processes for ensuring continuity and resilience during incidents.
Dependency mapping: One pitfall in business continuity planning is failing to identify how an interruption to one business function or service could subsequently impact other areas of the organization and its partners or customers. A business continuity management app can build a thorough map that documents these connections and interdependencies so that they are properly accounted for in the BCP.
Communications: Communicating instructions and other information is critical to business continuity and crisis management. Organizations can build communication templates and protocols for various notifications, recipient groups and so forth.
Testing and optimization: Organizations also use business continuity management applications as part of their longer-term schedule for regularly reviewing their BCP and making updates as needed. Moreover, the app can be a backbone for testing different components of the BCP to identify opportunities for improvement during “business as usual” conditions, rather than during an actual crisis.

Business Continuity Solutions

The broader group of business continuity applications comprises the various software and other tools a business uses to ensure it can effectively implement its BCP if necessary, and to operate indefinitely in crisis or disaster conditions. These include all of the solutions necessary to keep people connected, to ensure access to critical data and systems, to keep information and people secure, and other needs. Some examples include:

Digital workspaces: Remote work enablement is a crucial feature of virtually any BCP or crisis management strategy. Digital workspace solutions ensure that people can rapidly transition to working from home or another remote location in scenarios where they can no longer safely go the office or other work location. These solutions enable people and teams to continue communicating and collaborating in real time, including via video and chat, as well as to share files and other project work. They’re also a key tool for making sure employees have uninterrupted access to the information and systems they need while mitigating IT security risks.
Data backup and disaster recovery: Data backup and IT disaster recovery tools are also mission-critical facets of a BCP. Most incident or disaster scenarios—from a cyberattack to a hurricane to technology failure to a simple human error—pose risks to corporate data and services. Regularly backing up that data—and ensuring you have the software tools necessary to rapidly recover and restore it during an incident—are critical to operational continuity and resilience.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI): VDI is a tool for quickly and securely delivering the desktop experience remotely, including access to corporate applications. This is another powerful option when normal operations are interrupted or suspended, especially if employees are unable to access their company-issued devices.
Cloud and virtualization infrastructure: Some organizations will lean on cloud computing or virtualization infrastructure to maintain critical services during a disruption, whether it’s a local failure (such as a fire) or a more widespread disaster.

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Business Continuity Planning

Organize a business continuity team and compile a business continuity plan to manage a business disruption. Learn more about how to put together and test a business continuity plan with the videos below.

Business Continuity Plan Supporting Resources

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Business Continuity Training Introduction

An overview of the concepts detailed within this training. Also, included is a humorous, short video that introduces viewers to the concept of business continuity planning and highlights the benefits of having a plan. Two men in an elevator experience a spectrum of disasters from a loss of power, to rain, fire, and a human threat. One man is prepared for each disaster and the other is not.

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Business Continuity Training Part 1: What is Business Continuity Planning?

An explanation of what business continuity planning means and what it entails to create a business continuity plan. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about what business continuity planning means to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 2: Why is Business Continuity Planning Important?

An examination of the value a business continuity plan can bring to an organization. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about how business continuity planning has been valuable to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: What's the Business Continuity Planning Process?

An overview of the business continuity planning process. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company about its process of successfully implementing a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1

The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “prepare” to create a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 2

The second of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “define” their business continuity plan objectives.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 3

The third of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “identify” and prioritize potential risks and impacts.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 4

The fourth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “develop” business continuity strategies.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 5

The fifth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should define their “teams” and tasks.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 6

The sixth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “test” their business continuity plans. View on YouTube

Last Updated: 12/21/2023

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What Is Business Continuity?

Business continuity is an organization's ability to maintain or quickly resume acceptable levels of product or service delivery following a short-term event that disrupts normal operations. Examples of disruptions range from natural disasters to power outages.

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Is business continuity the same as business resilience or disaster recovery?

Business continuity, disaster recovery, and business resilience are not the same, but they are related.

Business continuity is a process-driven approach to maintaining operations in the event of an unplanned disruption such as a cyber attack or natural disaster. Business continuity planning covers the entire business—processes, assets, workers, and more. It isn't focused solely on IT infrastructure and business systems.
Business resilience encompasses crisis management and business continuity. It requires a response to all types of risk that an organization may face. An organization that is business resilient is essentially in a constant state of "expecting the unexpected." It means continuously preparing to meet disruptions head-on, including events of extended duration that may affect more than one facility or region.
Disaster recovery focuses specifically on how to restore an enterprise's IT infrastructure and business systems following a disruption. It is considered an element of business continuity. A business continuity plan (BCP) might contain several disaster recovery plans, for example.

What is a business continuity strategy?

A business continuity strategy is a summary of the mitigation, crisis, and recovery plans to be implemented after a disruption to resume normal operations. "Business continuity strategy" is often used interchangeably with "business continuity plan." Both consider the broader goals, legal and regulatory requirements, personnel, and even the business's clients and partners.

What does a business continuity plan mitigate?

A relevant and well-tested BCP can help ease the negative impacts of an unexpected business disruption in many ways.

Financial impact: Disruptions to product supply chains and critical services to customers can directly affect sales and revenue. Downtime caused by unplanned disruptions can also result in higher costs for a business as it looks to repair operations and mitigate previously unidentified threats.
Reputation and brand impact: Failure to resume operations quickly and supply customers with the products or services they expect can prompt customer defections and tarnish the brand. Damage to reputation can in turn cause investors and capital sources to pull back funding, exacerbating the financial impact of a business disruption.
Regulatory impact: Customers and vendors are likely to complain when businesses fail to respond appropriately to disruptions, which may result in regulatory scrutiny or even censure. In highly-regulated industries, such as energy and financial services, business continuity planning is mandatory to ensure regulatory compliance.

Business continuity planning activities

A well-crafted and tested BCP can go a long way toward helping a business recover swiftly from a disruption. These are key steps a business may want to take.

Identifying critical business areas and functions

Business continuity planning begins with identifying an organization's key business areas and the critical functions within those areas. A business needs to determine and document the acceptable downtime for each area and function considered vital to operations. Then a plan to restore operations can be established, documented, and communicated.

Analyzing risks, threats, and potential impacts

Creating appropriate response scenarios requires knowing what disruptions the business could experience. An upfront analysis of risks and threats is necessary in order to prepare contingency responses to events. Organizations can also conduct a back-end analysis after an event to gather metrics and assess lessons learned. This information can drive improvements in how the business responds to disruptions.

Outlining and assigning responsibilities

A BCP details which personnel will be responsible for implementing specific aspects of the plan. It also identifies key decision-makers and a chain of command. The plan should include alternative options in case primary personnel are incapacitated or unavailable to respond to the disruption.

Defining and documenting alternatives

A business continuity plan should define and document alternative communication strategies in case telephone services or the internet are down. Enterprises should also have alternatives for mission-critical spaces such as data centers or manufacturing facilities in case buildings are damaged.

Assessing the need for critical backups

Essential equipment may be damaged or unavailable during a disruptive event. A business should consider whether it has access to backup equipment and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) during extended power outages. Business-critical data needs to be backed up regularly, and is mandatory in many regulated industries.

Testing, training, and communication

Business continuity plans need to be tested to ensure they will be effective. (Disaster recovery plans should be tested as well.) A best practice is to conduct a plan review at least quarterly with leadership and key team members who are responsible for executing the plan.

Many companies use role-playing sessions, simulations, and other types of exercises several times per year to test their BCPs. This approach helps to identify gaps, develop strategies for improvement, and determine if more resources are needed. Targeted staff training and communicating to the whole workforce the benefits of having a business continuity plan are also vital to its success.

How to Develop an ERP Business Continuity Plan

Aligning enterprise resource planning (ERP) with a business continuity plan (BCP), your company is better prepared for inevitable disasters and downturns. Company-wide data in ERP strengthens business continuity, making a business more resilient in the wake of unexpected disasters and downturns.

Read more: What Key Lessons Can CIOs Take from COVID?

Table of Contents

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the practice of integrating data from various departments and functions within a business into a singular application or interface.

An ERP platform serves as a central source of information where various stakeholders access and manage information related to their roles. Users include but are not limited to:

Customers (current and prospective)

Integrating data from business departments and functions gives upper-level management a bird’s eye view of all aspects of business operations, both internal and external. An ERP software solution also helps management understand how all parts of the business work together to make smarter, data-driven decisions that are in the business’s best interest.

Today’s ERPs are largely cloud-based for speed, performance, and scalability. They have also changed, for the better, in a few key ways in the last couple years to better accommodate the needs of today’s businesses.

Read more: Three Key Advances in ERP for 2021

What is business continuity and a business continuity plan?

Business continuity management (BCM) entails a company’s proactive measures to mitigate negative effects of a business disruption such as a natural disaster, ransomware attack, data breach, and other incidents that interrupt or halt business operations.

A business continuity plan outlines what proactive measures to take, when, and by whom in order to accelerate recovery and resilience in the wake of the disruption. Since business continuity plans require continuous updating as the business grows and changes, business continuity software aids businesses in managing and updating their plans.

Read more: How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

How ERP and BC work together

ERP improves business continuity by helping organizations leverage their company-wide data to prepare for unforeseen disasters or downturns.

ERP software contains a wealth of data from across the business in finance, HR, marketing, production, and other areas. This data is crucial for crafting an effective business continuity plan.

Quantivate ’s business continuity software, for example, runs on integrated data sharing to map out connections and dependencies across the company, combining the functions of both ERP and business continuity.

Cloud-based ERP also enables employees to perform their jobs from anywhere, at any time. Many companies’ abilities to shift to remote work was a deciding factor in their ability to resume or maintain business in the midst of a global pandemic.

By leveraging data analytics and remote accessibility in your ERP software, your company is better positioned to anticipate and navigate business disruptions.

Read more: How to Handle Security Incidents and Data Breaches

Maximizing business resiliency with ERP and business continuity

To maximize the synergy between enterprise resource planning and business continuity, here are a few considerations:

Look for an ERP that has predictive analytics to drive business intelligence and make data-driven decisions involved in business continuity
Clean and organize data contained within the ERP to inform the business continuity plan with the most relevant, up-to-date information
Use ERP reporting functions to take inventory of hardware, software, devices, and other enterprise assets that need to be included in the BCP
Prepare for additional storage requirements for ERP data as well as business continuity plan iterations

Keep calm and carry on with ERP and business continuity

ERP keeps management aware of how business operations are running and signal emerging pain points. When an unexpected disaster does happen, having an ERP-backed, data-driven business continuity plan reduces downtime and the steep costs associated with it. Proactive planning that merges ERP and BC empowers business leaders to navigate disturbances with an action plan that ensures business resiliency. Read next: Best ERP Systems for 2022

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Business continuity planning.

Business continuity planning enables you to create an easy-to-use, actionable business continuity planning solution to prepare for the impact of a broad range of threats including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, accidents and terrorism. In addition business continuity planning can help when you face technology-related hazards like the failure of systems, equipment or software. MEP Centers can assist you in developing a plan unique to your needs.

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Business Disruptions and Disaster Recovery Plans

Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) is a critical component of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) that specifically addresses the recovery and restoration of crucial systems, data, and infrastructure following a disruptive incident. While DRP primarily focuses on the technical aspects of restoring IT systems and assets, BCP encompasses a broader range of activities aimed at ensuring the overall continuation of business operations. In essence, DRP is a subset of BCP, with both working in tandem to mitigate risks and maintain resilience in the face of unforeseen disruptions.

Fremont, CA: In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations face numerous challenges that can disrupt operations and threaten their survival. From supply chain disruptions and cyberattacks to system failures and natural disasters, businesses must be prepared to navigate a wide array of uncertainties.

While organizations can mitigate risks by maintaining a risk register and adhering to IT risk management procedures, it's impossible to eliminate every uncertainty from company processes. This is where disaster recovery and business continuity plan become essential.

Disaster recovery and business continuity plans provide a framework for organizations to respond effectively to unforeseen events and minimize the impact on operations. By implementing comprehensive plans and procedures, businesses can enhance their resilience and ensure continuity even in the face of adversity.

Business Disruptions

Disruptions to business can take many forms and can greatly affect companies. We may emphasize the value of readiness and gain a deeper knowledge of the ramifications of various kinds of disruption by elaborating on them.

Natural Disasters:

● Severe meteorological phenomena, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and other meteorological disasters

● Natural occurrences like landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes

Cyber Attacks:

● Financial losses and data loss as a result of ransomware and other cyberattacks

● Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults against websites and applications, including spear phishing, vishing, and phishing, are examples of social engineering attacks.

System failures and IT disruptions: Failures of the hardware and software, such as bugs in the software, incompatibilities, outages, loss of data, and disgruntled customers because of hardware

Data Center Outages: Failures of data centers, such as the absence of vital systems, protracted outages, and weakened data integrity

Supply Chain Disruptions: Repercussions of a supplier going bankrupt or an abrupt end to commercial activities

Regulatory and Compliance Changes: New rules or regulations: Organizations may find it difficult to comply with and adjust to changes in laws and regulations. Non-compliance may result in penalties, legal action, and harm to one's reputation.

Manually Caused Factors: The effects of workforce shortages, labor strikes, or the departure of important employees on operations and business continuity.

System failures, data breaches, or operational disruptions can be caused by human error, carelessness, or deliberate actions.

Organizations can better understand their possible risks and the necessity of having strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans by elaborating on these business disruptions. Proactively reducing these risks guarantees organizational robustness and the capacity to handle disruptions with little effect.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Developing and putting into practice plans, processes, and safeguards to recover and restore vital infrastructure, data, and systems in the case of a major disruption or disaster is known as disaster recovery planning. It tails assessing potential risks, establishing recovery targets, and creating comprehensive plans and procedures. To enable the prompt recovery of IT systems and reduce the impact on corporate operations, recovery planning aims to minimize data loss and guarantee that the business may resume vital operations in a reasonable amount of time.

A business continuity planning (BCP) component, disaster recovery planning (DRP), is concerned with how crucial systems, data, and infrastructure will be recovered and restored after a disruptive incident. While DRP focuses on the technical aspects of restoring IT systems and assets, BCP covers a wider range of activities to ensure the overall continuation of business operations.

Disaster Recovery

Risk management.

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Ensuring Continuity With Google Cloud Platform Disaster Recovery

Get up to speed on Google Cloud Platform's disaster recovery tools and strategies. Learn how to safeguard your applications and data against disruptions, ensuring business continuity with GCP.

💡KEY INSIGHTS

Operational continuity is paramount, with GCP leveraging services like Compute Engine and Cloud Storage for robust data backups and rapid restoration.
Effective disaster recovery requires detailed analysis of application requirements, dependencies, and potential downtime impacts, tailored to suit GCP's diverse services.
Implementing recovery strategies is about activating backup resources efficiently, ensuring seamless takeover during various disaster scenarios.
Regular testing and updating of your DR plan are crucial, utilizing GCP's monitoring and alert services to adapt to evolving IT environments and business needs.

Disaster recovery is crucial in maintaining uninterrupted services and safeguarding data integrity. Google Cloud Platform offers robust solutions tailored for these challenges. This article explores the essential tools and strategies to effectively implement disaster recovery protocols on GCP, ensuring resilience and reliability for your applications.

Google Cloud Platform Disaster Recovery Essentials

Assessing your needs and planning, setting up your environment, implementing recovery strategies, testing and maintaining your dr plan, frequently asked questions, data backup, redundancy and scalability, automating recovery processes.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Disaster Recovery focuses on ensuring operational continuity through robust backup and rapid restoration. Utilizing services like Compute Engine and Cloud Storage is key to safeguarding data and applications.

To begin, it's essential to assess the Data Backup requirements. GCP's Cloud Storage allows for regular data backups. Here's how to initiate a simple backup to a storage bucket:

Building redundancy is crucial for disaster recovery. GCP’s Global Load Balancing can distribute traffic across multiple instances, ensuring service availability. Here's a basic setup for a load balancer:

Automation is key in disaster recovery to ensure rapid response. GCP's Cloud Functions can trigger from various events. For instance, you might automate the creation of snapshots:

Implementing a solid disaster recovery plan on GCP involves understanding and leveraging the platform's various services effectively. Each component, from data backup to load balancing, plays a crucial role in ensuring business continuity.

Critical Resources

Calculating rto and rpo, identifying suitable gcp services.

Assessing Your Needs and Planning forms the core of a robust Google Cloud Platform disaster recovery strategy. It involves a detailed analysis of your application's requirements, dependencies, and the potential impact of downtime.

Start by cataloging your Critical Resources . Identify and document every component of your system, including applications, databases, and storage.

Use a simple inventory script to list instances in Compute Engine:

For each critical component, determine the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) . These metrics define how quickly and how much data you can afford to lose in a disaster scenario.

Select the GCP services that best fit your identified needs. For instance, if you need to back up a database, consider using Cloud SQL with automated backups:

Regularly revisit your plan to ensure it adapts to any changes in your application's architecture or business requirements. By thoroughly assessing your needs and carefully planning, you can tailor a disaster recovery strategy that minimizes downtime and ensures continuity for your operations on GCP.

Creating And Managing Resources

Configuring storage and backups.

Setting Up Your Environment is a critical step in preparing for effective disaster recovery on Google Cloud Platform. It's about configuring the infrastructure and services to support your recovery strategy.

Deploy your applications and databases using GCP's management tools. For Compute Engine instances, use:

Set up Persistent Disks for VMs and configure Snapshots for regular backups. Automate snapshot creation:

Regularly update and test your environment settings to match the evolving needs of your application. By meticulously setting up your environment, you ensure that when disaster strikes, your systems are ready for a quick and effective recovery.

Data Restoration

Virtual machine recovery, failover and failback.

Implementing Recovery Strategies involves setting up specific methods and procedures to recover from different types of disasters efficiently. This step is about activating your backup resources and ensuring they can take over seamlessly.

Start with setting up Data Restoration procedures.

For Cloud Storage, you might retrieve backups like this:

For Compute Engine, ensure you can quickly bring up instances from Snapshots or Images :

Implementing Failover processes involves rerouting traffic to recovery environments. Set up Regional Managed Instance Groups and Load Balancers to automate traffic rerouting.

Regular updates and testing ensure that when you need to recover, your strategies are robust, reliable, and ready to execute. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and data loss, ensuring your applications and services bounce back as swiftly as possible.

Schedule Regular Testing

Automate monitoring and alerts, review and update regularly.

Testing and Maintaining Your DR Plan is about ensuring your disaster recovery strategy remains effective over time. This involves regular testing, updates, and reviews of all components.

Create a Testing Schedule that outlines when and how each part of your disaster recovery plan will be tested. This might include simulating disasters or testing in a controlled environment. Document results and learnings for continuous improvement.

Utilize GCP's Cloud Monitoring and Alerting services to keep an eye on your system's health and performance.

Set up alerts for unusual activity which could indicate a problem:

The IT environment and your business requirements are constantly evolving. Regularly review and update your DR plan to ensure it aligns with current technologies, regulations, and business objectives.

Regular testing and maintenance are not just about compliance but ensuring that your business can quickly adapt and recover in the event of a disaster. Keeping your DR plan up to date, tested, and ready is crucial for the resilience and continuity of your services.

How often should I test my disaster recovery plan?

It's recommended to test major components of your disaster recovery plan at least once a year. However, for critical systems, more frequent testing such as bi-annually or quarterly might be necessary.

What is the difference between RTO and RPO?

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the targeted duration of time within which a business process must be restored after a disaster to avoid unacceptable consequences. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time.

Can I automate my disaster recovery process on GCP?

Yes, Google Cloud Platform provides tools like Cloud Deployment Manager and various APIs that can help automate many aspects of your disaster recovery process, including backups, instance creation, and scaling.

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Ensure that all data, especially sensitive data, is encrypted both at rest and in transit. Utilize GCP's identity and access management features to control access to sensitive data and resources.

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Protein ice cream company wins 2024 rice business plan competition.

by Avery Ruxer Franklin

Rice University hosts world’s largest and richest student startup competition

Ice cream company Protein Pints took home the grand prize at the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) April 6 as the best student ventures from top universities across the world competed for prizes in front of nearly 350 angel, venture capital and corporate investors and members of the business community.

During his acceptance speech, Founder and CEO of Protein Pints Paul Reiss said, “"The love and support that we've been shown during our time here at Rice, and the relationships and the friends that we've made, is something that I know I and every other student here is going to remember for the rest of our lives."

Hosted annually by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business , the RBPC is the world’s largest and richest student startup competition.

The RBPC offers real-world opportunities to learn what’s required to successfully launch a new business. In addition to the substantial cash, investment and in-kind prizes, the heart of the competition is the mentoring from investors and experienced entrepreneurs. RBPC alumni have raised more than $6.1 billion in capital and 288 are in business or have had successful exits.

The winners were announced at the conclusion of the three-day pitching, mentoring and networking event, which included an elevator pitch competition, practice round, semifinals, wildcard and final round.

“We award the competitors $1 million in prizes, prizes that serve as foundational capital to launch their startup,” said RBPC Director Catherine Santamaria in her welcome speech at the awards gala April 6.

“That’s a large number of prizes, but the biggest thing our startups leave with is a feeling of generosity and community from this room. This community is always ready and willing to help our founders and support our vision for the competition by investing time, money and resources in these student innovators.”

The 42 competing startups represented 35 universities from four countries. They were chosen from more than 450 applicants to compete in one of five categories: energy, cleantech and sustainability; life sciences and health care solutions; consumer products and services; hard tech; and digital enterprise. Learn more about all of the startups here .

The seven finalists based on the judges’ overall scores were:

Protein Pints, Michigan State University — first place and the $150,000 GOOSE Capital Investment Grand Prize.

Protein Pints is a high-protein, low-sugar, ice cream product designed for people who would benefit from having access to a functional ice cream and/or better tasting and more enjoyable protein options.

Somnair, Johns Hopkins University — second place and the $100,000 Investment Prize, sponsored by David Anderson, Jon Finger, Anderson Family Fund, Finger Interests, Greg Novak and Tracy Druce.

Somnair is a Novel Non-Invasive Neurostimulation device for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Power2Polymers, RWTH Aachen University — third place and the $50,000 Rice University investment, provided by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and sponsored by Finger Interests, the Anderson Family Fund at the Greater Houston Community Foundation, Greg Novak and Tracy Druce.

Power2Polymers tackles the pressing issue of 'forever chemicals', which have been linked to over 6.5 million deaths in the U.S. alone, by offering safe alternatives free of forever chemicals.

Informuta, Tulane University — fourth place and the $5,000 prize, sponsored by Norton Rose Fulbright.

Informuta's proprietary technology leverages DNA sequencing to predict if bacteria will respond to different antibiotics or, for the very first time, develop future resistance thus causing treatment failure.

Icorium Engineering Company, University of Kansas — fifth place and the $5,000 prize, sponsored by EY.

Icorium Engineering Company is a chemical engineering startup and University of Kansas spinout developing technologies to make sustainable, circular economies a reality for refrigerants and other complex chemical mixtures.

EndoShunt Medical, Harvard University — sixth place and the $5,000 prize, sponsored by Chevron Technology Ventures.

EndoShunt is transforming trauma surgery with a rapid, targeted blood flow control device.

D.Sole, Carnegie Mellon University — seventh place and the $5,000 prize, sponsored by Shell Ventures.

D. Sole is advancing the development of remote patient monitoring in podiatry with foot insoles designed for the early detection and monitoring of diabetic foot complications, such as ulcers and deformities.

The fourth through seventh place startups were also awarded an additional investment prize of $25,000 each provided by Rice Alliance and sponsored by David Anderson, Jon Finger, Anderson Family Fund, Finger Interests, Greg Novak and Tracy Druce, bringing their finalist prize totals up to $30,000.

Other significant prizes this year and the teams that won them include:

$200,000 Goose Capital Investment Prize — Osphim, RWTH Aachen University
$250,000 OWL Investment Prizes — MesaQuantum, Harvard University
$100,000 OWL Investment Prizes — Icorium Engineering Company, University of Kansas
$100,000 Houston Angel Network Investment Prize — Somnair, Johns Hopkins University
$100,000 The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Texas Angels Investment Prize — Protein Pints, Michigan State University
$60,000 nCourage Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize — MesaQuantum, Harvard University
$40,000 nCourage Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize — Icorium Engineering Company, University of Kansas
$40,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize — Informuta, Tulane University
$25,000 New Climate Ventures Sustainable Investment Prize — Oxylus Energy, Yale University
$25,000 Dream Big Ventures Latino Entrepreneur Investment Prize — Dendritic Health AI, Northwestern University
$25,000 NOV Energy Technology Innovation Cash Prize — LiQuidium, University of Houston
$25,000 Urban Capital Network Diversity Investment Prize in Partnership with South Loop Venture Investment Prize — TouchStone, University of California, Berkeley
$25,000 Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium Pediatric Device Cash Prize — EndoShunt Medical, Harvard University
$25,000 Jacobs, Intuitive Machines and WRX Companies Rising Stars Space Technology and Commercial Aerospace Cash Prize — MesaQuantum, Harvard University

For more information about the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition, visit rbpc.rice.edu .

Ken Jett joins Rice’s Operations, Finance and Support as vice president of facilities and capital planning

Rice University’s Division of Operations, Finance and Support announced that Rice Business alum Ken Jett will join as vice president of facilities and capital planning and president of the Rice Real Estate Company starting April 1. He will also serve on the president’s cabinet.

DEI Initiatives Include You, Whoever You Are

Rice Business professor of psychology Mikki Hebl and Rice University professor of industrial-organizational psychology Eden King discuss how DEI initiatives can help everyone.

To vape or not to vape: When an e-cigarette tax has an impact

E-cigarettes have become a big concern for public health, especially when it comes to young people using these harmful products. A new study co-authored by Rice Business professor Piyush Anand seeks to cut through the barrier to data for the underage category.

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The 15 Best Business Continuity Software and Tools for 2024
Datto Unified Continuity offers a suite of business continuity platforms, including SIRIS, ALTO, Cloud Continuity for PCs, and SaaS Protection. The vendor is completely channel-driven and recently released SIRIS 4, a business continuity and disaster recovery solution built for MSPs. Datto also boasts nine data center locations worldwide ...
Key steps to create a resilient business continuity plan
A business continuity plan is your organization's central shield against disruptions. It's your all-encompassing strategy to reduce downtime, minimize damage, and maintain your organization's overall health. Meanwhile, a DRP zooms in on your information technology infrastructure and data. It's your insurance policy for digital assets.
How to craft an effective business continuity plan
Create the procedures. Get the word out. Iterate and improve. 1. Analyze your company. In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity.
What is Business Continuity?
Business continuity is an organization's readiness to continue functioning during times of disruption. Business continuity is important because it reduces the potential impact of a disruption on customers, employees, and partners. Having a business continuity plan (BCP)—which includes the analysis, technology, documentation, training, key ...
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning (BCP & DRP ...
A business continuity plan (BCP) should comprise the following element. 1. Threat Analysis. ... For an IT organization charged with the business continuity of a website or web application, there are three failover options: Hardware solutions - A separate set of servers, set up and maintained internally, are kept on-premise to come online in ...
What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]
A business continuity plan outlines directions and procedures that your company will follow when faced with a crisis. These plans include business procedures, names of assets and partners, human resource functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders.
What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and How Does It Work?
Business Continuity Planning - BCP: The business continuity planning (BCP) is the creation of a strategy through the recognition of threats and risks facing a company, with an eye to ensure that ...
Understanding the Essentials of a Business Continuity Plan
A business continuity plan is a document that outlines how a company can keep running during a crisis. It covers everything from backup systems, communication channels, emergency contacts, and recovery strategies. A good business continuity plan can help you avoid downtime, minimize losses, and protect your reputation. In this blog post, we'll show you how to create a business continuity plan ...
All about Business Continuity Planning
Business continuity planning (BCP) refers to the work a company does to create a plan and system to deal with risks. Thorough planning seeks to prevent problems and ensure business processes continue during and after a crisis. Business continuity planning ensures that the company deals with disruptions quickly, and minimizes the impact on operations.
How to create an effective business continuity plan
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused ...
Business Continuity Planning Software
Watch a Demo Request a Quote. "The Tandem Business Continuity Planning software has streamlined how we manage business continuity for our bank. Before Tandem, we lost files and had to update and make changes to a Word document. This software has helped us focus on the important aspects of business continuity and made it easier to update, train ...
10 Best Business Continuity Software Solutions
Review the features of these business continuity software solutions to better understand their capabilities and limitations. Agility RecoveryPlanner: Agility. Archer Business Resiliency: Archer ...
5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021
Step 4: Maintenance. A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise. It needs to be maintained, so the organization's structural and people changes are updated regularly. The key personnel might move on from the firm, and this would need to be updated in the Business Impact Analysis and BCP.
CompTIA Quick Start Guide to Business Continuity and Data Recovery
Disaster Recovery Plan, for the point of the Quick Start Guide, includes step by step recovery plans for applications, vendor contact information, and recovery prioritization of the system that support the business. Initiation of the plan typically starts with a loss of access to data no matter the cause. Risk Assessment, is the systematic ...
Best Business Continuity Software 2024
Find the top Business Continuity software of 2024 on Capterra. Based on millions of verified user reviews - compare and filter for whats important to you to find the best tools for your needs. ... Plan and implement business continuity measures in case of unforeseen events. Incident Management. Identify, resolve and restore unplanned service ...
Top 10 Business Continuity Software of 2024
Castellan Software Suite is a cloud-based business continuity software solution that helps businesses prevent disruption in operations. As a fully integrated planning experience platform, Castellan enables users to interpret, analyze, and prioritize risks before developing strategic and actionable responses. Features:
Business Continuity Plan
It's important to have a business continuity plan in place to identify and address resiliency synchronization between business processes, applications and IT infrastructure. According to IDC, on average, an infrastructure failure can cost USD $100,000 an hour and a critical application failure can cost USD $500,000 to USD $1 million per hour.
What is Business Continuity Application?
A business continuity application is software used to help develop, manage or implement an organization's business continuity plan and maintain its operations during a crisis or other unexpected disruption. Business continuity application software tends to fall under one of two general categories. The first are applications that help an organization analyze its risks in various crisis ...
Business Continuity Planning
Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 2. The second of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should "define" their business continuity plan objectives. View on YouTube.
What Is Business Continuity?
A business continuity strategy is a summary of the mitigation, crisis, and recovery plans to be implemented after a disruption to resume normal operations. "Business continuity strategy" is often used interchangeably with "business continuity plan." Both consider the broader goals, legal and regulatory requirements, personnel, and even the ...
How to Develop an ERP Business Continuity Plan
ERP improves business continuity by helping organizations leverage their company-wide data to prepare for unforeseen disasters or downturns. ERP software contains a wealth of data from across the business in finance, HR, marketing, production, and other areas. This data is crucial for crafting an effective business continuity plan.
Business Continuity Planning
For General Information. MEP Headquarters. [email protected]. (301) 975-5020. 100 Bureau Drive, M/S 4800. Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4800. Created June 4, 2020, Updated December 1, 2022. Business continuity planning enables you to create an easy-to-use, actionable business continuity planning soluti.
Business Disruptions and Disaster Recovery Plans
A business continuity planning (BCP) component, disaster recovery planning (DRP), is concerned with how crucial systems, data, and infrastructure will be recovered and restored after a disruptive incident. While DRP focuses on the technical aspects of restoring IT systems and assets, BCP covers a wider range of activities to ensure the overall ...
Ensuring Continuity With Google Cloud Platform Disaster Recovery
💡KEY INSIGHTS; Operational continuity is paramount, with GCP leveraging services like Compute Engine and Cloud Storage for robust data backups and rapid restoration.; Effective disaster recovery requires detailed analysis of application requirements, dependencies, and potential downtime impacts, tailored to suit GCP's diverse services.; Implementing recovery strategies is about activating ...
Protein ice cream company wins 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition
Ice cream company Protein Pints took home the grand prize at the 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) April 6 as the best student ventures from top universities across the world competed for prizes in front of nearly 350 angel, venture capital and corporate investors and members of the business community.. During his acceptance speech, Founder and CEO of Protein Pints Paul Reiss said ...

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