After major disasters, businesses often find themselves struggling to survive. While business owners are increasingly aware of the importance of disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) planning, they’re often not fully aware of the meanings of each term. According to Business2Community.com, these professionals are using these terms interchangeably, rather than recognizing the key differences between them.
For business continuity, the emphasis is on developing a strategy that allows the business to continue operating with limited downtime or disruptions. Disaster recovery instead focuses on establishing methods by which the key data and tools which drive a business can be restored or recovered. To simplify, BC is about keeping things working during a disaster, while DR is about getting things running again after disaster.
To ensure your business plan considers both continuity and recovery, six key points should be considered:
- Consider both common and uncommon hazards.
- Ensure those involved in planning are engaged, and not passive observers.
- Perform risk assessments to identify areas of weakness and key points of failure.
- Regularly test both BC and DR plans to ensure effectiveness and readiness.
- Update plans as technologies and critical information changes.
- Streamline plans to remove unnecessary complexity.
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