It seems every part of America suffers from the sort of weather that can disrupt business operations. Whether hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes or flooding, it’s only a matter of time before a company is hit. And when that hit arrives, the need to respond can be immediate – according to a survey commissioned by Arcserve, almost half of respondents revealed it can be less than an hour before the loss of a business-critical system starts to affect revenue. Even more concerning, only a quarter of respondents were confident in their ability to recover in that amount of time.
While some potential causes of disruptions give plenty of warning, many others only offer a brief amount of advance notice before they start taking systems down. To ensure a business is ready to recover, companies should work to develop preventative measures, taking the time to identify critical systems, and the amount of time it may take to get them back online in the event of a disruption. This evaluation should also consider the needs of customers, the readiness of backups, and redundancy in key systems.
Predictive analysis can also be used to identify likely points of failure on first alert of an impending disaster, and reconfigure systems to minimize risk or exposure, as well as for less critical tasks like scheduling backups or maintenance activities.
Once all of the above is established, it’s also critical to perform regular testing of these preventative measures and analysis, to confirm procedures are being followed, and that these procedures are still fully applicable. Over time, with shifting needs of customers, this regular testing will help to identify gaps, and allow for an iterative analysis of the best approach to business continuity and disaster management.
Source:
