No matter your industry, unexpected issues can strike and cause problems for your business. From natural disasters to cyberattacks and more, there are a number of reasons to create and maintain a business continuity plan.
Prevention, of course, is more effective than treatment, so it’s crucial to have this plan in place as early as possible. If you’re just getting started on your business continuity plan, you may have questions about where to begin.
Data breaches are increasing year-over-year, making it more important than ever to have a business continuity plan in place to help mitigate issues that affect your business following unforeseeable events. These events are often cause reputation loss, making it difficult for businesses to gain back the trust they once had with their customers. In fact PwC reported that “87% of consumers are even willing to walk away and take their business elsewhere if, or when, a data breach occurs.”
Whether it’s bad weather, an unexpected global pandemic, or a data breach, having a plan in place to tackle unexpected events is crucial to helping your business maintain a positive reputation.
It’s crucial to have a written, concrete plan in place that includes:
With new technology, advancements, and issues, business continuity plans need to be updated more frequently now.
The good news is: it’s now less expensive to create this plan. While previously, everyone would have had to be together in a physical room, your team can now connect online, collaborate quickly, and work on their own schedules. Business continuity elements you will want to discuss include:
Not every application is mission-critical, while others are so vital that your business cannot operate without them. To create an effective plan, ensure that you have decided the necessity of each application used by your organization and your tolerance for downtime.
The risks you have identified for this year’s business continuity plan may not be a concern next year. Each time you revisit your plan, consider each of the previous risks, address new risks, and plan for any foreseeable future risks.
Business continuity and disaster recovery go hand-in-hand to ensure that your business can operate as normal, as quickly and efficiently as possible following a disaster. Often, there is overlap in the creation of these plans, so many organizations want to ensure these plans support one another.
By including your disaster recovery information within your business continuity plan, — and vice versa — you can ensure your business operations and cloud infrastructure recovery are both streamlined in the event of an emergency.
It’s important to include specific needs and processes for new technology, as they may not have been included in previous plans. For example, if you began using containerization this year, it won’t be in your business continuity plan from last year.
You’ll want to include your organization’s Recovery Time Objective (RTO), which is the maximum amount of downtime that your organization can manage without losing a significant amount of revenue.
In addition, it’s important to include the Recovery Point Objective (RPO), the maximum amount of data that can be lost due to an unexpected disaster.
First, you’ll want to complete the basic steps for your business continuity plan. As a reminder, those are:
But, your process isn’t over yet. Once you have your plan in place, you’ll need to:
Disaster can strike anytime and anywhere, so it’s important for your organization to have plans in place ahead of time.
Evoque’s distributed, multi-tenant data center locations all have industry-leading uptime track records, top-of-the-line security, and numerous certifications. Learn more about Evoque's colocation today and see how we can help you improve your business continuity plan.