Category: Disaster Recovery
Developing Tomorrow’s BCM Plans – Standardization
(NOTE: This is the first part of the 7th in a series of articles discussing the future of Business Continuity Management. The series starts here.) Having worked through the Planning phase – gathering data, transforming that raw data into usable information, identifying gaps and gaining an understanding of recovery priorities…
Summer may be the Riskiest Season
Perhaps it’s the longer days or the warmer temperatures. Summer changes how we perceive our world. Sunny days and warm evenings generate idyllic visions of beaches, exotic travel, cool mountain breezes, holidays and vacations. At work, there is a general feeling that things have slowed down. Perhaps they have, but…
The Future of BCM: It’s about information, Not Data (Nor Plans)
This is the 4th in a series of articles discussing the future of Business Continuity Management. The series starts here. In today’s business ecosystem, with RTO’s approaching zero and new threats emerge with regularity, organizations can ill afford to pay for Business Continuity teams that simply write Plans – to…
All Hazards BCM Planning Fulfills Future Needs
For some time, Government agencies (especially in North America) have focused their Business Continuity efforts (or Continuity of Operations, COOP, as they often prefer to call them) on an ‘All-Hazards’ planning approach. Several years ago, I attended a presentation by a major US Government institution. The presenter began by defining…
Why Your Plan Won’t Work (and How to Fix that)
Recently, Andy Osborne, one of the Business Continuity Management industry’s most prolific writers, published a blog lamenting the common practice of writing BC Plans to please auditors – rather than to function as guides for Recovery. Many Business Continuity Plans (BCP’s) are written to comply with Regulatory requirements (FFIEC, NERC,…
Do You Plan for Tomorrow’s Threats – or Yesterdays?
Business Continuity Planners, don’t have the ability to predict the future. That doesn’t mean they should ignore current industry findings about the future either. Far too many organizations continue to plan for the “Big 4” (Loss of Building, Loss of People, Loss of IT, and Loss of Vendor) just as…
Defining Your BCM Program Objectives
Let’s suppose that – to protect your family – you decide to build an ark in your garage. (An ark is a large wooden ship, like the one Noah used to save pairs of animals during the biblical “Great Flood”) Where would you start? Would you purchase lumber and simply…
Understanding C-Suite Concerns – A Key to BCM Support
This is the second in a series of articles focusing on tools and concepts to address the next generation of Business Continuity Management. BCM industry guidelines and ‘best practices’ continue to leverage what has worked in the past. These articles are intended to shift the focus from yesterday’s methods to…
Failure, thy Name is Disaster Recovery Test
It’s been years since I last attended school, but unless things have changed dramatically, tests are still basically the same as they were back in the day. You know the subject of the test, you can study the material in advance, but you’re not privy to the questions until the…