Business Continuity and the Economy

Hurricanes, tornados, flash flooding, fires, power outages... all of these can close your doors for periods from a couple of hours to several days. Over the years, business continuity studies have shown that companies that experience a computer outage or other disruption lasting more than 10 days will never fully recover financially and half of them will be out of business within five years. Given this information, and with the current state of the global economy, investing in a disaster recovery/business continuity plan may be the only way to ensure you’ll still be around when the economy recovers.

Unless you’re expecting not to be around next week, continuity planning should still be on your agenda. (Item #1) Bring the issue of business continuity management higher up the boardroom agenda and prepare for the potential fall outs from political instability, social unrest and economic meltdown. (Item #2) A modular approach to continuity planning could be the answer in a slow economy. (Item #3)

If you want to avoid high disaster recovery costs, providing your business a dependable safety net will do you a lot of good. (Item #4) A strong business continuity environment provides assurance to the organization’s executive management that in the event of a disaster, the organization is in a superior position to survive. (Item #5)  Unsettled economic conditions can cause numerous business continuity challenges. (Item #6)

While some folks say the economy is improving, it’s improving slowly. For many organizations, this means cutting back on spending on business continuity and disaster recovery. You might want to think again, however, once you read this week’s articles. It seems that the right way to approach this economic impact is to recognize that BC is more important than ever in these difficult times and to learn how to maximize the impact of what you spend.

Slashing the BC budget can result in serious damage to your organization in the long run. (Item #1) Instead of cutting costs, focus on how to get better return on what you’re already investing. (Item #2) Upgrading plans and testing procedures are the right things to do in a recession. (Item #3)

Greater security for your networks can improve productivity. (Item #4) You can’t only spend on the most glaring weaknesses; hackers will find the lesser ones you thought you could live with. (Item #5) How do some BC pros stay relevant, even in tough economic times? (Item #6)


The full issue, as well as, back issues are available at http://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs