Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Business Continuity – An Introduction
Business continuity isn’t simply about planning for major disasters. It’s also about preparing for more mundane events like adverse weather conditions or strikes by unrelated industries. Here, Graham Chick explains what business continuity is about and why it’s important… go here>

What is the difference between a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?
The key differentiator here is the extremity of the scenario and the level of impact on the communications environment.

Anything related to “Business Continuity” addresses the maintenance of normal day-to-day BAU services during extraordinary situations. In this scenario, the normal operations are likely to remain located at the normal location, with any BCPs operating transparently to the users and customers. A relevant example would be a power failure. Provision of battery backup or a power generator would allow a Customer Service Centre and other priority areas to continue their operation transparently to the callers.

Disaster Recovery scenarios are typically identified by the inability to support a “Business As Usual” environment, either due to a significant failure of the communications environment (a major technical failure) or environmental issues that prevent the building from being manned such as fire, flooding etc.

In summary, Business Continuity relates to the continued operation of the telecommunications environment (to a greater or lesser extent) within the business’s normal operating environment. Disaster Recovery relates to scenarios where the normal telecommunications environment is NOT operational and communications must be re-routed to alternate locations for resolution.

Pulling the Plug on Telecoms Business Continuity
Feeling confident that your business continuity plan covers everything?Then pull the plug on your telephone system and see what happens. Opinion Piece: written by Graham Chick, chief executive, GemaTech… go here>