Governance, risk management, and compliance spending have been on the minds of business and senior executives the past few years. So much so in fact, that spending in this area has reached $28 billion for 2007. Most of that money finds its way into the technology budget of the Fortune 500 to keep systems up and running and the information secure.
However, because of the cost and complexity of information technology recovery solutions, business continuity implementation by small and mid–sized firms has been sparse. As a result, very few are able to ensure timely application and data recovery following an accidental or catastrophic event. This is particularly disturbing since it is the small and mid–sized businesses which are most likely to feel the economic impact of any system outage or disaster.
A University of Texas study found that 85 percent of firms are totally or heavily dependent on information systems to stay in business, and that a loss of those systems would cost companies up to 40% of their daily revenues. AT&T estimates that it would take less than eight hours for the loss of information systems to have a heavy impact on a majority of financial, service and retail organizations.
Given the market conditions and times we live in, a comprehensive information technology risk mitigation plan that includes offsite safekeeping of information could mean the difference between maintaining operations in the face of an emergency and losing a business entirely.
While managing day–to–day risk would seem to be common business sense that intuitively provides value, the added time and anxiety associated with technology risk mitigation can be a major cause of concern. No matter how elegant a business information technology continuity solution looks on paper, there are real–life issues that surround it: installation and configuration, operations, maintenance, recovery point objectives, and procedures for file recovery or disaster invocation.
Recognizing that most small and mid–sized organizations cannot take the time, and consequently the expense, to address these challenges, cost–effective solutions should be sought that squeeze the complexity out of the technology business continuance equation by providing:
- Disk to Disk Backup for Performance and Rapid File Recovery
- Secure, Tier–1 Facilities for Off–Site Data Storage
- Customizable Data Retention Schedules
- Zero Changes to the Network
- Automated and Unattended Backups Monitored 24/7x365
- Spontaneous File Recoveries 24/7x365
- Virtualization Procedures to Recover Servers and Applications
- Data Transmission Compression and Encryption
- Disaster Invocation Procedure
- Automatic Notification of Exceptions
- Turnkey Service Administration of All Solution Components
Business Continuity needs to be part of the foundation of any information technology infrastructure. It’s not just backup with bells and whistles anymore, and it certainly should not merely sit as an adjunct to technology only to be used in case of emergency.
It can be specified as part of the overall approach to information technology and be justified and measured as a legitimate and, in most cases, affordable use of budget dollars. Also, using the excuse that technology lets us down more often than not should not put a zero next to the business continuity line item.
Creating a situation where any given employee who relies on technology availability can do their job with most of the ad hoc downtime eliminated is an issue which can be addressed via business continuity techniques and technology. If they don’t need as much technical support, then that unused resource can be reallocated as well.
Companies should start viewing business continuity technology and practices as an opportunity rather than a diversion or an irrelevance. Yes it can and has proved invaluable in times of crisis, and will continue to do so, but for the majority of businesses out there it should now be finding a revised role as a part of their infrastructure specification and as a tool to help them move forward.
The company continually designs, researches and develops new consulting processes and procedures that adapt solutions to suit individual client and market requirements. Please call 866.404.4439 or go to www.BeResonant.com for more information.
