Business Continuity is the process by which plans and polices are created, implemented and managed to ensure that your technology and business recovers within a pre-defined, acceptable period of time should a serious incident occur. It answers the question, “What is the worst possible scenario and outcome?”, and through proactive measures, reduces or eliminates that risk associated with the worst outcome.
As disaster recovery focuses on data retention and security, business continuity views your data, and your business productivity as a whole. A successful business continuity plan would focus on a complete business recovery for your network and its data, getting your key employees productive and your business functional within a timeframe driven by your business requirements.
DSM’s approach to Business Continuity is both affordable and scalable. DSM offers the consulting expertise to develop customized solutions, and the hardened facilities for selected end users to work during a disaster. DSM’s Business Continuity Centers are conveniently located within our Data Center Network facilities.
Business Continuity involves the following basic steps:
- Prioritizing the business units to be recovered by conducting a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
- Developing a technical solution by conducting a Technical Impact Assessment (TIA)
- Base lining the current infrastructure by performing a Discovery and Analysis (D&A
- Performing a Risk Assessment (or Risk Analysis) for each of the Services to identify the assets, threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures for each service
- Evaluating the options for recovery
- Producing the Contingency Plan
- Testing, reviewing and revising the plan on a regular basis