Business continuity defined?

What is business continuity? Can you state what it is in Plain English? If not, you're not alone - defining business continuity has seemingly eluded many a BC professional. 

Business continuity planning is something that all businesses need to know about and, in order to brace themselves against the risk of IT system failure, embrace in the shape of a Business Continuity Plan. So using layman's terms, Datashare Solutions has taken it upon itself to define 'business continuity'. Ready? Here goes...

Business continuity is an organisation's safeguard for ensuring that vital business functions can continue for customers, suppliers, regulators and any other parties that require access to these functions.

Business continuity is not initiated at the time of a crisis. Rather it refers to all the functioned performed day in, day out to ensure consistency, service and recoverability.

Business continuity is founded on standards, policies, guidelines and procedures required for a business to continue operating in the face of disaster or adverse conditions. So business continuity is a methodology behind daily business activities.

Still with us? Good. So what does 'Business Continuity Planning' mean then?

Datashare Solutions sees business continuity planning as an activity of deciphering what the methodology should be. The Business Continuity Plan is the name given to the tactics followed every day within a business to keep business functioning smoothly (business as usual, you could say).

A Business Continuity Plan consists of a set of documents, instructions and procedures based on best practice that enable you to react to emergency situations without ceasing or hindering key operations.

Business continuity planning involves identifying, documenting and testing practices and resources that will ensure continuity. It looks at both minimising the risk of the adverse situation occurring (risk mitigation planning) and disaster recovery planning (ensuring business as usual following a crisis).

Within the IT context this means that business continuity methodology should be applied to everything from frames and managed systems, data storage and networking design, to application installation, database monitoring and security. No detail within your IT infrastructure should be overlooked for optimum business continuity.

BS 25999 is a Business Continuity Management standard comprising:

• BS 25999-1:2006 Business Continuity Management. Code of Practice - general guidance for establishing processes, principles and terminology for BCM
• BS 25999-2:2007 Specification for Business Continuity Management - outlining requirements for business continuity management system implementation, operation and improvement

Still hanging in there? Rest assured Datashare Solutions has wide experience within business continuity planning and works to rigorous industry standards. For the nuts and bolts of what exactly goes into a Datashare Solutions Business Continuity Plan please click through to our Business Continuity Planning Template page.

We would be delighted to tell you more about business continuity planning and how we can help protect your business from IT crisis with our definitive managed solutions. Please contact us for details.

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