Business continuity strategies: Time for a reality check

By Bronna Shapiro, BMC Software

October 12, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Business continuity strategies are about responding to and recovering from natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and terrorist strikes such as the Sept. 11 attacks, right? After all, it's these large-scale disasters that shut down data centers, making it impossible for an enterprise to operate until critical IT and other systems are restored.
If this philosophy underpins your business continuity and disaster preparedness plans, then it's time for a reality check. Here's the reality: Industry analysts have said that up to 80% of all unplanned downtime is the result of software problems or human error. For example, human errors have contributed to power outages, which can disrupt businesses. However, companies can increase their ability to ensure business continuity with the right business processes and systems management and automation software.
Here's another reality: Industry experts have estimated that up to 70% of the time it takes to recover is think time; that is, the time required to figure out what's wrong and what steps to take -- and the order in which to take them -- to recover in the fastest time possible.
The magnitude of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks and the like make planning for them an essential part of any effective business continuity strategy. Today, however, business continuity is about much more than preparing for and recovering from major disasters. It's also about addressing everyday issues that can add up to a major disaster rather than business success. Here are a few examples:

A retailer's point-of-sale application goes down, and customers leave the stores without completing their purchases.

The performance of an e-commerce Web site degrades, and frustrated customers click over to a competitor's site.

A bank customer on his way to a car dealership can't get into his bank's loan system and goes to another bank's Web site to finance his new automobile.

Human error causes corrupted data to be replicated throughout the storage environment, and key applications continue chugging away using bad data.

These small disasters translate into a few lost customers here, a few lost sales there and, ultimately, into lower revenues, lower profits and lower shareholder value.
New rules, new risks
Twenty-five years ago, business continuity was about backing up mainframe data, storing backups off-site and ensuring that the appropriate hardware and software would be available at a remote location in case a disaster knocked out the data center. Computer systems could be taken off-line at night for batch processing, backups and other maintenance tasks because most of the computer users were home asleep.
Globalization, the Internet, distributed

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

Centralized Data Backup and Your WAN
Is your organization prepared to tackle the massive challenge of protecting your data in a cost effective and timely manner? With a growing...

HP StorageWorks EVA4400 & Microsoft
(Source: HP) The HP StorageWorks EVA4400 & Microsoft applications have been tested together for real performance & reliability gains & Dynamic Capacity Manager...

Best Practices for Backing Up VMware® with Veritas NetBackup™
VMware® is used by enterprises large and small to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IT operations. With this in mind, Symantec...

Data Protection and Disaster Recovery with iSCSI and VMware
Data protection and disaster recovery are top of mind for any IT manager, and the challenges of complexity and cost remain as obstacles....

Managing Spend on Information Security and Audit for Better Results
(Source: Symantec) Almost all organizations have Information Security initiatives in place to reduce financial risk. Financial risks such as data loss, downtime and...

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

Using VMware Site Recovery Manager to Simplify DR
(Source: NetApp) Nothing is scarier than the prospect of having to recover an entire site after a disaster. VMware® Site Recovery Manager (SRM)...

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

From Trust to Process: Closing the Risk Gap in Privileged Access Control
In this whitepaper, Enterprise Management Associates examines this critical issue in IT security administration in light of the Symark approach to helping businesses...

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

All White Papers | All Webcasts