Disaster Recovery vs Business Continuity Planning
Disaster Recovery Vs. Business Continuity Planning
In a conversation with one of our clients last week, he used the terms Disaster Recover and Business Continuity interchangeability. I explained the difference to him.
In a subsequent conversation with some of my colleagues, I found out that not everyone is clear on the difference. So, I thought a clarification is on order regarding the difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
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Business Continuity is PROACTIVE:
How do I avoid or mitigate the impact of a risk?
How do I avoid or mitigate the impact of a risk?
Disaster Recovery is REACTIVE:
How do I recover from a disaster and restore the organization to normal business operations after a risk has occurred?
How do I recover from a disaster and restore the organization to normal business operations after a risk has occurred?
Disaster Recovery is part of the overall Business Continuity plan
Some of the goals of Business Continuity Planning are:
- Assess potential risks and prepare contingencies for unforeseen events, such as disaster scenarios
- Maintain a minimum level of service while restoring your organization to normal business operations
- Protect the customer base and protect business functions which provide products or services
- Minimize interruptions to normal operations
- Minimize the economic impact of the interruption
- Establish alternative means of operation in advance
- Train personnel with emergency procedures
- ·Restore service to normal mode of operation
This Disaster Recovery Plan should establish procedures to recover systems following a disruption. The plan should include:
- Define systems, resources, and processes needed to restore service to pre-disaster levels
- Define Notification & Activation phases to detect and assess damage
- Identify the activities, resources, and procedures needed during interruptions to normal operations.
- Assign responsibilities to authorized personnel
- Ensure coordination with staff who participate in the Disaster Recovery Planning.
- Plan testing procedure and test results
- Reporting and auditing