Contingency Planning is about being prepared for situations that may adversely affect a business. It includes two main subjects as listed below.

Disaster Recovery, as the title implies, is mostly about how to recover from a total or partial technology disaster.

Business Continuity is more about ensuring continuity under adverse conditions.

In both cases planning and testing are essential parts of any successful plan.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery (DR) is a term usually used to refer to a foreseeable but unlikely event, this could include computer failure, building fire, flood, theft and many other events. For a company with a mainframe computer some insurance companies insist on a Disaster Recovery plan that is regularly tested and proven to work. For smaller companies this may not be the case, but that does not mean it should be ignored. A virus can cause a business problems by making a computer unusable, a simple computer failure can cause loss of data either of which could lead to a dip in business, or even a business failure.

As an example, a failure of a computer’s disk in the case of an SME could result in the total loss of the business’ data unless there are regular backups. Even in this situation, although a faulty disk can be replaced it would obviously take some time, so it is essential to consider whether a business could continue while the computer is rebuilt, all the necessary software is installed and the data is restored from back up sources. In most cases a simple alternative could be used to bridge the gap during this period allowing the business to continue, albeit perhaps with less performant equipment.

There are many types of DR plans from “hot sites” where everything is kept in step between the main and hot sites through to a simple plan to just buy a new PC. Companies providing storage and other services for home and businesses often use co-location, which is another form of hot site. Hot sites are obviously very expensive as they require duplicate buildings, hardware and software as well as a great deal of control. For SMEs the best solution may be nothing more than a decision to buy a replacement computer. In any case, once a plan has been formulated it should be tested at least once and preferably checked on a regular basis and updated as things change.

Business Continuity

Business Continuity (BC) overlaps with Disaster Recovery planning in some ways but is not quite so linked with technology. Business Continuity planning should consider how a business can cope with likely issues whether planned or unexpected. This would including consideration of outside influences such as holidays (public and personal), illness, weather etc. Of course planned technological activities may also cause interruptions, for example access to a database may have to be suspended while saves are taken and computers may have to be taken off-line for training, upgrades or testing purposes. For large companies these situations can be catered for relatively easily, but SMEs may well have to work around these situations with very little resources.

Summary

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity need to be considered and discussed and decisions have to be taken whether it is sensible to put a plan in place or not.

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