Every minute, the modern business landscape changes and becomes more competitive. Under such circumstances, downtime is something that all businesses want to avoid.
A cyberattack, a natural disaster, or a simple human error can bring a business down to its knees within minutes. Therefore, it is always advised to prepare for the worst with a comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, also known as BCDR.
The BCDR is the backup response plan that comes into action to help your business overcome the initial hurdle and survive the coming months.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) – What Is It All About?
Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are two different concepts that come together during times of need to help an organisation recover from a catastrophic event. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is developed to recognise the business-critical operations and processes and formulate a plan on how these can be executed during a disaster.
This could include changing the office’s location to working offline without IT help and support. Here you also have to consider when the plan needs to be implemented and how to communicate these changes to staff and stakeholders of the organisation. The first step in developing a BCP is establishing a team dedicated to making this plan and managing all the processes related to it.
What Is A Disaster Recovery Plan?
A Disaster Recovery Plan, also known as DRP, solely focuses on getting the IT department back on track and starting data recovery functions after a disaster has taken place. This is crucial to business operations and needs to be implemented as soon as possible to avoid downtime.
The DRP is implemented to reduce downtime and get the critical support system up and running quickly with minimal data loss.
How are Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans Connected?
Disaster recovery and business continuity are essential to an organisation’s general risk management plan. These two concepts are two sides of the same coin. One would be meaningless and ineffective without the other.
A well-thought-out business continuity plan will ensure that all the critical functions and processes stay unhindered in the event of a disaster. A disaster management plan will support the BCP by providing uninterrupted IT support. Furthermore, the DRP will also prevent or minimise data loss, allowing the operations to run smoothly.
Therefore, a BCP and DRP will need to work in tandem to mitigate the impact of a potential disaster on the business.
What Is Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery?
The BCDR process consists of techniques and processes that help a business recover from disasters and resume operations. BCDR is an umbrella term that comprises various instructions, roles, and functions required in the aftermath of a disaster.
Business continuity and disaster recovery help establishments get back to normal operations within a specific time frame without incurring too much data or monetary loss.
Importance of Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery
If a disaster strikes, putting time and money into developing a comprehensive BCDR plan for your business will give you peace of mind, knowing that you are protected in terms of IT, data, and operations.
A BCDR plan ensures that your business can function fully or partially with minimal data loss. The best example of a disaster would be the COVID pandemic, which forced all companies worldwide to work online and rethink their business strategies quickly to keep up with the organisational and revenue goals.
The companies that already had a BCDR plan in place were prepared to some extent to face such scenarios. Businesses without a BCDR plan will not be able to survive for long in this ever-changing economy in case of a large-scale disaster. As a matter of fact, more than 90 per cent of organisations without a BCDR plan will be forced to shut down operations within a year of a major disaster.
A business continuity and disaster recovery plan is like an insurance policy for your company. It minimises the overall risk, prevents data loss, and helps you to get back on your feet without incurring too much downtime or damage to your brand image.
Your employees, customers, and stakeholders will be impressed when they see your company getting back into action quickly, even after a disaster.
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