Discussion : Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Question
You have been asked to prepare a short
background paper for Sifers-Grayson IT personnel about the importance of being
prepared to respond to business disruptions arising from (a) natural disasters
and (b) cyber attacks. Such disruptions can adversely impact the availability
of IT services and, in turn, prevent the business from conducting operations
over an extended period of time. The client has requested that you focus upon
the business reasons behind the need for formal disaster recovery procedures
and business continuity plans. Your deliverable should be written as a
background paper containing at least 7 strong paragraphs.
You will need to do additional reading and research before you prepare
your paper. The FEMA website https://www.ready.gov is a good place to start.
Provide in-text citations and references
for 3 or more authoritative sources. Put the reference list at the end of your
posting.


Solution
Discussion:
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Natural disasters
and cyber-attacks significantly impact business today than in business
operations a few decades ago. The reliance on online systems for major business
processes means that disruption of information technology infrastructure can
adversely impact a business and, in extreme cases, result in crippling or
business-ending loss. Disaster recovery plans are detailed plans showing how a
company intends to circumvent the inconveniences to its business processes that
may arise from either of their disruptions. The business continuity plan
specifically outlines the continuation of business operations during such a
disruption. This paper explores the business rationale for these two critical
pieces of documentation.
Documented disaster
recovery and business continuity plans harmonize the organization’s handling of
these disruptions. Companies typically include many people working towards a
joint goal. Documented plans can be shared amongst the team, and all members are
made aware of their role and where to find the necessary systems to continue
operations. This harmonization saves time and allows the company to maintain or
build new customer relationships during the crisis period.
Formal disaster
recovery and business recovery plans establish a chain of command for the
crisis period. The traditional chain of command may not work during a crisis as
this may rely on communication infrastructure. Developing and rehearsing these
scenarios using these documents establishes direct lines of communication
between the coordinator of backed-up information and the frontline workers (Lozupone,
2017). This direct line enables the business operations to continue until the
frontline workers can report to their seniors.
The formal plans
force businesses to create lean business operation systems for disruption
scenarios. These plans require committees to handle the development. This group
is tasked with identifying critical processes and the data needed to execute
them. Once a business knows these processes, they understand the criticality of
each system and can bypass unnecessary ones. This availability of a skeleton
business structure is essential to establishing business branches for new
markets at minimal cost (Bashan & Jacob, 2021). Therefore, the plan
development process simplifies the business to its core operations and provides
the off-site data to support them, enabling simpler expansion.
Formalized plans
make practical plans for backup customer support infrastructure. Today’s
customers have high expectations due to increasing competitiveness in most
industries. Losing customer support services for a few hours may convince
customers to sign with other service providers (Fabeil et al., 2020). Thus, the
plan is an essential component of any business’ customer retention strategy
because it creates, tests, and updates critical systems for ensuring continued
support for the client and maintenance of critical business operations. An already
established system can replace disrupted ones faster than quickly rigged ones
after disruptions.
Disaster recovery
plans necessitate the creation of off-site backups that can assure data
authenticity. The importance of data in today’s world creates the need for data
authentication systems. Off-site back-ups are accessed by a few people and can
serve as authentication copies for suspect data. These systems can help the
company manage the business more effectively and prevent the reliance on data
from misleading decision-makers. This backup also provides long-term storage,
which can reduce business costs by requiring the company to pay for online
quick-access systems for short-term data instead of all their data. These
benefits increase the value of these documents and the systems they establish
for the business.
Although
businesses may view disaster recovery and business continuity plans as
expensive undertakings, the two documents and the associated systems they
create are worth more than they cost. Today’s business reliance on technology
means larger vulnerabilities around data and these documents counter most
challenges. They ensure businesses retain customers, save on data storage
costs, and maintain valid data for all purposes. These benefits increase the
importance of creating, testing, and updating these documents to align with evolving
business practices.
References
Bashan, A., & Jacob, A. B. (2021). Global Quality
Management Systems: Strategies in a Challenging, Complex Environment of
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Partnerships. American Journal of
Management Science and Engineering, 6(4), 103-116.
https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmse.20210604.14
Fabeil, N. F., Pazim, K. H., & Langgat, J. (2020).
The impact of Covid-19 pandemic crisis on micro-enterprises: Entrepreneurs’ perspective
on business continuity and recovery strategy. Journal of Economics and
Business, 3(2). https://ssrn.com/abstract=3612830
Lozupone, V. (2017). Disaster recovery plan for
medical records company. International Journal of Information
Management, 37(6), 622-626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.05.015




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