Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan

Modern day world is extremely complex and interwoven with a lot of variables and uncertainties. Managing businesses is extremely tricky and requires one to be ahead of times all the while. With the evolution of technology, the business processes and management philosophies on how to nurture and safeguard one’s business have been the subject of many discussions at the Boardrooms.

In the present times, businesses are heavily dependent upon technology. There is not one single aspect of business that is independent of technology in the form of telephones, emails, internet, software, Hardware and so on.

In fact the management think tanks describe business competition between one network with another network, symbolizing the kind of interdependent relationships that exist in businesses today to beat competition in the market. Technology has also changed the dimensions of time and space with reference to business too.

In the era of globalization, we are living in the world of virtual reality where one can reach out to the customer in any corner of the world instantly.

Technology has brought the popular concept - ‘Time Is Money’. This is true in every sense. Every business organization is facing intense competition in the market from all quarters. If one is not able to respond to the market or customer in time, customers have several options and the competition doesn’t give you the luxury of time.

The business rules and dynamics have totally changed in recent times.

The lifecycle of businesses and organizations is becoming shorter.

Companies now have to keep re-inventing themselves all the time and re-engineering their businesses. On one hand technology forces companies to change their product portfolios or competition forces them to look for fresher avenues for growth.

Even in the established markets, brand building and increasing market share or staying in business is dependent upon Customer Satisfaction which in turn is dependent upon the responsiveness of the Company to the Customers in terms of delivery, quality, price and customer relationship.

In a situation where the Customers have several options on hand, the brands have got to consistently keep up their performance in order to retain their market share.

In such competitive situations, Companies are operating in very dynamic environments. Business risks and compulsions have prompted the evolution and growth of the concept of Risk Assessment, Risk mitigation, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity in Corporate sectors.

The competition and the business environment in the market forces businesses to be on alert all the time to ensure that the operations are up and running all the time. Any downtime in business operation results in huge losses to the Organization besides loss of opportunity and reputation.

Businesses today face risks from several quarters. Heavy reliance on technology has made it imperative for the Companies to ensure that their networks and operations do not fail on account of IT failure.

Besides technology, business operations face threats from several quarters both from perceivable and non perceivable quarters.

The famous terrorist attack on World Trade Center in 2011 and the consequent loss of business due to disruption has woken up Companies across the globe to the fact that every business large or small requires to anticipate and have a Disaster Recovery Plan for Business continuity in place. This is not a new concept, for all critical installations and plants like nuclear power plants, power generation plants etc have always had such plans in place as a part of their operations.

Today businesses especially the Corporate sector has woken up to the risks they are facing from various quarters including but not limited to technology failures, terrorist attacks, natural calamities and other unforeseen circumstances.