Business Continuity Planning: Keeping Your Business Running During Disasters

What would happen if your office flooded tomorrow? If ransomware encrypted all your files? If a key employee suddenly left? Business continuity planning prepares you for the unexpected.

What Is Business Continuity Planning?

Business continuity planning (BCP) is the process of creating systems and procedures that enable your business to continue operating during and after a disaster. It goes beyond just IT disaster recovery to encompass all critical business functions.

Common Threats to Business Continuity

• Natural disasters — Floods, storms, fires, power outages
• Cyberattacks — Ransomware, data breaches, system compromises
• Hardware failures — Server crashes, network equipment failures
• Human factors — Key employee departures, human error, sabotage
• Supply chain issues — Vendor failures, internet outages
• Pandemics — As we learned, can disrupt everything

Creating Your Business Continuity Plan

Step 1: Business Impact Analysis

Identify your critical business functions and understand the impact of disruption:

• What processes are essential to operations?
• What systems support those processes?
• How long can each function be down before serious impact?
• What's the financial impact of downtime per hour/day?
• What are the regulatory/compliance implications?

Step 2: Define Recovery Objectives

For each critical system, define:

• RTO (Recovery Time Objective) — How quickly must this system be restored?
• RPO (Recovery Point Objective) — How much data loss is acceptable?

These objectives drive your backup and recovery strategies.

Step 3: Develop Recovery Strategies

Create specific strategies for different scenarios:

• Data backup and recovery — How to restore lost data
• Alternative work locations — Where staff work if office unavailable
• Communication plans — How to reach employees, customers, vendors
• Vendor contingencies — Backup vendors for critical services
• Manual procedures — How to operate without technology

Step 4: Document the Plan

Your BCP should include:

• Contact information for key personnel
• Step-by-step recovery procedures
• Vendor contact information and account numbers
• System documentation and configurations
• Decision trees for different scenarios

Step 5: Test the Plan

A plan that's never been tested is just wishful thinking:

• Tabletop exercises — Walk through scenarios with key staff
• Technical tests — Actually restore from backups
• Full simulations — Simulate a disaster and execute the plan

IT Disaster Recovery Essentials

Backup Strategy

Follow the 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 different storage types
• 1 copy off-site

Recovery Testing

Test your backups regularly:

• Monthly verification that backups complete
• Quarterly test restores of random files
• Annual full recovery test

Documentation

Maintain current documentation of:

• Network diagrams
• System configurations
• Account credentials (securely stored)
• Vendor contacts and account numbers
• Recovery procedures