What Services Can Be Taken After Disaster By Companies

Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an system's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.

Resiliency has become the watchword for organizations facing an array of threats, from natural disasters to the latest round of cyberattacks.

In this climate, concern continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) has a higher profile than e'er before. Every organization, from small-scale operations to the largest enterprises, is increasingly dependent on digital technologies to generate revenue, provide services and support customers who always wait applications and data to be bachelor.

"Mission-critical data has no time for down time," said Christophe Bertrand, a senior annotator who covers data protection for Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a market place enquiry business firm in Milford, Mass. "Even for non-critical data, people have very picayune tolerance."

Disruption isn't merely an inconvenience for customers. A burn down, alluvion, ransomware attack or other malady can rack upwards financial losses, damage the corporate make and, in the worst-case scenario, shutter a business organisation permanently. About a third of the respondents to Uptime Constitute's 2019 Global Data Center Survey reported having "concern impacts" linked to some form of infrastructure in the past year. A bit more than 10% of the respondents said their well-nigh recent outage resulted in $i million-plus in direct and indirect costs.

"These outages increasingly span multiple data centers, and all-time practices dictate comprehensive and ongoing resiliency reviews of all company-owned and 3rd-party digital infrastructure," according to Uptime Found, a Seattle-based data center standards organization.

Why is BCDR important?

The role of BCDR is to minimize the effects of outages and disruptions on business operations. BCDR practices enable an organization to go back on its feet after problems occur, reduce the risk of data loss and reputational harm, and meliorate operations while decreasing the take chances of emergencies.

Some businesses might accept a head start on BCDR. DR is an established function in many IT departments with respect to individual systems. However, BCDR is broader than IT, encompassing a range of considerations -- including crisis management, employee prophylactic and culling piece of work locations.

A holistic BCDR arroyo requires thorough planning and preparation. BCDR professionals can help an organization create a strategy for achieving resiliency. Developing such a strategy is a complex procedure that involves conducting a business affect analysis (BIA) and chance assay equally well every bit developing BCDR plans, tests, exercises and training.

Planning documents, the cornerstone of an effective BCDR strategy, as well help with resource direction, providing data such as employee contact lists, emergency contact lists, vendor lists, instructions for performing tests, equipment lists, and technical diagrams of systems and networks.

BCDR expert and consultant Paul Kirvan noted several other reasons for the importance of BCDR planning:

Results of the BIA identify opportunities for process comeback and means the organisation can use technology better.
Data in the program serves as an alternate source of documentation.
The program provides a unmarried source of key contact information.
The plan serves every bit a reference document for utilize in product planning and design, service design and delivery, and other activities.

An organisation should strive for continual improvement, driven by the BCDR process.

BCDR layers — The BCDR procedure, from loftier-level policy to technical infrastructure, consists of multiple layers.

What is concern continuity and disaster recovery?

BC and DR are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational afterward an adverse consequence. The goal of BCDR is to limit take a chance and get an organization running equally close to normal as possible later on an unexpected interruption. These practices enable an arrangement to go dorsum on its anxiety after problems occur, reduce the gamble of information loss and reputational damage, and improve operations while decreasing the chance of emergencies.

The tendency of combining business continuity and disaster recovery into a single term, BCDR, is the result of a growing recognition that business and technology executives need to collaborate closely when planning for incident responses instead of developing schemes in isolation.

What's the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?
BC is more proactive and generally refers to the processes and procedures an organization must implement to ensure that mission-critical functions can go along during and after a disaster. This area involves more comprehensive planning geared toward long-term challenges to an organization's success.

DR is more than reactive and comprises specific steps an arrangement must take to resume operations following an incident. Disaster recovery actions take place after the incident, and response times can range from seconds to days.

BC typically focuses on the arrangement, whereas DR zeroes in on the technology infrastructure. Disaster recovery is a piece of business organization continuity planning and concentrates on accessing data easily following a disaster. BC includes this chemical element, just also considers take a chance management and other planning an organisation needs to stay afloat during an consequence.

In that location are similarities between business continuity and disaster recovery. They both consider various unplanned events, from cyberattacks to human mistake to a natural disaster. They also take the goal of getting the business running as close to normal as possible, specially apropos mission-critical applications. In many cases, the same team is involved with both BC and DR.

What'due south the difference between business resilience and business continuity?
Business concern resilience andresiliency began appearing in the BCDR vocabulary in the early 2000s. Resilience, at times, has been used interchangeably with business organisation continuity, but the terms take different shades of meaning.

Kirvan said a resilient business organisation can return to its previous operational country following an event that close it downwards. Business continuity management, engineering science disaster recovery and incident response are amidst the disciplines that fuel an organization's resiliency.

Resilience focuses on building a business to be impervious to potential disruptions of various kinds, co-ordinate to Jeff Ton, senior vice president of product development and strategic alliances at InterVision Systems, an It service provider with regional headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., and Chesterfield, Mo. Business continuity, in contrast, involves resuming operations from an outage once it has occurred, Ton noted.

Resiliency "is more nigh being able to resist and withstand bug, and concern continuity is about being able to continue business organisation after something has disrupted your business," Ton said.

Using a rubber band analogy, Ton said an effect might stretch an arrangement, but, if resiliency has been accomplished, it resists and reassumes its shape. Business continuity kicks in when the safe ring snaps and the organization takes steps to address the breakage, he added.

Bertrand said concern continuity revolves effectually the ability to fail over and maintain systems at a high level of availability, while resilience is the ability to resist disruption and preclude problems from happening in the first place.

Business resilience plan — Incorporate and test various processes in a business resilience plan.

The role of risk analysis, business touch on analysis and BCDR strategies

Take chances assay and BIA are critical tools for organizations facing the question of how to build a BCDR strategy.

Determining internal and external risks is important to the BCDR process. The chance analysis identifies risks and the likelihood they volition occur. This risk assessment works in tandem with the BIA, which helps quantify the potential effects of disruption. Financial analysis is one attribute of a BIA, just this practise too considers the non-financial costs of unplanned outages. In addition, the BIA identifies the mission-critical functions an organisation must maintain or restore following an incident, and the resource needed to support those functions.

It's important to gain direction back up when pursuing a BIA, given the intensity of the process. The BIA provides a way for an arrangement to larn about itself and details opportunities for improvement.

An arrangement uses adventure analysis and BIA data to determine business organisation continuity and disaster recovery strategies and the appropriate responses. Each strategy is turned into a series of deportment that will assistance achieve operational recovery, such as data replication, failing over to a cloud-based service, activating alternate network routes and working remotely.

Why should you utilize BCDR, and when should information technology exist activated?

Motivations for an organization developing a BCDR strategy might include protecting the lives and safety of employees, ensuring the availability of services to customers and protecting revenue streams. Competitive positioning and reputational management are factors that oft underlie other motivators: A business perceived as unable to protect employees or evangelize services volition struggle to attract workers and customers.

The regulatory and compliance environment also influences organizations in their pursuit of BCDR. The Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Human action Security Rule, for example, requires covered entities such as hospitals to provide an emergency fashion performance program, which includes "procedures to enable continuation of critical business process for protection of the security of electronic protected health information."

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an arrangement that oversees broker-dealers, requires firms to "create and maintain written concern continuity plans" that accost emergencies or disruptions to the business. FINRA spells out its required business continuity measures in its emergency preparedness rule.

U.S. federal agencies, meanwhile, are besides required to develop BCDR strategies, which in government terminology are called continuity of operations plans. The aim is to "ensure that essential government services are available in emergencies -- such equally terrorist attacks, astringent weather, or building-level emergencies," co-ordinate to the Government Accountability Office.

Customers might also put pressure level on organizations to develop adequate BCDR plans. An assessment of a business' BCDR stance might be function of a prospective client's vetting process. Federal regulators, such every bit the Function of the Comptroller of the Currency, encourage banks to include resilience every bit part of the vendor due diligence process. Specifically, OCC Bulletin 2013-29, Tertiary-Party Relationships: Hazard Management Guidance, states that banks should "determine whether the tertiary party maintains disaster recovery and business continuity plans that specify the fourth dimension frame to resume activities and recover data."

The "why" of BCDR potentially has many answers, and the "when" of business concern continuity and disaster recovery is similarly nuanced. Organizations must weigh several factors before declaring a disaster and triggering the BCDR plan. Main amid those are the expected elapsing of the outage, the outage's effects on the organisation, the financial cost of activating the BCDR plan and the BCDR plan's potential for causing disruption. Paradoxically, the process of failing over from an system'south primary identify of business to a backup facility -- and and so declining back afterwards an event -- might significantly interrupt operations, noted Paul Thomann, regional chief, cloud and information center transformation at Insight Enterprises Inc., an IT services provider based in Tempe, Ariz.

Accordingly, an system'south leadership must carefully size upwards when to enact the BCDR plan. Migrating to a backup facility, Thomann said, "comes with an impact to the upkeep." An system, for instance, might deem a six-hour outage not significant enough to make the disaster call.

That decision, particularly in larger enterprises, is typically made by a committee, rather than an individual executive, Thomann said. The committee might consist of the CEO, CFO, CIO and other C-suite executives, he added.

How to build a BCDR plan

Organizations tin can interruption downwardly a BCDR plan into BC and DR components.

Specifically, according to BCDR consultant Kirvan, a business continuity plan (BCP) contains contact information; change management procedures; guidelines on how and when to use the plan; stride-by-step procedures; and a schedule for reviewing, testing and updating. A disaster recovery plan (DRP) features a summary of cardinal activity steps and contact information, the defined responsibilities of the DR team, guidelines for when to use the plan, the DR policy statement, plan goals, incident response and recovery steps, authentication tools, geographical risks and plan history. The DRP should also take staffing into account, ensuring that personnel able to execute the various steps of a DR plan are e'er available to enact critical recovery tasks.

Good business continuity and disaster recovery plans are clear well-nigh the varying levels of risks to the organization; provide well-defined and actionable steps for resilience and recovery; protect the organization's employees, facilities and brand; include a communications plan; and are comprehensive in detailing actions from start to stop.

A BCDR policy is an of import initial footstep. The policy sets the foundation for the process and typically covers the scope of the concern continuity management system, which employees are responsible for it, and the activities performed, such as program development and BIA. A policy might also establish a common set of metrics, such equally key performance indicators and key risk indicators. The policy aspect is often overlooked, just it'southward an important concern continuity auditing particular.

Developing the BCP and DRP typically starts by gathering BCDR squad members and performing a risk assay and BIA. The system identifies the near critical aspects of the business concern, and how quickly and to what extent they must be running after an incident. Subsequently the arrangement writes the step-by-step procedures, the documents should exist consistently tested, reviewed and updated.

Although certain aspects of the process involve select members of the organisation, it's important that anybody understand the plan and is included at some point. The programme should also encompass third parties and the services they provide. A bank, for case, might rely on information that a third-political party firm supplies, and so the human relationship should be documented in the BCDR plan. Such outside entities must be kept in the loop so that they understand how the programme is going to work.

Other steps in a BCDR planning checklist include risk mitigation and an emergency communications plan. The latter details the method, or methods, an organization volition use to disseminate information on an emergency to employees.

In summary, the process of building a BCDR program volition typically involve the following activities:

risk identification
infrastructure review
business organisation impact analysis
program design
plan implementation
testing

BCDR testing

Testing a business continuity and disaster recovery plan provides balls that the recovery procedures put in identify volition work equally expected to preserve business organization operations. The testing phase might also highlight areas for comeback, which the organization can address and comprise into the next version of the program.

Tests tin can range from unproblematic to complex. A discussion-based tabletop practise brings together participants to walk through the plan steps. This type of test helps employees with BCDR roles become more familiar with the response process, while letting administrators appraise the effectiveness of the BCDR plan.

On the other end of the testing spectrum, a full-calibration examination simulation calls for participants to perform their BCDR functions rather than discussing them in a tabletop practice. These drills might involve the use of backup systems and recovery sites.

Testing, however, requires time, funding, direction support and employee participation. The testing process besides includes pretest planning, training test participants and reporting on the test.

The frequency of testing varies by organization. Larger enterprises should carry tabletop exercises at to the lowest degree quarterly, while smaller organizations can test less often, Insight Enterprises' Thomann said. A full BCDR exam, which is more than time- and resource-intensive, tin can be conducted annually, he added.

InterVision's Ton also recommended a quarterly testing schedule, with a DR exam conducted twice a yr with tabletop exercises in between those tests. Business continuity, as a dissever examination, tin exist conducted annually. Ton said he'southward found it more effective to separate the tests because conducting the DR on its ain test is less disruptive to the organization.

Periodic testing, plan maintenance and resilience are interrelated. An organization improves its resilience when information technology updates its BC and DR plans and then tests them continually.

BCDR toll management

Changes in the threat landscape or new business ventures might compel an organisation to aggrandize its BCDR coverage. That change in scope could call for spending on consulting services or backup and disaster recovery technologies.

BCDR managers might need to seek new funding for the expanded BCDR plan and resilience technologies if the dollars aren't available in the current budget.

An investment proposal should exist built on a business concern case that emphasizes the positive results the new BCDR capabilities volition provide for the organization. The bid for funding should too determine whether the revised BCDR plan will affect other areas, such every bit cybersecurity. Other steps toward obtaining funding include vetting products and services that support the expanded requirements and preparing a procurement asking with enough documentation, according to BCDR consultant Kirvan.

Ton said organizations should strike a balance between the level of investment in BCDR approaches and the anticipated fiscal effects of a given disaster scenario. "You don't want to come upwards with a solution that costs 200 times more than than the disaster would have," he said.

Asking concern leaders from diverse corporate disciplines to estimate the expected costs associated with different types of events tin can help organizations establish a baseline from which they can make informed BCDR investment decisions.

Standards, templates, software and services for BCDR planning

Organizations embarking on a business continuity and disaster recovery planning process have numerous resource to draw upon. Those include standards, tools ranging from templates to software products, and advisory services.

"To build a plan, y'all have many templates that exist and many best practices and many consultants," ESG's Bertrand said. "In that location'south no reason not to take a stiff DR plan."

BCDR standards
Government and private sector standards bodies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), have published BCDR guidelines. The standards, which cover topics from crisis management to hazard cess, provide frameworks on which businesses can build their BCDR plans.

The following is a sampling of standards:

ISO 22301:2019: Security and resilience -- Business continuity direction systems -- Requirements
ISO 22313:2012: Societal security -- Business continuity management systems -- Guidance
ISO 22320:2018: Security and resilience -- Emergency management -- Guidelines for incident management
ISO/IEC 27031:2011: Information technology -- Security techniques -- Guidelines for information and communication technology readiness for business continuity (being redeveloped as ISO/IEC WD 27031)
ISO 31000:2018, Take chances management -- Guidelines
ISO Guide 73:2009: Risk direction -- Vocabulary
IEC 31010:2019: Hazard management -- Risk cess techniques
ISO/TS 22317:2015: Societal security -- Business continuity management systems -- Guidelines for business organisation impact analysis (BIA) (to exist replaced by ISO/AWI TS 22317)
FINRA Rule 4370: Business Continuity Plans and Emergency Contact Information
National Burn Protection Association 1600: Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management (new consolidated typhoon pending)
NIST Special Publication 800-34 Rev. 1: Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Data Systems
American National Standards Institute/ASIS ORM.ane.201 Security and Resilience in Organizations and Their Supply Chains

Business continuity and disaster recovery plan templates
Templates provide preset forms that organizations can fill out to create BCDR planning documents. Some templates cover the BCDR programme every bit a whole or address particular aspects of the BCDR planning.

This general BCP, for example, includes provisions for natural disasters, fires, network service provider outages and floods or other h2o damage. A planning template can also assist SMBs, which could simplify the process, depending on arrangement's size and complication.

A BCDR plan might call for a service-level agreement (SLA), which sets standards for the quality of an organisation'southward BCDR recovery program. They can also assist ensure services obtained through third parties, such every bit DR hot sites, perform at adequate levels. This template addresses SLAs for BCDR programs.

As noted above, conducting a BIA can help organizations with business continuity planning. This BIA study template provides a mechanism for documenting parent process, subprocesses and the financial and operational effects in the event of an break.

Organizations can also do good from scheduling BCDR activities for the ongoing care and maintenance of business continuity strategy. Activities range from scheduling a BIA to reviewing a technology disaster recovery plan.

BCDR software
Specialized BCDR software provides some other tool for organizations ready to build a plan. BCDR products, sometimes referred to every bit business continuity software or business continuity management software, aim to assistance organizations build business continuity and disaster recovery plans. They typically embrace a range of planning activities, such every bit BIA and hazard assessment, and offer incident response capabilities.

Different BCDR approaches — There are several approaches to BC and DR, including business continuity services mixed with disaster recovery software.

Vendors in the market include Assurance Software, Avalution Consulting, Continuity Logic, Dell Technologies (RSA Security), eBRP Solutions, Fusion Risk Management and SAI Global.

BCDR planning services
Another option is to outsource the organization's BCDR needs to a third-party firm that can provide risk assay, plan development and maintenance, and training. It'southward incumbent upon the business to clarify its needs before selecting a BCDR business firm, nailing down such data equally what information technology wants to outsource, what services information technology expects of the vendor, the risks of an outsourcing agreement and how much it plans to spend.

Potential sources of planning support include accounting firms, which can perform BIAs as role of the concern continuity planning process. Accounting firms should typically exist able to help clients determine the cost of workload outages, but buyers should ideally select a business firm with experience in business organisation continuity or It resource planning, according to writer and former CIO Brien Posey. Consulting firms can also help with BCDR planning, Posey added.

Managed service providers (MSPs) frequently serve as virtual CIOs for their SMB customers. In that role, MSPs can help with planning. Because their business is to manage a customer's It assets, they are able to develop a plan for dealing with technology outages.

BCDR MSP considerations — Managed service providers tin can help organizations with BCDR planning.

Supporting technologies and strategies

The technology options for executing the DR portion of a BCDR plan have expanded in recent years due to the advent of cloud computing. Traditionally, organizations built or hired out an off-site facility to handle their disaster recovery needs. Such disaster recovery sites require a duplication of in-house production systems, so they could prove out of the financial accomplish of many SMBs. Nevertheless, cloud-based offerings such as disaster recovery every bit a service have made DR more accessible for smaller organizations.

Other resilience offerings include emergency notification systems, cybersecurity systems and incident response systems, which might exist included in business continuity management products. Organizations might also tap work area recovery vendors that provide alternative piece of work locations for employees.

BCDR direction

The team that builds, manages and, in the event of a disaster, executes a BCDR plan should exist cross-functional, cartoon upon multiple stakeholders and pockets of expertise across the organization.

The team's leadership varies somewhat by arrangement. In a large enterprise, for example, the chance management officeholder often chairs the BCDR team with a representative from the Information technology department as a vice chair, Ton said. Smaller organizations lacking a risk management department might appoint the CFO to pb the team, he noted. And, in some cases, the IT department head might straight the BCDR team.

Other members of the team typically include representatives from the organization's key business functions: finance and bookkeeping, facilities, legal -- including in-house and outside counsel -- marketing and public relations, for example.

The task of pulling multiple stakeholders together to develop a BCDR plan -- and conducting the necessary touch on and risk analyses -- can prove challenging. Project management thus becomes an important consideration. Organizations should recall about appointing a project manager to shepherd the process of building a BCDR plan, Ton noted.

The BCDR team should too take on the task of ongoing business continuity management, making sure plans are upward to date. Business initiatives and data center technologies alter oftentimes, so BCDR plans will need regular maintenance to stay on indicate. As a first step, an organization should assess if the current plan tin can be updated or whether an entirely new plan is in guild, according to George Crump, president of Storage Switzerland, an IT analyst firm. Organizations should deport BCDR testing to determine the extent to which a plan needs to be overhauled.

In addition to testing, a BCDR squad might also want to consider a business organization continuity plan inspect, which assesses the effectiveness of a plan. The inspect should detail the risks that could threaten the plan's success and test the controls currently in place to decide whether those risks are acceptable to the organisation. An IT General Controls audit can besides be used to appraise risks to the infrastructure and identify areas for comeback, according to BCDR consultant Kirvan.

A successful BC plan audit includes five key elements.

The diverse roles and responsibilities of BCDR team members -- from planning to testing -- can be detailed in an system'due south business organization continuity policy. Such a policy might also encompass external personnel, such as vendors and customers.

Another aspect of BCDR teambuilding is getting individuals upward to speed on BCDR best practices. To that end, BCDR team members can avail themselves of business continuity training and certification programs.

The Business organisation Continuity Institute, a global professional organization, offers its Document of the Business Continuity Found, which covers concern continuity management process and practise. The institute also offers a Business Continuity Direction BCI Diploma for individuals looking for additional insight into business continuity management.

The BCM Institute, meanwhile, offers its Concern Continuity Certified Planner (BCCP) accreditation. The BCCP certification aims to recognize a business concern continuity professional'south understanding of core business continuity management concepts.

Other organizations granting professional business concern continuity certifications include DRI International, the National Constitute for Business Continuity Management and the International Consortium for Organizational Resilience. Such certification bodies usually piece of work with an internal or external training group that prepare students to sit for exams, Kirvan noted.

Conferences likewise provide an opportunity to brainwash BCDR team members. Ton cited DRI and Disaster Recovery Journal events equally helpful for people looking to learn more most business continuity.

BCDR pitfalls: Listen the gap

Alter is mayhap a BCDR plan's key nemesis. As the pace of applied science alter accelerates, organizations are left updating IT equipment -- from storage and servers to networks and their associated devices. Some It assets are moving to the cloud. A 5-year-old BCDR programme is unlikely to reflect -- and prove adequate to protect -- the electric current It estate.

An system'southward modify management process tin help address this outcome. Change management oversees adjustments to systems, networks, infrastructure and documents. Information technology addresses similar situations every bit BCDR planning and testing, so an organization might decide to include business continuity and disaster recovery in the change management process.

The change direction procedure contains vi major activities, according to Kirvan:

identify a potential change;
analyze the change request;
evaluate the change;
plan the change;
implement the modify; and
review and close out the change process.

An organization, of course, is also discipline to alter. Organizations make acquisitions, divest non-core operations and create news lines of business organisation, for case. An effective BCDR plan must be periodically updated to business relationship for those developments. Regularly scheduled BCDR testing can expose gaps in the plan where information technology has failed to business relationship for technology or business changes.

Perceptual gaps can also undercut BCDR plans. ESG's Bertrand said many organizations adopting software-equally-a-service (SaaS) offerings take a imitation sense of security regarding information protection. A third of the respondents to an ESG survey said SaaS apps such as Microsoft 365 and Salesforce don't need to be backed up. Bertrand said that's simply not the case. He cited the example of recovering email an organization's users take sent to the trash bin. He said Part 365, depending on the customer'due south subscription level, retains deleted email for a limited time.

"SaaS awarding resilience is being conflated with SaaS information availability," Bertrand said. "SaaS-based applications are not being properly protected today."

Organizations using such cloud-based applications should become acquainted with their vendors' data protection and recovery SLAs and make sure BCDR plans comprehend SaaS applications and their availability requirements. Bertrand said the pct of people who are aware of SaaS vendors' SLAs is improving, but not everyone is upwards to speed. He said 58% of ESG survey respondents said they were familiar with SaaS vendors' data protection and recovery provisions.

An organization can employ a BCDR checklist, or a series of checklists, covering plans, policies and recovery strategies, to root out potential problems and flag BCDR weak points. The BCDR team should also stay abreast of the irresolute threat landscape to make certain their plans reflect emerging threats. Business organisation continuity risks that organizations should monitor range from evolving cybersecurity attacks to agile shooter incidents.

The future of BCDR

BCDR planning and execution will proceed to evolve with the changing nature of threats. Hither are a few developments to consider:

The confluence of cybersecurity and concern continuity. The part of cyberattacks, such as ransomware, in disrupting business organisation operations appears ready to continue, if not advance. Cybersecurity and concern continuity are typically separate and distinct functions in an organization. Kirvan, speaking on the future of business organisation continuity, said he believes those disciplines "ought to be under the aforementioned roof."

Going back to the hereafter with tape storage. Fill-in files might exist encrypted in a ransomware set on. Organizations, yet, can isolate the files they need for recovery from the corporate network, creating an air gap. That's where time-testing tape storage comes into play. Bertrand said tape storage is reemerging as a style organizations can preserve a "gold copy" of their data, offline and off site. "It'south coming dorsum" he said of tape.

AI's influence on BCDR planning. AI and its cognitive functions might help BCDR teams make decisions on organizing their plans and might also play a part in conducting BIAs and risk assessments, according to Kirvan. AI could as well support incident response, recommending actions based on the details of unfolding disaster scenarios.

Service providers play a bigger BCDR role. A large percentage of MSPs are involved in backup and disaster recovery. The MSP sector is probable to emerge as a one-stop shop for business continuity services, particularly for SMBs defective internal expertise. MSPs, in their trusted advisor function, can propose clients on BCDR planning and make technology recommendations. Some provide their own disaster recovery as a service, while others partner with vendors that provide that tool.

This was final updated in February 2020

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