Executive Summary for Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Report

In addition to the project analysis, a secondary deliverable is developing the recovery strategy. This entails minimizing interruptions to normal operations and prioritizing system restoration. Implementing standard back-up procedures are recommended up to and including alternate storage facilities. (German).

This plan addresses issues required for continuation of essential business functions, such as need assessment, communication and coordination under rapidly changing circumstances.

There are certain misconceptions out there about the need for business continuity planning. It is important to know the reality behind these myths.

The success and effectiveness of a Business Continuity Plan depends on how the scope is defined. Operational procedures and processes may make this

The main objective of this business continuity planning is to overcome the aftermaths of disaster either man made or natural to initiate daily activities in a timely manner without interrupting in service. The main objectives of business continuity plan are as follows:

A disaster is defined as a sudden, unplanned catastrophic event that renders the organizations ability to perform mission-critical and critical processes, including the ability to do normal production processing of systems that support critical business processes. A disaster could be the result of significant damage to a portion of the operations, a total loss of a facility, or the inability of the employees to access that facility. The disaster recovery process consists of defining rules, processes,

An important aspect I want to review is the disaster recovery plan. This plan is different from business continuity but some features do overlap. A disaster recovery plan prepares the business to recover their IT systems and assets after a disaster. Beginning with Wilma Stone, Margie Nelson, and Gary Thomas as management they need to meet with their IT department heads and perform a risk assessment to identify IT equipment and services that are critical to business operations. Identifying these critical components will give an initial point to recovery. As these are essential to business operations, the chosen IT systems should be priority in prevention, response, and during recovery. Charts and documents will help organize this and inform staff on the involved areas.

The CIOB should develop a Disaster Recovery Plan to support the Company’s Business Continuity Plan, one that will have an effective decision on the components of the IT infrastructure required to support the business.

Key factors of the business continuity/disaster recovery plans are designed to ensure that the three principles of information security remain intact even if there is some kind of a disaster or service interruption. Perhaps the greatest of there is the area of “availability”. This is especially true when one considers what the VPN means to being able to communicate electronically in the midst of a crisis. One must remember that in normal operations information security is important and in times of distress it is that more imperative. This at times will prove to be challenging to say the least. However, the business continuity plan as well as the disaster recovery plan must spell out how the services of the affected area(s) will

The management should set out its business continuity aims and objectives for the organization within the policy as a preliminary business continuity planning stage. They should also consider the business strategy, service lines, work streams, support systems, and legal obligations. This can be done by ensuring the business objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. The management can use them to check that your policy is consistently adhered to. Objectives and compliance with these must be reviewed periodically at an appropriate committee, to ensure continual improvement (Barnes, Barnes & Rothstein, 2004).

A business continuity plan is highly involved, time-consuming and requires continuous updating as the environment changes. A disaster recovery plan is unique to the facility or service and should include the step by step process on how to recovery (Carrillo, 2011). A plan is just a plan unless it is exercised at regular intervals, this exercise is not only a validation of the plan’s procedures, but training for the staff before a disaster is declared (Day & Day, 2006, pg. 12; Pinta, 2011, pg.

Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity planning, which focuses on non-related aspects of IT, such as facilities, crisis communication, and personnel; whereas disaster recovery planning focuses on the IT-related infrastructure recovery and continuity (Ranajee, 2012). Disaster recovery planning must be a collaborative effort between company executives and IT team. These methods are examples of physical security systems, strict access protocols, and access authorization procedures required by HIPAA. The organization should provide layers of physical security within their infrastructure, such as 24-hour monitoring, biometrics, and higher levels of redundancy, with strong connectivity networks and back-up generators (Ranajee,

In this plan, Allegiant Healthcare defines the capabilities for continuing its critical operations in the event of a disaster. This plan identifies resources (people, technology, services, etc.) needed to maintain company’s critical operations. Included in the plan is the business recovery plan and the disaster recovery plan. The business recovery plan defines how Allegiant Healthcare will resume partially or completely its critical processes within a specified, predetermined time line following a disaster. In the disaster recovery plan, we identify how Allegiant Healthcare will recover its data, software, and hardware also within a specified, predetermined time frames after a

business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans. Select an organization that you are familiar with,

Disasters have become an inevitable part of businesses and organizations as well. They not only have a major effect on business and organizational continuity; they also result to an overhaul in organizational operational mechanisms (Awasthy, 2009). It is for this reason that many organizations and business resort to preparing business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans that will facilitate better disaster management in future. Effective disaster recovery plans are important to every business and organization (Thejendra, 2008).