Business Continuity
AdvancedBusiness continuity is an organisation's ability to keep its critical operations running, or restore them quickly, during and after a disruption such as a natural disaster, cyberattack, power failure or pandemic.
Business continuity planning identifies the activities most essential to an organisation, the resources they depend on, such as people, systems, premises and suppliers, and how they would be maintained or recovered if disrupted.
A business continuity plan typically sets out recovery priorities and time targets, alternative work locations or remote working arrangements, backup systems and data, communication plans for staff, customers and regulators, and responsibilities during an incident. Disaster recovery, which focuses on restoring IT systems, is an important part of it.
For example, a bank might keep a backup data centre in another location, so that if its main centre fails, customers can still access their accounts and make payments with minimal interruption.
Plans should be tested regularly through exercises and updated as the business changes. The COVID-19 pandemic tested many organisations' continuity plans, showing the value of remote working capability and diverse supply chains. Regulators in financial services increasingly require firms to demonstrate operational resilience.
For worked examples and full lessons, visit notesbysara.org.