In today's economy, cost is the most significant obstacle to enacting a good business continuity plan (BCP), followed by the knowledge and experience necessary to fully implement a complete and cost-effective solution. Many companies feel that a BCP is a "nice to have" until the time comes when they need it and there's no plan in place. That spells disaster.
Weighing the ROI and cost of ownership is also problematic. Companies understand that planned downtime is a necessary evil and they schedule it to occur at times that minimize impact on the user/customer base. This isn't usually factored into the ROI analysis, therefore, calculating the real cost of a prime-time IT disaster without implementing a comprehensive BCP is tantamount to "whistling through the graveyard." Organizations must understand that threats are real, that a disaster would be costly and that guarding against it requires a significant amount of advance planning. Identifying the lack of a comprehensive BCP is the first step towards visualizing threats and subsequently preventing against them.
In future posts, we will discuss cloud computing and how cloud centers and providers can go a long way towards implementing the right business continuity solution, regardless of the size or scope of the project.
