7050 Week 3 Short Paper
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Nov 24, 2024
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PREPARING FOR DISASTERS
1
Preparing for Disasters
Student Name
Wilmington University
July 18, 2023
PREPARING FOR DISASTERS
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Preparing for Disasters
Introduction
Today’s organizations are operating in an increasingly risky environment characterized by natural and man-made disasters. Therefore, organizations should be ready to counter any type of disruption (Kesa, 2023). To counter disruptions and overcome them, organizations to have in place data backup planning, disaster recovery planning, and business continuity planning. The three planning are different and, therefore, help organizations achieve different things. They are differentiated by the elements that each has (Kesa, 2023). However, they have other interdependencies which enable them to be applicable across organizations. Data Backup Planning Elements According to Shaikh and Sasikumar (2015), a data backup planning is one of the most essential parts of the security strategy of every organization. With a data backup planning, an organization has its data backed up and available for restoration in the event of a data loss resulting from a disaster (Shaikh & Sasikumar, 2015). However, a data backup planning cannot achieve immediate restoration of data without having specific elements, one of which is a cloud data backup and recovery strategy. Also known as online backup strategy, the element stipulates how an organization is to have its data backed up offsite. This helps in protecting the data against
risks such as floods, fires, and earthquakes (Shaikh & Sasikumar, 2015). A disaster recovery plan is also an important element of a data backup planning. The element provides an organization with strategy that can be used to assist an organization from catastrophic events that could disrupt their business operations like natural and man-made disasters (Shaikh & Sasikumar, 2015). Another element that every organization must include in their data backup planning is testing. The testing element stipulates how the data backup
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planning is to be tested. Testing the data backup planning regularly helps in ensuring the data backup planning works smoothly and that any issues with the planning be easily identified (Shaikh & Sasikumar, 2015). Disaster Recovery Planning Elements There are local and global threats that organizations cannot easily prevent. Therefore, when something happens that negatively impact an organization, it shows the importance of preparing for such cases (Cook, 2015). This explains why organizations should have in place a disaster recovery planning (DRP). However, a DRP cannot work effectively without specific elements. One of the elements is the roles and responsibility. In order that an organization recovers from a disaster, it should have in place a disaster recovery team where members know and understand their roles and responsibilities in disaster recovery. The roles and responsibilities element should cover what the team is to do before and during the disaster (Cook, 2015).
An element of an organization’s critical business functions and their tolerance for downtime should also be included. With this element, an organization will identify its critical business functions because of their importance in business operations (Cook, 2015). Therefore, the strategy helps an organization create strategies for recovering from a disaster by prioritizing the functions listed as critical. Another important element of a DRP is a communication plan. A communication plan helps to show an organization is in control when a disaster happens. This is because a communication plan helps an organization to address various stakeholders like customers and employees during a disaster (Cook, 2015). It is also important to have a schedule for the testing, reviewing, and improving the DRP. As businesses are changing and evolving quickly, organizations should also ensure their DRP are
evolving and changing. Testing, reviewing, and improving a DRP helps to ensure it can be used
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to recover an organization from catastrophic events that could disrupt critical business operations
(Cook, 2015). Business Continuity Planning Elements
It is important that organizations have business continuity planning (BCP). A BCP is initiated after disaster recovery as it is initiated to bring back business operations as quickly as possible. Therefore, for an organization to achieve this, some elements must be involved in a BCP (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019). The first important element is the contact information. The contact information element identifies various stakeholders to be called upon during a disaster. Some of the stakeholders include key personnel, facilities managers, service providers, and backup site operators. The role of these stakeholders is important in business continuity after a disaster (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019).
It is also important to include the business impact analysis (BIA) element. The element of
the BIA is important because it helps an organization in identifying and predicting the consequences of business disruptions (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019). Additionally, the BIA element enable an organization gather information needed for developing recovery strategies. Risk assessment element is also important and should be included in a BCP. The risk assessment element helps an organization identify, understand, and evaluate how it is likely to be impacted by potential risks (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019). Another important element is the identification of critical functions. The element where critical functions are identified reveals the critical processes and functions to maintaining and running an organization in the event of a disaster (Rezaei Soufi et al., 2019). An organization should focus its recovery efforts on the critical functions, which are identified in the element. Communications is also an important element. During a disaster, it is important that an
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organization communicates with stakeholders. The communications element stipulates how communication is to be done and the people to help in reaching the stakeholders (Rezaei Soufi et
al., 2019). Interdependence
Data backup planning, disaster recovery planning, and business continuity planning are generally referred to when organizations are describing their disaster preparedness whether they are preventing, responding, or both. However, it is important to know that a comprehensive business continuity plan has a data backup planning and a disaster recovery planning built into it (Kumar, 2020). An organization’s BCP should be a master document encompassing every aspect of disaster prevention, mitigation, and response by an organization. Additionally, an organization cannot have in place an effective BCP without first comprehensively addressing how its data is backed up and ways in which it will recover in the event of a disaster. From the description, it is clear that data backup planning, disaster recovery planning, and business continuity planning are interdependent (Kumar, 2020). Conclusion
With the business landscape significantly changing, it is important that organizations are prepared for a disaster. Disaster preparedness is one of the most important things an organization can do to prevent costly downtime to its operations or permanently closing its business in the event of a disaster. This explains why organizations should have in place data backup planning, disaster recovery planning, and business continuity planning.
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References
Cook, J. (2015). A six-stage business continuity and disaster recovery planning cycle. SAM Advanced Management Journal
, 80
(3), 23.
Kumar, A. (2020). Business continuity plan. South Asian Journal of Engineering and Technology
, 10
(2), 1-4.
Kesa, D. M. (2023). Ensuring resilience: Integrating IT disaster recovery planning and business continuity for sustainable information technology operations. World Journal of Advanced
Research and Reviews
, 18
(3), 970-992.
Rezaei Soufi, H., Torabi, S. A., & Sahebjamnia, N. (2019). Developing a novel quantitative framework for business continuity planning. International Journal of Production Research
, 57
(3), 779-800.
Shaikh, R., & Sasikumar, M. (2015). Data classification for achieving security in cloud computing. Procedia computer science
, 45
, 493-498.
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