Business Continuity

In today's world, disaster can strike in an instant. Without proper preparation, a single event can shut down your operation and cause injury, property damage and finance hardship. The disaster to your company, your employees, your clients, your mission and your bottom line can be significant.

Disaster Happens

"Disaster" can be interpreted in many different ways by businesses or governmental agencies. Some definitions include:

· Fire that destroys all or part of your facility;
· Fire that destroys your client's operation, or your key supplier's;
· Power outages that last mere moments, or those that last for days;
· Storms that force mass evacuations;
· Terrorism or the threat of terrorism;
· Shortages or unavailability of water, food or fuel;
· Pandemic or the fear of one, that prevents employees from getting to your site;
· Communications or computer systems failures.

Consequences when disaster happens

Thinking the unthinkable is essential. The horror stories about businesses closing due to disaster are not urban myths propagated by business continuity consultancies hoping to drum up extra business. The fact is that one in five businesses suffers a major disruption every year; we belief businesses should not be operating without a business continuity plan in place.

Statistics gathered by the London Chamber of Commerce shows the following:

• Only 51 per cent of businesses surveyed by the Management Institute in January 2005 had a business continuity plan that covered their critical business activities.
• Only 66 per cent of large organisations (defined as having a turnover of over £11 million) have a business continuity plan (BCP).
• Only 33 per cent of smaller counterparts have a business continuity plan (BCP).
• As many as 90 per cent of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to close within two years of the disaster.
• As many as 80 per cent of businesses without a well-structured recovery plan are forced to close within 12 months of a flood or fire.
• At least 43 per cent of companies experiencing disasters never recover.
• Finally 50 per cent of companies experiencing a computer outage will be forced to shut within five years.

How can GNS attribute to your Business Continuity?

GNS can help you work towards BS7799 compliance that promotes good practice for information security management. This standard will help you identify all information assets and implement measures to protect your confidentiality, integrity and availability; good practice for all businesses to ensure:

• Adding more comprehensive security and access methods to your buildings.
• Provisioning resilient power for your servers.
• Provisioning resilient methods for you to access your data.
• Storing your data offsite.