After 9/11: Lessons on Planning & Implementing Business ContinuityWith the perspective on the events of a mere eight months ago, this paper examines what enterprises and their vendors are doing differently to ensure data continuity since September 11, 2001. As the essential foundation for business continuance, data continuity provides ongoing access to business-critical information. The Sageza Group worked with EMC, its customers, New York professionals, customer service, and headquarters staff to explore what they learned and what it means to organizations planning for enhanced business
continuity.
What follows is a high-level discussion of some of the human, organizational, and ethical elements that need to be considered in implementing effective business continuity plans. It does not purport to be a comprehensive disaster recovery (DR) planning guide, but it does consider issues critical to DR processes.
Data replication, both local and remote, is a central element to business continuity planning. The focus should be on rapid restart. One key is to integrate these capabilities, and the ability to manage them, into the DR plan. Another key is to evaluate these capabilities in making storage decisions. This evaluation should include the technology, the ability to manage and automate it locally and remotely, and the vendor’s ability to service and support it and the company in the event of a disaster. Despite tight IT budgets, we believe that postponing the implementation of a rapid restart data continuity plan is not a wise option for enterprises to pursue.
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