Imagine a company whose processes are mostly digitalized. The processes are efficient and highly productive, and the management is satisfied. One morning, however, the company is hit by a cyber attack. Shocked, the company discovers that it lacks plans and measures on how to quickly resume regular operations. The company descends into chaos and an operational standstill ensues.
Thoughtful business continuity management could have remedied this situation. But what exactly does business continuity management mean?
Business continuity in general describes all the plans, measures and processes that are intended to maintain a company's operations in the event of an incident and to ensure that operations can be resumed as quickly and smoothly as possible in the event of a failure. Business continuity management refers to a holistic process and the management of proactive, strategic and reactive considerations and measures that are intended to protect an entire company, and IT in particular, from the risks already mentioned.
Business Continuity Management is a complex area that also deals with the sub-areas of Disaster Recovery and High Availability. A business impact analysis is an important tool for approaching business continuity management strategically. If a disruptive event occurs in the form of a hacker attack, natural disaster or similar, five different phases usually take effect, which have been developed as part of an emergency concept (Business Continuity Plan) developed in Business Continuity Management:
- Immediate measures
- Restart of emergency operations
- Emergency operation
- Restoration of normal operation
- Post-recovery
Companies should regularly put their business continuity to the test during tests and constantly optimize it.
With our Libelle BusinessShadow® solution for disaster recovery and high availability, you can mirror SAP® landscapes and other application systems with a time delay. Your company is thus protected not only against the consequences of hardware and application errors, but also against the consequences of natural hazards, sabotage or data loss due to human error.
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