Who should spearhead the business continuity planning (BCP) initiative within an organization? Risk function? CEO? Board of directors? During a recent survey, a majority of the respondents suggested that BCP should belong to the risk management office. However, all of the respondents believed that the person responsible for the BCP should have direct access to… Continue reading A Boardroom Agenda for Business Continuity Planning

David Halstead obviously has not strayed far from his background of the ready boots and bunker suit, the klaxon, and the highly polished red engines. With office walls adorned with pictures and memorabilia reflecting his fire-fighter background, Halstead is head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He has had a life-long career in the… Continue reading Halstead Keeping His ‘Boots on the Ground’

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in recorded history. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States as a Category 5 storm, ultimately becoming the costliest and one of the five most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. The toll stands at more than 1,800 lives… Continue reading Law Firm Learns From First-Hand Hurricane Experience

Volumes have been written about the significant shortcomings of tape as a medium for data backup and archiving. Until recently, the only alternative has been to buy a bank of disks and use those as your storage target. Unfortunately, even with deduplication, this can be an expensive proposition, both from a purchasing standpoint (with capital… Continue reading High Performance Storage in the Cloud

There are quite a few frameworks now available for continuity professionals to promote the discipline of BC/DR within an organization. Using a framework is always a good starting point, just because it is time tested, refined, and has broad applicability. Secondly, following a proven methodology increases the chance of success in a reasonable time period.… Continue reading Federal Continuity Directive – How Your Organization Can Benefit From It

The One-eyed DoeA doe that had but one eye used to graze near a lake, so that she might keep her blind eye toward the water, the other eye toward the land that no hunters could approach unnoticed. But one day a hunter in a boat saw the doe from some distance, approached her quietly,… Continue reading Aesop’s Take on Enterprise Risk Management

We knew that Hurricane Katrina would devastate the Gulf Coast and we should act promptly, decisively, and effectively. But we didn’t. We knew we were vulnerable to terrorist attacks via hijacked airplanes, and we should take preventive action. But we didn’t. We knew that deep-water oil rigs are extraordinarily hard to plug once they start… Continue reading Feeling Is Believing

Cross-training often is overlooked as a business continuity “tool” that benefits an organization beyond business continuity. Cross-training maximizes an organization’s personnel return on investment (ROI) by assuring that all – or at least most – personnel are able to perform multiple jobs. Cross-training should be standard operating procedure (SOP) if for no other reason than… Continue reading Cross-Training Should Be SOP

When the G20 Summit came to Toronto in June 2010, many businesses thought their preparations would be adequate for what lay ahead. They had tested their systems the same way that had been done many times over the previous years. The staff was well-educated on business continuity, and they had verified that employees could work… Continue reading Extended Stay – Is Sustainability Testing The Way of the Future?