One overlooked key to a successful corporate disaster recovery programs is to effectively integrate business continuity plans into existing community based emergency operations strategies. There is no better way to assure both corporate and community resiliency then to forge a strong public-private partnership. Public-private partnerships are strategic relationships between those in the government sector and… Continue reading The Value in Public-Private Partnerships

The industrial uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is the foundation of an emergency power system. Unlike the commercial UPS designed to protect critical IT loads, the industrial UPS protects critical processes, control systems, and fire/life safety systems. For applications such as oil and gas, petrochemical and power generation plants, when the power is interrupted, it can… Continue reading Implement Battery Maintenance Best Practices to Ensure Business Continuity

A new handbook on Cyber Risk Oversight, designed to provide corporate directors with expert guidelines to improve their cybersecurity oversight, has been published by the American International Group (AIG), the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), and the Internet Security Alliance (ISA). The handbook is the latest issue in NACD’s Director’s Handbook Series. The cyber… Continue reading Cyber Risk Oversight Guidance For Corporate Directors

Organizational resiliency has always been about building a sustainable program and maintaining it via tests and exercises. However, with growing IT and the need for changes, disaster recovery (DR) is becoming a missing link which is forgotten time and time again. Based on my personal experience in consulting, organizational culture plays a very important role… Continue reading Disaster Recovery and Change Management: The Right Way

Private and public sector organizations continually realize significant security and disaster recovery command, control, and communications (C3) impacts resulting from a lack of actionable governance and processes. Diminished communications between operations staff and stakeholders can lead to significant rework, recovery cost overruns, failed businesses, and stress-related illness, injuries, and death. The goal of this article… Continue reading Managing Command, Control, and Communication Risks During Disaster Recovery Operations

High-profile security breaches and NSA spying scandals dominated the news in 2013, bringing data protection issues to the top of everyone’s mind. As this news broke, people and businesses began to question their strategies and procedures for storing large amounts of sensitive information in third-party data centers. The past few years have seen many flocking… Continue reading The Data Storage Davids Are About to Defeat Their Goliaths

Today’s business environment is ripe for marketing disasters due to its dependence on technology, the speed of communication, susceptibility to natural forces, the growth of consumerism, and an increasingly litigious society. Additionally, a single hurricane or earthquake, act of terrorism, faux pas committed by a corporate official, unfavorable court ruling, or injurious product defect can… Continue reading Creation of a Marketing Disaster Severity Gauge Measuring the Dimensions of Damage as a Preface to Recovery

How to Incorporate a Timed-Phase Checklist Into Your Hurricane Response Plans This Summer Ten named storms. Four hurricanes. One intense (Category 3-4-5) hurricane. That is what some hurricane experts are predicting for this year’s season. The increasing likelihood of an El Niño ramping up by July or August could significantly impact the number and intensity… Continue reading Preparing Your Business for Hurricane Season Can Be as Easy as 1, 2, 3

If we can glean anything from this past winter and spring, it’s that weather is becoming extremely volatile and more severe. Not only that, but regions are experiencing weather they’ve rarely ever had to worry about, such as the ice storms that hit Georgia last winter. Officials called it “the worst winter storm in over… Continue reading Summer is Here and Its Likely Weather Will Be Severe

An event that affects the company occurs: a rep from IT comes to the table as a responder for security related questions … they said we’ve been hacked and records have been compromised? Even more helpful, if you could both see the disaster, let alone understand the impact through a similar lens. It would remove… Continue reading Data Breaches: Do They Have Place in Business Continuity Plans?