Trends in Business Continuity Management

Virtualization

Virtualization is making business continuity planning easier for IT executives and their organizations, if for no other reason than it's helping to reduce the number of IT assets, says George Muller, vice president, sales planning, supply chain & IT at Imperial Sugar Co, Sugar Land, Texas, one of the nation's largest processors and marketers of refined sugar.

Rachel Dines, senior analyst, Infrastructure & Operations, at Forrester Research in Cambridge Mass., says desktop, or client, virtualization is having a bigger impact on business continuity than server virtualization.

"Client virtualization is making workforce recovery [possible] for many companies that cannot rely on employees working from home with laptops," Dines says.

Cloud Computing

Many of Gartner's clients increasingly are using software-as-a-service (SaaS) to support business processes, Morency says.

"With the use of SaaS for client-facing applications and even internal customer support applications there's a much improved means of continued availability, even in the presence of minor or major disruptions," Morency says. "You have a set of applications delivered from the cloud."

Not everyone sees cloud computing as influencing business continuity. "As of today, I don't see a huge impact," Dines says. "However, I do expect this to become a significant complicating factor in the future. As more organizations outsource more services to the cloud, it will become the job of the business continuity manager to audit the recovery plans of many different suppliers."

Mobile Devices in the Workforce

The proliferation of mobile devices in the workforce is a benefit for business continuity strategies because it gives more flexibility for workforce recovery options, Dines says.

"As compared to the days when employees only had desktops and laptops, the ability to remain productive without access to a computer via tablets and smartphones is a significant advantage," she says. "Additionally, it means that employees should be easier to communicate with during a disaster."

Social Networks

Social media is used by more than 80% of the world's population, Gartner says, and enterprises can't afford to ignore it as a crisis communications tool. But effective use of a new communications channel requires planning and practice, and attempting to leverage social media for the first time during a crisis can cause more harm than good, the firm says.

Among the key recommended steps are to determine which social platforms are already used by employees, customers and other stakeholders and use those platforms in crisis/incident management efforts; and use social media not only to communicate during a disaster, but to gather information and gain the support of outside resources that can help ensure ongoing business resilience. Business continuity management professionals should immediately begin assessing social media's opportunities—and risks, the Gartner reports says.

The changing face of terror

Recent acts of terror in different western countries had an important effect on the international and domestic threat landscape. BC practitioners working within the sphere of organizational resilience should be aware that the consequences of these events impact their responsibilities.