The Need for Business Continuity/Disaster
Recovery Planning and Management
Course Title: Adaptations to Business and
Tourism Disasters
Course Code: DRM 311
Lecture 2 (Level-3, Semester-I)
Faculty of Environmental Science and Disaster Management
Outline
• Need for BCP/Disaster Recovery Planning and
Management
Faculty of Environmental Science and Disaster Management Date: 19th July, 2020
Flashback
Background
In the aftermath of recent natural disasters (e.g.-Indian
ocean earthquake 2004); terrorism (e.g.- attack on
WTC 2001) and equipment breakdown (e.g.-Japan
earthquake and its consequence to nuclear power
plants 2011), businesses have recognized more than
ever the need for an organization to be prepared.
Companies are striving to meet the demand for
continuous service
Growth of e-commerce and other factors driving
system availability expectations toward 24X365
Contd.
• The average organization’s requirement for
recovery time from major system outage now
ranges between two and 24 hours.
• This requirement is pushed by the expectation
an organization faces on all sides:
• Customers expect supplies and services to
continue-or resume rapidly-in all situations
• Shareholders expect management control to
remain operational through any crisis
Contd.
• Employee expect both their lives and livelihoods
be protected
• Suppliers expect their revenue streams to
continue
• Regulatory agencies expect their requirements
to be met, regardless of circumstances
• Insurance companies expect due care to be
exercised
Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Business Impact analysis is a process designed to
prioritize business functions by assessing the
potential quantitative (financial) and qualitative
(non-financial) impact that might result if an
organization was to experience a business
continuity event.
Why Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is Important?
1. Identifies Critical Business Functions
BIA helps determine which processes are essential
to daily operations. Without knowing this,
organizations can't prioritize what to protect or
recover first during a disruption.
2. Measures Potential Financial Losses
It quantifies the impact of downtime in terms of
revenue loss, penalties, and operational costs—
allowing businesses to justify investments in
continuity planning.
3.Supports Risk-Based Prioritization
By evaluating which functions are most
vulnerable and which failures would hurt the
business most, BIA allows for strategic resource
allocation.
4. Guides Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and
Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)
BIA helps set specific timelines for how quickly
operations must resume (RTO) and how much
data loss is acceptable (RPO), which are crucial
for disaster recovery planning
5.Enhances Decision-Making During Crises
Informed by BIA, leaders can make quicker and more
accurate decisions during emergencies—minimizing
confusion and downtime.
6.Strengthens Regulatory Compliance
Many industries (e.g., finance, healthcare) require
documented BIA for compliance. It demonstrates
preparedness to regulators and stakeholders.
7.Builds a Culture of Resilience
Conducting BIA raises awareness across departments
about their role in continuity. It fosters a proactive
culture focused on resilience and preparedness.
Steps to creating BIA
• It’s a difficult and time consuming task;
• Organization should assign a team to handle
the task
• The disaster recovery planner often acts as
team leader and should invite each
department head’s input to be s thorough as
possible.
Steps of Business Impact Analysis
Step 1: Form a Cross-Functional BIA Team
Step 2: Conduct a Risk Assessment
Step 3: Define Critical Business Functions and
Dependencies
Step 4: Quantify Potential Impacts
Step 5: Establish Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and
Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs)
Step 6: Identify Mitigation and Recovery Strategies
Step 7: Analyze Costs and Benefits
Step 8: Test and Refine the BIA Findings
Step 9: Establish Communication Protocols
Step 10: Train and Educate Employees
Step 11: Integrate Technology and Data Analytics
Step 12: Collaborate with Partners and Suppliers
Remote and
Local Backup
What is back up in business?
Data backup is the process of copying the
data on your system from one place and
moving it to a second place in case it's lost,
corrupted or the target of a malicious attack.
The backup copy is then used to recover and
restore data so your business can keep
moving
Backup
• The best way to prepare any disaster is to
keep your data backed up. There are two
broadly defined approaches to backup:
• Remote backup: Your computer automatically
sends your data to a remote centre at
specified internals.
• Local backup: Your computer copies your data
to a second hard drive or other media source,
either manually or at specified intervals.
Contd.
What to back up?
Before jumping into a backup solution, you
should first put together a list of what assets
need to be backed up.
Of course you should back up the data on all
of the desktops, laptops, and servers in your
office, but that might not cover data that your
organization may need to recover.
Contd.
Home computers and handheld devices-Do
one or more of your employees, contractors,
or volunteers work from home? Are they
saving their work on a personal computer? If
so, this data should be part of a regular
backup strategy.
Contd.
Website-Is your organization’s website regularly
backed up? If you don’t know, ask your web
hosting provider. Find out how regularly the
provider backs up your website data and how
recovery is handled if an accident occurs.
Contd.
• Documentation-Keep it on your USB master key, but be
sure it’s also stored securely in a backed-up folder on
• Internal Data-Does your office have a lot of internal
data stored only in hard copies? For example:
Government forms
• Financial information
• HR information
• Contracts
• leases
Contd.
• This type of information should be stored in a
waterproof safe or file cabinet as well as
backed up electronically.
• Email-If your organization uses an in-house
email server, it must be a part of your backup
plan. If mail is stored locally on users’
computers and not on the mail server, the
mail folder on each computer must be backed
up.
