Business Continuity and Data

There seems to be a growing misconception about business continuity that is coming from the technology sector. The phrase “business continuity” is becoming synonymous with data protection.

A recent press release touts that technology company X has issued a white paper on business continuity. The firm helps companies maintain business continuity by protecting, recovering and restoring data in the event of an interruption.

Two IT-related publications also recently ran articles on the importance of data preservation. Both emphasized data. One article focused on the impact hurricanes can have on the IT department. The second article examines business continuity standards, but only from the IT perspective.

This is all well and good, but it is a very narrow view of continuity. Since the growth of IT departments throughout the 1980s and 1990s, focus has justifiably been on protecting data and the network. But, there is much more to running a business than what resides on a server.

Business Continuity should focus on all critical processes, including, but not limited to data. After all, would data be of much use if the building that housed your sales and billing department was destroyed in a fire?

Continuity planning should start with protecting your most precious asset, the workforce. Having a place for them to work would be second. Then the ability to interface with and serve customers or clients would follow.

Surely, data can be a critical component to survival, but it is not the only one. Nor is it the most important.