A Business Continuity Plan (BC Plan) is a plan that allows an organization to function if adverse conditions occur. Many people immediately imagine tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, and other Acts of God, when thinking of potential disasters. This diminishes the importance of a BC Plan because these events are unlikely, and in their eyes, probably won’t happen. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of “disasters” are actually software and/or hardware failure. For an IT infrastructure to fail it doesn’t necessarily take a natural disaster. IT disaster can be something as simple as a virus or a bad software patch. In other words, a disaster is a very real thing, regardless of your geographic location.

A proper Business Continuity Plan should be assembled from many different sources. Teams should meet with C-level management and ask very basic questions. What are your expectations for when a disaster occurs? What is the longest you can be…