Top trends in business continuity and disaster recovery

With high profile breaches and disasters popping up in the news everyday, the importance of business continuity and disaster recovery professionals increases. Not only are the threats changing, but the coverage of failures is making even small breaches more damaging to victims’ reputation. Keeping up with the trends will help your organization prepare and respond in crisis.

Weather trends

Our weather is getting more extreme. Since the 1980s, there has been an increase in extremes ranging from droughts to flooding to wildfires to heat waves. As the storms grow larger, the damage caused by them is also increasing.

You can’t stop the weather, but you can prepare for it. Understand your local weather-related risks and that they may have changed since you last evaluated your business continuity plan. Even if your business is not in the direct path of a hurricane, a coastal disaster can affect your supply chain.

Prevention vs. reaction

Although threats are constantly changing with emerging technology, we are getting better at predicting them. Technology has made us better at predicting weather patterns, natural disasters and insider threats and even cyber threats.

It’s time for security professionals to focus more on prevention and less on reaction. Reaction is important after a disaster, but understanding the risks and putting preventative measures in place could save your from needing to react. Preventative measures should include preparation for reaction, putting you in a strong position to stay running in the event of disaster. Don’t be caught off guard when your data is breached.

Changing disaster recovery roles

In this age of disastrous data breaches and crippling natural disasters, businesses that fail are getting a lot of publicity. As the news hits, more and more organizations are recognizing the real need for business continuity and disaster recovery professionals. Executives are hiring and taking the roles more seriously.

Communication expectations

We live in a connected world, and news travels fast, both good and bad news. When data breaches occur or disasters happen, the world will find out. How companies handle communication in crisis is key to help them recover quickly.

Social media and smartphone apps are changing the way people communicate and how businesses or and organizations get information and respond in a crisis. If your communication plan hasn’t been updated since your organization opened a Facebook account, it might be time to review it.

The back burner is no place for business continuity and disaster recovery. The industry advances and changing threat landscape make these areas more important than ever for organizations looking to survive and thrive. Despite the many factors beyond our control, understanding and mitigating risks is an area where organizations must excel, and to do that, strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans are necessary.