Why set up a BCP?

IT news has shown the strategic importance of information systems to companies of all sizes and highlighted the concept of Business Continuity Planning (BCP).

Waves of Ransomware and Destructware attacks have put many companies at risk, and large corporations have seen their information systems paralysed for several days.

The Business Continuity Planning for SMEs

While an SME infrastructure is not comparable to the gigantic systems of major international corporations, the purpose is identical. Without a functional IT system, any company will remain paralysed: no invoicing, quotations, stock management, or even in the case of Petya the total loss of all data in the absence of a functional backup.

What risks can a BCP prevent?

High-profile cyberattacks are not the only threats. Other risks are real, ranging from fire to water damage, including a disgruntled ex-employee who has retained access, or a simple user manipulation error.

For most managers, these risks are marginal and theoretical. Not in our experience.

A Business Continuity Planning story by APOG

“A modest fire broke out two floors above our client’s premises, leading to an intervention by the fire brigade. These start by cutting off the building’s power supply, before putting out the fire by way of copious flooding, a flood that made way into our client’s computer bay.  In addition, the Police Superintendent prohibits access to the building for several days due to structural risks.

Our client has no access to his server, whose power supply is cut and operating capacity unknown, resulting in the complete blockage of the company

The solution:

Implementation of a cloud-based replication infrastructure paired with a remote desktop server. This architecture provides company employees with critical IT resources into their home or temporary offices with functional Internet access.

This architecture allows:

• Maintaining an operational domain controller
• Maintaining access to company files
• Providing employees with the necessary software

The purpose of a BCP is to maintain, even in degraded mode, access to crucial tools allowing the company to resume and continue its activity (files, applications, etc.).

Cloud technology has made this previously exclusive tool affordable, including the creation of virtual servers, resizing, backup, etc, allowing a fast BCP implementation.

Learn more about the BCP-DRP Apo’g offer

Bear in mind that a BCP is not a data backup solution.

A BCP has limitations and for some “specific” software (whose database engine does not support replication, for instance), replication will not be possible.

In this case, setting up an adapted RPO (Recovery Point Objective) including backup frequency or retention will be necessary.