Disaster Recovery Begs a Context

It is a fact of corporate life in America that a company's biggest risk derives not from the direct impact of a disaster but from the litigation that follows. Emergency management provides the proper framework for planning disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC). This framework defines the continuity from the first instance of an emergency and continuing until the emergency has fully passed and normalcy is restored. Too often disaster recovery is combined with business continuity as though they represent a complete entity.

A company should build its DR/BC plan in a framework for distinguishing incidents (breaches in service to the customer) disasters (breaches in service that require replacement of facilities and/or equipment) and crisis (breaches that become the focus of the news media). As these different emergencies are distinguished different emergency response teams are activated.

Similarly, the emergency response plan should exist within a governance program. It requires both of these layers: governance and an emergency response plan (including DR/BC) to truly mitigate a company's liability.