How can you improve the resilience of your IT continuity plan?

1 Assess your risks and impacts

The first step to improve your IT continuity plan is to identify and evaluate the potential threats and impacts that could affect your IT systems and services. You can use a risk assessment framework, such as ISO 31000 or NIST SP 800-30, to help you with this process. You should consider the likelihood and severity of each risk, as well as the impact on your business objectives, operations, and stakeholders. This will help you prioritize the most critical areas and allocate the appropriate resources and measures to protect them.

2 Define your recovery objectives and strategies

The next step is to define your recovery objectives and strategies for each IT system and service. You should specify the maximum acceptable downtime (MADT) and the recovery point objective (RPO) for each one, based on your business needs and requirements. The MADT is the longest period that your IT system or service can be unavailable without causing significant damage to your business. The RPO is the maximum amount of data that you can afford to lose in case of a disruption. You should also determine the recovery strategy for each IT system and service, such as backup, failover, redundancy, or cloud migration. You should document these objectives and strategies in your IT continuity plan and communicate them to your team and stakeholders.

4 Review and update your IT continuity plan

The final step is to review and update your IT continuity plan as needed. You should monitor and evaluate the performance and availability of your IT systems and services on an ongoing basis. You should also review your IT continuity plan at least once a year, or whenever there are significant changes in your business environment, requirements, or risks. You should incorporate any new or emerging threats, technologies, or best practices into your IT continuity plan. You should also communicate any changes or updates to your team and stakeholders and ensure that they are aware of their roles and responsibilities in case of a disruption.

By following these steps, you can improve the resilience of your IT continuity plan and ensure that your business can continue to operate and deliver value to your customers and partners in any situation.