If you work in Information Technology (IT), you understand the importance of redundancy. Whether it’s services, servers, or applications, redundancy ensures higher availability and keeps critical systems running during a crisis or outage.
The same principle should apply to your business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans. Just as you wouldn’t rely on a single server or application, you shouldn’t rely on storing your resiliency plans in only one location—such as business continuity software or your internal Intranet.
While business continuity software should be your primary repository, you should also maintain redundant copies in alternative locations. This can include your organization’s Intranet, centralized file storage, or even offline copies on designated employees’ computers or mobile devices. These offline backups are particularly important if there’s a failure or outage affecting the primary system.
If your team can’t access the plans during an incident, they may not know what steps to take, which can delay recovery efforts—potentially resulting in significant financial loss and reputational damage.
In Summary:
When building your business continuity and IT disaster recovery plans, include redundancy of access as a core component. Ensuring that key personnel can access the latest version of the plan—whether online or offline—will help your organization respond swiftly and effectively when it matters most. It helps keep your organization resilient to potential loss and increase your recovery time.
