By Petrus Human, group technical director for Attix5

Despite the importance of having business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans in place in the connected world, many organisations irrespective of size and industry are still struggling to get to grips with the differences between these two implementations.

More importantly, the distinction needs to be clearly made that even non-technical users can easily understand the different approaches. As is the case with any technical policy or approach, the temptation is there to be too technology-focused in its composition. Instead, decision-makers need to create BC and DR plans that are accessible to the layman. In this way, business decisions can be made more effectively without enforcing a view that these are things best left to IT departments and not relevant for the rest of the organisation.

According to Forrester, companies globally spent an average of seven percent of their IT budgets on BC and DR in 2013. While this sounds significant, it is imperative that these plans are not the sole responsibility of the CIO or the IT department.

Looking at the difference between the two approaches, the reason for this becomes apparent.

As the name suggests, BC looks after the continuity of the business as a whole. So everything from desks to the fuel used in business critical company vehicles are factored into this. It boils down to all the elements requirement for a business to continue to operate should the worst happens. BC therefore takes into account all aspects of operations and not just the technological ones.

Despite recent events, South Africa might not have too many concerns around tornadoes and earthquakes, but disasters come in a variety of guises. Think of the potential devastating impact that fire and flooding could have on the organisation. As the strike action in the steel and mining industries showed earlier this year, even non-natural disasters can impact on the livelihood of a business. Many employees at factories and mines were unable to go to work which had a very real impact on the operations of the companies and the affected communities.

On the other hand, DR is focused on the protection of critical IT systems that are key for normal business operations. Given the connected nature of business today, many could be forgiven for thinking that DR and BC plans are interchangeable. Further adding to the confusion is the fact that there are technologies that help companies achieve both. However, DR is just one part of a BC plan and does not concern itself with anything other than IT.

Many organisations may think having a DR plan in place covers their IT systems, which could range from employee smartphones and tablets to servers and storage. The reality is that without a well-defined BC plan in place, a business may not have infrastructure to recover in case of a disaster.

And despite the pervasiveness of technology, even DR plans are not being adopted en masse. Research by Gartner has found that only 35 percent of global businesses have some sort of DR plan in place. Even those who have implemented a DR plan, often do not understand thoroughly what it entails.

Fortunately, South African organisations compare well to their international brethren. This can be attributed to the frequent power failures experienced over the past few years. Decision-makers today, more than ever before, are acutely aware of what happens to productivity when power gets cut for a couple of hours a day.

In this regard, local businesses are better equipped than many others globally in terms of infrastructure and the awareness of the associated issues. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to continue driving education around the need for BC and DR plans and how they need to integrate for the successful running of a business.

The reality is that companies need to make sure that they get their BC and DR plans in place before it is too late. Downtime in the connected world could not only result in a significant financial impact, but if data is lost then companies could even close down in worse case scenarios. Being prepared means doing the necessary when it comes to disaster and business continuity planning.