Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning For 2021
Published on 10/03/2021
As we begin 2021 it is important to reflect on 2020 and the challenges we faced, preparing us for what lies ahead as we get back to what many describe as “the new normal”.
Many of you will already have laid out your business plans for 2021, how you see your organisation expanding and the areas you aim to invest in, but what about your business continuity and disaster recovery plans?
Each year brings new challenges and having a plan of action to deal with them already mapped out prior to a threat occurring will ensure you are prepared to face them head-on and overcome them.
There are two key areas to your business continuity and disaster recovery plans: Software asset risk management and defending against cyber threats.
A Software Escrow Agreement will enable you to protect your software assets from various threats such as vendor failure or breaches of your license agreement. It involves an independent 3rd party holding and testing a copy of your applications source code (and data in the event of hosted applications) to ensure it can be swiftly and accurately redeployed into a working application should a pre-agreed trigger event occur.
SES’s Software Escrow Agreements are designed to be flexible and protect against every eventuality, so whether you have one application or many, whether they are hosted in the cloud or installed on-premise at your site, we can deliver the right protection to suit your needs.
In building your Software Escrow agreement, it is also essential to understand the criticality of the application you are protecting to the continuity of your organisation, and understanding the impact of no longer having access to that application. Critical applications which are high value, bespoke highly customised or revenue-generating are costly to replace in terms of financial cost and time procuring and tailoring a new application to suit your unique requirements. For these applications SES always recommend performing validation testing to ensure that in the event of a release you have the materials and the knowledge to swiftly and accurately redeploy the application, minimising downtime and disruption to your business.
From a Cyber Security standpoint, SES recommends beginning by implementing regular Vulnerability Assessments and performing Penetration Testing each year and after each major version change. This will help you identify any weaknesses in your security, threats which already exist in your systems and networks, alongside the paths a malicious individual could take to breach your organisation, enabling you to remediate and patch your vulnerabilities.
Additionally, 2020 saw a rise in phishing threats and many of our customers requested Phishing Assessments as they recognised that in many instances their employees are the front line of defence against incoming threats and Phishing Assessments provide employees with the knowledge to identify incoming phishing threats and eradicate them before they have the opportunity to cause damage and disruption to the organisation.
Finally, substantial Incident Response planning will provide you with a comprehensive action plan to follow when a malicious individual is able to bypass your defences and gain access to your systems and networks, ensuring that you can quickly identify, contain, eradicate and remediate the threat.
The best way to mitigate threats to your business continuity and maximise disaster recovery is to ensure you have an effective strategy in place to neutralise the threat to your business prior to the event taking place. To further discuss your requirements, please get in touch to speak to one of our specialists.
© SES Secure Limited and ses-escrow.co.uk, 2021. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to SES Secure Limited and ses-escrow.co.uk, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.