IT Project Lessons from Titanic (Part 13)

 

In recapping the situation on board Titanic, the crew carried out orders to launch the lifeboats, but for a long time was skeptical that anything serious was going to happen (Part 12). Most passengers were unaware of the disaster and as a result, the lifeboats were filled on a first-come, first-serve basis from the top decks, and mainly first- and second-class passengers. Although each lifeboat had a capacity of 65 people, only 27 very reluctant people were lowered in the first one at 12:45, about 65 minutes after the collision.

Clearly, today's businesses cannot afford environmental failures (Part 1) of the scale of Titanic. To ensure their continued survival, they must develop business-continuity plans that reduce the risk of environment downtime and the potentially catastrophic loss of services and data. This activity determines how a company will keep functioning until its normal facilities are restored after a disaster.

Business continuity is a holistic approach to disaster recovery that goes beyond just the technology to recover the whole business operation. So as you design the IT solution you need to pay attention to the business operation and how this would be replicated. This includes the supporting infrastructure of organization, staff, all the processes and procedures, hard copy records and documentation, and physical facilities. It also includes how …

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