Successful Business

A business continuity plan is mainly designed to set up a company to withstand any threat, hence it is a term used to describe backing up a business. It is not a wise decision to run a company without backup plans. The business continuity plan contains information to cater for different even disasters. Arenas et al (121) suggests that copies of the continuity plan should be held by important employees to ensure the safety of its services. It should also state the likely threats the company might face, and how to respond to each threat with its magnitude as well. This paper mainly covers how the business continuity plan SanGrafix Inc helps them prevent the network failure whenever there is network traffic on their online storages platform (Snedaker & Susan 96).

Analysis

According to Hatton et al (84), the continuity plan which SanGrafix has been using for years allows achieving data backup policy whenever there are technical glitches on their online platform. Full backups system is always available for the files and software which are irreplaceable or have a high replacement cost. Backup materials are mainly stored in a secure and completely separate location from both the locations of SanGrafix (Bajgoric & Nijaz 156). However, following is the basic key for its data backup and archiving what has been provided by the continuity plan of SanGrafix. First, files retention policy when backup materials are specifically stored in a secure and a completely separate location from both the locations of SanGrafix. Then, billing files where tapes greater than four years old are destroyed every few months. Tapes less than three years old are also stored locally offsite within the company’s information technology system. Next, system software files where a copy of the most current updates files is designated every week. Furthermore, offsite backup is also considered to be necessary.

By ensuring these strategies are in place, the company has been capable of achieving the shutdown of the whole system to avoid any loss and contact headquarters in the event that there is a malpractice on their website, such as an attempt to hack the system.

According to Järveläinen and Jonna (585), the continuity plan of SanGrafix has offered to them several benefits. One of the most important is that it has allowed the business to continue its daily activities making them be in a position to keep making sales. Apart from this, the plan has also made the company enjoy the following benefits:

• The possibility to work in the remote locations; in times of disaster, the plan did help the company to have a backup one by having key staff members who work from remote locations ensuring one has a temporary place which can be used when needed as their makeshift office. Thus, the importance of a continuity plan of this nature can be considered as the key driving force behind the success of the SanGrafix Inc. This is due to its contributions when the company is undergoing tough times of network problems or when it was faced with the hacking attempts as well.
• Moreover, it allowed the company to minimize time for the business to go to a complete sleep; implying that in the event disaster strikes, such as the hacking attempts which SanGrafix has experienced, an immediate stoppage of business operations is avoided as one would have figured out what to do next by immediately starting to execute an existing plan which they had put in place. In this way, they lessen business downtime saving the company money and time that could have been wasted (Maruyama et al 45).
• Furthermore, the plan has helped the company to have a continuity of services provided to their customers; with a business continuity plan which is always aimed at ensuring that hacking attempts are minimized, the company avoided having their customer’s opportunity to start trying other services and products as a result of their operations stoppage. Apart from the business continuity plan keeping it running during the adverse circumstance, it will also boost activities which make new ones from their competitors who might have faced the same circumstance and did not have a plan at hand (Cannon & David 523).

Conclusion

Any business continuity plan will require persons to manage it as it is unlikely to be achieved by one person as in the case of SanGrafix security continuity plan. It can be done well collaboratively by a team of workers handling specific allocated roles to be able to successfully oversee the plan. More so, business impact analysis is prudent to categorize or rather segment the services and products to identify the most important ones. Ranking them in accordance to how critical they stand and impact to the business operations helps in prioritizing during the recovery phase. With this in consideration, big losses can be prevented and the recovery process efficacy maximized significantly.

Works Cited

Arenas, Alvaro, et al. "Goal-oriented requirement engineering support for business continuity planning."Advances in Conceptual Modeling. Springer International Publishing, 2015.

Bajgoric, Nijaz. "Business continuity management: a systemic framework for implementation."Kybernetes43.2 (2014): 156-177.

Belew, Shannon, and Joel Elad.Starting an online business all-in-one for dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

Cannon, David L. "Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery."CISA®: Certified Information Systems Auditor Study Guide(2016): 517-570.

Hatton, Tracy, et al. "Lessons from disaster: Creating a business continuity plan that really works."Journal of business continuity & emergency planning10.1 (2016): 84-92.

Järveläinen, Jonna. "IT incidents and business impacts: Validating a framework for continuity management in information systems."International journal of information management33.3 (2013): 583-590.

Kim, David, and Michael G. Solomon.Fundamentals of information systems security. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2016.

Maruyama, Hiroki et al. "Study on business continuity capability by cooperative operation of photovotaic and battery energy storage system."Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2015 IEEE PES Asia-Pacific. IEEE, 2015.

Snedaker, Susan.Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT professionals. Newnes, 2013.

Xiao, Yu, and Peacock, Walter G. "Do hazard mitigation and preparedness reduce physical damage to businesses in disasters? Critical role of business disaster planning."Natural Hazards Review15.3 (2014): 04014007.