Peer to Peer Magazine

12 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2018 BEST PRACTICES How SaaS-based Services Impact Law Firm Business Continuity Planning How SaaS-based Services Impact Law Firm Business Continuity Planning In the current legal world firms are asking their IT departments to implement new technologies that enable innovation while also keeping critical client data, applications and workspaces secure. by Jonathan Reed Planning for business continuity and disaster recovery oen takes a back seat to the day-to-day challenges of managing information technology for an evolving firm, but failure to prepare adequately for natural disasters, key technology failures or cyberaacks could lead to financial disaster. With cloud-based computing, law firms can face the challenge of both constantly improving and planning for business operations following an availability issue. It is important to distinguish between disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Disaster recovery typically focuses on how a firm will recover key IT-related assets such as servers, applications, network and workstations. These plans are about geing applications and data restored and accessible as quickly as possible. Business continuity planning focuses on maintaining business operations in the face of disaster: » Analysis of threats to the organization, such as cyberaack, hurricane, power outage, building fire, etc. » Analysis of the specific threat impact to critical business functions required for short-term and long-term survival of the firm. » Plans to mitigate the risks associated with threats to core business operations. » Detailed, communicated action plans in the event a specific threat is realized. » Regular practice of business continuity plans as related to specific threat scenarios. » Continuous feedback for improvements in plans. » Monitoring for new threat scenarios. » Regular communication and buy-in from everyone in the organization especially in relation to cyberthreats.

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