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10 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 Table Stakes Every organization is different; therefore, no BC/DR plan will be identical between them. However, there are several components that should be common amongst the vast majority of organizations. When reviewing BC/DR resources and reference materials, there are a few checklist items or table stakes that pop out and are probably best applied in any BC/DR plan. They are: L O O K O U T F O R Y O U R P E O P L E After all, businesses are really just people. People are the most critical component to recovery from any disaster event. Safety or life & limb must be at the top of the continuity list. If you don't have people, you don't have a business any longer. P R E P A R E F O R T H E M O S T C O M M O N T Y P E S O F E V E N T S I start with the basic three categories of business interruptions: • Inaccessibility to your office/work location(s) • Extended power outages • Loss of a system, service, or data due to system/ service failures or cybersecurity incidents K N O W T H E E X P E C T E D R E C O V E R Y T I M E A N D P O I N T O B J E C T I V E S ( A K A R T O A N D R P O ) T H AT M A N A G E M E N T R E Q U I R E S O F Y O U Start with the most critical business functions that keep a company alive (those things that continue the business of making money to stay operating), such as: • Communication services • Business intake • Timekeeping • Billing • Payroll S E T T I N G M A N A G E M E N T E X P E C TAT I O N S F O R R T O A N D R P O Executive management really needs to know what is and isn't possible with your recovery abilities, and then remind them periodically of what to expect during a disaster. D ATA B A C K U P S Backups of backups; online and offline. Retention on backups is a critical table stake. . Lessons Learned The likelihood of your organization having major business disruptions is practically a certainty. Many of the readers of this article have experienced a major disaster and helped the organization recover. The experienced gained in real-world events help ensure the organization is better prepared for the next disaster event. And because of those continual improvements based on experiences and sharing with peers, organizations regularly feel minimally disrupted because our growing continuity and disaster plans reduce or eliminate business disruptions. Through major and moderate disaster events, I've found these core lessons are key to the smoothest and fastest recovery from a business disruption or disaster. F E A T U R E S H A V E A N D T E S T A P L A N Having a written BC/DR plan Testing and Training Continually Adjusting/ Improving

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