Technology risk management and business continuity planning are key components of a larger disaster recovery strategy for midmarket CIOs. While large enterprises may seem more prone to security breaches and advanced hackers, smaller businesses are targets, too, and midmarket CIOs should be just as vigilant in protecting their organization's most-sensitive assets.
In this Midmarket CIO Briefing, learn about technology risk management and business continuity strategy as part of your organization's disaster recovery effort, including how to draft a business continuity plan and virtualize a disaster recovery site.
This guide to technology risk management and business continuity is part of SearchCIO-Midmarket.com's Midmarket CIO Briefings series, which is designed to give IT leaders strategic management and decision-making advice on important issues.
Table of contents:
CIO virtualizes disaster recovery site, with high expectations for ROI
Tom Gainer, CIO of FirstBank Southwest in Amarillo, Texas, has taken an unusual approach to virtualization: Eschewing the traditional virtualization strategy -- migrating servers, storage then desktops -- last April he started with desktop virtualization. Gainer is looking to start setting up virtualized desktops at his disaster recovery site.
Why did Gainer take the unorthodox route of putting the desktop virtualization ahead of server virtualization? Simple. When he crunched the numbers, the virtualized desktop ROI far outweighed the ROI for virtualizing servers. He also calculated a reduction in maintenance staff hours.
So far, his forecast has proved accurate. The migration to virtualized desktops went so well -- with 195 of 225 desktops successfully switched -- that he's ready to put his team's knowledge into the next phase.
Read the full news story to learn more about virtualizing disaster recovery.
Related content:
CIO details what makes good disaster recovery documentation
In a battle to beat IT systems failure, CIO employs strategic virtualization
Technology risk management, BC and DR strategies
In this video lineup, find out how CIOs are tackling risk management in order to keep their business sailing smoothly.
Business continuity and security planning keep SMBs safe
Diebold Inc. has a pretty straightforward security business continuity plan when a skimming device is discovered on one of its automated teller machines: It has the bank customer remove the device from the machine and turn the device itself and the ATM video over to authorities.
"The key is planning in advance, educating the branches and consumers so they recognize when something isn't right, and then taking the right action," said Chuck Somers, vice president of ATM security for Diebold, a Canton, Ohio-based ATM manufacturer.
Having a business continuity plan checklist in place for security incidents might sound obvious. But Diebold's contingency plan for its customers is more the exception than the rule, according to Laura Koetzle, vice president and practice leader for the Infrastructure and Operations and Security and Risk groups at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.
Read the full story and learn how to get started with a business continuity plan.
Related content:
Dropbox hack proves password protection a must
Super-secure passwords are no match for iHack
Business continuity and disaster recovery: A glossary guide
Read up on these terms and tips that can help bulk up your technology risk management strategy.
Supplier risk management crucial component of business continuity planning
Business continuity planning requires CIOs to ensure that their own IT operations remain up and running, but it also requires them to consider the services from their outside IT suppliers and outsourcing vendors. The question for CIOs is how far down into the supplier ecosystem should they delve to mitigate supplier risk?
The issue of IT supplier risk management has come to the forefront of business continuity planning, experts say. As companies increasingly rely on outsourcing vendors for their IT operations, and as IT services reach ever more deeply into business processes, business continuity planning is crucial. The steps CIOs can take to address the various and deepening levels of IT supplier risk are not as clear, however -- beyond tightening the screws on one's primary outsourcing vendors.
The danger of a major disruption due to a second-tier or even third-tier outsourcing vendor has proved to be a real concern in supply chain management. A recent survey by the Business Continuity Institute on supply chain disruption showed that among the 85% of organizations that experienced a supply chain disruption (to the manufacture of a product or delivery of a service) during 2011, about 40% of the disruptions occurred below the immediate supplier.
Learn more about supplier risk management in this news story.
Related content:
U.S. Senate takes back seat once again on cybersecurity legislation
Check out these GRC strategy tips for midmarket organizations
Business continuity and disaster recovery plan quiz for CIOs
Is your organization prepared for inevitable disruptions, ranging from hackers to power outages to data leakages? It's crucial to establish a business continuity and disaster recovery plan that details how to proceed in the event of an interruption. Check out some of our recent news and tips for CIOs, take our quiz and get cracking on updating and testing your business continuity and disaster recovery plan.