Every business has a number: the length of time it can be offline before the damage stops being an inconvenience and starts being serious. Continuity planning is the work of finding that number and then building backwards from it.

How we approach it

• Work out what has to come back first, and how quickly
• Back up accordingly, on site and off site
• Test the restore, because an untested backup is a hope rather than a plan
• Document who does what, so it does not depend on one person being reachable

Hardware fails, buildings lose power and people make mistakes. None of that has to be a crisis if the plan was written before it happened.