COVID-19 has markedly impacted the mitigation measures for business continuity and IT disaster recovery adopted by businesses over the last two decades.
While working for a multinational energy company in 2002, I first became aware of the possibility of a pandemic when the global threat of a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak emerged. This virus spread quickly throughout the world and became a threat to business operations.
At that time, our company mandated that all Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) should focus on risks and mitigation measures to respond to a pandemic, and since then has been preparing for such an event. Special initiatives were put in place, such as remote working, lights-out data centers with remote management, IT services managed at alternate sites, etc.
The emphasis at that time was also to ensure that IT personnel were cross-trained to fill other roles besides their current ones – to be deployed as backup, if necessary. In more recent years, additional global public health threats emerged in the form of the Chikungunya, Zika and Ebola viruses. While there was no significant paradigm shift in the Business Continuity/IT Disaster Recovery model, new technology options were explored with slow and careful adoption including cloud services and hardware virtualization.
Fast forward to 2020 and the emergence of COVID-19, which vastly and rapidly infected populations across borders. There was hardly any time to adequately prepare for this disruption, which required an urgent response.
Digital technologies that were formerly considered “nice to have” became the cornerstone for business operations going forward. Alternative arrangements that were quickly implemented, backed by technology, include:
- Wider adoption of online banking services
- Remote working for most employees (via VPN access or cloud applications)
- Virtual meetings, conferences, education and training (via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, Facetime, etc.)
- Extensive use of email communication and online services (thereby eliminating hard copy documents and saving trees)
- Expanded use of electronic signatures (replacing handwriting)
- Increased use of mobile devices (i.e., phones, tablets and laptops), resulting in increased demand for bandwidth to support internet services
It was fortuitous for many businesses that had already implemented these measures as they were automatically ready for the “work from home” transition when the pandemic hit.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are showing heightened interest in technologies that will not require human intervention, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
- AI is software-driven intelligence that mimics human cognition, behavior and thought processing and can work faster and more accurately than a human being. AI technology has been applied to healthcare for faster and more accurate patient diagnoses and in the banking industry for decision-making on loans and other purposes.
- RPA is a software application (“bot”) that runs unattended and reliably performs repetitive tasks. Examples include chatbots on websites to provide immediate customer service, appointment scheduling and billing processes.
There is a growing demand for automated business solutions as new potential use cases continue to emerge across IT, finance and other business sectors. While the benefits of these technologies can reduce human error, increase output and decrease operating costs, one major potential downside is its potential to eliminate jobs.
A test of resilience and fortitude
The level of agility in which decisions must be made and the ability to pivot swiftly in this fast-changing environment is really a good test of business resilience and fortitude.
Business Continuity/IT Disaster Recovery planning can be compared to running after a moving target. It involves constantly scanning the horizon for emerging threats, assessing risks and putting mitigation measures in place as this is the only way to survive and outlive competitors in this fluid and difficult pandemic era.
What new opportunities have emerged in Business Continuity/ IT Disaster Recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic in your operations? Send me a note to the email listed below and let’s discuss.
About the author: As an internal auditor at a local energy company in Trinidad & Tobago for 13 years, Joanne Joseph undertook IT, Financial and Operational audits. Prior to that, she worked at a multinational Energy company in Information Technology for over 10 years; specializing in Digital Security, IT Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Data Privacy. You can reach out to Joanne at jjcybertrini@yahoo.com or +1 868 770 0805 (WhatsApp).