![\"Emergency](\"https:\/\/www.drj.com\/images\/easyblog_articles\/7472\/133303794-1170x77_20170614-132014_1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nYou\u2019ve likely heard the terms before and may have a vague idea of their definition, but how do emergency response, disaster recovery and business continuity really work together during an incident? This blog post will walk you through these phases.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\nPutting Incident in Context<\/strong><\/h4>\nYou are sitting in your office building and the fire alarm goes off. Following health and safety procedures, you head outside and smell smoke. You can see flames coming from\u00a0the top two floors of the building. The fire department has arrived and is setting up to put the fire out. Your colleagues are moved away from the building, and anyone who is hurt is treated. You are left to wonder when, if ever, you\u2019ll be able to come back to work.<\/p>\n
Within three days your IT group\u00a0has you set up with a laptop so that you can work remotely. You and your colleagues work together\u00a0online and through conference calls. Eventually, after the damage to the office is fixed, you get a notice that everyone can return to work as normal.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\nEmergency Response<\/strong><\/h4>\nEmergency response is the protection of life, safety, assets and the environment (for more information, see our\u00a0emergency response blog post<\/a>). In the scenario above, this is\u00a0most of the steps in the first paragraph:<\/p>\n\n- The detection of a fire and setting off the alarm<\/li>\n
- People leaving the building<\/li>\n
- The fire department putting the fire out<\/li>\n
- Injured colleagues receiving treatment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Business Continuity must include emergency response procedures for the program to be successful, but they are not one and the same thing. At the beginning of an incident the two programs often work in tandem. Once the initial\u00a0concerns are dealt with, the longer-term business continuity steps are put into effect.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\nDisaster Recovery<\/strong><\/h4>\nDisaster recovery includes all of the steps that IT\u00a0takes to get the company\u2019s core systems back online (for more information, see our\u00a0disaster recovery blog post<\/a>). In the fire instance above, that includes:<\/p>\n\n- Purchasing, imaging and distributing laptops to employees so they can continue to work;<\/li>\n
- Any recovery steps taken\u00a0to restore damaged servers;<\/li>\n
- Ensuring that remote access to the network is available; and<\/li>\n
- Making conference calling available for those working remotely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h4>\nBusiness Continuity<\/strong><\/h4>\nAs discussed above, disaster recovery focuses on the IT services. In contrast, business continuity includes the steps that support all other ongoing business critical operations. This might include processes like payroll, customer support, or accounts payable.<\/p>\n
In the scenario above, business continuity encompasses things like:<\/p>\n
You are sitting in your office building and the fire alarm goes off. Following health and safety procedures, you head outside and smell smoke. You can see flames coming from\u00a0the top two floors of the building. The fire department has arrived and is setting up to put the fire out. Your colleagues are moved away from the building, and anyone who is hurt is treated. You are left to wonder when, if ever, you\u2019ll be able to come back to work.<\/p>\n
Within three days your IT group\u00a0has you set up with a laptop so that you can work remotely. You and your colleagues work together\u00a0online and through conference calls. Eventually, after the damage to the office is fixed, you get a notice that everyone can return to work as normal.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\nEmergency Response<\/strong><\/h4>\nEmergency response is the protection of life, safety, assets and the environment (for more information, see our\u00a0emergency response blog post<\/a>). In the scenario above, this is\u00a0most of the steps in the first paragraph:<\/p>\n\n- The detection of a fire and setting off the alarm<\/li>\n
- People leaving the building<\/li>\n
- The fire department putting the fire out<\/li>\n
- Injured colleagues receiving treatment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Business Continuity must include emergency response procedures for the program to be successful, but they are not one and the same thing. At the beginning of an incident the two programs often work in tandem. Once the initial\u00a0concerns are dealt with, the longer-term business continuity steps are put into effect.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\nDisaster Recovery<\/strong><\/h4>\nDisaster recovery includes all of the steps that IT\u00a0takes to get the company\u2019s core systems back online (for more information, see our\u00a0disaster recovery blog post<\/a>). In the fire instance above, that includes:<\/p>\n\n- Purchasing, imaging and distributing laptops to employees so they can continue to work;<\/li>\n
- Any recovery steps taken\u00a0to restore damaged servers;<\/li>\n
- Ensuring that remote access to the network is available; and<\/li>\n
- Making conference calling available for those working remotely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h4>\nBusiness Continuity<\/strong><\/h4>\nAs discussed above, disaster recovery focuses on the IT services. In contrast, business continuity includes the steps that support all other ongoing business critical operations. This might include processes like payroll, customer support, or accounts payable.<\/p>\n
In the scenario above, business continuity encompasses things like:<\/p>\n
Emergency response is the protection of life, safety, assets and the environment (for more information, see our\u00a0emergency response blog post<\/a>). In the scenario above, this is\u00a0most of the steps in the first paragraph:<\/p>\n Business Continuity must include emergency response procedures for the program to be successful, but they are not one and the same thing. At the beginning of an incident the two programs often work in tandem. Once the initial\u00a0concerns are dealt with, the longer-term business continuity steps are put into effect.<\/p>\n Disaster recovery includes all of the steps that IT\u00a0takes to get the company\u2019s core systems back online (for more information, see our\u00a0disaster recovery blog post<\/a>). In the fire instance above, that includes:<\/p>\n As discussed above, disaster recovery focuses on the IT services. In contrast, business continuity includes the steps that support all other ongoing business critical operations. This might include processes like payroll, customer support, or accounts payable.<\/p>\n In the scenario above, business continuity encompasses things like:<\/p>\n\n
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Disaster Recovery<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Business Continuity<\/strong><\/h4>\n