Lessons of the O2 outage

The recent outage faced by O2 is a stark warning to businesses of the importance of disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity planning (BCP). This is not only about having a DR/BCP plan, but also regularly testing and updating the plans alongside any changes that are made to the day-to-day running of the business.

An outage on the scale of which O2 experienced and the seemingly instant social media backlash from irritated consumers and businesses is an illustration of just how an organisations reputation can be seriously damaged, potentially losing them hundreds of pounds in lost client – or, most recently in the case of O2, customer refund and good-will gestures.

To help prevent a crisis occurring in the first place, companies need to be frequently reviewing their DR/BCP strategies to ensure they reflect business change and reviewing all options of the various and most effective models right for their business. Worryingly, this is an area in which many UK businesses are still failing to comply, with UK businesses losing an average £230,000 a year through system downtime, according to Acronis.

With DR/BCP models and new technology evolving fast and business reliance on IT growing fundamentally in recent years, the increase and need for an effective and up to date strategy has never been more critical. Areas such as mobile computing and virtualisation, for example, are not only supporting the day-to-day business but can also be a good BCP/DR strategy tool as well.

DR/BCP strategies must be continually evolving to ensure they reflect both business needs and the increasing frequency and sophistication of potential threats. With the near ubiquitous reliance upon IT and the most recent high-profile cases acting as a lesson to all, the emphasis should be focused as much on disaster prevention as disaster recovery.

Richard Barker
CEO
Sovereign Business Integration