Today's businesses are faced with many threats to the continued assurance of their trade.. Author Andrew McCrackan has done an outstanding job of providing the reader with a blueprint with which to assess their organization with regard to continuity assurance capability.
McCrackan begins this book by differentiating between business continuity and disaster recovery, because many of these terms are used interchangeably. Next, the author tells us that we must have an approach first to solving any problem. Then, he discusses top-down methodology. In addition, the author describes in detail the foundation level of the continuity assurance maturity model, and it focuses on the rationalization of your organization. He also describes how the level of the continuity assurance maturity model focuses on the identification and analysis of risks and the implementation of measures to reduce the probability of their eventuation. Then, he looks at the next level of the continuity assurance maturity model, with regard to the rating of components of your organization's infrastructure in terms of their criticality to the continuity of the business. The author then delves into the next level of the continuity assurance maturity model with regard to the rigor of the process. Next, he is concerned with the robustness of the architecture. Then, he defines resilience "as the ability to recover quickly from unpleasant or damaging events." The author then continues with his primary concern with recovery from a disaster event. Also, the author is concerned with the overall rating of continuity assurance capability. Next, he gives a precis of quality assurance principles that should be applied when implementing continuity assurance. At many points, the author states that "you will be faced with the option of outsourcing, whether it be to run a project or to provide a recovery facility." Finally, he includes two case studies as examples of commonly executed approaches to Business Continuity Management (BCM).
With the preceding in mind, the author has done an excellent job of making you take the first step to improving continuity across your organization. At the end of the day, you too must orchestrate your response and target your defenses to maintain your safety, security, and the overall continuity assurance of your organization's way of doing business.
