Business Continuity
The capability of an organization to continue delivering products and services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident. Business continuity planning covers the strategies, plans, and procedures needed to ensure operational resilience.
Business continuity encompasses the planning and preparation needed to ensure that an organization can continue operating during and after significant disruptions — whether from technical failures, natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other incidents. It goes beyond disaster recovery (which focuses on restoring IT systems) to cover the entire organization's ability to function.
A business continuity program typically includes a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to identify critical processes and their recovery priorities, a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) documenting procedures for maintaining operations during disruption, a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) focused on restoring IT infrastructure and data, and regular testing through tabletop exercises, walkthroughs, and full simulations.
Business continuity is addressed across multiple compliance frameworks. ISO 27001 Annex A includes controls for ICT readiness for business continuity. SOC 2 Availability criteria require organizations to demonstrate that systems can maintain service levels even during disruptions. NIS2 explicitly requires business continuity management and disaster recovery capabilities. For SaaS companies, business continuity planning centers on infrastructure redundancy, automated failover, data backup and restoration procedures, and incident communication processes.
Related terms
Access Control
The set of policies, procedures, and technical mechanisms that govern who can access which information assets, systems, and resources. Access control ensures that only authorized individuals can view, modify, or interact with sensitive data and systems.
Incident Response
The organized approach to detecting, containing, investigating, and recovering from security incidents. An incident response plan defines roles, procedures, and communication protocols to minimize the impact of security breaches and other adverse events.
Risk Assessment
A structured process for identifying, analyzing, and evaluating information security risks. Risk assessments determine the likelihood and potential impact of threats to an organization's information assets, guiding decisions about which controls to implement.
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