When analyzing IT service, availability and continuity are two fundamental concepts. A simple example of importance: a mail server is continuously running, but there is no access to it or, conversely, there is access, but the server is stopped. Only a combination of both conditions allows the user to view his messages, send new ones, etc. There is another full-time “player” on whose competence a lot depends – the administrator of the service.
After the terrorist attack in New York on September 11, 2001, the topic of Business Continuity Management (BCM) became popular, which encapsulated all aspects, including IT. Thus, the availability and continuity of IT services came under the same name “business continuity”. In the world of data backup, there has been a conflation of business continuity with disaster recovery. It’s important to understand that these are two different concepts. Of course, in a disaster, few people care about the definition of the terms, but a misunderstanding can put an organization at considerable risk through inadequate planning. A sure way to overcome the chaos of data loss is to learn the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity.
It is worth noting that in Russia, the use of the term “business continuity” cannot be considered correct, because our language associates the word “business” mainly with entrepreneurial activity. Thus, it is possible to get the wrong definition for our perception, such as “ensuring business continuity of the tax inspectorate”. In fact, such a term refers to the business activity of an organization (any government, commercial, or nonprofit entity) as a whole.