IT Trends :: Thursday, September 28, 2006

Opinion

Business Continuity Planning – Not Just for IT Anymore

By Terry Calhoun

Actually, IT has a major role to play in institution-wide business and learning continuity for two reasons: (a) of all departments on campus, the IT department already stands the best chance of having its own business continuity plan that works, and (b) when you talk or think about institution-wide business and learning continuity, you don’t get very far before you realize that IT has a central role to play. Basically, if your IT d'esn’t work, you don’t have any business or learning continuity except for in the smallest and most specialized of situations.

My boss, Jolene L. Knapp, CAE, executive director of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) was privileged to be invited and attend the EDUCAUSE Business Continuity Summit in August. EDUCAUSE has posted “A Report on the Business Continuity Summit” on its Web site for anyone to read. I recommend it.

Until fairly recently you might find on many campuses some sort of “crisis communications plan,” or “disaster recovery plan,” or “emergency management plan.” Typically those have been the purview of health and safety officials, campus police, or public relations – with connections primarily to telephone folks and physical facilities managers. But you won’t find many “business continuity plans” (BCP); I know, I have looked, and looked, and looked...

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UPCOMING EVENTS

TechMentor Conference
October 9-13, 2006 in Las Vegas, NV

Events Calendar

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