Lessons from 2020: Disruption isn’t if, but when.
How’s your organization doing when it comes to creating a truly mature operational resiliency?
In this episode of B2B Tech Talk, host Keri Roberts speaks with
Patrick Potter, Solutions Marketing at
RSA Security, about building resiliency into every part of your organization.
We chatted about:
- Resiliency vs. recovery
- Strategies for building resilience (plus cyber resiliency)
- What you can and can’t predict—and how to be resilient anyway
“It takes
all the business to look at how they can build resiliency into what they do.
It's not just an IT issue.” — Patrick Potter
Recovery or resiliency?
Traditionally, disaster recovery functions are siloed at best.
They tend to be reactive, not proactive.
Resiliency is the ability of a company to adapt and adjust—to bend but not break—in response to disruptions.
(And 2020 has been disruption after disruption after disruption.)
The typical business continuity plan has some limited risk management in there, but otherwise it gives the responsibility of resiliency to one isolated team.
True operational resiliency isn’t the second line of defense. It’s the foundation of a business
from top to bottom and across all departments.
It’s not just an IT issue.
How businesses have been impacted
It’s been a bit of a rough year.
- Concentration risk
- People impacts
- Supply chain, whether straightforward or complex
- “Left field” impacts, like the collapse of fuel demand on meat packing
- Legal issues
- Designation of essential/nonessential
The list could go on.
The steps to building a resiliency program are 1) to
identify scenarios, risks and threats that could impact the company and 2) to validate those by putting
reasonable mitigation plans in place.
Obviously, you continually test and adapt these plans as you develop threat awareness.
Be like Forrest
Remember in
Forrest Gump when he buys that shrimp boat?
The storm hits Louisiana and annihilates every other shrimping boat except his. He’s the only one left, so he gets all the shrimp (and becomes rich).
If you can weather the storm, you're going to come out on the other end in a better financial and operational position. Then you can take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves to you as a survivor.
But how, exactly, do you get all the shrimp, so to speak?
Operational resiliency has to be in lockstep with
integrated risk management.
- Cyber resiliency is an important pillar of operational resiliency.
- Resiliency needs executive attention, not just one small business continuity team.
- Building operational resilience is really about learning from others in your path.
- It’s more than a plan: It’s a culture, an approach, a methodology.
Where is technology going in the next year?
Patrick: The 9 billion devices connected to the internet will become 1 trillion in the next decade. Security and resiliency will need to address those, as well as other new technologies.
Find out more about resiliency at
RSA.com, or if you’re a partner, email
rsa-licensing@ingrammicro.com.
To join the discussion, follow us on Twitter @IngramTechSol #B2BTechTalk
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