Definition[]
Business continuity is
| “ | the ability of an organization to continue to function before, during, and after a disaster.[1] | ” |
Threats to business continuity[]
In the cloud computing context, threats to business continuity can include:
- interruption to communications networks
- hardware or software failure
- power failure. and
- disaster (fire, storm, riot, etc.) that disables access to the service.
Customers should therefore consider including protections in their agreement with the provider where necessary to ensure access to the service is not disrupted. These could include:
- ensuring the provider has a geographically separate disaster recovery site with seamless transition
- ensuring the provider is able to operate in the event that mains power is disrupted (for example, use of an uninterruptible power supplies and back-up generators)
- ensuring that business continuity is a strict requirement and not subject to qualifiers such as "reasonable efforts"
- requiring a business continuity and disaster recovery plan be submitted for comment and approval by the customer
- limiting the right for the provider to suspend their service for force majeure reasons to circumstances where the business continuity and disaster recovery plan has been properly followed and implemented
- ensuring that scheduled maintenance outages of provider systems do not occur during hours that the customer requires access and use of the system (a common problem if the service is provided from a substantially different time zone).
References[]
- ↑ National Infrastructure Protection Plan, at 109.
Source[]
- "Threats to business continuity" section: Negotiating the Cloud–Legal Issues in Cloud Computing Agreements, at 13-14.