Considerations for alternate business site location

The following are some considerations for alternate business site:

1. Does your organization already have a potentially suitable location in a different region, with a trained staff pool, that can temporarily sustain the business following an interruption?
2. Where is your client base located (locally, regionally, nationally, internationally), and what is the criticality of the company’s services during a local or regional event?

3. Does the potential (local) alternate location employ adequate risk mitigation strategies to protect against the likely effects of a regional outage (redundant telecommunications paths, backup power generators, fuel storage, alternate transportation paths, etc.), and how long can the company continue to operate in this manner?

In today’s business environment, some business leaders are electing to implement co-located recovery sites, whereas others are doing the exact opposite.

The most important consideration is to understand the risks involved through the execution of a comprehensive risk assessment, and electing to accept risks to which your organization may be vulnerable.

If management is unwilling to accept risks that have a regional flavor, a geographically dispersed recovery strategy may be the best solution (despite the potential cost increase). Alternate business site should be carefully selected by the business continuity team.