Safety first
In the digital economy, networked IT infrastructure is the backbone of any business. Ensuring operation and protecting against loss of data should be an integral part of any business strategy.
Organisations should have a clear perspective on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of networked high-availability, and recovery services. These services need to be part of an enterprise-wide business continuity solution, protecting both applications and infrastructure.
Our world-class credentials
BT has consistently demonstrated leadership in providing security solutions for our customers. The company:
- Was the first UK commercial organisation to be accredited to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the influential computer security body with members across the globe.
- Has one of the largest dedicated business continuity and security practices in the world, with over 1300 full time staff.
- Provides a flexible, modular Business Continuity Management framework, compliant with best practice BS25999 standards.
- Is recognised as a leader and visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for 2006 European Hosting (includes data centre facilities, resilient network, infrastructure, back-up/recovery and storage).
- Backs up over 200 terabytes of data for internal and external customers each week.
A holistic approach
BT looks at business continuity from an enterprise perspective to determine how incidents impact the business, not just its systems. Our approach consists of six distinct stages:
- Project start-up and management – obtain management commitment and define the scope of the project.
- Business impact analysis – identify the organisation’s mission and business-critical functions; determine risks and business impacts that could jeopardise ongoing viability.
- Recovery strategy development – appraise recovery alternatives and propose cost-effective strategic solutions.
- Recovery plan development and implementation – implement agreed contingency planning strategies; develop and document the plan.
- Implementation and testing of BCP – select contingency planning strategies and test the BCP to ensure completeness and viability.
- Implementing awareness and process measurement – execute specific recovery and continuity activities.
BT’s secure and dependable infrastructure supports each Business Continuity solution. This includes ultra-fast and scalable bandwidth to transport data; hosting centres to mirror, store and retrieve information; optical connectivity; and a full data storage portfolio.
The Business Continuity Quick Start offers a low-risk, low-cost way to find out what BT can do for your organisation. Our team will help you to benchmark current measures, present suggestions for moving forward and explain more about our methodology.
Safeguarding vital services
Business Continuity for global networks starts at a physical level. You need to be sure that your network is resilient to disasters such as fires, explosions, floods or earthquakes.
In December 2006, a major earthquake struck Taiwan. This meant that KT Corporation, South Korea's largest telecommunications service provider, suffered a significant outage on its fibre optic cables in the southern seas. The earthquake took down telecommunications services in Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan.
BT's network resilience, based on the dual core 21st Century network, ensured that our customers experienced no loss of service. Our resilient network and business continuity planning meant that although a few customers had to deal with some network delays and latency, BT kept their businesses running without failure throughout this natural disaster.
Long-term benefits
To help ensure that your business is resilient enough to withstand the pressures of today’s business climate, BT will work with you to identify, manage and reduce the operational risks that confront your organisation on a daily basis.
BT’s comprehensive portfolio offers a range of services to help you increase availability, business continuity and security across your networked IT and infrastructure, not only reducing risk but also improving your flexibility, agility and operational strength.
For every project, we evaluate your IT environment with the goal of delivering solutions that provide reliability, high performance and high availability. Our services are scalable, recoverable, and secure, and designed to meet industry, governmental and global compliance requirements.
Next steps
The Business Continuity Quick Start is an ideal way of enhancing your business continuity capability and/or benchmarking against industry best practice. Contact your BT Account Manager for details.
