As a haggard old former techie nursing the scars of years in
the DR trenches, I’m very excited by the opportunities that well implemented cloud
computing can bring to BCM. It’s easy to
be an evangelist for a technology that, when done right, can reduce at a stroke
so many of the challenges we have faced for years.
Just think of it: with cloud computing we can have our recovery
testing done on live systems, with live traffic, with no data loss nor downtime
and a far reduced risk footprint. We can
know that software and patch versions are always consistent between data
centres; our work area recovery seats will require only a browser and a secure network
to access the exact same interface users have in their regular office; and best
of all, we will have happy stakeholders.
Sorry, I mean happy ‘interested persons’, safe in the knowledge that the
IT systems they rely on will be there when they need them. It is true indeed that a well implemented
cloud infrastructure can be a tremendous benefit to BCM.
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| Alan Jacobs CBCI |
But can the lessons from cloud be applied to other areas of
BCM? Can our human assets use the same
principles of scalability, automation, consistency and flexibility? I think they
can; and I don’t think we need to invent anything new to do it. I think we just need to use the tools we
already have to bring about another step forward in capability.
Let’s look at a couple of the characteristics of cloud computing,
scalability and flexibility, and see how we could recreate them in our ‘people’
plans.
First there’s scalability. Cloud providers deliver this by having a pool
of IT resources that can be turned easily from one task to another depending on
the requirement at any given time. They
have to carefully manage their estate to make sure they deliver this
scalability when it’s needed without having expensive kit standing idle for
long periods of time. Sadly none of us
can afford a pool of human resource to wait for assignments but in large
organisations we can be more flexible about how we allocate the time of those
we have. We can create a culture of
knowledge sharing; of working practices based on collaboration, without silos
or ivory towers; we can offer secondments and temporary assignments to our
staff in different areas within our business to share skills. We can create the expectation that at peak
times we might all be required to help out in one area or another. We can think like farmers do during the
harvest; turning all available hands to whatever task we need, when we need it. Most people love a challenge and being asked
to help in a different area of the business makes people feel part of something
larger. It’s exciting and interesting
for our teams and it breeds a culture of flexibility and a sense of a shared
goal. The added benefit is that when
there is a crisis we already have a pool of experienced and adaptable people
willing to lend a hand.
Now how about recoverability? Cloud providers create IT infrastructures
that synchronise constantly to off-site storage and are moved readily and
automatically when a failure is detected.
This is a little trickier to do with people but the first step is to
make them mobile and responsive. Encourage
a home working capability. Even if you
don’t want it to become the norm, at least create an environment where everyone
is used to doing it and knows how to make their home office as effective as
their work one. Where possible, measure
your staff by results and not attendance.
Allow them to work from home when THEY need to (waiting for deliveries
etc) so that when YOU need them to it’s already second nature. You need to make sure they can do this after
an incident so check your internet gateways and authentication mechanisms are
resilient and won’t be affected by the same problem that sends your people
home.
At the same time as making sure that your existing staff can
do the job from anywhere make sure that you can transfer processes to new
staff, or outsource partners, quickly and efficiently if you have to by having
effective process documentation. You
should be able to easily explain how you do things to new people so if you
suddenly have to move a business process to a new location you can do so with
the minimum of disruption. Ideally
create business processes across geographic boundaries so instead of having to
‘move’ a process you simply have to scale it up in one location until you can
switch it back on in the other.
Of course this is all idealistic, and we know that in the
real world there are many barriers to achieving this ideal of the human
cloud. But if you take it as an
aspiration you can show your people that you are a dynamic, forward thinking,
and effective organisation. And that in
itself is a great motivator.
Alan will be presenting at the forthcoming BCM World Conference and Exhibition,which takes place 7th to 8th November 2012 at Olympia, London as part of Stream B. Alan's session will be unveiling the mystery of cloud computing and looking at its impact on BCM and the opportunities that cloud affords business continuity. Alan works as a Business Continuity Consultant at T-Systems Ltd.
