Computer Based Modeling and Simulation for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery
Most simulations we’ve encountered in business continuity and disaster recovery planning have been limited to the table top variety conducted at a conference or perhaps coordinated within your organization internally. Such events typically involve groups of people role playing to act out events of a pretend disaster situation.
It’s a useful way to raise awareness by helping participants understand how a particular disaster might play out and where some problem areas are. However, that’s not the type of simulation discussed here. Let’s talk about simulations conducted on a computer and their ability to help the BC/DR planning effort.
Scientists model and simulate global climate and engineers study vehicle design choices and their effect on crash safety. This type of simulation permits study of a complex system to better understand its behavior in various situations. For example, car designers might simulate vehicle crashes to determine the best method for attaching engines to cars, or where to build in crumple zones.
In the context of BC/DR, we wish to better understand how a company or organization will behave during a natural disaster or more mundane failures like loss of power or human mistakes. If we model how our company is put together, simulations can be run using that model to answer questions pertinent to BC/DR.
See Computer-Based Modeling and Simulation for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery by Daniel Evenson.
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An unexercised contingency plan could be worse than no plan at all!
Be sure to read Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan, Philip Jan Rothstein, FBCI, Editor – the only book on this subject – for valuable tips, techniques and insights.
Tags: exercise, modeling, simulation, Testing
