IT: the hidden risk in your business
Business continuity’s origins can be found in IT departments, typically with IT disaster recovery. However, in recent decades, IT has become an increasingly siloed activity within organizations, separated from the business operations of the organizations which it serves. As the current economic environment pushes more and more companies toward outsourcing their IT capabilities, have we now lost visibility of the risks inherent in our existing IT processes and are we blind to the risks posed by new technologies?
In 2010, the IBM Institute of Business Value and the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey of over 550 CIOs and IT Managers. The resulting IBM Global IT Risk Study uncovered the challenges associated with IT risk and the steps that need to be taken to better understand, confront, and resolve these concerns.
The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and IBM recently hosted a roundtable entitled “IT Risk Management and BCM – managing the hidden risks in new information technologies”. The aim of the event was to explore the findings of the IT risk study and to expand the debate. With participants from the business continuity and risk management arenas, and representing a broad range of industry sectors, the discussion considered the impact of the rapidly changing corporate IT landscape on the risk profile of organizations, highlighting the disconnect which has developed between business and IT functions, and addressing the potential role of BCM in connecting the two parts.
This report summarizes the key issues which were discussed at the roundtable. See IT: the hidden risk in your business, a Business Continuity Institute Roundtable Report.
The complete report and a video interview with the author of the study are available at http://www.bcipartnership.com/ibm.html
Tags: Business Continuity, Business Continuity Institute, Disaster Recovery, IBM, IT, outsourcing, Risk Management
