What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity refers to the set of activities an organization performs to restore essential services and identify the impacts of potential losses from disruptions of an organization resources. A business continuity program help supports the resiliency of an organization by ensuring internal services are capable in withstanding disruption, should one occur.
How does Business Continuity apply to UT?
The University of Texas at Austin’s business continuity program serves as the disaster recovery function of the emergency management program for the university. During times of inclement weather or other naturally occurring events, human-made incidents, or technology-based interruptions, the interests of the institution must be quickly recognized and mitigated wherever possible. While many of these actions occur naturally, the purpose of this program is to implement a comprehensive and standardized program which is evaluated and continuously improved upon.
Business Continuity vs. Emergency Management
While both Business Continuity and Emergency Management processes complement each other, there are clear distinguishing activities that separate these two programs.
- Emergency Management is an ongoing process to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from an incident that threatens life, property, operations, information, or the environment.
- Business Continuity seeks to identify a department's critical functions that may impact the University economically or damage its reputation and develop a restoration plan to allow for these processes to continue.