►Business Continuity: Business as usual. No matter what.
Five steps every business should take to prepare for a business interruption.

When people think of disasters, they generally envision hurricanes, tornados or floods - catastrophic events that devastate communities. But for a business, a disaster can be something as small as a failed switch or computer virus. These seemingly minor events can have a shocking impact on a business, often bringing operations to a standstill.

"The impacts of an interruption can be stunning," says Bob Boyd, President and CEO of Agility Recovery Solutions, the industry leader in mobile business continuity solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. "Statistics indicate that about 60 percent of the businesses affected by a disaster will not survive because they do not have a recovery plan in place."

Creating a basic, executable business continuity plan is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your organization and assure business as usual – no matter what the scenario. Below are five key steps to help you get started.

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A pessimist is one who feels bad
when he feels good for fear he'll feel
worse when he feels better.

►Just for Laughs

Like most IT deployments, deciding whether to use cloud computing is not as simple as it first looks.

While it is straightforward to have a third-party vendor host certain business applications — such as sales or HR — for your employees to access over the Internet, “the reality is, the cloud is very specialized; one size does not fit all,” says Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates consultancy and co-author of the recent book, Cloud Computing for Dummies.

CIOs can’t dismiss the trend toward cloud computing nor obstruct its progress because business-side executives like the idea of “IT as a utility where they can use services as needed,” she says. However, “If you randomly pick applications in a piecemeal fashion,” she says, “you’re not going to get the value you seek. Good planning really is important.”

That’s why many CIOs are trying to figure out what part of the business is ready to adopt cloud services, and what apps should stay in-house. Most begin with a single application, accessed by few users, to host off-site. For instance, Tom Gill, VP and CIO of Plantronics, has used cloud services for about 20 applications over the past few years. Among his customer-facing app providers are RightNow and Salesforce.com; Taleo and Salary.com are used for HR services. Gill also uses a niche portal application solely accessed by corporate board members.

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Whether it's a few PCs or hundreds on your network, there's one thing that can separate your system from being compromised: a great password.

Why? Hackers want access to anything and everything. If they can guess your user name and password, you might as well have given them your wallet and the keys to your building.

Before we talk about what makes a good password, let's begin with the first of five things to know and practice in using passwords.

1. Don't be complacent: Attacks can and do happen.

Hackers are a devious bunch and will stop at nothing to get into your network and files. They use three different methods to get to you: brute force, dictionary attacks, and social engineering.

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Paul Sullivan has seen it all. A 25-year veteran of disaster recovery and business continuity management, Sullivan witnessed the growth of continuity planning among the Fortune 1000 in the 1980s. He watched, first hand, the successes and failures of business continuity plans following the events of September 11, 2001 and in 2005 throughout the most active hurricane season in recorded history. Today, Sullivan is helping small and medium-sized companies plan for and recover after significant business interruptions.

"Continuity planning has always been associated with big business," said Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager, Agility Recovery Solutions. "We're using the same knowledge, strategies and tactics we developed with the Fortune 1000 and implementing them among small and medium-sized businesses across North America."

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