Technology Changes: Establishing “ICT Resilience”
Published on 12 October 2012
Technology has indeed come a long way. In fact, technology – on its own – has changed the way we communicate, travel and other normal everyday tasks. Moreover, it has done so in such a remarkable rate and extent.
In business, the integration of technologies such as social media and cloud computing to daily functions and processes paved way to a faster and more efficient way of providing services and delivering products.
With this continuous integration of technology, however, comes the risk of total dependency – not just for the organization itself, but also to clients and stakeholders. This creates a whole new level of problem because technology, as we know, is prone to failures and various types of risks. Hence, establishing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Resilience or Resiliency has become one of the top priorities in both the public and private sectors today.
In Asia, in fact, some countries have already rolled out Government policies mandating organizations to establish ICT Resilience Systems. When it comes to establishing ICT Resilience in this region, therefore, non-compliance is not an option.
But what does ICT Resilience really mean? Generally, establishing ICT Resilience in an organization means evaluating its current ICT infrastructures and providing an intelligent report of their vulnerabilities. It also means providing recommendations and implementing strategies that are based on relevant policies, standards and industry best practices.
Since BCM is highly relevant to ICT, knowing and training for BCM has become an essential part of the process of establishing ICT Resilience today. This comes with the fact that – due to the “mandatory” requirements of ICT Resilience – it has become an acceptable practice nowadays for organizations to also require business partners (such as vendors) to have BCM certifications or trainings.
Undertaking BCM today is, therefore, as inevitable as technology integration and establishing ICT Resilience to a modern and progressive organization. Though BCM, indeed, is just one of the considerations for ICT Resilience, businesses will only continue to find out that there is significant value in identifying and preparing for potential threats – be it for ICT Resilience or otherwise.
