FEATURE : BUSINESS CONTINUITY systems and processes are not in place that supports newer technologies , then their sustainability will always remain in question .”
Business Continuity guidelines
With CIOs on the continent looking to improve their Business Continuity policies given the rapid change in IT , many are grappling with how to develop robust guideline . According to Hardie , companies across Africa faced significantly accelerated timelines for Digital Transformation projects last year . For example , noted Hardie , many retail and consumer goods businesses had to start delivering complete e-commerce sales fulfilment virtually overnight . “ The same was true for public sector institutions forced to support fully remote operations for day-to-day educational and government functions . Those in the financial services industry needed to account for a struggling economy ’ s challenges while competing for business amid a rise in online payment and government subsidy programmes ,” she said . “ Media and entertainment businesses faced similar competition for a public ’ s attention that increased time spent streaming media while largely confined to their homes .” organisations must be aware of the resultant strain placed on networks and infrastructure . Along with this , a shift towards a more secure way of approaching Business Continuity is required . The home routers and devices of workers do not provide the same level of protection as what happens inside the relative safety of the corporate network .”
Lorna Hardie , Regional Director , VMware Sub-Saharan Africa
Hardie explained that the central theme tying this together is the cloud ’ s value and the need to embrace digital business models . “ Even though this is nothing new , companies who have been hesitant to transform their operations to become more cloud-centric can no longer afford to sit on the fence . The realities of the pandemic made the extended timelines for this transformation irrelevant . This is especially the case when it comes to Business Continuity policies ,” she said . “ The cloud enables businesses to fund strategic IT projects with operational expense . While this affords ’ flexibility depends on each company ’ s approach to cloud financial management , it is now a critical building block as businesses approach the new normal . Therefore , any Business Continuity policy must reflect the cloud as a central component that serves as the means to remain operational despite uncertain external conditions .”
Mentz explained that in today ’ s environment , increased bandwidth and remote working capabilities have become key elements of a Business Continuity policy . These are driven by a foundation built on high-speed connectivity . “ With remote working increasingly becoming a more accepted norm , organisations must ensure that they are cognisant of the kind of access available to home-based employees . This is integral to maintaining business operation at a time where people are working from any number of different geographic locations ,” she said . “ With the focus turning to the connectivity aspect of Business Continuity ,
Cybersecurity
Sebastiaan Rothman , Cloud Solutions Architect , Altron Karabina , said cybersecurity is emerging as critical to Business Continuity and growth in 2021 because dispersed workforces and heightened IT threats call for deliberate actions to ensure security is robust .
“ As business leaders review and consolidate many of the dramatic operational and workforce changes that were implemented in response to the health crisis , cybersecurity is coming to the fore as a major risk to Business Continuity ,” Rothman said . “ Existing threats to companies in the form of data breaches , social engineering and phishing attacks , for instance , have now been amplified with employees working from home and IT teams having significantly less oversight over user behaviour . On a global scale , the cyberthreat to Business Continuity and economic stability is so large that ‘ cybersecurity failure ’ is listed among the top five risks in the World Economic Forum ’ s Global Risks Report 2021 .”
According to Veeam ’ s Hardie , one of the most common side effects of increased public cloud usage is a lack of standardisation for configuration . “ The cloud ’ s distributed nature can make companies move faster , enabling anyone to access the resources they need on demand . However , this also prevents security teams from fully understanding how these resources are configured , whether these configurations expose
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