5 steps to building an effective IT-resilience

What is IT resilience? 

IT resilience is the ability to protect data and apps from just about any type of issue. It pivots on systems and infrastructure being able to withstand disruptions and continue to function effectively.

On the other hand, business resilience is an enterprise-wide concept encompassing crisis management and business continuity in the face of unexpected events like natural disasters or cyber-attacks. During the pandemic IT teams became overstretched, which led to competing priorities.  

For example, there was a perceived conflict between prioritising IT service continuity and maintenance work and aspects of cyber security such as patching software due to budget constraints.

Couple this with the fact that hardware and software products are increasingly subject to successful cyberattacks and you can see why IT resilience is so important to get right. In fact, according to The European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) global cybercrime cost €5.5 trillion in 2021 due to increasing IT breaches during COVID. 

According to the European Commission: "The pandemic has served as a catalyst for the accelerating digitalisation of Europe and the world.”

This new fast-paced and decentralized environment requires better IT resilience planning and risk management than ever.     

Arvind Govindarajan, a Partner at McKinsey’s Risk and Resilience Practice observes.

“In the longer term, businesses will learn that resilience is a capability they need to master, not an alarm button they hit after the fire has started.”

The five steps to stay in[ctrl] of your IT-resilience plan  

 It’s time to spin the wheel of fortune…

Will it be a phishing attack, hardware failure, or natural disaster that catches your IT team out? IT leaders need to be ready for anything in 2023, but let’s not leave it to fate to decide

These days the IT landscape is very complex. We have computing from home, people use their own devices, and more and more people work in smaller satellite offices. Here are five tips to build a better plan to stay in[ctrl].

Download Infographic on 5 steps to stay in[ctrl] of you it-resilience plan

Why is IT resilience so important?  

There are many potential risks to navigate.

These include data loss, cyber-attacks, malware infiltration, network and internet disruptions, hardware or software failure, fire, and natural disasters.

In the ‘New Normal survey – 2021/22’ conducted by Brother, more than half of IT decision makers said that safeguarding their business against external threats was among their top challenges for the coming year.

This stresses the importance of being IT resilient as it keeps businesses moving forwards and can accelerate transformation by proactively seeing and adapting to changes to prevent disruption. It can also help prepare against external threats beyond your control.

So, what is there to think about when creating a plan for IT resilience?

What does a good IT resilience plan include?

• Investment in the right technology 

• A willingness to adapt your tech stack

• Constant monitoring of emerging technologies and tools  

• Running business-wide resilience initiatives

• Testing your people as well as your hardware/software 

Many successful IT leaders are already implementing these points into their resilience plans for 2023.  As you will see, building resilience doesn’t necessarily mean staying still and protecting what you have. In fact, one of the first considerations on the list is ‘are we investing in the right technology’?

It is also important to invest and adapt your tech stack for the best outcome. For example, many IT leaders will monitor emerging technologies and vendor offerings for new measurement tools, as well as financial tools for managing IT estates and insight into supply chains. 

Each year Brother International Europe carries out disaster recovery and checks that the backup works. This traditional approach covers risk recovery and is key to any good IT resilience plan.  It is also common for global firms to run tabletop exercises to assess operational resilience. These can be defined as ‘less than a full-scale simulation but an opportunity to see how your organisation and staff react under pressure.‘

Consider a hybrid approach here and review your technology investment alongside these planned tabletop scenarios.  This allows you to evaluate technology in the context of how well it works for your employees during a ‘crisis’. Or you may discover that extra training is needed to get the best out of systems. Afterall human error dramatically increases risk with things like phishing attacks on the rise.    

“This is not about managing one crisis” explains Gonçalo Caseiro, Chair of INCM. 
“It’s about being prepared for anything and being able to adapt to any disruption to your business.”

 Want to learn more about IT security and print security in general? Read our other blogs on Security!

 1: Source: IDC Blog, How to Manage IT Spend in an Inflationary Environment, February 2023