by Vic Wheatman - 21 September 2001 Business managers — not just IT managers — know that little of value is accomplished without planning. Planning for disruptions and discontinuity in business operations is particularly difficult. Disasters — large and small, natural and manmade — are by their very nature infrequent and unforeseeable events. Perhaps the key inhibitor to planning in this area, however, is denial — i.e., "It can't happen here." The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States make it painfully clear, however, that "it" can happen anywhere, and enterprises must plan for disasters and their consequences. This section of our special Aftermath Spotlight examines the technology tools and services required for business continuity planning (BCP — see "Aftermath: Business Continuity Planning," AV-14-5138) and disaster recovery (see "Aftermath: Disaster Recovery," AV-14-5238) decisions. As recent events make all too clear, these decisions are and will continue to be critical to the survival of many enterprises. Disaster recovery and business continuity planning (BCP) ensure that tactical procedures are in place to meet every type of challenge that can be realistically anticipated. . . Read more of Aftermath: Technology Tools and Services. Building an RFP for Business Continuity Services by Simon Mingay - 27 August 1999 We outline what needs to go into an RFP when assessing potential providers of BC and disaster recovery services.      Negotiating a Sound Business Continuity Contract by Simon Mingay, Donna Scott and Roberta Witty - 21 September 2001 Enterprises negotiating business continuity services contracts must consider a number of key issues that can mean the difference between a good deal and a bad one. Business Continuity Moves From Management to Access by Tony Adams - 21 August 2001 IT services, including disaster recovery and business continuity planning and management, has long been the focus of a specific breed of service offerings. Focused on protecting businesses from the consequences of unexpected downtime, these traditional offerings are likely to be joined in the marketplace by newer value propositions, which are more in the line of sight of corporate officers and line of business managers. Gartner Dataquest examines the moves made by this sector of the service industry to reinvent itself.    SunGard Business Continuity Services by Kristen Noakes-Fry and Trude Diamond - 20 September 2001 SunGard Recovery Services has added new hosted disaster recovery facilities and mobile data centers, as well as new features. New "eSourcing" Internet business continuity services further expand the options beyond the recovery site. As disaster recovery services expanded into full business continuity planning and management (BCPM), encompassing everything from continuity planning to large, private communications networks, SunGard definitely got in on the ground floor. From its roots in disaster recovery, SunGard has developed continuity planning software products— PreCovery and ePlanner software— to manage the overwhelming detail of BCPM projects. Sourcing Recovery and Continuity Services by Simon Mingay - 12 June 2001 The decision on whether to outsource recovery and continuity services is becoming more complex. Here we consider the factors influencing such a decision and the approaches enterprises are taking.    IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Services by Kristen Noakes-Fry and Trude Diamond - 21 September 2001 IBM's continuity services help organizations maintain critical business continuity and recovery functions in an emergency through customized continuous availability, rapid recovery, and hot-site recovery. While IBM is by no means the only disaster recovery service provider in the industry, over the past 11 years IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Services has grown to become the biggest. Acts of terrorism, unpredictable natural disasters, infrastructure failures, or unexpected downtime with hardware or software cost individual companies thousands of dollars in lost equipment and company productivity. Downtime—even minutes for a high-availability system—can represent a serious business interruption. With these services, IBM enables business continuity and Internet security management on the enterprise level. BCP Tools: Your 'Friend in Business' by Kristen Noakes-Fry and Ant Allen - 15 June 2001 Creating a business continuity plan demands skill, expertise and experience that those responsible for an enterprise's BCP may lack. A software-based planning tool may be used as part of the solution.    Comdisco Business Continuity and Recovery Solutions by Jennifer Gordon - 22 February 2000 Comdisco Continuity Services, part of Comdisco, Inc., is one of the leaders in the business continuity (BC) arena, maintaining the most experience and arguably the most comprehensive offering of recovery services in the U.S. BC industry. Comdisco provides a range of global technology management services to meet the needs of mainframe, distributed, and work-area computing worldwide. The company has over 20 years of business continuity and recovery experience under its belt and has a high visibility in the U.S. With more than 100 locations around the world, Comdisco serves more than 4,000 customers in North and South America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, and Australia. It is also one of the leading providers of continuity services in the United Kingdom and France and continues to improve its pan-European offerings.