Power outages, disasters and other disruptions happen. And thousands of businesses around the globe are affected by them every year, with lost profits ranging into the millions, if not billions. So how can your business protect itself and stay open when the unexpected strikes? Here are five common business continuity strategies that many companies rely on.

We have dedicated many posts to Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning. We have talked about how vital this process is in protecting and saving your business from any disaster, big or small.  Of course, one of the necessary components for a buoyant BCP is data backup.

When and if disaster strikes, is your business going to continue to operate and cater to customers despite a possible long-term hardware failure or a network disruption? If you answer no or are not even sure what to do, you are part of a majority of business owners who have not considered disaster preparedness and the crucial role it plays in business survival.

I'm sure many of you watched with amazement, and a bit of fear as did I this past weekend, as the snow just kept on falling in New York and other eastern states.  This latest weather phenomenon literally paralyzed most of the eastern seaboard and was severely felt in many surrounding states as well.

Natural and man made disasters and chaotic events underscore the challenges of  disaster recovery in the real world. Having a comprehensive business continuity plan isn't just an IT concern; though. Nothing less than the survival of your company is at stake.

Companies today face an unprecedented number of problematic occurrences. The frequency and severity of weather-related events seem to be increasing and reliance on a complex network of technology and supply chains is expanding. Both trends leave businesses vulnerable to a variety of existing and emerging risks.

When we think about potential disasters that could affect us both personally and professionally, it is common to picture the most dramatic of natural disasters...fire, flood, earthquake, tornadoes.  And absolutely, there is a distinct possibility that you will experience at least one of these natural disasters in your lifetime.

Even a single second of downtime at your business can cause a ripple effect that sees operations become unhinged. While most Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) take into account longer power outages, short ones can be just as dangerous to your company.

You are protecting your small or medium-sized business with insurance - of course you are. But is that really enough? The recent increase in natural disasters has led savvy business owners to also take out business interruption insurance, which covers many additional scenarios in the event that you are unable to carry on operating.

Having a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is great, but only if you know when it needs to be invoked. If you don’t know when it should take effect, then you might as well not have one at all. While a lot of business owners might believe it is pretty obvious when a BCP needs to be invoked, the process is not always so cut and dry.