Properly preparing for business disruptions requires coordination and visibility between all relevant teams, processes, and stakeholders. As organizations become larger and more complex, this becomes even more important—and that much harder to achieve.
Challenges
The University of Central Florida (UCF), a major metropolitan research university located in an area prone to severe weather events, faces a unique set of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) challenges. The school’s Department of Emergency Management built its BC/DR program using static documents, which required manual plan approval from numerous teams.
However, the University’s Department of Emergency Management had forward-looking goals to mature its preparedness program, stay ahead of potential regulations, and lead the way for other institutions in higher education. To achieve them, the team needed to adopt the right BC/DR platform.
Solutions
Why they chose BC in the Cloud
Powerful and configurable: Infinite Blue’s award-winning BC in the Cloud platform stood out because it is a powerful, highly configurable solution that can uniquely address the university’s objectives in ways that an off-the-shelf solution cannot. BC in the Cloud gave UCF the opportunity to make changes within the platform to meet its specific needs, which often deviated from standard approaches to BC/DR. For example, the terminology in the platform was configured to match what the Florida Board of Governance uses, making it easier for the team to manage required documentation.
Fully integrated: While other business tools offer add-ons to manage business continuity, the UCF team wanted a seamless, all-in-one solution that could support every aspect of its current program and empower its ongoing evolution. BC in the Cloud allows organizations to mitigate risks and quickly recover by automating business continuity and disaster recovery programs.
Trusted and proven: One of UCF’s top priorities is ensuring the security of research and intellectual property. For more than a decade, some of the largest and most complex companies worldwide have relied on BC in the Cloud—including dozens of companies in the Fortune 100—giving peace of mind about the platform’s ability to protect its information and institution.
Downstream impacts: BC in the Cloud’s dashboard gives UCF the ability to map and minimize the downstream impacts of an incident. For example, BC in the Cloud would allow the team to see the potential consequences of a fire within a specific lab.
“The Infinite Blue team has been integral in helping us increase visibility over cross-departmental teams, meet compliance standards, and reach higher standards of readiness.”
-University of Central Florida, Department of Emergency Management
Results
Less than a year after implementing BC in the Cloud, the team rolled out the platform to 30 departments across the university—facilitating a level of coordination that had previously not been possible. Now, all relevant stakeholders can log in to the platform and review and approve plans without having to go through the Department of Emergency Management.
And the solution is already reaping unanticipated benefits. For example, working with Infinite Blue, the team was able to create an inventory in BC in the Cloud of all the university’s third-party vendors and applications. This level of visibility is critical to mitigating future risks.
As a consolidated source of truth, BC in the Cloud also empowers the team to better quantify the impact of disruptions and the value of its work. With this information, UCF will be able to more effectively allocate resources, identify areas of opportunity, and engage key stakeholders.
Going forward, the team is continuing to find new opportunities to leverage BC in the Cloud to mature its preparedness program and advocate for the use of fully integrated business continuity solutions in academia.
