Zim businesses urged to adopt cloud for business continuity
Zimbabwean businesses have been implored to embrace business continuity planning cloud solutions for the smooth running of their operations so as to minimise disruptions in the ever-evolving digital world.
Business continuity planning allows businesses to have a competitive edge over their peers while serving the market in an efficient and cost effective manner.
Speaking during a business continuity – planning meeting for the business sector in Harare, Liquid Intelligent Technologies presales and complex solutions specialist Kevin Ngalonde, said for businesses to operate smoothly in today’s digital world; there was need to be aware of potential threats, vulnerabilities and weaknesses in times of crisis.
“Business Continuity Planning enables a company to continue to serve customers during crisis and minimise the likelihood of losing customers to other competitors. It allows businesses to decrease downtime and have plans in place of what to do before, during and after an emergency,” he said.
These calls come at a time when cyber threats and attacks are on the increase in Zimbabwe and beyond as more and more businesses migrate to digital platforms for their operations.
The bulk of financial transactions in Zimbabwe are conducted online placing the financial sector at the very nerve centre of the economy, while remote working and virtual meetings have become acceptable ways of conducting business.
While these are welcome developments, they have come with their own challenges leading to businesses and individuals encountering cyberattacks, which sometimes cause serious disruptions to their operations and lives. Recently Zimbabwe enacted the Data Protection Act, which focuses on data privacy and ensuring data protection in a bid to protect the public and national interest within the cyber space.
Cyber security and Privacy are the leading Business Continuity risk factors cited by the 2022 Mercer Marsh MEA Report while digital acceleration, skills shortages and supply chain disruption are also key for the region.
“This is why a business cannot afford to not be prepared. Business Continuity Planning allows a business to be prepared. The key components of this planning include having strategies and procedures in place, having response teams, backup data for recovery, employee training as well as updating and maintenance of the plan,” Ngalonde said.
He added that businesses needed to understand their digital infrastructure, the business impact, have a disaster recovery plan, before they could set up a functional business continuity infrastructure.
Cloud computing, he said, makes data backup, disaster recovery and business continuity easier and less expensive as data can be mirrored at multiple sites on the cloud provider’s network highlighting that many cloud providers offer a set of policies, technologies and controls that strengthen security thereby protecting data, apps and infrastructure from potential threats.
The Business Continuity Planning meeting was attended by businesses from across different sectors including mining, retail, manufacturing, logistics, mining and agriculture implements suppliers, health services as well as security services among others.-ebusinessweekly
