Business Continuity Plan (BCP) – Detailed Overview
Purpose & Scope
The BCP (Business Continuity Plan) for Binvesting is designed to ensure that critical business operations can continue or be rapidly restored in the event of a disruption, such as natural disasters, cyber incidents, or system failures. It integrates disaster recovery planning as a subset, aligning recovery targets with overall business objectives and considering the broader impact on clients, operations, and compliance.
Our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) ensures that critical business operations can continue or be rapidly restored in the event of a disruption, such as natural disasters, cyber incidents, or system failures. The BCP integrates disaster recovery planning and aligns recovery targets with our business objectives, prioritizing the protection of our clients and stakeholders.
1. Business Impact Analysis & Risk Assessment
We regularly assess the potential impact of disruptions on our operations and clients. Our analysis identifies critical systems and quantifies the consequences of downtime, guiding our recovery priorities. We evaluate risks based on probability, impact, and cost, ensuring that our strategies are both effective and efficient.
- Business Impact Analysis (BIA):
- Quantifies the effect of disruptions on workloads and customers.
- Identifies which systems are most critical and the consequences of downtime.
- Determines how quickly services must be restored (Recovery Time Objective, RTO) and how much data loss is tolerable (Recovery Point Objective, RPO).
- Risk Assessment:
- Evaluates the probability and impact of various disaster scenarios (e.g., regional outages, data corruption, cyberattacks).
- Considers both technical and geographical risks.
- Guides the selection of appropriate recovery strategies based on risk and business value.
- System Classification:
- Core Kubernetes: High risk, high impact.
- Microservices: High risk, high impact.
- Database: Critical risk, critical impact.
2. Recovery Objectives
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO):
- Maximum acceptable delay for service restoration is 30 minutes for all critical subsystems
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO):
- Maximum acceptable data loss is 30 minutes for all critical subsystems
3. Disaster Recovery Strategies
- Backup and Restore:
Data and infrastructure are regularly backed up and can be restored in another region if needed. This mitigates against data loss or corruption and regional disasters. - Pilot Light:
Core infrastructure is always available in a secondary region, ready to scale up quickly. Data is replicated continuously, and infrastructure can be “switched on” when needed. - Warm Standby:
A scaled-down but fully functional copy of the production environment is maintained in another region for rapid recovery. This approach allows for easier and more frequent testing - Multi-site Active/Passive: Workloads operate at the same time (with one in passive mode) across multiple regions, which minimizes recovery time. This method involves greater operational complexity and expense compared to other approaches, while enhancing system resilience.
4. Testing & Validation
- Regular Testing:
Disaster recovery paths and failover mechanisms are regularly tested to validate readiness. This includes simulating failures and ensuring that recovery procedures work as intended - Configuration Management:
Infrastructure, data, and configurations in the disaster recovery region are kept up-to-date. This includes checking AMIs, service quotas, and ensuring no configuration drift - Continuous Improvement:
Lessons learned from tests and real incidents are used to refine recovery strategies and improve resilience.
BCP Key Elements
| Element | Description |
| Business Impact | Quantifies disruption impact, guides recovery priorities |
| Risk Assessment | Evaluates disaster scenarios, informs strategy selection |
| RTO/RPO | 30 minutes for all critical subsystems |
| Recovery Strategies | Backup/Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, Multi-site Active/Active |
| Testing & Validation | Regular failover tests, configuration management, continuous improvement |
| Cost Evaluation | Ensures recovery strategies are cost-effective and provide business value |
| Best Practices | Multi-region deployment, multi-AZ architecture, thorough documentation |
The BCP provides a comprehensive framework for maintaining and restoring business operations, focusing on minimizing downtime and data loss, aligning recovery strategies with business priorities, and regularly validating readiness through testing and continuous improvement. It ensures that the organization is prepared for a wide range of disruptions, with clear objectives, robust strategies, and ongoing evaluation.