March 2020 – The importance of well-documented and tested business continuity and disaster recovery plans has reached a new level of priority with insurers. Insurer CIOs would be well advised to remember that many disaster recovery and business continuity plans have been developed based on a detailed understanding of past events and, as such, run the risk of becoming “battle plans designed to win the last war.”

With both customer expectations and the threat of regulatory scrutiny high, ensuring that these plans remain living documents responsive to dynamic circumstances should be a mission-critical responsibility to all insurer IT organizations. There are many technical and general design considerations based on overall business strategy that need to be understood when developing and managing these plans.

This brief offers an understanding of a well-designed business continuity and disaster recovery plan, along with a checklist of key considerations for these plans, given the evolved and changing IT environments of insurers.

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The Checklist

• Prepare for the next event, not the last one
• Plan for resiliency beyond core systems and data
• Consider partner relations, third-party providers, and external services
• Expect challenges moving to/coming back from a remote data center
• Question assumptions about ancillary resources
• Remember that it’s also about people
• Ensure rapid access to documentation
• Plan early and practice frequently