All organisations must contend with risks that threaten their ability to operate normally. Typically these disruptive threats are managed with a view to prioritising prevention. However, no risk management plan is fool proof. Operational resilience is about accepting that incidents are unavoidable. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and make sure that mission-critical functions are preserved.
Operational resilience is relevant in a range of industries. Healthcare, finance and the tech sector are especially vulnerable to outages because they rely on systems which are, by their nature, overlapping and interlinked. When there’s no tolerance for infrastructural downtime, operational resilience enters the fray. It gives organisations the framework required to weather whatever inclement conditions strike so they can keep going and respond to worst-case scenarios without core processes grinding to a halt.
Regulators are well aware of the importance of operational resilience. The most vulnerable industries must adhere to the strictest requirements for continuity. In the UK there are the PRA operational resilience regulations which apply to financial firms, insisting that they have a handle on business services that are central to their everyday functions, set impact tolerances for disruption, and implement measures that create the conditions for unbroken continuity. With digital transformation efforts accelerating, the relevance of regulations such as this gets magnified by the week.
“Working with niche and newly formed software vendors helps us to remain agile and retain a competitive advantage, so it is vital that we build in supply chain assurance from the outset and ensure we aren’t negatively impacted by circumstances outside of our control such as vendor downtime or failure”.
Rob Barnes
CTO at Marks & Spencer
There are ample upsides to an operational resilience framework. As we’ve already outlined, the primary perk is that essential services get delivered uninterrupted, even if disruptions hit home. Since customer trust and company reputation can crumble with even the smallest hiccup in service delivery, it’s a process that preserves these valuable assets as well.
Other benefits include:
There are 5 pillars of operational resilience, and being capable of accessing mission-critical software assets is among them. This factors in everything from the databases and docs relating to important programs to the source code itself. Rather than leaving it to chance, companies can guarantee this access with software escrow services. Keeping the materials you need for continuity securely stored with an independent third-party means that even if outages occur or vendors face problems, they can be recovered. Having software assets in escrow is thus a sure-fire options for keeping vital services up and running, and making prolonged and costly downtime a thing of the past.
Verification and testing services are a way to bolster recovery plans from top to tail. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that the software assets that are kept in escrow are comprehensive, representative of what’s already in place, and deployable at a moment’s notice when disaster comes knocking.
No organisation is an island, and it’s often that reliance on third-party software and data that becomes the most worrying weakness. So, in addition to improving internal system resilience, a software escrow service minimises exposure to single vendor failure and other forms of supply chain disruption. Third-party suppliers can fail, be bought out, suffer sudden insolvency, or withdraw their products from the market. Operational resilience will not falter in any of these contexts when software escrow is used as a hedge against them.
Secure your software supply chain
It’s obvious that regulations like the PRA operational resilience requirements cannot be brushed under the carpet. There’s no escaping the need to pinpoint those all-important services that guarantee continuity and deflect the ramifications of disruption, whatever form they take. Escrow solutions ride to the rescue here, with their practical benefits going hand in hand with their regulatory advantages. They prove to regulators that a company can quickly access software source code and data assets no matter what. Keeping on the right side of continuity planning requirements is no longer an intimidating obstacle.
Get support with regulatory compliance
Disruption can occur if critical systems are disrupted due to human error, hardware failures, or any number of other upsets. Vendor failure, acquisition, or the ending of support for core assets must also be recognised as legitimate risks. A software escrow service is a bespoke route for addressing all of these concerns. This includes providing solutions suited to cloud-based apps and even hybrid environments, which are widely used and growing in popularity. The idea is that organisations are amply prepared to fend off threats from all corners, doing so flexibly and leaving no stone unturned. In the event of an incident, a tailored approach is a must if downtime is to be minimised meaningfully.
Learn about recovery solutions
Software source code, data and the materials required to deploy mission-critical systems get covered by escrow agreements. When vendors falter, essential operations can continue and recovery is accelerated. Learn more.
The software materials stored in escrow are not left to gather dust or assumed to be complete and deployable. Instead, regular processes that test and verify the contents make recovery plans easy to implement when needed, while also addressing compliance and digital operational resilience concerns. Learn more.
Escrow solutions adapted for cloud-powered and SaaS-based apps are more than capable of contending with even the most complex, interconnected setup. This is ideal for organisations that need complete operational confidence in spite of the prospect of provider failure. Learn more.
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