• A to H
• I to P
• Q to Z

Activation - The implementation of recovery procedures, activities and plans in response to an emergency or disaster declaration.

Alternate Site - An alternate operating location to be used by business functions (i.e. Support Departments, Information Systems and Manufacturing operations) when the primary facilities are inaccessible. (Associated terms: Back-up Site)

Business Continuity Coordinator - A member of the Recovery Management Team who is assigned the overall responsibility for coordination of the Recovery Planning Program, ensuring team member training, testing and maintenance of recovery plans. (Associated terms: Business Recovery Planner, Disaster Recovery Planner; Business Recovery Coordinator; Disaster Recovery Coordinator, Disaster Recovery Administrator)

Business Recovery Plan - A collection of procedures and information which is developed, compiled and maintained in readiness for use in the event of an emergency or disaster (Associated terms: Business Continuity Plan; Disaster Recovery Plan; Recovery Plan)

BCP/Business Continuity Planning - The advance planning and preparations which are necessary to; identify the impact of potential losses; to formulate and implement viable recovery strategies; to develop recovery plan(s) which ensure continuity of organizational services in the event of an emergency or disaster; and to administer a comprehensive training, testing and maintenance program. (Associated terms: Contingency Planning; Disaster Recovery Planning; Business Recovery Planning)

Business Continuity Program - An on-going process supported by senior management and funded to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to identify the impact of potential losses, maintain viable recovery strategies and recovery plans and ensure continuity services through personnel training, plan testing and maintenance. (Associated terms: Disaster Recovery Program; Business Recovery Program; Contingency Planning Program)

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) - A management level analysis that identifies the impacts of losing company resources. The BIA measures the effect of resource loss and escalating losses over time, in order to provide senior management with reliable data upon which to base decisions on risk mitigation and continuity planning. (Associated terms: Business Impact Assessment; Business Impact Analysis Assessment)

Cold Site - One or more data center or office space facilities equipped with sufficient pre-qualified environmental conditioning, electrical connectivity, communications access, configurable space and access to accommodate the installation and operation of equipment by critical staff required to resume business operations.

Data Security - The securing or safeguarding of electronic information owned by an organization using technology such as security software packages and data encryption devices.

Declaration - A formal acknowledgment or statement by authorized personnel that a disaster exists within the organization.

Disaster - A sudden, unplanned calamitous event that causes loss and hardship to all or part of an enterprise and thereby significantly impacts its ability to deliver essential services for some period of time.

Emergency - An actual or impending situation that may cause injury, loss of life, destruction of property or interfere with normal business operations to such an extent to pose the threat of disaster.

Enterprise-wide - A term synonymous with company or corporate-wide, but which is used to more accurately include all affiliates or subsidiaries of a parent company regardless of line of business or geographic location.

Escalation - The process of informing the recovery organization that an emergency exists in accordance with incident or emergency response procedures.

Extraordinary Expense - An operating expense that exists as a result of an interruption or disaster and directly affects the financial position of the organization.

Financial Impact- An operating expense that continues following an interruption or disaster, which as a result of the event cannot be offset by income and directly affects the financial position of the organization.

Hotsite - A data center facility with sufficient hardware, communications interfaces and environmentally controlled space capable of providing relatively immediate backup data processing support.

Back to Top

Information Security - The securing or safeguarding of all sensitive information, electronic or otherwise that is owned by an organization.

Logistics/Transportation Team - A team comprised of various members of departments associated with supply acquisition and material transportation, responsible for ensuring the most effective acquisition and mobilization of hardware, supplies and support materials.

Man-made Disaster - A disaster that is intentionally caused by human intervention (i.e. vandalism, terrorism or industrial sabotage).

Mobilization - The activation of the recovery organization in response to an emergency or disaster declaration.

Natural Disaster - A disaster that occurs as the result of forces occurring in nature (i.e. flood, hurricane, tornadoes, etc.).

Offsite Location - A storage facility at a safe distance from the primary facility that is used for housing recovery supplies, equipment, vital records, etc.

Operational Impact - An impact that is not quantifiable in financial terms but its effects may be among the most severe in determining the survival of an organization following a disaster.

Outage - The interruption of automated processing systems, support services or essential business operations that may result in the company's inability to provide service for some period of time.

Pre-positioned Resource - Material (i.e. equipment, forms and supplies) stored at an off-site location(s) to be used in business resumption and recovery operations. (Associated terms: Pre-positioned Inventory)

Prevention - The process of planning for and/or implementing controls to prevent incidents and manage risks by decreasing the potential for incidents or the affects thereof that may threaten the assets of the organization.

Back to Top

Recovery - The process of planning for and/or implementing recovery of less time sensitive business operations and processes after critical business functions have resumed.

Recovery Exercise - An announced or unannounced execution of Recovery Team Plans, intended to implement existing plans and/or highlight the need for additional plan development. Becoming more widely used for its connotation of problem identification and resolution instead of 'Recovery Testing' that purports success or failure. (Associated terms: Disaster Recovery Test; Disaster Recovery Exercise; Recovery Test; Recovery Exercise).

Recovery Management Team - A team comprised of senior managers from each division, line of business or department within the organization. (Associated terms: Business Recovery Management Team)

Recovery Strategy - A predefined, pre-tested, management approved course of action(s) to be employed in response to a business disruption, interruption or disaster.

Recovery Team - A group of individuals given responsibility for the coordination and response to an emergency or recovering a process or function in the event of a disaster.

Recovery Window - A period of time in which time sensitive business operations must be resumed. (Associated term: Recovery Time Frame)

Response - The reaction to an incident or emergency in order to assess the level of containment and control activity required.

Restoration - The process of planning for and implementing full-scale business operations that allows the organization to return to a normal service level.

Resumption - The process of planning for and/or implementing the recovery of critical business operations immediately following an interruption or disaster.

Scenario - A predefined set of events and conditions that describe an interruption, disruption or disaster related to some aspect(s) of an organization's business for purposes of exercising a recovery plan(s).

Structured Walk-Through - An exercise in which team members verbally review each step of a plan to assess its effectiveness, identify enhancements, constraints and deficiencies. (Associated terms: Bench Test)

Survey - A series of questions that relate to the various impacts of a business interruption or disaster.

Survey Data - Answers provided to questions asked as part of a survey.

Technological Disaster - A disaster involving automated systems.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) - A backup power supply capable of storing and allocating enough power to provide for the safe and controlled shutdown of information processing systems should there be an interruption or loss of normal electrical service.

Vendor - An individual or company who provides a service(s) to a department or the organization as a whole. (Associated term: Supplier; Third Party Vendor)

Vital Record - A record that is essential for preserving, continuing or reconstructing the operations of the organization and protecting the rights of the organization, its employees, its customers and its stockholders.

Warm Site - A data center or office facility that is partially equipped with hardware, communications interfaces, electricity and environmental conditioning capable of providing backup operating support.

Back to Top