Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

The organization selected in preparation for this assignment is Wal-Mart Inc. The

organization operates in the retail industry and offers a wide range of merchandise, which

includes household goods, electronics, apparels, footwear, pharmaceutical products, and sports

products. Wal-Mart is currently the largest retail company in the world. If I could interview the

Wal-Mart employees who deal with the issue of business continuity and disaster recovery, I will

ask them the following questions:

i) Does the company have any IT recovery strategies? Are the strategies capable of

mitigating against new and emerging cyber threats? The first part of the question is

intended to provide information about whether the company has developed appropriate

and effective information technology systems and applications. Some of the most

common systems and applications include servers, data storage and retrieval systems,

backups, networks, and wireless communication systems (Amazon Web Services, 2016).

The second part of the question is intended to know how well the company is intended to

understand how well the company is prepared to handle unconventional cyber threats.

ii) How well are the company’s business continuity and recovery goals consistent with its

long-term business objectives? I will ask this question in order to understand whether the

company’s business continuity and disaster recovery plan is based on impact analysis. As

explained by Zsidisin (2003), impact analysis helps in ensuring that disaster mitigation

strategies support time-sensitive business processes and functions. This is especially

important for business processes that cannot withstand downtime.

iii) Does the company rely on vendor supported recovery strategies? The objective of this

question is to understand whether the company's data streams, applications, and security
 services are hosted or managed by program vendors. The question takes cognizance of

the fact that companies purchase a wide range of IT hardware and software programs

from third party vendors. Some of the vendors have the capacity to provide disaster

recovery services for their clients.

iv) How can you describe the typical workday of the business continuity and disaster

recovery staff? This question will help in highlighting the routine roles of the company's

business continuity and disaster recovery staff. A comprehensive response to this

question will demonstrate the ability of the staff to identify and manage cyber threats

long before they impact the company’s systems. The response will also help in

highlighting the systems the company has put in place to protect its business against

potential cyber threats.

v) What special skills training opportunities and technical resources does the company

provide the business continuity and disaster recovery staff? This question recognizes the

centrality of employee training as part of the disaster recovery strategy. Training helps

employees to enhance their skills and knowledge of various issues pertaining to their

roles in disaster recovery. It also enables employees to remain updated on the latest

developments in the subject of business continuity and recovery, which is crucial for

optimal job performance.

I relied on content from the course readings and external sources in order to formulate the above

questions. Regarding the external sources, I searched online databases for relevant peer-reviewed

journal articles, company reports and government publications related to business continuity and

disaster recovery. I also incorporated guidelines from the Center for Disease Control’s disaster
recovery policy. Through these resources, I developed a broad understanding of the topic, which

enabled me to come up with the questions.