New standard launched for IT business continuity

Companies will be able to prove their disaster resilience with official BSI code of practice

Companies need to be prepared for disaster

The British Standards Institute (BSI) has launched an official code of practice to allow companies to show they are prepared for an IT disaster.

The standard will show that a company has an effective strategy to deal with the loss of internet, email or company information, providing reassurance to business partners.

The code of practice was created after advice taken from industry and government experts, according to Mike Low, director of business standards at the BSI.

"BSI’s latest standard in the area of continuity management focuses on the specific area of IT continuity that will help an organisation survive a crisis, " he said.

"We have brought together a wide range of expertise to produce a robust best practice guidance document which should help organisations regardless of size, complexity or sector."

A 2007 BSI survey of the FTSE 250 firms found that only 67 per cent of companies consider themselves "very well prepared for" catastrophic IT failure.

The standard will be known as BS 25777.