Of all the business continuity (BC) providers in SA, ContinuitySA probably offers the most comprehensive range of services to its clients. It takes the view that IT, though a critical component of the business, is only one of many parts of a business that need to be BC compliant.
"We're in the business of recovering the business, not just the computers", says ContinuitySA CEO Allen Smith.
It operates an 11 000 m² facility in Midrand and a smaller site in Cape Town and offers its clients the ability to bring their entire staff complements on board if and when catastrophe strikes.
WHAT IT MEANS
 IT is only one of the components of BC
Catastrophes are rare - about one per year
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ContinuitySA has recently built a site in Gaborone. It has a partnership in Kenya and an interest in a site in Durban.
The main site operated by ContinuitySA has been audited by the Bank of England's auditors. "It was a painful and in-depth process", says Smith, "but we emerged with a clean bill of health."
ContinuitySA provides a service to any organisation that has a business infrastructure. About 50% of its revenue comes from financial services companies.
There's a lot of capital sunk into the business - about R100m-R200m of capital equipment - which provides a fairly formidable barrier to entry for potential competitors. But once the capital's in place, it's a nice business to be in.
About 10% of its clients have their own dedicated equipment and areas and others use syndicated facilities. Many clients have in-house facilities as well.
As far as back-up systems are concerned, the mirror site should be positioned relatively far away from the home site. The distance required depends on the geographical conditions - ideally, the second site should be in a different Telkom zone, a different power grid and at least 5 km-10 km away. But Smith says: "There's no right or wrong answer."
Thankfully catastrophes are rare - on average a catastrophe such as fire or flooding happens once per year, with mini-incidents such as Telkom cables being cut or PCs stolen, occurring two to three times per month.
"Clients often don't think the problem through," says Smith, "and it can take a long time to convince management of the need for a BC plan", he says.
