It’s Not If, It’s When: Building a Continuity Mindset
At Advisory, business continuity isn’t just something we talk about with clients—it’s something we actively plan for, test, and live by. Most teams understand the idea of business continuity: keep operations running when something breaks. But in practice, it’s far more layered. It’s about having a Plan B—and often, a Plan C—for everything from the systems that keep you moving day to day, to the data that powers your business behind the scenes.
Cloud-based tools have revolutionized the way we work. They’re flexible, powerful, and efficient. But no system is immune to outages, user error, or cyber threats. Business continuity isn’t just about whether your help desk platform stays up—it’s about how prepared you are when it doesn’t.
When Tools Go Down, Your Response Is What Matters
Let’s run through an example: Our team relies heavily on Jira Service Management—it’s our central hub for managing support tickets, tracking internal work, and communicating resolutions with clients. It’s not just a tool; it’s a critical part of how we operate.
One day, without warning, Jira went down.
The outage could’ve easily stalled our operations. But because we had planned for scenarios like this, we didn’t miss a beat. We immediately alerted clients via email and Slack, and pivoted to providing support entirely through Slack channels.
Was it ideal? No. Was it disruptive? A bit. But it worked. Our clients appreciated that we had an alternative ready and didn’t go dark when something broke. And the only reason we were able to do that? We’d already walked through this exact scenario, documented it, tested it, and filed it away—until we needed it. As a CTO from one of our clients said “Advisory is always on top of it, even when the systems try to undermine them.”
But Business Continuity Goes Beyond Communication
Not all continuity risks are about tool outages. Sometimes, the risk lies in your data—where it lives, and how well it’s protected.
Take Google Workspace. For many organizations, it’s the backbone of their operations: email, calendars, Drive files, Docs, and more. It’s how people collaborate, plan, and deliver. Now imagine critical files being deleted—either accidentally or maliciously. Google has built-in recovery tools, but they’re not foolproof. If the data loss is intentional or goes unnoticed for too long, you may be out of luck.
Here’s a simple truth: Google protects Google. You need to protect your data.
That’s why we partner with CloudAlly, a backup platform purpose-built for cloud tools like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, Salesforce, and others. We use it internally, and we implement it for clients who care about not just working in the cloud—but protecting their operations in it.
The Real Lesson: Business Continuity Looks Different for Everyone
Some organizations need a plan for tool outages. Others need backup solutions for their cloud environments. Most need both. Business continuity isn’t a one-size-fits-all checklist—it’s a mindset. It’s about asking:
- What happens if our primary tools go offline?
- What’s our plan if critical data is lost or compromised?
- How fast can we pivot, and will our team know what to do?
At Advisory, our job isn’t just to support your systems. It’s to help you build resilience into your business. That means planning for the unexpected—and giving you the confidence that when something goes wrong, you’ve already prepared for it.
