Sandy is business continuity wake-up call

"If this wasn't a giant wake-up call to get your storage, backup and business continuity plans nailed down, I don't know what it would take," said the The VAR Guy, speaking about Hurricane Sandy.

He would appear to be right on. Sandy was the sort of natural disaster that all companies are supposed to plan and test for, praying all the while that they will never have to activate the plans. In the financial district of course, the attacks of 9/11 were the wake up call. After that, all companies doubled down on their efforts.

So were they successful?

The debate rages, with lots of analysts, former regulators and  pundits weighing in. While most of the discussion has centered on whether they stock exchanges should have remained up and running in electronic mode, that's obviously not the only criteria by which you should make a judgment. When the  dust finally settles and the waters recede, companies will have to take a hard look at how well they were able to keep alternative communications opens, how well all vital corporate tasks were conducted, how many hours of work were lost, how much data was destroyed and so on.

My guess is that most companies in the line of the storm fared pretty well, but making that determination will take some time. Soon enough, companies will have to once again take their lessons-learned and come up with new plans, because the next Black Swan isn't far off. It could arrive tomorrow. That's the attitude companies have to take.

For more:
- here's an interesting commentary

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Did Wall Street pass the continuity test?
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