When Australia’s second largest telco suffered a massive outage, the numbers were sobering: 10 million people disconnected, 400,000 businesses halted, and an astounding 3,000 emergency calls lost in the digital void. The incident was a reality check on how tech infrastructure — often assumed to be unbreakable — can buckle without warning, taking critical systems down with it.
Unfortunately, these interruptions aren’t outliers; they’re the new normal.
For businesses, the mandate is clear: It’s time to think beyond disaster recovery. Business continuity needs to be built-in, not bolted on.
So, what’s the path forward? First, organisations need to pivot from reactive crisis management to proactive continuity planning. This shift isn’t about having a backup plan stashed away in a drawer; it’s about real-time readiness, resilient infrastructure, airtight cybersecurity, and a culture primed to pivot and adapt.
Avoiding the blind spots
When it comes to continuity planning, one common mistake is ignoring risks that seem improbable — until they’re not. Everything from cyberattacks to climate events can strike out of the blue. Effective continuity means expecting the unexpected and gearing up for the full spectrum of possible disruptions.
Too often, continuity sits within a single department, disconnected from the rest of the organisation. A robust continuity plan draws from the knowledge of every team, ensuring no vulnerability goes overlooked. But these plans are only as good as their relevance. A continuity strategy should be dynamic, continually reviewed and updated, not tucked away and forgotten until it’s too late.
And then there’s cybersecurity. In a world where digital infrastructure underpins every interaction, cyber resilience isn’t an afterthought — it’s a foundational pillar. From January to June this year, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) received the highest number of incident notifications since July to December 2020, representing an increase of 9% compared to the previous six months.
In fact, the agency specifically pointed out the importance of cyber resilience in the software supply chain — areas often viewed as the responsibility of a business’ third parties. The reality is that third-party vendors are not foolproof, and businesses need alternatives if critical partners are suddenly offline.
What’s more, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found that 44% of Australian organisations are not managing third-party supply chain risk. For organisations, having backup suppliers and contingency workflows is now part of staying operational.
The heart of continuity
Adaptable infrastructure, where businesses can disperse operations across public and private cloud environments and on-premises systems, is becoming the gold standard. This model isn’t just about keeping the lights on during a crisis; it’s about creating a flexible, durable infrastructure that stands resilient even in the face of unexpected challenges. As the hybrid multi-cloud trend gains traction, the ability to scale operations across multiple environments is emerging as the backbone of modern continuity planning.
Not only does this approach help fortify security, but it also supports compliance with the nation’s data privacy standards — from the Federal Government’s Whole-of-Government Hosting Strategy for critical data to the upcoming changes to the Privacy Act — spreading risk and protecting sensitive data from being compromised by a single point of failure.
Events like the outage I mentioned earlier revealed just how disruptive breaches can be, shattering both functionality and public trust. Hybrid multi-cloud continuity allows businesses to deploy multi-layered security protocols, ensuring robust data protection and disaster preparedness across different platforms.
And security isn’t where the advantages end. With the flexibility of hybrid multi-cloud, organisations can rapidly respond to market shifts, scale resources in real time, and pivot to meet changing customer demands. This agility doesn’t just safeguard against disruption; it also drives innovation and a competitive edge, allowing businesses to turn resilience into opportunity.
A resilience mindset from the ground up
A continuity-focused strategy requires more than just tech adjustments; it requires a cultural shift toward resilience and adaptability.
Critically, continuity plans can’t just be theoretical. They should be regularly tested against simulated events like outages, hardware failures, and cyberattacks. Regular testing, combined with clear evaluation and documentation processes, ensures everyone in the organisation knows their role in a recovery scenario — greatly accelerating the return to business as usual.
Business continuity is a must, not a maybe. This means adopting adaptable infrastructure, prioritising cybersecurity, and cultivating a culture that’s ready for anything. By transforming continuity into a proactive strategy, businesses can turn disruption into opportunity, positioning themselves not just to survive the next outage but to emerge stronger and more competitive.
