Continuity Planning

Continuity planning is quite simply…how to stay in business in the event of a disruption or disaster, either localized or regional (major earthquake, pandemic illness, building fire, hard drive failure, etc.)  It is trying to plan for the work that must be done, when the usual resources (staff, facilities, equipment, etc) are not available.  Continuity planning is different from emergency management planning, in such that emergency management planning secures life and safety in response to a disaster or emergency, where as a continuity plan is used once life and safety are secure and is used to help you to continue business operations.  A continuity plan will describe what your department/unit does, identify its critical resources, and outline actions that can be taken to lessen the impact on overall mission-critical operations in the event of a disruption or disaster.

Why is this important?

In order to maintain the University of California’s mission of teaching, research and service, it is also ANR’s goal to resume critical business functions as soon as possible during and after an emergency, even if in a reduced mode.

In 2007, the UC Office of the President announced a major continuity planning initiative for the ten UC campuses and the five UC medical centers known as the Restarting UC Business Continuity Planning Program. This program was revised to support planning efforts across the UC system and was re-branded as UC Ready.