Uncertainty exists in every aspect of life and for the enterprise, the extent of the uncertainly, should it be a disaster, can cause a serious setback to the business. Coping with a virus that wipes out important company data, a security breach compromising company confidential information, or even downtime for mission-critical operations, are just some examples of undesirable situations that a CXO may have to deal with. Instead of waiting for the unknown to take its course and strike in the worst possible way, many enterprises are proactively taking steps to anticipate and minimise such disasters to ensure the survival of their businesses.

The recent IDC Continuum 2005 Survey shows that 27.8% of all businesses in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) do not have any business continuity solutions in place. This shows that many organisations in Asia Pacific have some way to go before they can become well prepared for adverse circumstances.

However, security as an issue and as a strategic consideration is the one thing that has not lost momentum in the ever-changing IT world for many CIOs and business strategists. In the same survey, respondents have identified security as the most strategically important area in 2005 for their organisation. IDC research shows that the following drivers have been catalytic in moving companies towards dynamic resilience.

• Corporate threats: The rising number of threatening events taking place around the world, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, data hacking, identity thefts and frauds, etc. are causing CXOs to think seriously about their current situation and the robustness of their IT infrastructure
• Corporate governance: Government entities continue to be active in the conduct of businesses and how information flow should be monitored, processed and stored. Many countries in the region are implementing some form of legislation for its enterprises or for those that wish to do business in their environment.
• Globalization: With more companies operating in multiple countries, a secure internal framework is critical for day-to-day business functions. IT managers need to strike a balance between making information accessible to those who require it and ensuring that it remains secure.

IDC’s concept of Dynamic Resilience is about the ability to manage dynamic environmental forces to ensure organisational resilience and survival. This is based on a holistic strategy involving security, policy planning, disaster recovery, testing, and so forth in order to integrate and embed planning and practices into the corporate culture. Dynamic Resilience encompasses IT acquisition and management across security and business continuity practices across IT hardware, IT software, communications and services.

IDC Asia Pacific will launch the Dynamic Resilience: Security and Continuity 2006 Conference from 18 May 2006 to the 29 June 2006 across Asia.

At the conference, IDC will address the following topics and more on Dynamic Resilience:

• The importance of Dynamic Resilience and how to achieve a secure and continuous enterprise
• The organisation’s approach towards Dynamic Resilience
• The different dimensions and factors for consideration with regards to Dynamic Resilience
• The means and services available to achieve foolproof security and business continuity
  

Selected IDC partners will host workshops on relevant Dynamic Resilience topics including:

• Dynamic security dashboards and metrics
• Building an information security program
• Web services security
• Compliance and IT governance with ITSM