A lot of sarcasm on social media and in the press yesterday and today, about Belgocontrol’s failing power backup. Next to the economic damage, there’s the reputation damage. A lot of companies are no better though. When confronted with a power cut, whether as a test or a real one, most companies will bear unexpected consequences. And what is more: a lot of IT Managers are quite aware of that. I bet many IT Managers haven’t slept well last night…

It’s true that redundancy of all your critical systems and assets in general, such as Belgocontrol’s control tower, requires an investment. Some IT Managers tell us their CFO or CEO won’t give them the budgets to do what is really needed. Let’s hope yesterday’s adventures have learned these CXO’s what’s really at stake.

As a CEO, if you really want to be sure that your business continuity is satisfactory, you need to make sure a full test is done. Many don’t dare test as it should be done, so they never know whether their precautions are quite enough. For your IT it’s somewhat easier: you can go for the OPEX rather than the CAPEX model, and confide in LCL’s data centers to make sure your systems are protected and your business continuity really works… We do a real test at least every month, actually cutting the power entirely. We can safely say that we can honor the SLA of our Tier III certification. Last night, like (most) every night, I personally slept like a baby!