Business Impact Analysis (BIA): A guide to prioritizing recovery and reducing downtime

BIA (Business Impact Analysis)

  • What it is

    A Business Impact Analysis is a simple way to ask, “If something breaks, what hurts first - and how much?” It looks across your day-to-day work (people, apps, vendors, locations) and estimates how an incident would slow you down or cost you money. Want the plain-English version? Check our 
    Business Impact Analysis guide

    Why it matters

    When a storm, outage, or cyberattack hits, decisions get messy. A BIA gives you a calm, pre-made plan: which services to restore first, who’s in charge, and what “good enough” looks like. That means less guessing, less downtime, and fewer costly surprises.

    How to do it (the easy way)

    Pick your top 5–8 business processes (billing, support, sales, production). For each, jot down three things:

    • How long can it be down before pain becomes serious?

    • What does it depend on (apps, data, people, vendors)?

    • Who owns it and what’s the “get back online” plan?

    That’s your first BIA draft—useful on day one, and easy to refine later.

    What you get out of it

    A short list of priorities, realistic recovery targets (how fast to restore, how much data you can afford to lose), and clear owners. In a crisis, this turns panic into a checklist.

    Glossary (A–Z)

    All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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