Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is defined as advanced planning and arrangements to ensure continuity of critical functions of an organization in case of a disaster. As a reliable and responsible institution of national stature, CDC has become one of the first few Pakistani institutions to establish a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan. This development ensures minimum disruption of services in the event of a disaster.

On Saturday, March 21, 2009, CDC conducted its third BCP drill. This time the drill was more comprehensive in scope as the disaster was declared during office hours and the fact that it was closely observed by the Disaster Recovery Committee (DRC) comprising of top management of the Company operating from a special cell from the disaster site. Moreover, to exceed all previous BCP drills in scope, all operations including the Call Center were shifted and handled from the DR site, except IAS and customer support counters, which remained operational at the CDC House for customer convenience. CDC Internal Audit Department and IBM Pakistan were the drill observers.

Due to an efficiently implemented BCP plan, CDC has now become disaster tolerant. Critical operations of the company can be made functional from the disaster recovery site within 2 hours of the disaster.

Moreover, recognizing the IT facility as the core resource for providing services, the management at CDC had critically evaluated potential risks of CDS becoming unavailable to the users and accordingly developed a contingency site office in Karachi. The site is installed with redundant hardware, software and requisite network to provide cost effective connectivity and support to all CDS users in the event of disaster.