The New Normal in IT

CHAPTER 4Never Be Unprepared for a Pandemic Again: Business Continuity and IT Disaster Recovery Going Forward

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.

—LYNDON B. JOHNSON¹

If we can provide even a few months of early warning for just one pandemic, the benefits outweigh all the time and energy we are devoting. Imagine preventing health crises, not just responding to them.

—NATHAN WOLFE (AMERICAN VIROLOGIST)²

I provided two quotes to start this chapter for a reason. First, the Lyndon B. Johnson quote provides us a great leadership quote as an example of what's possible after a devastating global pandemic during which millions of people died. It also reminds us of the pain that we endured during the pandemic, but that we should reflect on what the world looked like (and could look like again) before the pandemic in all its beauty and death. The Johnson quote also reminds us that the scientific wonder associated with the rapidity with which effective vaccines were created does not take away the sorrow or risks of the future.

Second, the Nathan Wolfe quote provides us a glimpse of hope in the lives and turmoil we can save by having an early warning system or ideally, preventing the health crisis instead of doing what the world did this time around – react and respond to it. ...