It’s not until disruption strikes, that most organizations discover program gaps. At that point, it’s a scramble. Every so often, organizations are reminded of this and yesterday’s November 12th Microsoft outage uncovered exactly that for many. A business continuity plan keeps critical processes running through any and all disruptions. The Microsoft 365 outage is an example of how a single vendor outage can impact business operations. LogicGate’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) Agentic Application helps teams close plan gaps so they’re ready when it matters.
What Happened During the Microsoft 365 Outage?
If your organization uses Microsoft, yesterday, you may have leaned over to your coworker to ask, “Is Outlook down?”, to quickly realize that you were experiencing the effects of the Microsoft outage. Today, Microsoft took to X, in a November 13 post, to apologize for the disruption and address the outage. Microsoft stated “This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents.” They also mentioned, “we will provide a full post-incident report once our review is complete”.
Microsoft attributed the incident to an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change. As of November 13, recovery was broad but still in progress for some customers.
What Is a Business Continuity Plan, and Why Does It Matter?
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a plan-of-action a company puts in place that can be relied upon in the event of an emergency. Continuity programs will vary from business to business, a BCP is not a one size fits all. Plans include the policies, procedures and instructions an organization must adhere to, in the necessary event.
Many organizations don’t find the gaps in their recovery plans until disruption forces them to. Legacy data, untested assumptions, and failure to continuously monitor are common pitfalls when it comes to business continuity planning.
Why Should Risk Leaders Look Beyond Cyber Threats?
When you think of an organization’s impact and risk, it’s cyber threats that typically come to mind. The reality is, whether an organization is experiencing a cyber attack, vendor failures, a natural disaster, or an outage, the impact is the same: lost access or stalled work. Planning around impact, not threat type, will proactively prepare organizations for the diverse range of threats they could face.
How Does Third-Party Risk Affect Business Continuity?
Microsoft is a vendor that many organizations rely on for communication and other critical processes. With all vendors, you need to know which processes they support, the business impact analysis, and the plan to apply if needed.
LogicGate’s Business Continuity Management Agentic Application gives teams a connected view of critical processes, dependencies, and resources with built-in agents that continuously review your plans, flag gaps, and recommend revisions so they’re ready when it matters. The application structures continuity programs around three core activities: business impact analysis, continuity plan development and testing, and findings remediation.
How Do Business Continuity Agents Work?
Think of BCM Agents as your newest teammate, here to automate and absorb the manual workload, allowing you to focus on priorities that matter most to you.
LogicGate’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) Agents automate the low-risk, high-volume work of regularly reviewing recovery plans. They run on top of your existing BCM Application, which allows your team to focus on strategic work.
The BCM Agents’ impact is exciting. As stated on a recent BCM Agent webinar, “Agents will be able to shorten plan review cycles by fifty percent and ensure that every plan is evaluated against consistent quality criteria on an ongoing basis, having the agents automatically flag gaps in your continuity plans and actually recommend revisions.” The agent provides reviews and recommendations, but ultimately it’s your team’s call to make the final decision.
What Did LogicGate’s Third-Party Risk and Business Continuity Agents In Action Webinar Cover?
Third-Party Risk and Business Continuity Agents In Action demonstrated agents working inside LogicGate’s Risk Cloud platform. LogicGate Solution Engineering Manager, Patrick Ryan, showed how GRC Agents inside LogicGate’s Risk Cloud are closing the gap between third-party risk and business continuity: two programs that have always been connected, but rarely work that way in practice.
Access the on-demand recording to watch the demo of the full agent-driven flow from triaging new vendor requests to recommending revisions to business continuity plans.
How Can LogicGate Help You Prepare for the Next Outage?
Did you have your business continuity plans ready during the recent outage? If it didn’t affect you, are you prepared for the next one?
LogicGate’s Risk Cloud and BCM Application help you find gaps before disruption does. Request a demo to see them in action and learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a Business Continuity Plan?
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a documented set of procedures that keeps critical business processes running during a disruption. It defines who does what, which systems and vendors each process depends on, and how quickly operations must recover.
A BCP applies to any disruption, including cyber attacks, vendor outages, and natural disasters. It is only as strong as its last review and test.
How Is Business Continuity Different from Disaster Recovery?
Business continuity keeps critical business processes running during a disruption. Disaster recovery restores the IT systems and data those processes depend on.
Disaster recovery is one component of a broader continuity program. A restored system does not help if people, vendors, and workarounds are not ready to support it.
How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Reviewed?
Review your business continuity plan at least once a year and after any major change. Major changes include new critical vendors, system migrations, reorganizations, and real incidents.
What Is a Business Impact Analysis?
A business impact analysis (BIA) identifies your critical processes and measures the impact if each one stops. It sets recovery priorities, such as how long a process can be down and how much data loss is acceptable.
A BIA also maps the systems, people, and vendors each process relies on. Those dependencies show where one vendor outage, like Microsoft 365, can stall many processes at once.
How Does Third-Party Risk Affect Business Continuity?
Third-party risk affects business continuity because critical processes often depend on vendors you do not control. When a vendor fails, your processes can stall even if your own systems are healthy.
Map each critical process to the vendors that support it, and set recovery expectations for each one. LogicGate’s GRC Agents connect third-party risk and business continuity by linking vendor assessments to continuity plans.
Can AI Agents Replace Business Continuity Planners?
No. AI agents take on repetitive plan review work, but business continuity planners stay accountable for decisions. People set recovery priorities, approve plan changes, and lead the response during an incident.
LogicGate’s BCM Agents review plans, flag gaps, and recommend revisions. Your team makes the final call.
