This informal CPD article ‘Operational Resilience and the Importance of Visibility’ was provided by Cortech Developments, who provide a single point of real time monitoring and control for all building fire and security systems.
Operational resilience concerns an organisation's ability to continue important activities when disruption occurs and to recover effectively afterwards. The nature of disruption varies by environment and may include equipment failure, cyber incidents, power or network problems, environmental events or other operational emergencies. (1)(2)
Technology can support resilience, but technology alone does not create it. People need reliable information about what is happening, what systems are affected and what actions are available. Visibility is therefore an important part of the resilience picture.
The information problem
Modern estates generate information through many systems. Access control can show movements, video can provide visual information, fire systems can identify life-safety events, building systems can report equipment conditions and operational technologies can provide information about processes.
If these sources are isolated, an operator may have to gather information manually. During a time-critical event, this can increase the effort required to establish what has happened. The issue is not simply the number of interfaces. It is whether the available information can be assembled into a coherent operational picture.
What useful visibility looks like
Useful visibility should answer practical questions. What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? Which assets or people may be affected? What other events are related? What actions are required? Which information is confirmed and which remains uncertain? The answers will vary by organisation. A transport environment, healthcare facility and data centre have different operational priorities.
Good visibility also requires appropriate information quality. If systems use inconsistent time sources, duplicate events or unclear naming conventions, bringing the data together may not improve understanding. Data quality and system configuration therefore form part of the resilience discussion.
Technology and human factors
During an incident, people may be working under pressure. Information should therefore be accessible, prioritised and presented in a way that supports the decisions they are expected to make. Procedures can help by defining responsibilities, escalation routes and actions for known scenarios. Technology can support these procedures by presenting relevant information or initiating agreed workflows.
However, resilience requires more than automation. Organisations should consider what happens when a technology component fails, when information is incomplete or when an incident develops differently from the expected scenario. Exercises and testing can help identify these gaps before a real disruption occurs.
Building resilience over time
Improving visibility is an ongoing process. Organisations can start by identifying their most important operational functions and mapping the systems and information those functions depend upon. (2)(3) From there, they can identify gaps: unavailable information, unclear ownership, single points of failure, undocumented dependencies or procedures that are difficult to follow.
Resilience can then be improved through a combination of technical changes, process improvements, training and testing. (2) The objective is not to create a perfect picture of every system at all times. It is to ensure that, when something important happens, the people responsible for responding can obtain trustworthy information quickly enough to make informed decisions. Visibility is therefore best understood as an enabler of resilience rather than resilience itself.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Cortech Developments, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
References
- NPSA, Critical National Infrastructure: https://www.npsa.gov.uk/about-npsa/critical-national-infrastructure
- NCSC, Cyber Assessment Framework – Resilient Networks and Systems: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/cyber-assessment-framework/caf-objective-b/principle-b5-resilient-networks-and-systems
- NCSC, Cyber Assessment Framework – Asset Management: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/cyber-assessment-framework/caf-objective-a-managing-security-risk/principle-a3-asset-management
- NIST, Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: https://www.nist.gov/publications/nist-cybersecurity-framework-csf-20
