The reality of the term "maximum tolerable period of disruption" was much in evidence in the recent Blackberry outage. Everyone was talking about how long it had gone on and disgruntled users giving RIM a deadline after which they would find another network. It is too early to judge whether a three day outage is survivable - but it would be interesting to know whether this had been discussed internally in a BIA. As usual in this case, the cause of the problem was not a factor - only the duration. However it should be a concern to customers that there was no working back-up system to a service on which so many relied for their businesses.
October 2011 - a recent increase in tremors may indicate that Katla is preparing to erupt again.
The eruption of the volcano under Eyjarfjallajokull ('jokull' is Icelandic for 'icecap') disrupted car manufacturers in Germany and Japan who were relying on air freight for parts. Volcanic eruptions occur in Iceland roughly every ten years so it is not an unusual event (though the wind direction was unusual).
Some ferry services between the UK and European mainland have been withdrawn as 'low-cost' airlines have made sea routes unviable - losing the 'resilience' of alternative transport.
Some organisations were caught out because staff were on holiday abroad and unable to return due to cancelled flights. They took out the plans developed for pandemics - and found many of the answers they needed. That's why BCM plans are generic not incident-specific.
In the past when this volcano has exploded - in 920, 1612 and 1821-23, Katla, a much bigger volcano, has erupted soon after and caused crop damage, political upheaval and significant economic impacts to much less technologically sophisticated societies.
Learn further valuable lessons from past incidents
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