What if your cloud services stay down?

Identify the work that must continue, then set recovery priorities.

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BCS | BUSINESS IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Company: [ ]   Owner / alternate: [ ]   Version / review date: [ ]
Scope and locations: [ ]   Approved by / date: [ ]

Complete one record per essential business activity.
Activity / business owner / alternate: [ ]
Critical deadlines (payroll, payments, customer commitments): [ ]
Required services, identity provider, internet, devices, vendors: [ ]
Impact after 2 hours / 1 day / 3 days: [ ]
Maximum tolerable disruption: [ ]
RTO - target time to restore minimum business capability: [ ]
RPO - maximum acceptable data loss, measured in time: [ ]
Minimum staffing, data and functionality required: [ ]
Approved workaround / activation trigger / decision maker: [ ]
Workaround capacity and maximum sustainable duration: [ ]
Most recent usable export or backup / location / age: [ ]
Tested access method independent of failed services: [ ]
Recovery dependencies and order: [ ]
Remaining gaps / owner / due date / risk acceptance: [ ]

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE - confirm targets with management.
Activity: customer communication.
Dependency: Microsoft 365 email and Teams.
Impact: missed requests and delayed approvals.
Maximum tolerable disruption: management to approve.
Target: activate independent voice/chat within 1 hour.
Fallback: cloud VoIP calls, chat, meetings and approved SMS.
Data: protected contact export refreshed each workday.
Limitation: fallback chat does not replace mailbox history or email delivery.
Test: fresh VoIP login with Microsoft sign-in unavailable.
Evidence: test date, participants, elapsed time and result.

Do not treat these example targets as provider restoration commitments.
Review after service, staffing or business changes and after exercises.

Activate workarounds, manage escalation, and return to normal safely.

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BCS | CLOUD OUTAGE RUNBOOK
Company / service: [ ]   Version / approved date: [ ]
Incident lead / alternate / IT contact: [ ]
Activation authority / trigger: [ ]
Minimum service target / maximum tolerable disruption: [ ]

1. VERIFY AND RECORD
Record start time, affected users, symptoms, services and business deadlines.
Compare provider status with actual user impact; distinguish local internet,
identity, provider outage and possible security incident.
For suspected compromise, activate the incident response plan as well.
Microsoft status: admin.microsoft.com > Health > Service health.
If unavailable, use status.cloud.microsoft and official support channels.

2. ACTIVATE
Lead approves continuity mode and opens the incident / decision log.
Notify staff using the tested independent communication channel.
Confirm a fresh sign-in works; do not assume an existing session will last.
Assign owners to customer communication, finance and IT escalation.

3. CONTINUE ESSENTIAL WORK
M365: independent VoIP; approved encrypted offline documents.
QuickBooks: controlled transaction log and accountant-approved deadline plan.
CRM: dated contact/open-work export and temporary activity log.
VoIP: cellular call tree and tested forwarding where supported.
Internet/power: tested cellular access, charged devices or alternate workplace.
Do not bypass MFA, expose credentials or move sensitive data into personal apps.

4. ESCALATE AND UPDATE
Record vendor case / incident ID and latest confirmed information.
Next update time / audience / responsible person: [ ]
At [ ] hours or approaching a deadline, owner approves further workarounds,
customer notices, spending, reduced operations or temporary suspension.
Separate the business workaround target from provider restoration estimates.

5. VALIDATE AND RETURN
IT checks sign-in, mail flow, files and integrations.
Business owners approve resumption after functional checks.
Reconcile offline edits and temporary records; prevent duplicate invoices.
Retain evidence; revoke temporary access; securely dispose of extra copies.
Complete an after-action review and assign corrective actions.

Evidence: timeline, approvals, communications, tickets, tests and reconciliation.

Keep essential contacts and access instructions reachable during an outage.

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BCS | EMERGENCY CONTACTS AND DEPENDENCY REGISTER
Company: [ ]   Custodian / alternate: [ ]
Version / last verified: [ ]   Next review: [ ]
Approved storage locations and offline access method: [ ]
Access restrictions / encryption / refresh process: [ ]

PEOPLE - complete one record per role.
Role / name / alternate: [ ]
Business mobile / approved alternate contact: [ ]
Decision authority and spending limit: [ ]
Availability / escalation if unreachable: [ ]
Include owner, incident lead, IT, finance, communications, accountant,
payroll contact and critical customer escalation contacts.

SERVICES - complete one record per critical provider.
Service / business purpose / business owner: [ ]
Vendor support number and status URL: [ ]
Account / tenant reference (no passwords): [ ]
Critical data and functions supported: [ ]
Authentication / SSO / MFA dependencies: [ ]
Email, DNS, internet, power and upstream dependencies: [ ]
Emergency access procedure location / authorized custodians: [ ]
Native sign-in supported and approved? [ ]
Backup/export location, frequency, retention and last tested access: [ ]
Fallback service / independent login / limitations: [ ]
Vendor outage vs data-loss recovery procedure: [ ]

COMMUNICATION TREE
Primary: [ ]   Secondary: [ ]   Cellular fallback: [ ]
Who contacts staff / customers / vendors: [ ]
Update cadence and message approval: [ ]

ILLUSTRATIVE DEPENDENCY CHECK
VoIP is the M365 communication fallback.
Verify whether login, password reset or MFA depends on Microsoft.
Test a fresh sign-in, calling, chat, SMS and meeting invitations.
Have a plan for a VoIP outage and a Microsoft identity outage together.

Keep controlled copies outside the protected services. Include instructions
for authorized credential retrieval, never plaintext passwords or recovery codes
in a widely shared plan. Restrict customer exports to necessary information.

Record work during an outage and reconcile it without duplication.

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BCS | TEMPORARY TRANSACTION AND ACTIVITY LOG
Company / incident ID: [ ]   Log owner / alternate: [ ]
Outage start / affected system: [ ]   Approved storage location: [ ]
Access restrictions / retention / reviewer: [ ]

Create one record for each transaction or business activity.
Unique temporary reference: [ ]
Date / time / time zone / person recording: [ ]
Activity type: invoice request / payment / expense / customer call / task / other
Customer or vendor reference: [ ]
Description and minimum necessary supporting information: [ ]
Amount / currency if applicable: [ ]
Due date / priority / promised customer action: [ ]
Approval required / approver / approval time: [ ]
Supporting document reference: [ ]
Status: pending / approved / completed offline / entered in system / exception
Person responsible for follow-up: [ ]

RECONCILIATION AFTER RESTORATION
System restored and validated by / at: [ ]
Search for an existing transaction or activity before entry.
Original system record ID / duplicate check result: [ ]
Entered or updated by / at: [ ]
Reviewed by / at: [ ]
Reconciliation result / unresolved discrepancy / owner / due date: [ ]
Temporary copy disposition / retention authorization: [ ]

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
TMP-001: customer requests an invoice while QuickBooks is unavailable.
Record the request, amount, approval and follow-up owner.
After restoration, check for an existing invoice before creating one.
Record the final invoice ID and reviewer sign-off.

Continue normal payment verification and approval controls.
Do not collect full card details, banking credentials or passwords in this log.
Verify bank-change requests using a known, independent contact method.
Do not improvise payroll calculations; use accountant/payroll-approved steps.
Restrict access and prevent uncontrolled copies. Preserve required records,
then securely remove redundant temporary data under the approved retention plan.

Practice decisions, test assumptions, and track improvements.

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BCS | TABLETOP EXERCISE AND AFTER-ACTION REPORT
Company / exercise date: [ ]   Facilitator / recorder: [ ]
Participants / roles / alternates: [ ]
Scope / objectives / plans tested: [ ]
Exercise only - no production changes without separate authorization.

SCENARIO
At 9 a.m., Microsoft 365 email, Teams and SharePoint become unavailable.
After two hours there is no reliable restoration estimate.
CRM uses Microsoft SSO. Payroll processing is due today.

INJECTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Owner unreachable. Who can activate continuity mode?
2. VoIP requires a fresh login. Can staff authenticate without Microsoft?
3. Contact list is only in SharePoint. Where is the controlled alternate copy?
4. Critical document is online-only. What data can the team actually access?
5. QuickBooks is also unavailable. What is the approved deadline procedure?
6. Outage continues into tomorrow. Which work pauses and who tells customers?
7. Services return. How are offline edits and temporary records reconciled?

For each inject record:
Time / decision / authorized decision maker / action owner: [ ]
Information available / assumptions / unresolved questions: [ ]

TECHNICAL VALIDATION - schedule separately as needed.
Fresh fallback login; calls, meetings, chat and SMS.
Access to offline documents, exports, runbooks and credentials.
Representative backup restore/export and access outside the failed platform.
Record actual result and elapsed time, not only a verbal assurance.

AFTER-ACTION REPORT
Objectives met / strengths: [ ]
Gaps / business consequences / priority: [ ]
Corrective action / owner / due date / evidence required: [ ]
Retest date / result / closure approval: [ ]
Management approval / plan version updated: [ ]

BCS recommendation: an initial exercise, then at least annually and after
major changes; shorter focused checks more often for critical dependencies.
This is a suggested cadence, not a universal compliance requirement.