Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, two technology related concepts often used interchangeably are quite different in focus. Disaster Recovery, the process of saving and recovering data is only a part of a Business Continuity Plan.Business Continuity focuses on the business itself, ensuring continued business operations in the face of a disaster. Early in 2018, URAC added another layer of security to our Business Continuity Plan by enhancing URAC Staff access to AccreditNet 2.0. 

Previously, when logging into AccreditNet 2.0, URAC staff login and password information was validated using a physical server, located in the URAC server room, behind the URAC firewall. Taking advantage of Cloud technology, we are now using a server hosted in the Microsoft Azure Cloud to process URAC staff AccreditNet 2.0 log in requests.

This change means that in the event of a server outage within the DC offices, AccreditNet 2.0 will still be available to our staff. The change has been seamless, with no difference for the staff logging into AccreditNet 2.0. The AccreditNet application is hosted by our vendor, AINS. By providing this alternative login path, URAC eliminates a potential single point of failure, the physical server located in the D.C. office server room.