Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are risk management strategies that businesses rely on to prepare for unexpected incidents. While the terms are closely related, there are some key differences worth considering when choosing which is right for you:

  • Business continuity plan (BCP): A BCP is a detailed plan that outlines the steps an organization will take to return to normal business functions in the event of a disaster. Where other types of plans might focus on one specific aspect of recovery and interruption prevention (such as a natural disaster or cyberattack), BCPs take a broad approach and aim to ensure an organization can face as broad a range of threats as possible.
  • Disaster recovery plan (DRP):  More detailed in nature than BCPs, disaster recovery plans consist of contingency plans for how enterprises will specifically protect their IT systems and critical data during an interruption. Alongside BCPs, DR plans help businesses protect data and IT systems from many different disaster scenarios, such as massive outages, natural disasters,  ransomware  and  malware  attacks, and many others.
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR): Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) can be approached together or separately depending on business needs. Recently, more and more businesses are moving towards practicing the two disciplines together, asking executives to collaborate on BC and DR practices rather than work in isolation. This has led to combining the two terms into one, BCDR , but the essential meaning of the two practices remains unchanged.

Regardless of how you choose to approach the development of BCDR at your organization, it’s worth noting how quickly the field is growing worldwide. As the results of bad BCDR like data loss and downtime become more and more expensive, many enterprises are adding to their existing investments. Last year, companies worldwide were poised to spend USD 219 billion on cybersecurity and solutions, a 12% increase from the year before according to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) (link resides outside ibm.com).

Why are business continuity and disaster recovery plans important?

Business continuity plans (BCPs) and disaster recovery plans (DRPs) help organizations prepare for a broad range of unplanned incidents. When deployed effectively, a good DR plan can help stakeholders better understand the risks to regular business functions that a particular threat may pose. Enterprises that don’t invest in business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) are more likely to experience data loss, downtime, financial penalties and reputational damage due to unplanned incidents.

Here are some of the benefits that businesses who invest in business continuity and disaster recovery plans can expect:

  • Shortened downtime: When a disaster shuts down normal business operations, it can cost enterprises hundreds of millions of dollars to get back up and running again. High-profile  cyberattacks  are particularly damaging, frequently attracting unwanted attention and causing investors and customers to flee to competitors who advertise shorter downtimes. Implementing a strong BCDR plan can shorten your recovery timeframe regardless of the kind of disaster you face.
  • Lower financial risk: According to  IBM’s recent Cost of Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach was USD 4.45 million in 2023—a 15% increase since 2020. Enterprises with strong business continuity plans have shown they can reduce those costs significantly by shortening downtimes and increasing customer and investor confidence.
  • Reduced penalties: Data breaches can result in large penalties when private customer information is leaked. Businesses that operate in the healthcare and personal finance space are at a higher risk because of the sensitivity of the data they handle. Having a strong business continuity strategy in place is imperative for businesses that operate in these sectors, helping keep the risk of heavy financial penalties relatively low.

How to build a business continuity disaster recovery plan

Business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) planning is most effective when businesses take a separate but coordinated approach. While business continuity plans (BCPs) and disaster recovery plans (DRPs) are similar, there are important differences that make developing them separately advantageous:

  • Strong BCPs focus on tactics for keeping normal operations running before, during and immediately following a disaster. 
  • DRPs tend to be more reactive, outlining ways to respond an incident and get everything back up and running smoothly.

Before we dive into how you can build effective BCPs and DRPs, let’s look at a couple of terms that are relevant to both:

  • Recovery time objective (RTO):  RTO refers to the amount of time it takes to restore business processes after an unplanned incident. Establishing a reasonable RTO is one of the first things businesses need to do when they’re creating either a BCP or DRP. 
  • Recovery point objective (RPO):  Your business’ recovery point objective (RPO) is the amount of data it can afford to lose in a disaster and still recover. Since data protection is a core capability of many modern enterprises, some constantly copy data to a remote  data center  to ensure continuity in case of a massive breach. Others set a tolerable RPO of a few minutes (or even hours) for business data to be recovered from a backup system and know they will be able to recover from whatever was lost during that time.

How to build a business continuity plan (BCP) 

While each business will have slightly different requirements when it comes to planning for business continuity, there are four widely used steps that yield strong results regardless of size or industry.

1. Run a business impact analysis 

Business impact analysis (BIA) helps organizations better understand the various threats they face. Strong BIA includes creating robust descriptions of all potential threats and any vulnerabilities they might expose. Also, the BIA estimates the likelihood of each event so the organization can prioritize them accordingly.

2. Create potential responses

For each threat you identify in your BIA, you’ll need to develop a response for your business. Different threats require different strategies, so for each disaster you might face it’s good to create a detailed plan for how you could potentially recover.

3. Assign roles and responsibilities

The next step is to figure out what’s required of everyone on your disaster recovery team in the event of a disaster. This step must document expectations and consider how individuals will communicate during an unplanned incident. Remember, many threats shut down key communication capabilities like cellular and Wi-Fi networks, so it’s wise to have communication fallback procedures you can rely on.

4. Rehearse and revise your plan

For each threat you’ve prepared for, you’ll need to constantly practice and refine BCDR plans until they are operating smoothly. Rehearse as realistic a scenario as you can without putting anyone at actual risk so team members can build confidence and discover how they are likely to perform in the event of an interruption to business continuity.

How to build a disaster recovery plan (DRP)

Like BCPs, DRPs identify key roles and responsibilities and must be constantly tested and refined to be effective. Here is a widely used four-step process for creating DRPs.

1. Run a business impact analysis

Like your BCP, your DRP begins with a careful assessment of each threat your company could face and what its implications could be. Consider the damage each potential threat could cause and the likelihood of it interrupting your daily business operations. Additional considerations could include loss of revenue, downtime, cost of reputational repair (public relations) and loss of customers and investors due to bad press.

2. Inventory your assets

Effective DRPs require you to know exactly what your enterprise owns. Regularly perform these inventories so you can easily identify hardware, software, IT infrastructure and anything else your organization relies on for critical business functions. You can use the following labels to categorize each asset and prioritize its protection—critical, important and unimportant.

  • Critical:  Label assets critical if you depend on them for your normal business operations.
  • Important:  Give this label to anything you use at least once a day and, if disrupted, would impact your critical operations (but not shut them down entirely).
  • Unimportant:  These are the assets your business owns but uses infrequently enough to make them unessential for normal operations.

Like in your BCP, you’ll need to describe responsibilities and ensure your team members have what they need to perform them. Here are some widely used roles and responsibilities to consider:

  • Incident reporter:  Someone who maintains contact information for relevant parties and communicates with business leaders and stakeholders when disruptive events occur.
  • DRP  supervisor:  Someone who ensures team members perform the tasks they’ve been assigned during an incident. 
  • Asset manager:  Someone whose job it is to secure and protect critical assets when a disaster strikes. 

4. Rehearse your plan

Just like with your BCP, you’ll need to constantly practice and update your DRP for it to be effective. Practice regularly and update your documents according to any meaningful changes that need to be made. For example, if your company acquires a new asset after your DRP has been formed, you’ll need to incorporate it into your plan going forward or it won’t be protected when disaster strikes.

Examples of strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans

Whether you need a business continuity plan (BCP), a disaster recovery plan (DRP), or both working together or separately, it can help to look at how other businesses have put plans in place to boost their preparedness. Here are a few examples of plans that have helped businesses with both BC and DR preparation.

  • Crisis management plan:  A good crisis management plan could be part of either business continuity or disaster recovery planning. Crisis management plans are detailed documents that outline how you’ll manage a specific threat. They provide detailed instructions on how an organization will respond to a specific kind of crisis, such as a power outage, cybercrime or natural disaster; specifically, how they’ll deal with the hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute pressures while the event is unfolding. Many of the steps, roles and responsibilities required in business continuity and disaster recovery planning are relevant to good crisis management plans.
  • Communications plan:  Communications plans (or comms plans) equally apply to business continuity and disaster recovery efforts. They outline how your organization will specifically address PR concerns during an unplanned incident. To build a good comms plan, business leaders typically coordinate with communications specialists to formulate their communications plans. Some have specific plans in place for disasters that are deemed both likely and severe , so they know exactly how they’ll respond.
  • Network recovery plan:  Network recovery plans help organizations recover interruptions of network services, including internet access, cellular data, local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Network recovery plans are typically broad in scope since they focus on a basic and essential need—communication—and should be considered more on the side of business continuity than disaster recovery. Given the importance of many networked services to business operations, network recovery plans focus on the steps needed to restore services quickly and effectively after an interruption.
  • Data center  recovery plan: A data center recovery plan is more likely to be included in a BCP than a DRP because of its focus on data security and threats to IT infrastructure. Some common threats to data backup include overstretched personnel, cyberattacks, power outages and difficulty following compliance requirements. 
  • Virtualized recovery plan:  Like a data center plan, a virtualized recovery plan is more likely to be part of a BCP than a DRP because of a BCP’s focus on IT and data resources. Virtualized recovery plans rely on  virtual machine (VM)  instances that can swing into operation within a couple of minutes of an interruption. Virtual machines are representations/emulations of physical computers that provide critical application recovery through high availability (HA), or the ability of a system to operate continuously without failing.

Business continuity and disaster recovery solutions 

Even a minor interruption can put your business at risk. IBM has a wide range of contingency plans and disaster recovery solutions to help prepare your business to face a variety of threats including cloud backup and disaster recovery capabilities and security and resiliency services.

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Many professionals operate under the assumption that their workplace will remain largely unchanged from one day to the next, finding comfort in rhythms and routines. Sometimes, however, events disrupt business as usual. A critical aspect of leadership is preparing for those interruptions, creating strategies and plans that can keep core business functions intact even under duress.

Two specific fields address potential business interruptions: business continuity and disaster recovery. These disciplines minimize the impact that a catastrophic event might have on a business’s ability to reliably deliver its products and services.

While both fields are important, and even similar in some aspects, they are not synonymous. There are important differences in business continuity vs. disaster recovery, and those in leadership or emergency preparedness roles can benefit from understanding the core distinctions.

One way to develop a clear understanding of business continuity vs. disaster recovery is through studying emergency management. An online program in this field can offer professionals the skills needed to successfully lead companies through different kinds of crises.

Why Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Matter

Business continuity outlines exactly how a business will proceed during and following a disaster. It may provide contingency plans, outlining how the business will continue to operate even if it has to move to an alternate location. Business continuity planning may also take into account smaller interruptions or minor disasters, such as extended power outages.

Disaster recovery refers to the plans a business puts into place for responding to a catastrophic event, such as a natural disaster, fire, act of terror, active shooter or cybercrime. Disaster recovery involves the measures a business takes to respond to an event and return to safe, normal operation as quickly as possible.

The Importance of Advanced Planning

When businesses face disasters and don’t have the proper plans in place, the effects can be catastrophic. The most obvious effect is financial loss; the longer a business goes without delivering its products and services, the greater its financial losses. Eventually, these losses may force a business to make tough decisions, such as cutting employees. But there can also be technological consequences, including the loss of important or sensitive data.

Having business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place can help companies minimize the consequences of a catastrophic event. They can also provide peace of mind; employees and business owners alike may feel more comfortable in a work setting where there are clear policies for how to respond to disasters.

In many companies, crisis management professionals are responsible for developing and implementing these plans, evaluating and revising them as needed, and training employees to ensure they know how to follow the specified strategies.

Similarities Between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning often seem interdependent. While the two concepts are not the same, they overlap in some areas and work best when developed in tandem.

  • Both are proactive strategies that help a business prepare for sudden, cataclysmic events. Instead of reacting to a disaster, both disciplines take a preemptive approach, seeking to minimize the effects of a catastrophe before it occurs.
  • Businesses can use both to prepare for a range of ecological and human-made disasters. Business continuity and disaster recovery are instrumental to preparing for pandemics, natural disasters, wildfires and even cyberattacks.
  • Both require regular review, and they may sometimes require revision to ensure they match the company’s evolving goals. An emergency management leader will continually test and modify these plans as needed.

Differences Between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

A closer look at business continuity vs. disaster recovery reveals some key distinctions. Ultimately, these differences highlight the fact that businesses need to have plans of both kinds in place to be sufficiently prepared for disaster.

  • Business continuity focuses on keeping business operational during a disaster, while disaster recovery focuses on restoring data access and IT infrastructure after a disaster. In other words, the former is concerned with keeping the shop open even in unusual or unfavorable circumstances, while the latter focuses on returning it to normal as expediently as possible.
  • Unlike business continuity plans, disaster recovery strategies may involve creating additional employee safety measures, such as conducting fire drills or purchasing emergency supplies. Combining the two allows a business to place equal focus on maintaining operations and ensuring that employees are safe.
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery have different goals. Effective business continuity plans limit operational downtime, whereas effective disaster recovery plans limit abnormal or inefficient system function. Only by combining the two plans can businesses comprehensively prepare for disastrous events.
  • A business continuity strategy can ensure communication methods such as phones and network servers continue operating in the midst of a crisis. Meanwhile, a disaster recovery strategy helps to ensure an organization’s ability to return to full functionality after a disaster occurs. To put it differently, business continuity focuses on keeping the lights on and the business open in some capacity, while disaster recovery focuses on getting operations back to normal.
  • Some businesses may incorporate disaster recovery strategies as part of their overall business continuity plans. Disaster recovery is one step in the broader process of safeguarding a company against all contingencies.

Leadership in Times of Crisis

Crisis management is an important skill for all business leaders. In fact, crisis management draws upon many of the other skills necessary for business success. Analytical and problem-solving skills as well as flexibility in decision making are essential for assessing potential threats and determining how to proactively address them. Communication skills, both verbal and written, are necessary for articulating a plan and training employees on how they should act in response to a crisis.

“Leadership in managing crises can minimize the damage imposed by an incident while lack of effective leadership worsens the impact,” says Naim Kapucu, Pegasus Professor and director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida (UCF) . “Organizations should have leaders with crisis management competencies to effectively manage disasters and crises based on the contingencies and environmental and organizational factors.”

Crisis management skills matter because any company can experience a catastrophe that limits its ability to function as normal, and often it will have little time to pivot and adapt. “Crises are not a good time to reorganize adequately operating organizational systems, much less try to implement wholesale organizational changes or reforms,” says Kapucu. Having a plan in place, ready to be executed, can make all the difference. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark relief the uncertainty that businesses face and the extreme disruptions that can take place.

Programs such as the University of Central Florida’s online Master of Emergency and Crisis Management can help leaders fortify the knowledge, competencies, and skills they need to help their enterprises weather these times of crisis.

Crisis Management Careers

Crisis management is a key part of several careers. Each of the following positions offers a different level of leadership through tumultuous times.

Emergency Management Director

Emergency management directors develop and execute the plans that businesses follow to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies. Strong analytical, problem-solving, delegation and communication skills are essential. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual median salary for emergency management directors in 2019 was $74,590.

Disaster Program Manager

Disaster program managers may coordinate shelters, manage triage centers or organize other services in the wake of a disaster. These professionals must be skilled in remaining calm under extreme pressure; empathy and understanding are also important. The annual median salary for this role was around $48,000, according to May 2020 PayScale data.

Geographic Systems Information Coordinator

Geographic systems information coordinators use a wide range of data sources, such as land surveys, to help anticipate and prepare for different disasters. Technical skills and data analysis competencies are vital for success in this role. PayScale reports that the annual median salary for these coordinators was around $58,000 as of May 2020.

Emergency Preparedness Manager

Emergency preparedness managers are typically responsible for making sure employees and customers are safe. They may report directly to the emergency preparedness director, whose role is more comprehensive. The annual median salary of emergency preparedness managers was around $69,000 as of May 2020, according to PayScale.

Developing a Career in Emergency Management

Business continuity and disaster recovery plans help businesses prepare for worst-case scenarios; they provide peace of mind, a sense of stability and key safeguards against major loss and disruption. The University of Central Florida’s online Master of Emergency and Crisis Management (MECM) degree program helps professionals prepare for this important work.

The MECM curriculum exposes students to key emergency management skills, including developing, testing and communicating plans. It emphasizes the financial, ethical, political and practical dimensions of disaster response. Find out more about the MECM degree program today and embark on a new career on the front lines of crisis management.

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Business continuity vs disaster recovery: The difference explained

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If you’re in IT, you’ve definitely heard business continuity plans (BCP) and disaster recovery plans (DRP) mentioned together. Sometimes, these two are merged into one acronym spelled out as “BCDR”. And while BCP and DRP are closely related, they solve for fundamentally distinct issues.

Before defining their differences, it’s vital to understand just how important a role BCP and DRP play in an organization. Specifically, BCP and DRP help an organization continue operating. Disruptions in business are inevitable. Without a plan, the core functions of the business cannot run smoothly, and this can impact the bottom line.

For instance, when natural disasters strike small to medium businesses, many are never able to recover. Even if they initially recover, 25% of SMBs are out of business within a year following a disaster. And the number of costly disasters is only increasing. NOAA (National Centers for Environmental Information) reports that in the last five years, the number of billion-plus dollar disasters (adjusted for inflation) in the United States has increased to an average of 17.8 events per year , whereas the average between 1980-2022 was just 7.9 events per year.

Today we’ll examine the Venn diagram between BCP and DRP; how they complement each other, overlap, and combine to help protect a business from significant disruption during disasters.

Let’s dive in.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan spells out how an organization will continue to run while experiencing a disaster or major disruption. These can include things like natural disasters, data breaches, strong economic downturns, hardware failures, and human errors. The core goal of a business continuity plan is to keep the business’ core functions operational throughout the disruption.

A business continuity plan is tailored to the specific needs of your organization. However, the components listed below comprise the core of a strong plan.

Identification of critical business processes and resources

What are your business’ major functions? What resources are necessary to maintain those functions? Which processes should take precedence when a disaster occurs?

For example, if your firm is a food processing organization, some of the critical business processes could include:

  • Sourcing raw materials
  • Manufacturing products
  • Inspecting products for safety
  • Delivering finished products to retail stores and customers
  • Employee management and payroll

 Establish roles for participants and stakeholders

Another important component is a clause spelling out stakeholders and their roles. Knowing who’s responsible for what in times of disruption ensures a business runs smoothly throughout a disaster.

  • An emergency preparedness manager is responsible for ensuring employees and customers are safe.
  • An emergency management director develops and carries out the plan for the business to follow
  • A disaster program manager is responsible for organizing other services, including shelters or triage centers.
  • A large business may want to put together a committee of individuals responsible for different areas of the organization including technology and communication.

Detailed documentation

Every bit of data and workflow needs to be detailed and recorded in the BCP. When a disaster strikes, your organization will know exactly what to do and in which order since there’s a recorded blueprint decided upon beforehand. At minimum, evacuation policies need to be documented, contact lists need to be created and the participants and stakeholders listed above need to create plans for their areas of responsibility. If hazardous materials are at play, a separate plan needs to be made for handling. Disasters are chaotic; a documented plan helps make them less so. After a decision is made, write it down and store it somewhere that everyone knows about and can access.

Business impact analysis

What will the organization lose when a certain disruption strikes? For example, one cybersecurity report estimates small businesses lose almost  $8,600 an hour  during unplanned downtime, so being able to  protect your business from downtime  is paramount.

What specific losses will the organization incur? Organizations are faced with losses including declines to output and revenue, harmed reputation, impact of client or customer wellbeing, disruption to flow or delivery of services.

Defined (and documented) RTO and RPO

The recovery time objective (RTO) details how long systems, processes, or data can be impacted  without fatally affecting a business. For instance, if your RTO is 3 hours, operations must be running again within 3 hours of a disaster.

Conversely, the recovery point objective (RPO) outlines how much data an organization is willing to lose during a disruption. For example, if an enterprise’s RPO is 15 minutes, the organization must have a data backup every 15 minutes to achieve the RPO goal.

When creating your BCP, you’ll need to set the RTO and define the RPO. The goal of both is to minimize the chances of data loss and speed up the resumption of operations. But, it is not possible to have zero downtime or zero data loss. RPO and RTO can’t be based on hope or idealism but have to be based on what is realistically achievable (in terms of feasibility and cost), balanced with what is critical for business viability.

Testing in advance of actual disruption

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy” so… it’s probably best if that first encounter happens in testing. You will not be able to control for every eventuality but, the more you test and prepare the smaller your risk surface is. That’s why it’s critical to test how your plan holds up during a simulated disaster. Unfortunately,  23% of organizations never test their BCP or DRP . Don’t be one of those 23%; please.

There are a few ways to test your BCP. First, you can create a checklist. Second, walk through the exercises. And third, you can produce simulations and ensure your plan is built to protect your organization to the fullest.

A BCP test seeks to find out the following:

  • If the plan works when disaster strikes
  • Gaps and opportunities within the plan
  • Whether the business can meet its RTO and RPO goals
  • Whether the emergency communication plan will be effective

Testing your plan simulating the disruptions most likely to affect your organization is crucial. Data breaches or loss, human error, climate disasters, hardware failure, and power outages are common disruptions to test in advance.

Testing should happen once per year, and a commonly employed mechanism to do so is a  tabletop exercise .

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

A disaster recovery plan is detailed documentation showing how a business can quickly recover operations after an unplanned incident. For example, a data breach disaster recovery plan might include how it will restore data access and IT infrastructure after the breach. Even though they are often used interchangeably the DRP is usually a component of the business’ larger BCP. Every disaster requires continuity but not every continuity issue is as the result of a disaster. 

The main objectives of the DRP include the following:

  • Keep infrastructure and human resources safe
  • Guarantee continued business operations
  • Minimize financial losses
  • Protect organizational data
  • Prevent reputation loss
  • Limit liability

Below are the most vital components of the disaster recovery plan:

  • A summary of critical processes, resources, and systems
  • Stakeholders responsible for these processes, resources, and systems
  • Detailed steps to recover, restart, and reconfigure the critical processes and systems
  • RTO and RPO
  • Any other emergency and mitigation steps that are essential to recovering after a disaster

Before creating the disaster recovery plan , you’ll need to conduct a disaster impact analysis and document risks associated with respective disasters. Doing so helps you identify which resources are needed where and how long it will take to bounce back.

How are BCP and DRP Similar?

BCP and DRP both work to ensure that an organization’s core functions are not hindered in times of disaster. They take a proactive approach to protect the organization and minimize loss during disasters. When creating both plans, you’ll need to account for business critical processes, systems, and resources. You’ll also need to define the RTO and the RPO when creating both plans. Another essential overlap between the two is the need for impact analysis and testing before making the plan official.

Finally, neither plan is set in stone. Business continuity and disaster recovery plans require constant review to align with changes in IT infrastructure, organizational goals, and existing threats.

How Do BCP and DRP Differ?

BCP and DRP complement each other and overlap during planning, but they have different functions. For starters, the business continuity plan is typically focused on organization-wide strategic planning. A disaster recovery plan, on the other hand, details how an organization can continue to run specifically during or after a disaster.

A BCP broadly covers every necessary detail, including the resources, processes, IT systems, and stakeholders across the business and covers a variety of issues which a business may face (including things like succession planning). More importantly, the BCP outlines step-by-step what needs to happen during and after a certain disaster.

A disaster recovery plan is a fundamental part of the business continuity plan. Often the DRP focuses on IT and how an organization will recover or restore IT infrastructure, applications, and systems critical to business operations following a disaster (physical, cyber, natural etc).

Put simply: the key difference is that the DRP assumes something has already happened, while the BCP includes components intended to prevent issues in the first place.

Be Ready with CrashPlan

Disaster and disruptions don’t discriminate based on whether you’re a small business or an enterprise. If disaster strikes and you’re not prepared, you risk heavy financial loss, damaged reputation, and potential liability.

Business continuity and disaster recovery plans add a layer of protection for when disasters occur. They’re a proactive approach to ensure you’re minimally impacted by disruption. Data recovery is a critical piece of this puzzle; how can your operations continue after a disaster without access to your data?

CrashPlan’s automatic cloud backup gives you immediate, easy access to endpoint data after hardware failure, natural disasters, data breaches, or any other calamity.

Find out today how CrashPlan helps you safeguard and access your organization’s data during disasters.

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Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: What’s the Difference?

Written by Scott Vance on February 27, 2023

For a business to survive a disaster, having plans and processes in place beforehand is essential to ensure that you can continue to operate and recover quickly after a disruption. Therefore, every organization should prioritize business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

At first glance, these two terms can seem interchangeable or even redundant, but there are important differences that business leaders should understand when it comes to business continuity vs. disaster recovery plans.

Knowing about these two different kinds of plans and how to implement them can properly prepare business leaders for the challenges they may face when a disruptive event (such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, power outages, pandemics, labor disputes and equipment failures) occurs.

Here’s what you need to know about business continuity plans, disaster recovery plans and their similarities and differences.

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: Their Different Purposes

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

“Business continuity” refers to an organization’s ability to continue operations and maintain essential functions during and after a disruption.

Business continuity planning includes planning for operational procedures, staffing, communication and supply chain management. The goal of business continuity planning is to make certain that an organization can continue to function despite a disruption.

“Disaster recovery” refers specifically to the process of recovering and restoring an organization’s IT systems and data after a disruption. It involves creating and implementing a plan to recover critical systems and data, including backups and redundancies, so that the organization can resume operations as quickly as possible.

Disaster recovery planning is focused on minimizing downtime and ensuring that IT systems and data are restored as quickly as possible.

So what’s the difference between business continuity vs. disaster recovery?

Business continuity focuses on limiting downtime in the case of many different kinds of business disruptions, while disaster recovery focuses on restoring efficient IT system functionality after a serious disaster.

All business continuity plans should incorporate some aspects of disaster recovery plans. After all, in a disaster, businesses need to recover their IT systems to remain operational. But disaster recovery plans won’t cover the entire scope of planning and response that a full business continuity plan would.

Technology Considerations for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans

Technology considerations are a critical component of both disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Here are several considerations to keep in mind when it comes to your IT solutions:

Warren Averett Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery technology image

Data Backup and Recovery

Backing up critical data is essential to ensure that it can be restored in the event of a disaster. The backup system should be tested regularly to ensure that data can be recovered quickly and accurately.

Infrastructure Redundancy

To keep critical systems available during a disaster, you may need to implement redundant infrastructure, such as backup power systems, network connectivity and server hardware.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing services can provide a high degree of resilience and availability during a disaster. You may consider using cloud-based backup and recovery solutions or moving critical systems and applications to the cloud.

Remote Access

In the event of a disaster, remote access solutions can enable employees to work from home or other locations. You may need to implement secure remote access solutions as part of your business continuity and/or disaster recovery plan to make sure employees have the necessary hardware and software to work remotely.

Cybersecurity

Disasters can create opportunities for cyberattacks, so it’s essential that cybersecurity measures are in place and up to date.

Communication Systems

Communication is critical during a disaster, so make sure that communication systems are available and reliable. This may include using redundant phone systems, email, instant messaging and other communication tools.

Testing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans

For both business continuity and disaster recovery plans, testing is essential to ensure that it will be effective in a real-world situation.

Testing helps verify that the business continuity or disaster recovery plan is comprehensive and covers all critical aspects of the organization’s operations. It provides an opportunity to identify any missing components or areas that need improvement.

By conducting tests, you can also discover areas where the plans may need improvement (such as incomplete or outdated procedures, missing resources or inadequate communication channels) and help improve the organization’s preparedness for a disaster. It provides an opportunity to practice and refine response procedures, evaluate the effectiveness of communication channels, and identify any additional resources or training requirements.

A well-tested plan can help reduce downtime and minimize the impact of a disaster on the organization. By identifying and addressing gaps and weaknesses in the plan, the organization can ensure a more rapid and effective response to a disaster.

It’s also important to note that several industries have regulations that require organizations to have a disaster recovery plan in place and to be tested regularly. Evaluating the plan is necessary to ensure compliance with these regulations and to avoid penalties or legal consequences.

Warren Averett Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery testing image

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery : Which Do I Need?

So, which one do you need: business continuity vs. disaster recovery?

Both business continuity and disaster recovery planning are necessary so you can continue to function during and after a disruption. However, the specific needs of your organization will determine which one is more important.

For example, an organization that relies heavily on technology may prioritize disaster recovery planning, while an organization that relies heavily on supply chain management may prioritize business continuity planning.

Learn More About Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery

When disaster strikes a small or medium-sized business, the organization’s future depends upon how prepared the company is for the disruption. The cliché that failing to plan is planning to fail seems to hold in business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Don’t wait for a disruption to occur.

If you want to learn more about business continuity vs. disaster recovery plans, or if you’re ready to create or adapt these plans for your organization, connect with your Warren Averett Technology Group advisor directly, or ask a member of our team to reach out to you to get the conversation started.

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Disaster recovery plan vs. business continuity plan: Is there a difference?

Person evaluating the difference between a disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

Disaster recovery and business continuity are two terms often used interchangeably ' but doing so risks missing some of the key differences between the two strategies. To debunk the disaster recovery plan vs. business continuity plan debate, we look at:

  • What each means
  • Where the two are similar
  • How they differ
  • Why they are often confused
  • Whether your organization needs both

What is Business Continuity?

Definitions of a business continuity plan vary, as you'd expect; as with any corporate strategy term, there are different interpretations. But while definitions may diverge slightly, the general understanding is that a business continuity plan (BCP) is designed to ensure that your business can maintain its operations in the event of a disaster, whatever form that might take. On the other hand, a disaster recovery plan focuses on how your organization will recover and rebuild following any crisis. IT firm Phoenix NAP believes that 'Disaster Recovery (DR) versus Business Continuity (BC) are two entirely different strategies, each of which plays a significant aspect in safeguarding business operations.' Best practice business continuity plans follow a set pattern with some standard features. A comprehensive BCP will:

  • Identify the potential risks your business faces
  • Allocate responsibility, putting in place the teams you need to continue operations
  • Be built on best practice subsidiary and entity data
  • Make back-up arrangements for power, systems and communications
  • Prepare for recovery, identifying your disaster recovery team and the steps you will take to build back

This last point is where the potential 'grey area' between business continuity and disaster recovery starts to become apparent. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity planning and a vital element of a BCP. As well as planning for an immediate crisis-driven response, a business continuity plan should consider 'what happens next.' It's not just about how you deal with the immediate aftermath of a crisis, whether that's a cyber-attack, fire, flood, terrorist attack or any other human-made or natural disaster. It's about what you do next to restore operations on a more permanent footing. This is where the disaster recovery element of your planning comes in.

What is Disaster Recovery?

The disaster recovery plan and business continuity are very closely interlinked. Disaster recovery is the process of ' as you might imagine ' recovering after any business interruption or crisis. As InvenioIT puts it, 'A disaster recovery plan ...aims to answer the question: 'How do we recover from a disaster?'' What does a disaster recovery plan entail? It is typically a formal document, with details of steps needed to ensure you can recover rapidly from any disruption. IBM believes that a DR plan is more focused than a business continuity plan; as we said above, a subset of the BCP that focuses on how you recover your IT and systems to ensure operations return to normal as soon as possible. These formalized plans came into being in the 1970s. Businesses switched from being paper-based operations to ones dependent on systems and computer-based operations, technologies that require rapid response and clear action plans for contingency and recovery. Minimizing downtime by having recovery plans for your IT infrastructure and other operations means businesses can reduce the length and impact of any unexpected disruption.

Disaster Recovery Plan vs. Business Continuity Plan: How Do BCP and DR Plans Differ?

What is the difference between a disaster recovery plan and a business continuity plan? Given that you need to consider both business continuity and disaster recovery, it's worth exploring the two differences. Partly, as we mentioned above, the difference is about scope. The BCP is broad, while a DR plan will be more focused, looking specifically at how to get systems up and running in the aftermath of a disaster. An IT disaster can take many forms, from a localized hardware failure to a company-wide data breach ' and can have huge ramifications, with some 93% of businesses suffering an IT disaster going on to file for bankruptcy within a year . Another difference is in timing; the BCP should kick in as soon as a disruption is identified. Potentially, this means moving to back-up servers, power generators, remote working. On the other hand, the recovery plan tends to follow once the initial emergency response is in place, looking further ahead to determine how the business will rebuild and return to more normal operations. In either case, a written plan is vital, including a detailed business impact analysis that should be updated regularly. We've written before about the importance of keeping your business continuity plan up-to-date ' a lack of accurate data on your systems can significantly impact your ability to maintain operations and recover longer-term. Central to this is the need to maintain accurate information on all your entities and subsidiaries . Doing so enables you to methodically record the systems and technologies that will be impacted by an outage across the entirety of your organization. Once you're confident that you have captured all the applications and hardware you need to consider, your disaster recovery plan should include:

  • Detailed plans for restoring each of these critical applications and pieces of infrastructure
  • The timeframe for doing so
  • The people who need to be involved ' along with emergency contact details to ensure they can be contacted in the event of any communications interruption

The ramifications of a disaster can be significant for an organization, including lost income, reputational damage, regulatory breaches and associated penalties, financial or otherwise, and missed opportunities for business growth while recovery is prioritized. The 'disaster recovery plan vs. business continuity plan' debate, then, is slightly spurious ' because you clearly need both. Having defined plans, both to respond in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, and to recover following the initial crisis period, is essential. To help organizations with their planning, both for business continuity and disaster recovery, Diligent has long-standing expertise and a suite of solutions. The software supports businesses that manage entities, compliance and organizational documents, enabling companies to minimize and mitigate the risks posed by any disruption. You can find out more by getting in touch to request a demo.

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Business continuity vs. disaster recovery: What's the difference?

business continuity plan how to build

Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are often used in coordination with one another, or even interchangeably as terms. But they are two different things. With the pandemic making the importance of business continuity known, leaders should understand the key differences between BC and DR.

What is business continuity? The big picture

BC is a methodology that allows organizations to keep their business running in the event of a crisis and return to full functionality when the crisis ends. It’s a process of continuous improvement that reflects both internal and external operations, focusing on preserving the functionality of the overall business. This includes setting up preventative controls and managing employees and customers.

[ Also read: What does a business continuity plan include? 5 key elements . ]

BC planning revolves around the actions your organization must take during and following an event to ensure that the business can function as usual. You need strategies in place, for example, to respond when resources such as equipment, workforce, workplace, third-party vendors, IT services, and data are unavailable.

3 factors a business continuity strategy should address

BC planning must include all factors that are involved in normal business operations. Your response strategy must account for the following three key factors:

1. Communications

When a crisis occurs, communication with your employees, users, and shareholders is critical. Human resources (HR) plays a key role in ensuring active, consistent, and timely communication between your organization and the staff.

For external communications, social media is a vital tool to provide timely updates to outside stakeholders and users. When an incident arises, many users turn to social media first for acknowledgment and updates.

For example, if Netflix goes down, users won’t go to  Netflix.com  for information; they’ll head to Netflix’s social accounts. Take control of your message and have a plan in place for responding on social.

2. Workforce response

Workforce response is equally important in the event of a crisis. Your employees should know who to contact and what is expected from them – especially what to avoid doing. It’s your responsibility to keep your employees informed and educated on these matters.

As businesses grow and threats evolve, it’s critical for employees to be involved in the BC plan. Keep them updated about the event, your organization’s BC plan, and any changes in BC policies.

3. IT infrastructure recovery

BC planning also includes IT infrastructure recovery: How will you bring your IT systems back online following a disaster?

This is where DR comes into play. The recovery strategy typically involves the BC and IT teams working hand in hand.

What is disaster recovery? A subset of BC

Disaster recovery, as part of an overall BC plan, is about restoring your IT systems and operations as efficiently as possible following a disaster. DR includes the backup systems and IT contingency methods for your organization’s critical functions and applications.

The objective is to minimize business downtime and reclaim access to your vital IT infrastructure and operations – including data, hardware, software, networking equipment, power, and connectivity – so you can get back up and running.

Where BC and DR overlap – and where they don't

While DR is a subset of BC, there are times when it can – and should – be used without activating your entire BC plan.

If you experience a power outage, for example, and you have a reliable DR plan in place, you can fail over to your secondary site and be up and running with little or no disruption to your internal and external users. In such cases, you wouldn’t need to invoke your entire BC plan.

BC can also act independently of DR, as long as the event hasn’t impacted your IT infrastructure. For instance, if your organization is facing a public relations crisis, you need to get out in front of it by communicating statements to both internal and external stakeholders. But if there’s nothing wrong with your IT infrastructure, you’d only execute your BC plan.

Of course, your BC and DR plans often overlap. For example, if a wildfire takes out your data center, you need to enact your BC plan to communicate with those who’ve been affected and provide updates to your employees, customers, vendors, etc. But you must also invoke your DR plan to fix the affected infrastructure or fail over to your secondary site.

Planning for before, during, and after an event

BC is about more than just being prepared for an event; it’s about having plans in place for before, during, and after a disruption.

Suppose you’re hit with a cyberattack – you invoke your DR plan and quickly recover all your data. While your DR may have been successful, your BC plan must account for the aftermath of the event – which is often more important. The aftermath often revolves around communication.

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Eventually, the news that your organization was hit with a cyberattack will leak. How will you respond, and who will deliver the message? How will you convey the lessons learned to regain customer and shareholder confidence?

Your DR may end when you fail over and fail back following a disaster, but your BC encompasses the entire spectrum of an event.

[ Are you leading through change? Get the free eBook,  Organize for Innovation . ]

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Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery – Understanding the difference

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

It can often be confusing when talking about business continuity vs disaster recovery.  Not only is there an overlap in between business continuity (BCP) and disaster recovery (DR), but these terms are often used interchangeably, which further adds to the confusion.

Simply put, the purpose of business continuity is to ensure that critical business functions work continuously with minimal downtime in case of disruption. On the other hand, disaster recovery aims to restore business processes as soon as possible.

Presented below is a detailed explanation of these terms, what they are, how they overlap, and what makes them distinct from one another.

On this page:

Understanding Business Continuity

What is disaster recovery, what is the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery, how do they work together – where business continuity and disaster recovery overlap, business continuity vs disaster recovery – does your business need one, or both, business continuity: risk management, business continuity planning: risk assessment, how to start disaster recovery planning.

Business continuity is a way of temporarily addressing the disruption until the issue can be fixed.   In the event of a disruption, to ensure that your organization can continue to operate, you need to undertake business continuity planning exercise.

As an example, say your office experiences flooding. A business continuity plan (BCP) details the actions, processes, and responsibilities required to secure your essential assets, continue your critical business processes, and ensure staff still have somewhere to work from. Such steps may include the setting up of a temporary office or arranging for your employees to work from home.   

Business continuity plans usually focus on business applications and online systems, network and telecommunications services, and network and server access. Effective business continuity plans can enable a business to get its systems back up and running promptly, limiting damage to your organizations’ productivity.  

Business continuity planning starts with a risk assessment, and business impact analysis (BIA) to determine the scope of the plan, regulatory, and legal obligations. These first two steps form the foundation of the BCP, allowing you to gauge the risk and impact of any potential disruption to your business.

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

A business continuity plan must have an alternative to maintain customer service in case of disruption. These alternatives can include data backup, emergency office locations, and emergency IT administrative rights. Moreover, the BCP must outline clear risk management strategies and set clear objectives for measuring success.

The process of dealing with interruptions in business operations due to natural disasters, power outages, and human errors is called disaster recovery (DR). DR focuses on the immediate mitigation of any damage caused by a disaster.

When it comes to business continuity vs disaster recovery, disaster recovery is the process of resolving a disruption by identifying the incident source and applying a way to fix it. As such, most disaster recovery plans (DRP) focus on specific deadlines that must be met, and are very technical to prevent significant damage in the event of a catastrophic incident.

Disaster recovery plans will include RTOs (recovery time objectives) , which state how soon a product, service or activity must become available following an incident. The failure to meet the RTO will result in the levels of disruption escalating.

In the previous example of a flood: your business should address any likelihood that your computer systems may become water-damaged.  As such, you may mitigate this by restoring your systems from a backup to new computer hardware. The RTO will be duration it takes to restore the data to new hardware, which could be from a couple of hours, to up to a few days or weeks.

In this scenario, your business will need to find a way to continue to operate without its systems for the duration of the RTO, i.e. the time taken to restore your data to new systems.  There will likely be other issues too, such as addressing the cause and any broader damage.

Business continuity plans are determined according to the estimated recovery time. BCP is no longer in operation once the business can return to its original setup, having fixed every part of the organization that is impacted.

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When it comes to business continuity vs disaster recovery, the key difference between business continuity and disaster recovery is when the action plan takes effect.

Disaster recovery forms a part of your overall business continuity plan (BCP), a subset of your broader BCP, forming part of the “mitigate” and “recover” portion of your business continuity plan.

For example, in business continuity, you have to keep your processes functional during and after the event. On the other hand, disaster recovery focuses on how to return to normal when the event has been completed.

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery - differences

Business continuity aims to keep your business operational in the event of a disruption, enabling a return to full normal business operations after the end of the crisis.

BCP, or business continuity planning, focuses on preserving the functionality of the overall business, through continuous improvement in both internal and external operations, including the set up of preventative controls and management of customers and employees.

Disaster recovery aims to restore your operations and IT systems as quickly and efficiently as possible following a catastrophic incident. Disaster recovery includes the IT contingency methods and mechanisms, such as data backup, for your critical business applications and functions.

Disaster recovery planning aims to minimize business downtime, maintaining, where possible, access to your critical IT infrastructure and operations, such as data, hardware, software, networking equipment, power, and connectivity, to get your business back up and running.

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business continuity planning establishes the blueprint to enable you to maintain business processes and procedures as close to “business as usual”.  Disaster recovery planning, on the other hand, focuses on the tools and solutions needed to restore your affected technology and data.

While disaster recovery is a component of business continuity, there instances when disaster recovery plans can be activated without invoking your broader business continuity plan.

For example, if you experience a power outage, you will have a reliable disaster recovery plan in place, allowing you to failover to a secondary site and be back up and running with minimal disruption to your employees and customer. In such a scenario, your entire business continuity plan would not need to be activated.

Provided any incident has not impacted your data, IT systems or IT infrastructure, business continuity can be invoked independently of your disaster, in certain instances.

If, for example, your business is facing a public relations crisis, you may need to issue statements to both internal and external stakeholders, to come out of the crises. Since there is no impact on your IT infrastructure, only your business continuity plan will be activated.

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Of course, as in the flood example given earlier, your business continuity and disaster recovery plans can overlap.

Having understood the differences in disaster recovery and business continuity, it now becomes clear that you need both .

Having a business continuity plan, without a disaster recovery element to it, will cause most businesses to scramble to try and fix the technology crucial to your business operations.

The lack of a disaster recovery strategy will take you longer to identify and implement a fix in the event of a catastrophic incident, significantly impacting your business.

On the other hand, while a disaster recovery strategy will enable you to fix and restore your technology and data quickly, the lack of a broader business continuity plan will hamper productivity and communication, severely impacting your ability to manage your teams proactively to ensure the maintenance of service, consistency, and recovery from a disaster.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Most of the time, business continuity risks are manageable. You can quickly identify natural disasters, but it’s not easy to identify cyber events. It depends on your business location; for example, your office or business is in an area where the risk of a hurricane is always there, so you can expect business interruptions from a hurricane.

You also need to take IT risks into account. DDoS attacks are on the rise, and these attacks cause servers to slow down or stop working. Regardless of the service you provide, these attacks can interrupt your business. So there should be a proper plan for risk identification and mitigation.

It is similar to other risk identification processes , and you need to understand the IT infrastructure. It would help if you considered the following questions.

  • What software, systems, information, and networks are critical for maintaining business operations? How are all these connected?
  • Which cyber attacks threaten this software, systems, and networks?
  • How could natural disasters affect these systems?
  • Which third-party vendors are critical for maintaining business operations?
  • What action plans and measures are in place to prevent cyber risks to our software and systems?
  • What measures are in place to prevent third-party vendors from affecting our business operations?
  • Do we have a data encryption system in place for remote access in case of a business interruption?
  • Do we have a data backup and recovery systems in place?
  • Can we maintain the endpoint encryption in case of a business interruption?
  • Is there a system to maintain emergency administrative authorization to keep business running?

All these questions can help in the risk identification process.

When you have created a risk list for potential software, system, network, and third-party outages, you need to establish a policy to recover from these interruptions and get back to normal. For disaster recovery planning, you need to consider the following questions:

  • Do we have a detailed written plan and chain of command for recovering from these interruptions?
  • Who will do the recovery tasks?
  • Do we have any specific timeline for disaster recovery?
  • Which documentation is required for full recovery?
  • How to recover business data ?
  • How to get back to normal operations once the event is over?
  • How can we measure our compliance with user authorization policy?
  • How to measure the efficiency of event response?
  • How to document all the corrective actions?
  • Is there any process to interview individuals involved in the process of disaster recovery?

These questions can help create a proper disaster recovery plan.

A disaster recovery plan provides assurances to the survival of your business, both during and after a disaster.  When formulating your disaster recovery plan, you should consider, and include both RTO and RPO, to ensure your business can recover effectively from a disaster.

Recovery time objective (rto) – helps to calculate how quickly your business needs to recover it infrastructure and services in the event of a disaster or incident to maintain business continuity., recovery point objective (rpo) – this is the maximum tolerable amount of data your business can ‘afford’ to lose. rpo is a useful metric for determining how often your business should perform data backups., for instance, you identify an rto of 4 hours for your business, and your systems are capable of a 2 hour restore time. consequently, it would be unnecessary to make a large investment in hardware/software to decrease the restore time to 1 hour, as the existing capability of a 2 hour restore time meets business needs..

  • Understanding business continuity and crisis management
  • Creating a business continuity plan
  • Managing Technology Risks
  • Why all organizations need a data breach response plan
  • Using cloud computing to achieve business continuity
  • How to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment

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Lucy has more than 23 years of experience in the technology industry. Specialising in the cloud and telecommunications sectors, Lucy has previously worked in senior management roles within HR & Operations for major national and international organisations such as BT, O2 and more recently, Vodafone. Lucy is currently the Deputy Online Editor at BusinessTechWeekly.com

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Disaster Recovery vs Business Continuity: 5 Top Differences

Caroline Duncan : Jan 19, 2023 12:30:00 PM

business continuity vs disaster recovery

Table of contents

What is business continuity?

What is disaster recovery, 5 differences between disaster recovery and business continuity.

Business continuity plan vs disaster recovery plan: do you need both?

What to include in a business continuity plan

What to include in a disaster recovery plan, the risks of not having business continuity and disaster recovery plans, why communication is critical in disaster situations.

The term business continuity is used to describe a business's process to remain operational during and after a disaster. This includes contingency planning for how a company will operate, who will carry out particular roles, where the business will operate from, and what effects this will have on normal business operations.

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Disaster recovery is a term that describes the plans a company puts into place that it will use to respond to a disaster or other critical event. This can include natural disasters, fire, data loss, cyber-attacks, terrorism, accidents, active shooters and other incidents that have the ability to hamper the business’ operations. Disaster recovery plans help to guide the organization in its response to the incident or event and provide guidance on returning to usual operations safely.

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What is the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery? There are some similarities between the two planning processes: they empower a business with proactive strategies to help it prepare for a catastrophic event. However, there are several differences that organizations should be aware of when it comes to business continuity vs disaster recovery:

  • Essentially, business continuity is a focus on keeping the business operational while a disaster unfolds and in its immediate aftermath. On the other hand, disaster recovery32 is a focus on restoring processes, systems and IT infrastructure and data following a critical event.
  • Disaster recovery plans often involve scenario planning and conducting preparedness drills and other exercises long before there is an actual incident.
  • The delivery of a business continuity plan is at a different time from a disaster recovery plan.
  • They have different goals: business continuity plans are concerned with limiting downtime, while disaster recovery plans are concerned with ensuring the company doesn’t suffer from inefficient systems functions.
  • Business continuity is concerned with functioning in some capacity, albeit possibly reduced. Disaster recovery is concerned with getting back to normal business functions.
Real-life example of business continuity: Back in 2013, lightning struck the office building of a South Carolina based IT company that hosted servers for 200 clients. The company’s infrastructure was badly affected: cables were melted, computer hardware was burnt, equipment was destroyed and the office couldn’t be used at all.   The company had already implemented business continuity plans five years earlier that included relocating its client servers to a remote data server where continual backups were kept. Clients didn’t experience any issues, and employees had to relocate to temporary office premises for a period of time.

Business continuity vs disaster recovery plans: do you need both?

In order to ensure business continuity or disaster recovery, it is essential to have formal plans in place.

While it is possible to have just one or the other, businesses really should have both disaster recovery plans (DRP) and business continuity plans (BCP) in place to successfully navigate and recover from a disaster. While they are different, they do have some overlap and work well together to help minimize disruption and losses.

disaster recovery and business continuity-min

When developing a business continuity plan for your organization, you need to consider the following:

  • Create a list of all the critical business functions in your organization
  • Create a business impact analysis
  • Develop a range of different crises scenarios and consider how they could interrupt your business operations
  • Develop strategies to mitigate any vulnerabilities you have identified to maintain functionality in a disaster.
  • Identify employees who will have key roles in implementing business continuity processes.
  • Provide training to relevant employees
  • Review and evaluate your business continuity plan regularly.

The disaster recovery plan has some similar requirements and features to the business continuity plan. When developing one, you need to consider the following:

  • Identify people in your organization who should form a disaster recovery team.
  • Identify the critical processes and functions that could be affected by a disaster.
  • Identify potential disaster risks and consider how they could affect your business operations.
  • Design disaster recovery strategies and processes.
  • Devise back-up plans and procedures.
  • Ensure your employees are trained.
  • Test and maintain your plan on a regular basis.

Failing to be prepared for a critical situation or a disaster can have significant consequences for a business if it is caught out without appropriate plans.

This can include:

  • The inability for the business to function following a crisis
  • Reduction in productivity following a crisis
  • Financial losses
  • Reputational damage
  • Potential legal consequences, particularly if failure to plan and protect data results in regulatory violations
  • Death or injury to employees, customers, the public etc.
  • Complete data loss.

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When your organization faces a crisis, it is important that your keep employees informed from the outset.

You must send regular, relevant, concise and factual information to employees, letting them know what is happening and providing them with any instructions to follow if necessary. As the situation changes, you should keep updating your staff.

Failure to inform your employees can cause false information and rumors to take hold. This can lead to mistrust, mistakes and can even worsen the situation.

If you need to reach all your employees quickly, using IT alerting software or an emergency alert system is one of the most successful methods of doing so.

DeskAlerts combines both functions. It will enable you to send messages quickly to thousands of employees at once in a way that can’t be ignored. You can reach employees no matter where they are working: in the office, on the road, in a non-desk role or at home, all over the world. The system uses a variety of communications channels, including pop-up alerts , desktop tickers , digital signage and push notifications on mobile phones to ensure your messages get through.

We’ve prepared some examples to help you get started using DeskAlerts pop-up alerts:

Example of a business continuity message that can be tailored to suit your company:.

Important information for all staff.   There has been a [type of incident] that is affecting our operations at [location]. As a result the following services/activities are unavailable and/or have been significantly affected [list these here].   We are enacting our business continuity plan so that we can continue to operate, although in a reduced capacity. Our website, social media channels and call centers have been updated to keep our customers and the community informed about the situation. We expect that the situation will last for [time frame] and are doing everything possible to get back up and running as normal. We will keep you updated as the situation unfolds.   Staff who have been affected should [list what is required of them during this time]   Your patience and cooperation at this difficult time is appreciated.   [CEO name]

Example of a disaster recovery message that can be tailored to suit your company:

Important information for all staff.   As a result of [describe incident] our systems have been severely impacted. This is affecting [company name’s] ability to carry out business. We have now enacted our disaster recovery plan and we have a dedicated team working on resolving the issue and restoring our systems and data.   This issue is expected to take up to [estimated time frame] to be resolved. In the meantime, staff can [list what tasks or work you may have employees do in the interim]. Further information will be communicated as the situation unfolds.   Staff are reminded to maintain confidentiality about this situation and not to post on social media or talk to the press. Customers with questions can be referred to our call center who will have the most up to date information and will prevent misinformation or old information from being circulated.   Your patience and cooperation at this challenging time is appreciated.   [CEO name}

Any business can find itself mired in a disaster when it least expects it. Having robust contingency plans in place will help to ensure that the business comes out the other side still able to operate.

What are disaster recovery and business continuity plans?

A disaster recovery plan is designed to save and recover data and other business processes in the event of a critical incident. A business continuity plan is designed to keep a business functioning in some capacity when it finds itself involved in a critical incident.

How is business continuity planning different from disaster recovery planning?

Business continuity plans are concerned with establishing how business operations will function in the event of abnormal circumstances as a result of an emergency or disaster. A disaster recovery plan is concerned with how applications and systems will be reinstated and returned to normal operation.

What is the difference between BCM and DR?

BCM – business continuity management – is an organization’s ability to keep delivering its products and services during a disaster. DR – disaster recovery – is generally about technology and refers to how an organization recovers from an incident.

What is BCP in disaster recovery?

In the disaster recovery process, a BCP is a business continuity plan that describes the way a company may mitigate loss of business and define the requirements to continue operations in a disaster situation.

What comes first, disaster recovery or business continuity?

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery involves following a process. A company should have business continuity planning as the foundation of its disaster planning – therefore it needs to happen before disaster recovery planning.

Is business continuity a new name for disaster recovery?

Business continuity is different from disaster recovery. It is focussed on keeping a business functioning in some capacity after a critical incident.

What is the difference between DRP and BCP in cyber security?

There are some differences in disaster recovery versus business continuity. Business continuity planning involves strategic long-term plans for a business’s uninterrupted operations in the event of a threat or disruption. Disaster recovery planning is a short-term tactical plan used to deal with specific computing and other IT-related outages .

Learn more about cybersecurity in the workplace .

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By: Angela Cook on October 14, 2021

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: What Is The Difference?

What happens when a critical issue arises and affects the momentum of your company’s day-to-day business operations? Whether your business is faced with a major disaster, your business needs to have a plan in place for the business to operate normally again. 

When it comes to averting security risks and planning for a disaster, most businesses think that the terms business continuity and disaster recovery are interchangeable when they are not.

Running a business while preparing and planning for a disaster can be hard to do. At LDI, our Managed IT team, we first provide a complimentary IT Security Risk Assessment to assess our client’s current security posture. We then work closely with clients to create a business continuity or disaster recovery plan that aligns with their security needs and goals.

This article will first identify what a disaster is. We will then define business continuity and disaster recovery, along with how they’re different.  By the end of this article, you will be able to consider which suits your business.

What Constitutes As A Disaster? 

The practice of business continuity and disaster recovery revolves around the before and after events of a disaster. Events are often categorized as a disaster when they are pretty severe and stop a business’s operations from running normally.

These disasters often align with one of the two categories listed below:

Cybersecurity Disaster

Cyber attacks can include malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and ransomware attacks .

Essentially any attacks instigated by a malicious perpetrator who wants to gain access to your business’s confidential data, operating systems, and overall IT infrastructure.

Natural Disaster

Natural disasters include fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, industrial accidents, and even epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19.

These natural disasters are at times unavoidable and can affect a business’s entire IT infrastructure.

According to The Hacker News , IBM’s studies have found that human error has been a major contributing cause to 95% of all data security breaches. Common human errors such as an employee clicking on a link included in a phishing email or a malvertisement can lead to significant damage to your company’s data and operations. 

Whether your company faces a cybersecurity disaster or natural disaster, it’s best to know the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery to decide which is better for your organization.

What Is Business Continuity (BC)

Business continuity involves keeping your business operational while a disaster is in effect. 

Business_Continuity_vs_Disaster_Recovery-02

How? Well, a major part of business continuity is abiding by a business continuity plan (BCP). This plan typically begins with a business impact analysis (BIA) that identifies the plan’s scope and calculates the legal, contractual, and regulatory obligations associated with the disaster.

This analysis acts as the foundation for planning and justification of the costs associated with the business continuity program.

An IT security risk assessment and penetration test often get conducted simultaneously as the BIA; this way, the impacts that may affect your managed service providers (MSPs) can be considered.

Next, your BCP must include a documented plan for maintaining and continuing business operations when a natural or cybersecurity disaster occurs.

Business continuity means implementing risk management tools for your managed IT provider or in-house IT department to follow. 

Most importantly, a BCP will include practical alternatives that allow your business to maintain customer services and protect your data even though a disaster is occurring. A few helpful options may consist of data backup or relying on emergency office locations.

What Is Disaster Recovery (DR)?

Rather than finding a way to prepare for the damage a catastrophic event can cause, disaster recovery primarily focuses on getting your business back to normal. 

Business_Continuity_vs_Disaster_Recovery-03

While disaster recovery focuses mainly on restoring your IT environment and data access after a disaster, it also enables your business to return to full functionality after a disaster occurs.

Disaster recovery incorporates a set of tools and procedures that enable the recovery or continuation of your IT infrastructure and systems following a natural, cybersecurity, or human-induced disaster.

Moreover, a disaster recovery plan (DRP) can help your company transition from alternative business processes back to processes your business would follow regularly. 

A DRP will contain detailed instructions on how to best respond to unexpected disasters and incorporate strategies to minimize the effects of the disaster on your IT infrastructure and business operations.

This plan aims to help your business regain access to its data and critical IT systems after a disaster has occurred. A DRP ensures that your business can handle and respond effectively to a disaster.

What Is the Difference Between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? 

While business continuity and disaster recovery focus on helping businesses cope when disaster strikes, there are a few differences.

Here are two main differences to consider.

1. Different Priorities

Business continuity focuses on keeping your business operational during a disaster . In contrast, disaster recovery focuses on restoring your IT infrastructure and data access after a disaster.

Both business continuity and disaster recovery have different priorities, and it’s up to your business to choose which it wants to focus on should a disaster ever occur.

2. Different Plans

Another key difference between business continuity and disaster recovery revolves around when the plan for each takes place.  

Business continuity requires your business to keep operations functional during the disaster and right after . Disaster recovery focuses on dealing with the aftermath of the disaster.

While each includes an “after” response, disaster recovery mainly focuses on getting your business back to normal.

For example, let’s say a flood destroys your office’s IT equipment. A business continuity solution may allow employees to work remotely or from another office location that your business has unaffected by the flood.

However, this solution is not sustainable long-term because your company isn’t properly set up for remote work. This solution would not be a sustainable long-term solution.

Your disaster recovery solution would involve getting employees back in their original office location and incorporating ways to replace damaged equipment.

Which Is Right For Your Business?

The truth of the matter is, both business continuity and disaster recovery can help your business. Business continuity acts as a strategy that allows your business operations to carry on with minimal service downtime or outage. 

Disaster recovery plans focus on immediately restoring data and critical applications you are operating when a disaster occurs. 

Before deciding which one is suitable for your company, identify your priorities. It would also help clarify how long your company can wait to get back to full operation before it starts affecting your finances and reputation. 

If your business transactions occur mainly online, your business should prioritize data protection and disaster recovery. 

Suppose the disaster mainly affects the safety of your employees and the current work they’re completing. In that case, your business should focus on business continuity.

LDI’s Managed IT team takes a proactive and reactive approach to ensuring your IT environment is equipped to handle disasters. Our Managed IT team can help you craft a detailed BCR, DRP, or both.

Reach out to an LDI representative today to learn more about business continuity and disaster recovery options .

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Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery: Key Differences

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery, what are the key differences? This article reviews differences in priorities, timing, scope, and how these two plans overlap.

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he upheaval of the past few years has illustrated how important it is for businesses to prepare for all types of unexpected events. Natural disasters, public health emergencies, and malware can all potentially interrupt your business operations. While you can’t always prevent these types of disruptions, you can minimize their impact by developing strategic plans to keep your core business functions going even under adverse circumstances.

Business continuity and disaster recovery are terms that people often use interchangeably when discussing preparedness. However—while there is an overlap between the two ideas—each one addresses different aspects of handling business disruptions. This guide outlines the similarities and differences in business continuity vs. disaster recovery so you can develop a plan for both.

What is business continuity?

A business continuity plan outlines how you can keep your business running during a disaster or disruption. It’s not a plan to fix the underlying cause; instead, it’s focused on staying open so you can continue serving customers and generating revenue .

The pandemic disrupted business on a massive scale. Businesses that adjusted quickly were able to pivot and come out on the other side more resilient and profitable . Milwaukee Food and Tours temporarily changed its business model from offering in-person tours to delivering customized gift baskets, for example. Innovative Fitness made the shift from offering personal training in gyms to online sessions that focused on working out at home.

What is disaster recovery?

A disaster recovery plan outlines how you can identify and fix the source of the emergency. In some cases, such as a pandemic or hurricane, you can’t address the underlying cause alone. In others, such as a bug in your codebase, your internal team can fix it. Either way, you should have a plan in place to deal with elements that are within your control.

Cyberattacks are the most likely type of disaster modern businesses will face. Although you can and should take steps to protect your IT systems and data, even large corporations with almost-unlimited resources such as Microsoft experience cyberattacks. A business disaster recovery plan will help you mitigate the damage from all types of disasters, regardless of what caused them.

Key differences between business continuity and disaster recovery

It’s easy to mix up business continuity and disaster recovery plans because they’re both implemented in the event of a business catastrophe. However, understanding the differences between them will help you create more effective plans.

A business continuity plan prioritizes staying open for business and minimizing the impact of the disaster on daily business operations. A disaster recovery plan prioritizes dealing with the disaster itself and getting your systems back to their baseline as soon as possible.

A business continuity plan goes into effect as soon as you realize your business is going to be affected by a critical event. Your continuity plan comes first. The disaster recovery plan will come later, usually after the emergency has passed.

Business continuity is broader in scope than disaster recovery. It includes all factors that contribute to running your business, from back-end components such as your supply chain to front-end considerations such as staffing. A disaster recovery plan is more narrowly focused on restoring the elements that were damaged, such as your data and IT systems.

How a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan overlap

Despite their differences, there are also many ways that continuity and disaster recovery plans overlap. Understanding how they overlap can help you save time when you’re creating them. A business continuity plan should include your disaster recovery plan since it’s a comprehensive plan for responding to all aspects of business disruption.

Both plans require proactive risk analysis to identify potential threats and how they'll impact your business operations. You’ll also need to detail roles, policies, and procedures for both. Once you’ve implemented your plans, they need to be regularly evaluated and tested.

What to include in a business continuity plan

Your business continuity plan will be unique to the needs of your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. However, there are some elements that should be included in every business continuity plan .

Administrative details

The first part of your plan should include the purpose and objective of your plan as well as a detailed breakdown of your timeline and budget.

The governance section includes the names, roles, and contact information for everyone on the business continuity team. Outline who is responsible for what and whom each team member is accountable to.

Risk analysis and impact

This section will require research into the types of disasters that may occur in your industry or geographic location. While you’ll want to flesh out more common crises such as a cyberattack or banking fraud , you should also think about how rare events, such as a pandemic, could affect your business. Consider how each one could interfere with business operations, including what areas will be impacted.

Preventive and responsive strategies and procedures

Building on your risk analysis, you’ll be able to determine what your preventive and responsive strategies should be. Simply being aware of the possibilities may help you implement strategies that can prevent some types of disasters. For example, nearly 73% of small businesses in the U.S. have experienced a cyberattack. Cybersecurity awareness training can help your staff avoid falling for the most common types of cyberattacks and head off a catastrophe.

However, there’s no way to prevent all disasters, so you need to include detailed procedures for responding to and recovering from crises when they do occur.

Training and testing

Include a section that covers how you’ll train your staff and test your plan. Training plans should be tailored to each role. Your response team will need more detailed training, but everyone should receive basic disaster preparedness training.

Your plan should also include testing scenarios, from tabletop exercises to full-scale drills. As part of your testing procedures, evaluate your response and incorporate your insights into your plan.

What to include in a disaster recovery plan

Your disaster recovery plan is part of the responsive procedures included in your business continuity plan. It should be focused on identifying what elements of your business—particularly IT resources—will need to be restored in the event of a crisis and the procedures for doing so. It should include the following elements:

  • A comprehensive list of all your IT assets, including data backups
  • Your top-priority resources that need to be restored first
  • Procedures for restoring critical systems
  • Backup plans and procedures
  • Training and testing plans

Planning for how your business will deal with unexpected emergencies can help you recover quickly and stay in business longer. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use your plans, but in today’s turbulent business landscape, it’s better to be prepared. One critical aspect of emergency planning is having backups for all of your critical data.

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Incident response vs. disaster recovery vs. business continuity: what’s the difference.

Incident Response vs. Disaster Recovery vs. Business Continuity

In a world getting less predictable every week, good business leaders proactively prepare for cyber incidents with plans that anticipate and minimize disruptions. But as you start looking ahead, it’s easy to get confused about the differences between incident response plans, disaster recovery plans and business continuity plans. In this post, we’ll explain how the plans all weave together into a holistic strategy to protect your business.

Incident Response Plan

The IR plan is the overarching document that gives your team clear guidance on exactly what to do during incidents, data breaches, and other pressure-packed situations when it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If you realize you may be facing a cybersecurity incident, the IR plan will help direct your actions. Every good cybersecurity program puts a high priority on writing and regularly reviewing an IR plan . In many cases, you may be required to have one by industry regulators, your cyber insurance company, key customers who want assurance that you can handle incidents, etc.

Your IR plan will describe your specific:

  • Definition of an incident – A clear checklist helps your team recognize situations serious enough to set the IR plan in motion. The plan also should include criteria for identifying the next stage: an actual disaster that triggers the disaster recovery/business continuity (DR/BC) plan.
  • IR team structure with each person’s responsibilities – This list ensures you have the right voices in the room. It’s easy, for example, to include a lot of IT people and forget to include reps from HR, legal, PR, etc. Be sure to include an executive who can make things happen in a pinch. For each person, clearly describe what they’ll do during an incident.
  • Procedure for reporting incidents – The plan works only if the right people learn about the incident in a timely manner. Clearly explain how team members should report suspected incidents through the right chain of communication.
  • Guidelines for talking to outside parties – When do you tell your customers what happened? Who is allowed to talk to the media if they call? Your plan should anticipate those scenarios and describe what to do.
  • Structure for summarizing lessons learned – Create a method for debriefing the incident, clearly stating what happened and making adjustments as required.

Disaster Recovery

Note that many organizations combine the DR and BC plans into a single document that outlines the processes involved for declaring a disaster, the formulation of the Response Team Members, the processes necessary for a secure recovery, and finally the steps necessary to maintain the continuity of business operations. We’ll explain the differences in the documents here, but rather than fixating on rigid definitions, just make sure you have thorough plans in place.

The DR plan usually centers specifically on data and technology operations with processes for recovering information systems at an alternate facility in response to a major hardware or software failure or destruction of facilities. The DR plan explains, for example, how you can restore lost data, whether that means restoring a single system or an entire data center.

The DR plan will include details such as recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). These define, respectively, how long you can function without a service and how current the data must be when you restore it. For example, RPOs may tell you that restoring copies of training materials from 48 hours ago isn’t a problem. But if your business runs on current stock market trading data, the RPO will show that you need data to be current within a few minutes.

Business Continuity Plan

The BC plan describes how you’ll maintain operations during and after a significant disruption or an incident. The BC plan should include a triage process for restoring the most essential operations first, such as filling customer orders, making payroll, supporting business partners, etc.

Your BC plan will explain how you can maintain operations in situations such as:

  • Encryption of your data by hackers
  • Loss of power to your facility
  • Failure of a supplier to deliver key materials
  • Natural disasters

The BC plan rests on the foundations of an overall information technology risk assessment and a business impact analysis (BIA). The BIA specifically identifies potential operational implications of various scenarios. What happens to your business if, for example, you lose access to a certain database or cloud-based software? How long could you withstand such an outage without major damage to your business? In a BIA, you’ll seek to put an actual financial cost on various interruptions so that you can make informed investments in prevention and mitigation strategies described in your BC plan.

Essentials for Every Plan

For all three of the plans described in this post, be sure to include these key elements:

  • A designated point of contact (POC) and a leader charged with heading up the effort in a specific area. Many compliance frameworks and private contracts require you to name your POC.
  • A schedule for updating the plan. Many companies are sitting on plans that have never been revised to reflect a remote workforce, reliance on cloud-based services, etc. Commit to an annual review of the plan and update it to reflect the realities of your operations.
  • A schedule for testing the plan . At the simplest level, you should do at least annual tabletop exercises . But you may determine that your situation requires more extensive testing.

For help assessing your specific business risks and making a plan to mitigate them, contact Pratum today.

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Disaster Recovery vs. Business Continuity vs. Incident Response Plans

By: Jessa Mikka Convocar on July 28th, 2022

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Disaster Recovery vs. Business Continuity vs. Incident Response Plans

Cybersecurity | Data Backup

When starting a business, one of the main considerations is developing a plan that accounts for the possibility of a security breach occurring within the organization. Since breaches are not uncommon in the cyberworld's complex operations, you will need a contingency plan during worst-case scenarios.  

Unfortunately, many businesses don’t have comprehensive IT plans set up or don’t really know how each plan works for them. While others often get overwhelmed with all the acronyms and technological terms and end up with no plan at all.   

This security gap is an imminent danger to one’s business.   

ITS has been helping hundreds of businesses bolster their cybersecurity for nearly twenty years. One effective way to strengthen the network defenses is by helping them develop a strategic IT plan, or in this case, plans.  

You usually hear the terms Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan; most of the time, they go together. But there is a distinction between the two, as well as an Incident Response Plan.

Here, you’ll learn the differences and importance of each plan and understand why you need all three.   

when a disaster recovery plan is needed

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?  

A Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is a set of policies and procedures created by an organization that enables the recovery or continuation of vital IT infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster , such as:  

  • Data loss and failed backups    
  • Network interruptions  
  • Hardware failure  
  • Utility outages  
  • On-site threats and physical dangers  

We reached out to Jeff Farr, Intelligent Technical Solutions Security Consultant, to give a brief distinction of the three plans. Farr has extensive experience running MSPs with his 30 years in the IT industry.  

“Disaster Recovery is when you need to recover your technology... It has to do with the IT portion during the aftermath of a disaster.” he says.

For example, fire comes in and burns down a huge part of an office building, taking out the server room where all data is stored. The DR plan is to immediately start setting up servers in the Cloud before everything gets out of hand.   

However, just getting the servers back up does not mean the business will continue–that is why a DR should go hand in hand with a Business Continuity Plan.  

What is a Business Continuity Plan?  

The Business Continuity (BC) plan is a system for dealing with both internal and external threats. So, given that your IT team had already resolved the technical issues, the problem now is where would the employees work?   

“It may be that the employees don’t have desks, or all the office computers are burned to the floor. The problem may also be how they would get into the building because the fire department wouldn’t let them in.” Farr explains.  

A summary of a Business Continuity Plan strategy

A BC plan is a vital component in resolving the effects of a company disaster and addressing loss. It lays down the operational procedures of how the business can keep running amid certain limitations. The plan strategy can be summarized as follows:  

  • Defining and documenting the type of incident that occurred  
  • Responsibilities of the team during the incident  
  • Communication  
  • Assessment of the team  
  • Regular updating of the plan  

What is an Incident Response Plan?   

“Incident Response or IR is a cybersecurity term that denotes a security incident within the organization. It means something has happened. Maybe an unauthorized individual got into the network, or a malicious virus or ransomware infiltrated your connection,” Farr says.  

The incident could be a major one, such as all the computers getting hacked, or a localized one where only one computer isn’t working. Case in point, you have an incident, and you need a predefined plan of what you must do.  

Events when an incident response plan may  be needed

When a cyberattack or breach occurs, the Incident Response (IR) plan is a document that must guide the team through the recovery processes. It will be extremely beneficial if a company is equipped with complete information about the response procedures to any cyber incident . Such events may be:  

  • Disclosure of confidential information  
  • Asset theft or damage  
  • Unauthorized use of services and information  
  • Malware in the system  
  • Unauthorized modifications and access to organizational hardware and software  
  • Disruption of the network  
  • Failure of critical servers  

To carry out the IR as planned, an incident response team comprised of the team manager, security analysts, legal advisors, and public relations officers must be formed. They will be in charge of carrying out the plan.   

Do you need to have all three plans?   

The quick answer to that is, as Farr says, 100% YES.  

But since it could get confusing for some, Farr gives a simple explanation of how you can separate the three:   

  • Business Continuity is the way to get your business back up and running after something, a disaster or accident, happened.   
  • Disaster Recovery is the process of IT people trying to get technology back up and running. 
  • Incident Response is in the cybersecurity world where an IR team is trying to respond to the cybersecurity of a situation, and the trouble that comes after.   

Farr adds, “I don’t think you can have a Disaster Recovery Plan vs. Business Continuity Plan vs. Incident Response Plan without exaggerating the importance of all three. Always keep in mind that your IR should coincide and work with your DR and BC. They need to be coordinated without stepping on each other.”  

Need help setting up Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, and Incident Response Plans?   

While the objectives of the three plans differ, the goal is the same: to protect companies when it comes to the safety of their operation s. So having all three of them is essential to be prepared.   

But as a Managed IT Service Provider , ITS understands that building an extensive DR, BC, and IR plan demands great effort and resources. Just thinking about all the things that need to be done, not to mention the maintenance, may be quite overwhelming for your organization.   

That is where the expertise of a Managed IT comes in.   

Why You Need to Backup Your Data Before It Disappears

Related Resources

What is an incident response plan (and why you need it) [video], 10 tips for cybersecurity on a budget [updated in 2023].

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what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

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Business Continuity Vs Disaster Recovery

There’s lots of talk about business continuity vs disaster recovery plans, but what does it all mean?

If this year has tested your business to its limits, now that you have a little more breathing space, if you haven’t already got one, you may want to introduce a business continuity plan. But where do you even start when there’s are plenty of different plans or strategies that all sound rather similar?  Most importantly, what do we mean when we talk about business continuity plan Vs disaster recovery plan?

It can be difficult to understand the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery.

In this blog, we explain the differences, which will help you decide what you might already have in place and where you need to focus your attention.

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

What do we mean by Business Continuity Disaster Recovery?

If you want to understand business continuity Vs disaster recovery in more detail, you need to first understand what business continuity means. In simple terms, a business continuity plan ensures that in the event of a disaster happening or your workplace becomes inaccessible, your business can continue to operate with as little interruption as possible.

A disaster could be a natural disaster, or it could be related to theft, or even terrorism. However, it could also be (and is more likely to be) a cyber attack, human error, adverse publicity, or deliberate damage caused by a disgruntled employee – sadly, this does happen!

As we’ve seen for the best part of this year, a business continuity disaster recovery plan may involve being able to quickly mobilise employees to work from home.

What Must a Business Continuity Plan Include?

In IT disaster recovery terms, a business continuity plan must consider all possible eventualities that pose a risk to your business. Nobody saw the pandemic happening, but those who already had a business continuity plan that considered a national emergency and the need to pivot to working from home, found 2020 a lot easier.

Large global incidents aside though, you need to ask yourself a series of questions – something we always do when we put together a disaster recovery business continuity plan for our clients. The list of scenarios could be anything from a flood, through to your reliance on third-party suppliers and cyber attacks.

It’s important to create a business continuity plan that is bespoke to your business.

Here are some of the things your business continuity and disaster recovery strategy should plan for:

  • Temporary relocation of premises
  • Data backups
  • Remote working from home or another location
  • Reallocation of roles to staff
  • Using contractors and suppliers as a fallback
  • Ability to protect and restore personal data in line with GDPR

What is the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?

Having an IT Disaster Recovery Plan should be business-critical, yet only 30% of companies have one.

IT Disaster recovery is the term used to describe the returning of business operations to normal after a disaster. If daily business operations have been interrupted, your disaster recovery plan will transition your continuity measures back to normal processes.

There’s a very real threat facing business today though; assumptions are being made that a backup strategy is the same as a Disaster Recovery Plan. Sadly, it’s a contributing factor to 7 out of 10 small businesses folding within a year of a major data breach.

Do you know exactly how long it would take your existing backup solution to restore all your data? Considering over 33% of lost data is financial or customer information. How long could your business survive? These are answers you would confidently know if you had a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).

When thinking about business continuity vs disaster recovery, it’s much easier to consider the risks if you think of backup as a copy of your data and the Disaster Recovery Plan (or strategy) as the insurance that enables its recovery.

Things you should consider when creating a Disaster Recovery Strategy:

  • Who needs to be involved in the IT disaster recovery planning?
  • How will you recover from data loss or infrastructure failure?
  • Who will be responsible for various recovery tasks?
  • How frequently should we stress-test our DRP?
  • What are the benefits of outsourcing the process to a company like Agile?

As we discussed in our previous blog on cybersecurity, you’ll also want to be certain that your data is being backed up. Your data might be located on a server but exactly where is it and how is it protected?

You might also have heard of the term DRaaS. This stands for Disaster Recovery as a Service. Essentially, it’s a category of Cloud computing that protects applications and data from a disaster or service disruption at one location by enabling a full recovery in the cloud. This means that your business can operate virtually, in a secure cloud location, whilst your primary systems are being restored.

At Agile, we have our own DRaaS replication service . This involves replicating either your physical or virtual servers into our local data centre in Colchester, Essex. It’s a fraction of the cost of traditional IT disaster recovery solutions and DR systems.

What is Disaster Recovery Contingency Planning?

This is a really important point when exploring business Continuity Vs Disaster Recovery. A disaster reovery contingency plan prepares a business for any potential events that could significantly impact day-to-day operations. This could be anything from the loss of a critical member of staff through to physical and environmental disasters.

Within your disaster recovery contingency plan, you’ll need to consider which aspects of your operations are business-critical. This could be a ransomware attack, a core supplier or contractor entering insolvency, or dare we even say it, another SARS virus!

Plan for a broad range of possibilities and what will action your contingency measures.

So, What’s the Difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? 

Whilst they are related, it’s easiest to think of them in the following way:

  • A contingency plan is advanced planning to prepare your business for future events
  • A business continuity plan is a temporary solution to keep you up and running in the event of an incident
  • A disaster recovery strategy returns operations back to normal after a disaster has happened

In reality, a business needs a plan that encompasses all three. Here at Agile Technical Solutions, we can help you plan ahead.

Our business continuity and disaster recovery plans have seen our clients quickly pivot to home working this year. Moreover, in an environment where cyber attacks are on the increase, we put in place all the necessary protection and stress-test your systems with regular DR simulations.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch and find out how we can help you. Our initial consultation is always a complimentary one where we get to know you are your business.

Navigating the Waters: Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Kevin holland.

  • February 14, 2024
  • Business Continuity

Navigating Troubled Waters - Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Introduction

what is the difference between Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

When the unexpected happens, will your business survive? Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) contain crucial survival techniques, essential disciplines for any organization that wants to minimize downtime, protect data, maintain customer trust, ensure financial stability, comply with regulations, and maintain a competitive advantage. This article explores the intricacies of business continuity vs disaster recovery, unpacking their differences, synergies, and the criticality of both in safeguarding an organization’s future.

Table of Contents

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are essential components of any organization’s resilience strategy, enabling it to quickly resume operations after disruptions and safeguarding its operational, financial, and reputational health. 

Business continuity focuses on maintaining essential functions during and after a disruption, while disaster recovery focuses on quickly restoring IT systems and data.

Whether you’re a seasoned IT professional or a newcomer to the world of organizational risk management, understanding the detail and the interplay between BC and DR is crucial for crafting strategies that stand the test of time and disaster.

Understanding Business Continuity

Why do I need business continuity

At its core, business continuity is about ensuring an organization’s critical operations can continue during and after a significant disruption. The disruption could be caused by a natural disaster, IT failure, staff issues, cyber-attacks, in fact, just about anything.

Business continuity planning is a holistic approach that encompasses not just IT systems, but all critical business functions and processes.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) involves:

conducting a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to identify critical functions

assessing risks

developing mitigation strategies

creating and implementing a continuity plan

training employees

testing the plan through exercises

regularly updating the plan to reflect changes

establishing clear communication protocols.

These steps ensure an organization can maintain or quickly resume critical operations during and after disruptions, minimizing operational, financial, and reputational impacts. 

Understanding Disaster Recovery

what is disastery recovery

Disaster recovery, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused. It’s primarily concerned with the restoration of IT infrastructure and systems following a disruption.

This includes data recovery, restoring IT operations, and ensuring that technology infrastructure is available to support essential business functions.

Disaster recovery planning

Disaster recovery planning (DRP) is critical in the digital age, where data loss or system downtime can have catastrophic implications for businesses.

DRP involves a series of activities designed to prepare an organization for the quick recovery of its IT systems, data, and operations after a disaster. That can include a natural disaster as well as an IT failure.

The activities in strategies for disaster recovery include:

Risk Assessment: Identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities that could impact IT systems and operations.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA): Evaluating the potential effects of disruptions on business operations to prioritize recovery efforts.

Strategy Development: Formulating strategies to recover IT systems, applications, and data. This includes deciding on in-house recovery, cloud-based solutions, or contracting with third-party disaster recovery services.

Plan Development: Writing the disaster recovery plan, which outlines the steps to be taken before, during, and after a disaster to restore operations. This includes recovery procedures, roles and responsibilities, and communication plans.

Implementation: Setting up the disaster recovery solutions, such as backup systems, replication, and failover mechanisms, as outlined in the DRP.

Testing and Drills: Regularly testing the plan to ensure it works as expected and conducting drills to prepare the recovery team for actual disaster scenarios.

Plan Maintenance: Keeping the DRP up to date with changes in the business environment, IT infrastructure, and emerging threats. This involves regular reviews and updates to the plan.

Training and Awareness: Educating staff and the disaster recovery team on their roles in the plan and raising awareness about disaster recovery procedures and expectations.

Disaster recovery plan

A robust disaster recovery plan outlines specific actions to be taken in the event of a disaster, detailing recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) to minimize data loss and operational downtime. It’s not just about having backups; it’s about having a tested, reliable plan for restoring systems and data to normal operations as quickly as possible.

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business continuity and disaster recovery are two sides of the resilience coin, each playing a vital role in an organization’s preparedness and response strategy. While they share the common goal of safeguarding an organization against disruptions, their scopes, objectives, and planning methodologies differ significantly.

Having a clear understanding of these distinctions can empower organizations to develop more effective and comprehensive resilience strategies.

This comparative analysis underscores the complementary yet distinct roles of business continuity and disaster recovery within an organization’s overall resilience framework.

By integrating both BC and DR into their resilience planning, organizations can ensure a more holistic approach to preparedness and recovery, covering both the operational and technological aspects essential for sustained operations amidst challenges.

Exploring the Shared Elements of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Business continuity and disaster recovery, though distinct in their focus and objectives, intersect in several crucial aspects.

These shared characteristics underscore the importance of a unified approach to planning and implementation, enhancing an organization’s capability to withstand and recover from disruptions.

Recognizing these similarities is vital for developing integrated strategies that leverage the strengths of both disciplines.

By aligning BC and DR efforts, organizations can create a more resilient and responsive framework capable of addressing a broad spectrum of risks and disruptions.

This integrated approach not only enhances the effectiveness of individual plans but also reinforces the organization’s overall resilience strategy.

Integration and Interdependence

The interplay between business continuity and disaster recovery is a testament to their integration and interdependence. An effective business continuity plan incorporates disaster recovery as a critical component, acknowledging that IT systems are the backbone of modern business operations. This holistic approach, often referred to as Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR), ensures that organizations are prepared for a wide range of disruptions, from natural disasters to cyber-attacks.

Collaboration across departments is essential in BCDR, as it ensures that all aspects of the organization are aligned and prepared for action when disaster strikes. This synergy not only enhances the organization’s ability to respond effectively but also significantly reduces recovery times, minimizing operational downtime and financial impact.

Integration with Incident Response Plans: Enhancing Organizational Preparedness

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

Integrating Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans with Incident Response (IR) strategies is essential for a complete approach to organizational preparedness, especially in managing cybersecurity incidents. This integration ensures that organizations can not only respond to incidents as they happen but also maintain critical operations during and recover swiftly after an incident. Here’s how these plans come together:

Understanding the Components

Incident Response Plans focus on identifying, managing, and mitigating cybersecurity incidents as quickly as possible. They are the immediate action plans that detail steps for addressing a security breach or attack.

Disaster Recovery Plans are specialized components of the broader BC plans, specifically designed to restore IT infrastructure and critical data after a disruption, which includes cyberattacks among other disasters.

Business Continuity Plans aim to ensure that essential business functions continue during a disaster or emergency, including non-IT aspects such as personnel, physical locations, and third-party services.

Points of Intersection

Preparation and Prevention : Both IR and BC/DR plans emphasize the importance of preparation. By conducting risk assessments and business impact analyses, organizations can identify potential vulnerabilities and implement preventative measures.

Identification and Analysis : In the event of a cybersecurity incident, the IR plan kicks in to identify and analyze the breach. This step is crucial for determining the extent of the incident and understanding which aspects of the BC and DR plans need to be activated to ensure continuity and recovery.

Containment and Mitigation : While the IR plan focuses on containing the cybersecurity incident, DR strategies can be activated simultaneously to mitigate data loss and system downtime, ensuring that critical IT services remain operational or are quickly restored.

Recovery and Restoration : Post-incident, DR plans guide the technical recovery process, while the broader BC plan supports the overall organizational recovery, ensuring all aspects of the business return to normal operation. This includes communicating with stakeholders, managing reputation impacts, and returning to business as usual.

Review and Improvement : After an incident, it’s vital to review the effectiveness of the IR, BC, and DR plans. Lessons learned are integrated back into the plans to improve future responses and resilience.

Cybersecurity Incident Example

cyber security incident

In the context of a cybersecurity incident, such as a ransomware attack, the IR plan would detail the immediate steps to contain the attack and prevent further spread. Simultaneously, the DR plan would focus on restoring critical data from backups and ensuring IT systems are back online, while the BC plan would ensure alternative processes or systems are in place to maintain business operations, customer service, and stakeholder communications.

Importance of Leadership and Crisis Management

In times of crisis, effective leadership can make all the difference. Leaders with strong crisis management skills are pivotal in navigating disasters, as they can make quick, informed decisions that prioritize employee safety and business continuity. These skills are not innate; they are developed through experience, training, and a deep understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery principles.

Leaders play a crucial role in fostering a culture of preparedness within the organization, ensuring that employees are well-informed and engaged in the continuity planning process. By conducting regular training sessions and drills, leaders can instill confidence and competence in their teams, ensuring that everyone knows their role in executing the business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

Navigating the Future: Technological Advances in BC and DR

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT, staying ahead of technological advances is not just beneficial; it’s essential for robust Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning. The latest tech innovations offer exciting possibilities to bolster resilience, streamline recovery processes, and secure data more effectively than ever before. Here’s how modern technology is reshaping BC and DR strategies:

Cloud Computing: The Game Changer

cloud computing

Cloud computing has revolutionized how organizations approach BC and DR. By leveraging cloud services, businesses can achieve more flexible and scalable solutions for data storage and backup. The cloud’s inherent resilience, with geographically dispersed data centers, ensures data availability even during localized disasters. This shift not only reduces the need for physical backup locations but also significantly cuts down recovery time.

Automated Backups: Set It and Forget It

Gone are the days of manual backups that are both time-consuming and prone to human error. Automated backup solutions now ensure that data is continuously, and securely, backed up without the need for constant oversight. This automation ensures that the latest data is always available for recovery, minimizing data loss and operational downtime.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): Scalability on Demand

DRaaS has emerged as a pivotal solution for organizations of all sizes, providing DR capabilities as a service. This model offers a cost-effective, scalable approach to disaster recovery, eliminating the need for significant upfront investment in disaster recovery infrastructure. DRaaS providers ensure that resources are available on-demand to meet recovery objectives, with expertise and infrastructure ready to go when disaster strikes.

Cybersecurity Measures: Fortifying the Front Lines

As cyber threats become more sophisticated, so do the measures to combat them. Advanced cybersecurity technologies, including next-generation firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and comprehensive threat intelligence platforms, are integral to both BC and DR planning. These measures not only help prevent cyberattacks but also ensure that recovery from such incidents is swift and effective, minimizing potential damage and downtime.

The Integration of AI and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are making significant inroads into BC and DR. These technologies offer predictive analytics to foresee potential disruptions and automate recovery processes. AI can optimize DR plans by learning from past incidents and simulations, ensuring that recovery strategies are continuously improved and tailored to the organization’s unique needs.

Blockchain for Data Integrity

Blockchain technology is beginning to play a role in ensuring data integrity during recovery processes. By creating decentralized and immutable records of transactions, blockchain can provide a verifiable and tamper-proof log of data and system states before and after a disruption. This capability is especially crucial in scenarios where data integrity is paramount.

The Road Ahead

As technology continues to evolve, so too will the strategies for BC and DR. Organizations must stay informed about technological advancements to ensure their BC and DR efforts are as effective and efficient as possible. Embracing these technologies not only enhances resilience but also provides a competitive edge in an increasingly digital world. The future of BC and DR is undoubtedly tech-driven, offering new ways to mitigate risks and ensure business continuity in the face of challenges.

Measuring the Effectiveness of BC and DR Plans: The Real Deal

So, you’ve established your BC and DR strategies. Well done! But the real question is: how can you be sure they’re effective? It’s not enough to simply have these strategies ready; you need to verify they’re robust enough to function under pressure. Let’s delve into metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are not merely impressive on paper but truly impactful in practical scenarios.

The Heavy Hitters: RTO and RPO

First of all, we will look at two vital metrics for any disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan: Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

These terms are more than just sophisticated jargon used to impress people, they form the core foundation of your disaster recovery and business continuity planning. They are particularly crucial in disaster recovery strategies, as they inform the IT design.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) : This is the time clock ticking away, telling you how long you can afford to have your systems unavailable before the business is harmed. Think of it as your “get back on your feet” timer.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective) : This tells you how much data you can afford to lose when a disaster occurs and still survive. It’s your “Oh no, not the data!” meter.

More useful metrics

While RTO and RPO are the primary BC/DR metrics, there are other KPIs that need to be considered in any disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan to help with emergency management. While these tend to be used more in IT, they are also good to bring up in business continuity vs disaster recovery conversations:

Mean Time to Recover (MTTR) : The average time it takes to recover from a failure. Lower MTTR = You’re doing something right.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) : How long your systems typically run before hitting a snag. Higher MTBF = Your systems are more reliable.

Incident Frequency : How often disruptions occur. Less is better.

Test Success Rate : The percentage of your BC/DR tests that pass with flying colors. Aim for 100%!

Putting It All Together

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. Measuring the effectiveness of your business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans isn’t just “set it and forget it”. It’s about continuously monitoring these KPIs, running regular live-like drills, and updating your plans based on what you find.

The more you test the plans for business continuity and disaster recovery, the better chance you have of surviving a disruptive event.

Actionable Takeaways

Keep Your Eye on the Ball : Regularly review your RTO and RPO achievements. If they’re not working, then change them.

Test, Test, and Test Again : Regular testing isn’t just for show. It’s how you ensure your plans don’t just look good on paper. And test with real events – e.g. force power outages instead of just pretending.

Feedback Loop : After each test or real-life incident, gather everybody together, and have a debrief. What worked? What didn’t? How did business continuity vs disaster recovery work?

Use technology : Leverage technology to automate IT monitoring and testing of business continuity and disaster recovery plans where possible.

Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery: Which Strategy Do You Need?

When considering what to do about organizational resilience, business leaders can get confused about business continuity vs disaster recovery and what they need to include in their organizational strategy. Some think that disaster recovery plans can be left for IT to sort out. That’s not usually a good idea.

The answer to business continuity vs disaster recovery is not an either/or proposition but rather an understanding that both play crucial, complementary roles in a comprehensive strategy. Let’s delve into why both are indispensable to any organization focused on minimizing risk and ensuring operational stability.

Rather than choosing between BC and DR, organizations should view them as two sides of the same coin. BC provides a broad framework within which DR operates, addressing IT-specific recovery within the wider context of keeping the business running.

Understanding the hierarchy of business continuity vs disaster recovery

Business Continuity is the overarching strategy that ensures critical business functions can continue during and after any disruption, aiming to minimize operational downtime and maintain service delivery.

Disaster Recovery focuses specifically on the IT and technology systems that support business functions, aiming to quickly restore data access and IT services following a disruption.

Disaster recovery plans – how many should I have?

The number of disaster recovery (DR) plans an organization needs depends on its operational complexity, critical systems, types of potential disasters, business units, and geographic locations. Instead of a fixed number, the emphasis should be on comprehensive coverage, with plans tailored to address the specific recovery requirements of different systems, disaster scenarios, departments, and locations to ensure all critical business aspects are protected.

Integration for Comprehensive Resilience

Interdependence

The effectiveness of disaster recovery efforts is a critical component of the broader business continuity strategy. Without quick and efficient restoration of IT systems (DR), business continuity efforts can be hampered, affecting everything from customer service to supply chain logistics.

Conversely, disaster recovery plans are most effective when they are developed with an understanding of the business’s overall continuity needs, ensuring that technology recovery efforts are prioritized according to business impact.

Scenario Planning

For Natural Disasters : Both BC and DR are essential. BC plans will address how to maintain operations with minimal resources, while DR plans ensure data and systems are protected and recoverable.

For Cyber Attacks : DR plans are crucial for restoring access to encrypted or stolen data, but BC plans are needed to maintain operations, perhaps through alternative processes, while IT systems are restored.

Making the Decision: A Balanced Approach

Assessing Needs

Conduct a Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis to identify which business functions are critical and the potential impact of their disruption. This will help in tailoring both BC and DR strategies to your organization’s specific needs.

Determine the RTO and RPO for each critical function. These metrics will guide the design of IT architectures and the development of DR plans and determine the necessary resilience levels within BC plans. 

Organizational Priorities

Every organization’s needs differ based on industry, size, and risk profile. For instance, a financial services firm may prioritize data security and recovery (DR) due to regulatory requirements, whereas a manufacturing company might focus on supply chain continuity (BC) to ensure product delivery.

In summary, the question is not whether you need a business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan, but how best to integrate these strategies to protect your organization. A robust approach to organizational resilience incorporates both BC and DR, tailored to your specific operational, regulatory, and risk landscapes. Having a robust business continuity plan and disaster recovery plans ensures not just survival but the ability to thrive in the face of disruptions.

The distinction between business continuity and disaster recovery, while nuanced, is fundamental to crafting a resilient organizational strategy. By understanding and leveraging the strengths of both disciplines, organizations can protect their operations, data, and reputation against an array of disruptions.

The successful implementation of BC and DR strategies hinges on comprehensive planning, effective leadership, and a culture of preparedness. In today’s unpredictable environment, the question is not if a disruption will occur, but when—and a robust BCDR plan will make all the difference.

For further reading and to deepen your understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery planning, consider exploring resources from reputable organizations and industry standards such as ISO 22301, ISO/IEC 27031, ISO/IEC 20000, DRI International, and the Business Continuity Institute. These resources provide valuable insights and guidelines for developing and maintaining effective BC and DR strategies.

Kevin Holland

IT Chronicles

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High availability and disaster recovery: key differences and where they connect.

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The difference between high availability and disaster recovery

High availability mitigates risks involved with relatively small disruptions that are likely to occur more frequently, while disaster recovery provides a safety net against unique and infrequent system outages like natural disasters that occur less frequently or, ideally, never. Disaster recovery takes over when high availability falls short. Using them in combination, your organization can be assured of resilience in the face of most problems that will befall your IT landscape.

However, both high availability and disaster recovery play a role in business continuity planning, each with a different focus and applicability.

High availability

As noted above, the focus of high availability is on maximizing productive uptime by keeping services, applications and entire systems always running. In spite of occasional problems and low-severity outages, the goal of high availability is to maintain user access to IT services.

Typical elements in high-availability architecture include failover, so that a backup system can be activated in case of failure, and redundancy, to eliminate single points of failure. They also include the ability to load-balance, or distribute workloads, across multiple systems (usually servers) to reduce congestion.

Which kinds of service disruptions does high availability address? Its main value lies in scenarios like short-term power outages, device failures, server crashes and problems with network throughput.

Disaster recovery

With the goal of keeping your business afloat, disaster recovery is designed to return your users to productivity promptly after a large disruption.

Your disaster recovery strategy and practices extend to the software you use to back up your data and applications regularly and to restore them when needed. Since disaster can render your primary IT infrastructure unusable, your strategy includes a fallback location elsewhere and readiness for long-term reliance on that fallback location.

Organizations turn to disaster recovery in circumstances such as fire, flooding, devastating cyberattacks, earthquakes and extended periods without electricity.

How high availability and disaster recovery support and reinforce each other

As part of considerations in your business continuity strategy, disaster recovery and high availability are interwoven in several ways:

  • Relationship – It is advisable to think of high availability as part of a disaster recovery strategy, with a smooth transition from the former to the latter.
  • Crossover – Get the best of both worlds. High-availability systems are not designed for full recovery, but they usually incorporate failover techniques and redundancies that can shorten recovery time in the wake of a disaster.
  • Complementary effects – High availability is a way to lower the operational costs of overcoming frequent, limited disruptions. That dovetails with the way disaster recovery reduces downtime and keeps the business from succumbing to large-scale outages.
  • Data protection – Similarly, both approaches protect your data from loss . High availability keeps data and applications in sync across redundant systems, prepared for replication and quick recovery in a disaster scenario.
  • Raised consciousness – Planning for availability and disaster recovery heightens the organization’s awareness about risk and business continuity, setting the tone for resilience with all users.
  • Constant vigilance – When correctly implemented, both high availability and disaster recovery call for periodic testing, which keeps related infrastructure accessible and ready when needed.
  • Preparedness in layers – Because each approach is suited to different scenarios, they afford layered management of the risk that data will be lost. That strengthens your overall defense and reduces your exposure.

Building for high availability and disaster recovery

The line between high availability and disaster recovery is not always cut and dry.

When you think about high availability, the things that come to mind include your servers, your storage and your data. But of those, your data is the most important thing, so disaster recovery has to make your data available again as quickly as possible. Therefore, you might build into your high availability system a method of handling disaster recovery.

The goal is to make your system so resilient that no single point of failure at a production site should give you any major problems. And if you do have major problems at a production site, your disaster recovery should go hand in hand with your high availability. It might take a little bit longer to get going and it may cost you more. But if you’re not willing to invest in high availability, you had better not expect prompt recovery from a disaster.

Example high availability and disaster recovery use cases

Suppose your company has two fully replicated data centers. One of them fails due to flooding and the other takes over. Even though you’ve characterized the flooding as a disaster, it’s your high availability that’s keeping your users productive. It’s not really disaster recovery, because you’ve not had to stop production and take action.

Should your disaster recovery be built into your high availability plans so that you never have to stop production and shift to disaster recovery mode? No backup is of any use to you until you can restore it, so as a matter of business continuity, you need to make sure that you can restore the backup.

The problem with keeping data highly available is that you’re constantly discarding data that you’ve replicated in real time. Then what do you do? You have to go to your backup and restore an earlier copy of the data. But at what point do you want to shift to disaster recovery? It’s probably a disaster if a whole data center goes offline, but is it a disaster if one server goes down? As soon as you’ve lost data in your highly resilient system and need to restore it, then you’ve shifted to disaster recovery mode to get that data back.

So is there a crossover? Certainly. Do they go hand in glove? Yes, your disaster recovery planning should include highly available systems because you’re building an entire insurance policy across everything: your service, storage, platform, applications and data. You don’t want to lose a minute of uptime. But if you do, you have to invoke a different part of your plan, which is to restore from backups.

That’s why an important element of your data protection strategy is to define “disaster” for your business.

Considerations to keep in mind when walking the line between high availability and disaster recovery

Define “disaster” for your business.

Imagine that one of your databases stops responding to your enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. Is it that a table has become corrupted, or is your entire suite of SQL Servers down? If the former, your high-availability solution will probably suffice because it protects against smaller outages. If the latter, you may need disaster recovery because it protects against larger-scale outages.

But what does the business itself consider a disaster? Along the spectrum between a broken coffee maker and a fire in the data center, what rates as a disaster in your organization?

It’s a matter of different levels of severity. If, for instance, a network router goes down, in most organizations that doesn’t call for disaster recovery. Sure, the effects can be so widespread that you couldn’t call it anything except a disaster, but it’s more likely a lack of availability at a single point of failure. In some cases, the lack of high availability would entail as much risk and generate as many headaches as most disaster scenarios.

Take a look at your business insurance requirements

It’s not uncommon for insurance carriers to require that you meet certain levels of data protection, without which they will either demand higher premiums or decline to insure you. Why? Because data is now another asset, like a building or a furnace.

Carriers expect you to qualify for insurance not only by having a backup of your data, but also that you keep multiple copies, encrypt them and use immutable backups . They ask pointed questions about business continuity and your disaster recovery plan.

Document your disaster recovery plan

To fulfill those insurance requirements, it’s prudent to build out and document a plan for the steps you’ll follow for each type and severity of disruption you face. What will you do if multiple users accidentally delete important email, or if 50 virtual machines are suddenly corrupted or lost? When you set out your procedures in advance, you leave yourself valuable guidance for when things go sideways. Plus, it’s easier to contemplate recovery from one relatively small disruption at a time than to wrap your head around recreating your entire IT landscape.

Create your plan with an eye to the relative importance of the data involved. For example, email may seem like the highest priority, but what about the database behind your ecommerce website? It holds all your transactions that are of real value to the business, so wouldn’t that be more important to your bottom line? Examine each data set and ask, “What if that went wrong?” You apply a disaster recovery process to that, implement high availability across multiple servers and back up the data set regularly as well. That gives you a plan for that system, so you move on to the next system and create a plan for it.

Once you have the small-scale plans in place, you can establish an order for executing them in case of a large-scale disruption.

Most of all, creating and documenting your plan in this way ensures that the entire library of institutional knowledge is not locked inside one administrator’s head.

Enforce change control

As high availability and disaster recovery plans are being put in place, make sure that change control processes are solid and compatible with the potential growth of organizational systems. System changes – including updates, patches and upgrades – almost always introduce problems, and with robust change control you can anticipate the effects of those changes.

We’ve seen a small percentage of companies that are appropriately rigorous about change control. They establish rules that prohibit the roll-out of any new production applications or data sets unless backup and data protection have been provided for.

That’s prudent, because it’s normally the other way around. Much more often, we see IT teams with jam-packed task lists, rolling a new workload into production before they’ve figured out how to back it up. Too late they realize that their current backup software isn’t well suited to it, so they have to buy a new backup product for that alone. Worse yet, they may procrastinate – “We’ll sort that out later” – and the application or data set never gets backed up. That’s an example of a change that needs control wrapped around it.

Your first task is to evaluate each of your workloads for data protection and answer three main questions:

  • Do we need to make it highly available?
  • Does it need disaster recovery?
  • Do we need to back it up?

As you establish priorities, you’ll realize that some workloads and endpoints are more important than others. Print servers, for example, may be important during business as usual, but business isn’t usual when you’re recovering from a disaster, so emphasize data protection where it most counts.

When you combine the small-disruption focus of high availability with the large-outage focus of disaster recovery, you equip IT for the resilience and the continuity planning businesses need to thrive.

9 steps to building a business-oriented disaster recovery plan

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Adrian Moir

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What is a Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan?

Feb 12, 2024 | Disaster Recovery

what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

A Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan is a comprehensive strategy that outlines procedures and protocols to ensure the continued operation of essential business functions and the timely recovery of critical systems, data, and infrastructure in the event of a disruptive incident or disaster. While similar to a backup and disaster recovery plan, a BCDR plan encompasses broader aspects of business resilience, including not only IT recovery but also operational and organizational continuity.

Key components of a business continuity and disaster recovery plan typically include:

  • Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis: Identify potential threats and risks to business operations, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, pandemics, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory compliance issues. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) to assess the potential consequences of these risks on critical business functions, revenue streams, customer service, and reputation.
  • Business Continuity Planning: Develop strategies and measures to ensure the continuous operation of essential business functions during and after a disruptive event. This may include establishing alternate work locations, implementing remote work capabilities, and cross-training employees to perform critical tasks. Identify dependencies between different business units and establish contingency plans to mitigate single points of failure.
  • Disaster Recovery Planning: Develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that outlines procedures for recovering IT systems, data, and infrastructure following a disruptive incident. This includes defining recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) for critical systems and applications, establishing backup and recovery procedures, and implementing redundancy and failover mechanisms to minimize downtime and data loss.
  • Communication and Coordination: Establish communication protocols and channels for disseminating information to employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders during a crisis. Designate emergency response teams and establish communication chains of command to ensure timely and effective communication and coordination during a disaster.
  • Testing and Exercising: Regularly test and exercise the BCDR plan to evaluate its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Conduct tabletop exercises, simulation drills, and scenario-based training sessions to validate the plan’s capabilities, identify gaps or weaknesses, and enhance preparedness for real-world emergencies.
  • Documentation and Training: Document all aspects of the BCDR plan, including procedures, contact information, recovery strategies, and lessons learned from past incidents. Provide comprehensive training and awareness programs for employees to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities during a crisis and know how to execute the plan effectively.
  • Continuous Improvement: Continuously monitor and review the BCDR plan to keep it up to date with changes in technology, business processes, regulations, and emerging threats. Incorporate lessons learned from post-incident reviews, industry best practices, and feedback from stakeholders to enhance the plan’s resilience and effectiveness over time.

By implementing a robust business continuity and disaster recovery plan, organizations can minimize the impact of disruptions, maintain operational resilience, protect critical assets and data, and ensure the continuity of business operations during and after a crisis.

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what is the difference between disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Strategies

As the head of IT operations for a rapidly expanding e-commerce startup, I'm tasked with ensuring our systems are resilient and prepared for any unforeseen challenges. As we prioritize our business continuity and disaster recovery efforts, I'm keen to gather insights from the community: How frequently do you review and update your business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan? When it comes to storing backups, where do you prefer to store them, and how do you guarantee data integrity and accessibility? What level of downtime for critical processes do you consider acceptable before it translates into unacceptable financial or reputational damage (RTO)? In the event of an outage, what level of data loss is deemed acceptable (RPO)? Could you share your approach to replication, particularly in terms of continuous data copying to a secondary location for expedited recovery?

User: Timetraveler Timetraveler

How to Build a Next Gen Storage Infrastructure

Author Taras Schwed

Brand Representative for Object First

Hi, and welcome to the Community!

As a part-time IT consultant, I am dealing with a variety of businesses with entirely different strategies, which is why I will answer the questions based on a company with the most strict strategies out of my entire portfolio.

  • How frequently do you review and update your business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan? 

A quarterly meeting with the IT team and top management is conducted to make sure all the processes regarding business continuity and DR are aligned.

  • When it comes to storing backups, where do you prefer to store them, and how do you guarantee data integrity and accessibility? 

On-premises (ransomware-protected, immutable, zero-trust), off-site (same as on-prem but different offices or ISP colocation), and public cloud are probably what everyone does nowadays. The retention period may vary but the number of copies is an absolute minimum I would say. Automated recovery check jobs and random manual checks.

  • What level of downtime for critical processes do you consider acceptable before it translates into unacceptable financial or reputational damage (RTO)? 

5 minutes for critical processes (retail) and 60 minutes for everything else.

  • In the event of an outage, what level of data loss is deemed acceptable (RPO)? 

1 hour for critical data (finances, customer data) and 1 day for everything else.

  • Could you share your approach to replication, particularly in terms of continuous data copying to a secondary location for expedited recovery?

Everything virtualized, hyper-converged approach within a single location (several hosts, clustering, real-time VM storage replication using Starwind, Storage Spaces Direct, or VMware vSAN depending on hypervisor, hardware, and requirements) plus offsite replication.

Author Adrian Yong

spicehead-885kw wrote: As the head of IT operations for a rapidly expanding e-commerce startup, I'm tasked with ensuring our systems are resilient and prepared for any unforeseen challenges. As we prioritize our business continuity and disaster recovery efforts, I'm keen to gather insights from the community: How frequently do you review and update your business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan? When it comes to storing backups, where do you prefer to store them, and how do you guarantee data integrity and accessibility? What level of downtime for critical processes do you consider acceptable before it translates into unacceptable financial or reputational damage (RTO)? In the event of an outage, what level of data loss is deemed acceptable (RPO)? Could you share your approach to replication, particularly in terms of continuous data copying to a secondary location for expedited recovery?

As a CIO and IT manager (we have 31 subsidiaries), I would say it really depends on the scale of your ecommerce startup and how far you need to scale to....

I have several org that are 100% on the cloud while some are like 70% on the cloud - leverage stateless SAAS offerings like AWS elastic beanstalk with auto-scaling and multi-Availability zone so that you literally can have 110% up time - leverage DB like AWS Aroura that can have up to 6 Availability zones so that DB and applications are almost never down & you do not have to worry about DB replication. AWS also provides Aroura backup services - Leverage on AWS EC2 instances for multi-AZ and autoscaling also

If you are managing most of your servers on-prem....then you really need to know what options for your secondary site, for some can be a 2nd building nearby whereas some would use co-location data centers instead of having server rooms. But the common factor is that all servers need to be VMs on either Hyper-v or VMware as these have the most supporting backup & replication software unless you are using some software defined storage that have replication built in. I would not mention about software defined hypervisors with HA & FT features as that can be a little overwhelming and overpriced. Commonly use Veeam Backup & replication 12.x to - backup VMs (hyper-v or VMware) using Veeam Reverse Incremental backup - use Veeam Backup Copy to copy Backup Data sets from NAS in one location to 2nd - use Veeam Backup & Replication to Replicate VMs using Backup data sets already residing on remote site NAS to remote site hosts * If you have Veeam VUL licenses or the older Veeam Enterprise licenses, you can use surebackup to test backup data sets and/or surereplica to test the replica https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/recovery_verification_surereplica.html?ver=120 Opens a new window

If you need 110% up time, then you will need to look at - Network Load Balancing for web servers  - OS clustering for application servers - DB clustering for databases - at least 2 DCs per network - 2 or more file servers with FRS But these would needed to be supported with - redundant network switches - redundant routers (in HA mode) - UPS and/or power generators - redundant cooling systems - multiple hosts (so the above VMs can sit on different physical servers) - redundant Internet connection with security appliances * now you maybe able to see why AWS and/or SAAS may look like a more feasible option ?

I give simple example of having on-prem Exchange Server and you need it to be having 110% up time.....you need to have redundant setups in case anything within the building may fail. Then you may need to duplicate this setup (or at least 1/2) to the DR or secondary site. But if you have email on SAAS offerings like Exchange Online or G-suite, if they do go down, likely it is a global issue or at least a continental issue & all you have to pay is like $10 or $15 per user per month. The same idea can be applied to your web servers, payment gateways, application servers, ERP solution, Finance solutions, DB, etc

Author Martin Hepworth

Also remember BCP isnt an IT issue, this is a business problem

loss of assets and how you react to them and at what point loosing a building/warehouse etc becomes an issue is for the business to plan

Sure theres a n IT componment but its not everything.

Author F. E.

What most people oversee is the fact that there is no real "ransomware proof" solution or strategy available.

AFAIK all available solutions like immutable backup storage or more generation backups on different media all only reduce the impact, but are no solutions for a perfect protection for a serious attack.

All the backup manufactures will go up the fences for a statement like this. Let me explain what I mean.

The serious attack will be done in at least three or four steps. First, the attacker will try to penetrate your defences silently. For example, a malicious mail with some link that doesn't seem to do anything. In fact, it silently installs some Trojan or backdoor to your systems. If this is successful, it will do anything to remain undetected and starts collecting intel in your systems to get higher privileges and so on. After a while - let's say 6 months - the actual attack begins.

Then the attacker will actually use the intel collected and starts doing his ransomware stuff and probably will install another few backdoors with the newly gained higher privileges. 

Consider what this procedure means to your backups. If the attacker remains undetected until he starts his damaging work, you'll have no backups left which are not infected or not so old that the data in it is pretty useless. And it doesn't matter if they are stored on immutable storage or not - immutable only protects against the alteration of the backup files themselves, and not against what's inside your backups.

So what kind of defence will help beforehand? Not much really - since over 80% of successful attacks start with some kind of user action (clicking the famous link) it's essential to train your users - they are your primary defence line. Every cent invested in this field is a plus in the future. Get yourself a good hardware firewall solution with all the detection options your preferred manufacturer has to offer. This is your second line of defence, so don't be stingy here and invest some money. If it's not included in your firewalls, get some antivirus solution for your endpoints. This could be Microsoft Defender - if it's configured correctly by someone who knows what he is doing. This is the last line of defence - if something slips through everything above, pray that Billy watches over you. Last but not least - get yourself a cyber insurance - a good one. If everything above fails, and you got hacked, you will need some real pros to find the infections in your backups, neutralize them and get your data back in a reasonable amount of time. And since there aren't so many of those people left, who haven't changed sides, they are expensive - really expensive. Good ones start at 10k a day, and you will need a team of them. If you're lucky they'll need a week to fix everything - if it's more complicated it could be 2 or 3 weeks. Do the maths for your own.

So my thinking is, that if you want to be protected against ransomware, you foremost need to empower your users and invest in good hardware and insurance.

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