Time to read: 4 minutes, 13 seconds

Disaster recovery What is disaster recovery?
In IT, disaster recovery (DR) refers to the strategies, processes, products, and solutions you put in place to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. This includes natural disasters, cyber-attacks, hardware failures, and other catastrophic events.
Disaster recovery is critical because it minimizes downtime in the case of disaster and protects data integrity. It helps businesses quickly resume operations and reduce the impact of disruptions. All businesses should have a disaster recovery plan to ensure business continuity.

- Disaster recovery plan (DRP)
- RTO and RPO
- HPE and disaster recovery
- What is the difference between disaster recovery and cyber recovery?
What is a disaster recovery plan (DRP) and why is it so important?
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented, structured approach with instructions for responding to unplanned incidents. It includes a detailed plan for recovering IT infrastructure, applications, and data.
A disaster recovery plan should include:
- Risk assessment and business impact analysis
- Recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTOs and RPOs)
- Detailed recovery procedures
- Roles and responsibilities
- A disaster recovery communication plan
- A combination of disaster recovery and backup solutions
- Testing and updates
A disaster recovery plan ensures:
- Business continuity so that critical business functions can continue during and after a disaster
- Data protection to safeguard important data from being lost or corrupted
- Minimal downtime to reduce the time it takes to restore normal operations, minimizing financial and reputational impact
- Compliance to meet regulatory requirements for data protection and business continuity
- Preparedness for a structured response to disasters, reducing panic and confusion during an actual event.
A DRP is an essential component of an organization's risk management strategy, ensuring that it can quickly recover from disruptions and maintain business continuity in the face of unforeseen events.
Key differences between disaster recovery and cyber recovery
Aspect | Disaster recovery | Cyber recovery
|
---|---|---|
Focus | Recovery from a broad range of disruptions, including natural disasters, hardware failures, and human errors. | Recovery from cyber threats like ransomware that cause downtime and data loss. |
Threats addressed | Natural and man-made disruptions that impact IT infrastructure and business operations. | Malicious cyber activities intended to compromise data and prevent recovery.
|
Scope | Restoring IT infrastructure, applications, and data, sometimes requiring relocation of operations.
| Restoring data integrity, securing compromised systems, and eliminating cyber threats. |
Components | Data backup, system failover, alternate site arrangements, business continuity planning, and infrastructure restoration.
| Incident response, forensic analysis, malware eradication, cybersecurity measures, and secure data backups.
|
Objective | Minimize downtime and financial losses by restoring IT systems and business operations.
| Contain, eliminate, and recover from cyber threats while ensuring data security.
|