DisasterRecoveryPlanung

Disaster recovery (DR) is the set of policies, procedures, and technologies designed to restore IT systems, data, and business operations after a disruption. It is a component of business continuity management and addresses events such as hardware failure, cyber incidents, natural disasters, and human error.

Two core objectives are recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). RTO defines the maximum acceptable downtime; RPO defines the maximum tolerable data loss in time. Plans are built to meet these targets through preventive controls and rapid recovery.

A DR program typically includes a policy, business impact analysis, risk assessment, incident response, communications planning, roles and responsibilities, training, and regular testing. Documentation details recovery procedures, recovery sequence, and escalation paths.

DR strategies include data backups, replication, and failover to secondary sites. Physical sites can be hot, warm, or cold. Modern approaches use cloud-based disaster recovery or disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), with synchronous or asynchronous replication and automated failover.

Standards and frameworks such as ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, and ITIL guide governance and best practices. Testing ranges from tabletop exercises to full failover drills, conducted at planned intervals to validate effectiveness and keep personnel prepared.

Challenges include cost, complexity, data sovereignty, dependency on third-party providers, and maintaining up-to-date backups. Disaster recovery complements, but does not replace, robust cybersecurity and ongoing business continuity planning.