ITDisasterRecovery

IT disaster recovery (ITDR) is the set of policies, procedures, and technical measures used to recover information technology systems and data after a disruptive event. The objective is to restore critical services as quickly as possible and minimize losses in data, revenue, and reputation.

ITDR covers data centers, networks, applications, and cloud services, along with dependent third parties. Central concepts include recovery objectives—recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)—as well as strategies such as data backup, replication, and failover to alternative sites or services.

A formal ITDR program starts with governance and a risk-based approach. A business impact analysis identifies critical processes and acceptable downtime, informing recovery strategies. Plans typically include incident response, communications, roles and responsibilities, vendor coordination, and regular testing and maintenance.

Architectures range from hot sites with live mirroring to cold sites requiring setup after an event. Modern approaches frequently use warm sites, cloud-based DR, and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) with automated failover and testing to shorten RTOs and RPOs.

ITDR is often aligned with broader business continuity and information security standards, such as ISO 22301, ISO 27031, and NIST SP 800-34. Regular exercises and audits help ensure preparedness amid evolving threats and technologies. Trends include cloud-first DR, automation, virtualization, and cross-region replication, with increasing emphasis on data integrity, security, and regulatory compliance.