Disaster recovery in an ITIL environment

Disaster recovery is an incredibly important part of modern business planning. Companies without an effective disaster recovery plan often struggle to cope with cyberattacks, fires, floods, or loss of connectivity. The better your disaster recovery plan, and the more familiar your staff are with implementing it, the easier it will be for your business to re-build quickly after an emergency.

What is a disaster recovery plan?

A disaster recovery plan is a written document that details the steps an organisation will take to resume work following an unplanned incident or disaster. These incidents may include natural disasters, cyberattacks or power outages — anything that causes a major disruption to the day-to-day working of the business.

Why is a disaster recovery plan important?

A disaster recovery plan ensures a business can weather unforeseen crises and swiftly recover from disruptive incidents. This document is essential for safeguarding the continuity of business operations and protecting critical data.

By taking a proactive approach, and creating a disaster recovery plan, organisations not only mitigate financial losses, but build a reputation for reliability and dependability, making them appear more trustworthy to prospective customers.

What is the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity?

A lot of the time, the terms ‘disaster recovery’ and ‘business continuity’ are used interchangeably. And although the two have a number of similarities, it’s important that business owners understand and appreciate the differences between them.

Disaster recovery definition

Essentially, the term disaster recovery refers to a business’ ability to restore the data and applications needed should its data centre, servers or other infrastructure become damaged, destroyed, or otherwise compromised.

In disaster recovery, one of the most important things businesses need to consider is how quick