What would you do if your systems went down—and your backup didn’t work?
According to Veeam, 58% of data backups are failing, leaving businesses exposed right when they need protection most. It’s a hard truth that many find out too late: backups alone aren’t enough.
That’s where a solid disaster recovery plan for business comes in.
This article covers everything you need to know about recovery planning, the different types of disaster recovery, and how to create a business continuity and disaster recovery strategy that actually works when disaster strikes.
What is a disaster recovery plan for business?
A disaster recovery plan for business is a documented framework that outlines how a company will restore critical systems, recover data, and resume business functions following a disruption.
It serves as both a playbook and a safeguard for navigating disaster scenarios, whether triggered by a natural disaster, cyberattack, or hardware failure.
This kind of plan addresses the broader recovery process, ensuring not only the restoration of critical data and information systems but also a smooth transition back to normal business operations.
Business continuity vs. disaster recovery
While often used interchangeably, business continuity and disaster recovery are distinct yet closely connected concepts.
Business continuity focuses on maintaining essential business operations during a disruption. This includes keeping key business processes running and ensuring access to critical systems and data.
Disaster recovery, on the other hand, is about what happens after the event. It's the tactical response—the disaster recovery process—for restoring lost data, rebuilding infrastructure, and transitioning back to normalcy.
Together, these two pillars form a comprehensive disaster recovery and resilience strategy, giving businesses the tools to survive both the shock of disruption and the path to full recovery.
Core elements of a disaster recovery plan
To be effective, a disaster recovery plan for businesses must specify every step needed to resume business operations in a variety of disaster scenarios. Here’s what every plan should include:
- Detailed asset inventory: A complete list of information systems, data centers, servers, and critical business assets.
- Recovery objectives: Clear definitions of recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) for every system.
- Communication plan: How and when to communicate with staff, clients, and vendors following a business interruption.
- Recovery procedures: Step-by-step instructions for backup and recovery, restoring data, and reactivating systems.
- Disaster recovery team roles: Assignment of responsibilities for response, system checks, and infrastructure after a disaster.
- Testing schedule: Regular testing of disaster recovery strategies to ensure they are current and effective.
- Vendor and third-party dependencies: Contacts and contracts for cloud services, disaster recovery solutions, and hardware providers.
Businesses that operate in highly regulated industries or deal with sensitive data should also ensure that data protection and business continuity standards align with legal requirements and industry best practices.
Types of disaster recovery plans
Below are the main types of disaster recovery plans for businesses that organizations might consider based on their infrastructure and operational needs:
Virtualized disaster recovery
Virtualization allows businesses to replicate their systems and data in real time, creating a backup environment that can be activated in minutes.
This approach is cost-effective and enables rapid recovery by using virtual machines rather than physical servers. Virtualized disaster recovery also makes testing easier, which means companies can simulate disaster scenarios without interrupting normal business operations.
This type of recovery is ideal for businesses with fluctuating workloads or remote teams. It reduces the complexity of the disaster recovery process by decoupling software environments from hardware limitations, ensuring efficient recovery across platforms.
Network disaster recovery
For businesses that rely heavily on interconnectivity, a network disaster recovery plan focuses on maintaining access to key systems, applications, and data via network infrastructure.
This includes redundant routers, load balancers, and alternate internet paths to keep the business online when the primary network fails.
In cases of ransomware attacks or large-scale outages, a robust network disaster recovery approach helps ensure secure, uninterrupted access to critical systems, thereby protecting business continuity even when the core network is compromised.
Cloud disaster recovery
Cloud disaster recovery uses the cloud to back up applications and data, allowing businesses to recover data from virtually anywhere.
It's scalable, flexible, and often more affordable than traditional hardware-based solutions. Businesses can restore data from off-site cloud backups, even if their primary data center is compromised.
This method also supports automated recovery, meaning systems can be brought back online quickly without manual intervention.
It's a key part of a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for businesses looking to maintain business as usual in the face of disaster.
Data center disaster recovery
For companies that operate their own data centers, this type of plan ensures critical systems and data are recoverable even if the physical infrastructure is damaged. It includes physical security, backup power, climate control, and redundant hardware.
Data center disaster recovery is especially relevant for large enterprises and industries where data sovereignty is a concern.
It focuses on replicating business processes and information systems across multiple sites, creating a buffer against total loss in the event of a natural disaster or fire.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
Disaster Recovery as a Service outsources the entire recovery process to a third-party provider. Businesses can subscribe to this model and let experts manage their disaster recovery strategies, cloud backups, and testing procedures.
DRaaS providers typically offer recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives backed by SLAs, giving companies peace of mind.
This option is perfect for small to midsize businesses without the in-house resources to develop a full DR plan.
It helps minimize the impact on internal teams while ensuring critical data and systems are protected by professionals who specialize in business continuity and disaster recovery.
What to expect after disaster strikes in your business
Not sure what happens after disaster strikes your business? Let’s break down the three key recovery stages that guide you from chaos to full operations.
Initial stage: Containment and assessment
The moment disaster strikes, the first stage in the recovery process is all about damage control.
The goal is to stabilize affected business functions, secure critical data, and contain the threat—whether that’s a cybersecurity breach, fire, power outage, or hardware failure. This is where an effective disaster recovery plan for businesses and a trained disaster recovery team become essential.
Businesses must act fast to isolate the issue and assess the extent of the disruption. During this stage, identifying the scope of data loss, system failures, and the impact on business operations is crucial.
Early stage: Restoration and recovery effort
Once the immediate threat has been contained, the focus shifts to restoration. This involves putting disaster recovery strategies into action—beginning with data backup and recovery to restore data, followed by rebooting servers and critical applications.
This phase is heavily reliant on clearly defined recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), both of which should have been set during the disaster recovery planning phase.
Long-term stage: Strategic continuity and risk reduction
The final stage focuses on returning to business as usual while minimizing future risks. After systems are fully restored and normal business operations resume, it's time to conduct a post-mortem review of the event.
What worked? What failed? What needs to change in the comprehensive disaster recovery strategy? This reflection becomes part of a continuous improvement loop that strengthens long-term business resilience.
This stage often involves infrastructure upgrades, improved data protection, and refined backup and recovery solutions.
How to choose the right provider for your disaster recovery plan
Choosing the right partner to implement a disaster recovery plan is one of the most important decisions a business leader can make.
Step 1: Assess their technical capabilities and coverage
Start by evaluating whether the provider offers end-to-end services that support your disaster recovery plan for businesses.
Look for expertise in areas such as cloud disaster recovery, data center redundancy, and data backup and recovery.
The best providers offer flexible disaster recovery solutions that cover both virtual and physical environments and support critical business functions across industries.
Step 2: Check their testing, support, and communication standards
Disaster recovery is not a one-time project. It requires ongoing testing, recovery planning, and updates based on evolving threats. Choose a provider that schedules regular drills to test your DR plan, provides transparent documentation, and updates your disaster planning documents regularly.
Supporting responsiveness is another critical factor. Make sure they offer 24/7 support with direct access to real engineers, not just automated help desks.
Their communication plan during and after an actual disaster should be crystal clear. You’re trusting them with your critical data, so responsiveness and clarity matter.
Step 3: Evaluate flexibility, pricing, and scalability
Not every business needs the same recovery services. Whether you're a local business with one office or a distributed enterprise with global reach, your provider should adapt to your business processes, amount of data, and infrastructure after a disaster.
Evaluate their pricing models—flat-rate, tiered, or pay-as-you-go—and ensure that costs are predictable.
Flexible solutions like DRaaS are ideal for businesses looking to reduce overhead while maintaining high levels of data protection.
Consider the plan template they use—does it allow for customization? Is it built around your unique business continuity strategy?
Protect your business before the next disaster with About IT
No one expects a disaster. But every business should plan for one.
At About IT, we help business leaders build the kind of disaster recovery plan for businesses that minimizes risk, restores systems quickly, and keeps your doors open—no matter what happens.
If your current plan is outdated, incomplete, or nonexistent, now is the time to act. Book a free strategy session today.
Our experts will walk you through a customized disaster recovery planning process, show you how to integrate disaster recovery into your daily operations, and make sure your business has a real shot at resilience.
Don’t wait for disaster to test your defenses. Let us help you build a plan that works.
Frequently asked questions
What should a disaster recovery plan include for businesses?
A disaster recovery plan must specify all necessary steps to help businesses maintain operations and quickly recover from disruption. A complete plan should include recovery procedures, a detailed communication plan, and a list of critical business functions.
The plan addresses the recovery time objective and the recovery point objective and outlines how to restore data and infrastructure. A strong plan also defines the roles of the disaster recovery team, covers data protection, and aligns with your business continuity strategy.
What are the main types of disaster recovery solutions available?
The main types of disaster recovery include cloud disaster recovery, on-premise data center recovery, technology disaster recovery for virtualized systems, and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). Each method is designed to support business continuity and disaster recovery needs differently.
These disaster recovery solutions allow businesses to prepare for different disaster scenarios, recover from data loss, and resume services without significant downtime.
What does an effective disaster recovery process look like?
An effective disaster recovery plan for businesses includes several critical phases: detection of the issue, activation of the response plan, execution of backup and recovery measures, and continuous monitoring until the business is back to business as usual.
This process depends on having the right plan template, tested recovery procedures, and automation tools like automated recovery. It also requires a strong disaster planning framework and coordination between the disaster recovery team and internal departments.
How do disaster recovery strategies help businesses resume operations?
Disaster recovery strategies help businesses resume business operations by ensuring that critical systems and information systems are restored quickly after a disaster, like a cyberattack or natural event.
These strategies often integrate both data backup and data storage solutions, enabling businesses to recover data efficiently and get back to business processes with minimal disruption. In doing so, they support overall business continuity and build business resilience.
Can disaster recovery planning reduce the cost of business interruption insurance?
Yes, having a strong disaster recovery plan and a proven continuity plan in place can lower the risk profile of a business, which may reduce premiums for business interruption insurance.
Insurers recognize that businesses with proactive disaster recovery involving planning and a track record of effective disaster recovery are less likely to experience long, costly outages.
A plan that reflects a deep understanding of the amount of data at risk, the plan to ensure operational continuity, and the comprehensive recovery effort can make a significant difference.
Why is it critical for businesses to have a disaster recovery plan in place?
Having a plan in place is essential because disaster occurs unexpectedly. When the business goes offline, whether due to a natural disaster, cyberattack, or internal failure, the plan is critical to minimize damage.
A comprehensive disaster recovery plan for businesses supports a broader business continuity strategy, protects data security, and keeps business leaders confident in their ability to recover. Ultimately, disaster recovery helps businesses face uncertainty with structure, speed, and clarity.
