By Michael Berman, CEO and Founder of Ncontracts
Business continuity planning (BCP) and disaster recovery planning (DRP) are sometimes lumped together. But there are critical differences between BCP and DRP that companies must consider.
Business continuity planning: A BCP maps an organization’s steps to restore regular business functions following a disaster or disruption. Instead of focusing on planning for an individual event, BCP is a broad strategy for managing risk across an organization. Companies often craft a Business Impact Analysis (BIA), giving them insight into how a disruption would impact core systems and business functions.
Disaster recovery: DRP focuses on an organization’s immediate recovery following an unexpected event. Disaster recovery typically involves restoring IT systems to prevent the loss of critical data. Organizations should evaluate the strength of data backup plans in their BIA, considering the following:
- Recovery point objectives (RPOs) – RPOs define the period for data to be retrieved from backup storage to resume operations. When deciding on recovery point objectives, organizations must ask themselves how much data they can lose and configure backup systems accordingly.
- Recovery time objectives (RTOs) – An RTO gives organizations a timeframe for restoring critical systems and functions following an outage.
- Maximum allowable downtime (MAD) – The maximum time a system can be down.
Organizations need both disaster recovery and business continuity planning. The cost of system downtime has grown across industries – between $5,000 – $9,000 per minute on average, depending on the industry study or survey.
Why organizations need disaster recovery and business continuity planning
When effectively thought through and tested, BCP and DRP protect organizations from the financial consequences of system downtime and data loss. They also safeguard companies from costly regulatory penalties and reputational damage.
With strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans, organizations can:
Reduce downtime: When disaster strikes, organizations without a BCP/DRP struggle to resume normal operations. Cyberattacks reported by news outlets make consumers, clients, and investors jittery. The public needs to know that you have a handle on any situation, which means ensuring critical systems are up and running within the shortest possible time horizon.
Decrease financial risk: The average data breach cost increased by 15% to $4.45 million per incident in 2023, according to IBM’s most recent report. Organizations can significantly decrease the total price tag for data breaches and other incidents with robust business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
Lower regulatory penalties: Many industries, such as banking, face steep fines for failing to secure legally protected consumer data. Depending on your industry, regulators may require organizations to have a BCP/DRP for compliance purposes.
How your BCP and DRP work together
Your disaster recovery plan addresses the immediate steps you need to take following an unanticipated event, while your BCP concerns itself with risks spread across the entirety of your enterprise.
Deciding what plan to implement first depends on the disaster. Recently, more organizations are combining disaster recovery and business continuity into a single plan. This approach has significant upside in dealing with risk holistically.
For example, if your organization suffers a natural disaster, you must first ensure that your employees, consumers, and community are safe. After you recover from the disaster, you can implement your business continuity plan and get your systems up and running.
The aftermath of a cyberattack is a different matter: an organization’s most pressing concern is understanding the nature of the attack and helping those experiencing problems. Once an organization understands the attack, it can execute its DRP.
The benefits of business continuity and disaster recovery as a service
Business-continuity-as-a-service (BCaaS) and disaster-recovery-as-service (DRaaS) deliver the benefit of expertise. Many organizations do not have the luxury of employing a dedicated business continuity specialist.
Organizations save on employee resources and operational expenses with business continuity plan software. Building a customizable BCP/DRP in the cloud gives organizations greater flexibility and focus. For example, automating crisis communications helps your teams stay on schedule during an emergency.
Selecting a BCaaS or DRaaS provider does not mean you can wash your hands of business continuity and disaster recovery. Organizations still need to test their plans. Industry best practices suggest that you test BCP/DRP (through tabletop exercises with relevant employees and staff or walkthroughs) at least once a year – and frequently more often.
Even a slight service disruption can cost organizations millions, so companies must regularly test the strength of their business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
