Disaster recovery and business continuity planning are integral parts of the overall risk management for an organization.  Since all of the risks cannot be eliminated, companies are implementing disaster recovery and business continuity plans to prepare for potentially disruptive events.  Both processes are equally important because they provide detailed strategies on how the business will continue after severe interruptions and disasters.

In the event of a disaster, the continued operations of your company depend on the ability to replicate your IT systems and data. Disaster recovery refers to specific steps taken to resume operations in the consequences of a disastrous natural disaster or national emergency. In information technology, such steps may include restoring servers or mainframes with backups, re-establishing their operations to meet their business needs.

The disaster recovery plan stipulates how a company will prepare for a disaster, what the company’s response will be, and what steps it will take to ensure that operations can be restored.  Disaster recovery describes all of the steps involved in planning for and adapting to a potential disaster with a road map that will restore operations while minimizing the long-term negative impact on the company.

Business continuity planning suggests a more comprehensive approach to ensure your business is operating, not only after a natural disaster, but also in the event of smaller disruptions.  Unlike disaster recovery, business continuity involves keeping all aspects of a business functioning rather than just technology systems.  The business continuity plan is a fairly new approach that instructs what steps a company must take to minimize the effects of a service interruption.  This will limit the short-term negative impact on the company.