Preparis Guide
The Complete Guide
to IT Disaster Recovery
Preparis
PreparisGuide
Guide
The Complete Guide to IT Disaster
Recovery
Contents
Understanding IT Disaster Recovery (IT/DR)...................................................................3
Business Continuity Plan vs. IT Disaster Recovery Plan................................................3
What to Consider When Centralizing Your BCP & IT/DR Plans..................................... 7
Summary...............................................................................................................................8
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Understanding IT Disaster Recovery (IT/DR)
In today’s digital world, IT Disaster Recovery (IT/DR) Planning has
become critical for information technology teams at all kinds
82% of businesses state
of organizations, businesses, and government agencies.
their IT infrastructure is
IT/DR is a plan to keep or restore important IT systems after
not equipped to deal
a disruption, like a natural disaster, cyberattack, or human error.
with an incident requiring
This plan includes policies, tools, and procedures to protect disaster recovery.
IT systems that businesses rely on, making sure they can keep
–MeriTalk’s “Rx: ITaaS + Trust” Study
running even when something goes wrong. IT/DR is a key part
of any strong Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
In this guide, we’ll explain how IT/DR differs from a BCP, how they
work together, and why your organization needs both.
It’s no longer a question of “if” something bad will happen,
but “when.” The more technology an organization uses, the
more risks it might face. In some industries, having an IT/DR plan
is not just important—it’s required by regulation.
Business Continuity Plan vs. IT Disaster
Recovery Plan
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
Business continuity refers to the processes and strategies
Less than 10% of businesses
that organizations put in place to ensure that critical business would survive a major
operations can continue during and after a disruption cybersecurity incident
or disaster. A BCP is comprehensive and encompasses without a solid disaster
all aspects of an organization, including IT systems, personnel, recovery strategy in place.
facilities, and supply chains. The primary focus is on identifying –Deloitte & Touche
essential business functions, and the resources needed
to restore them quickly.
IT Disaster Recovery Plan (IT/DR)
IT Disaster Recovery is a crucial component of business continuity, like fine-tuning a complex
machine after assembling the major components. While business continuity plans cover
all essential functions of an organization, IT/DR plans focus specifically on incidents that target
a company’s IT infrastructure—whether it's hardware, software, networks, data, personnel,
or organizational structures.
IT/DR plans are vital for maintaining functionality during and after a crisis. Their primary goals
are preventing, correcting, and detecting IT issues. These plans address incidents such as critical
bugs or infrastructure failures that could cause outages, ensuring that your IT systems are strong,
protected, and resilient.
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91% of mid-sized and large enterprises lose upwards of $300,000
for an hour of downtime. Of that 91%, nearly half have hourly
outage costs ranging from $1 million to more than $5 million
–The ITIC 2021 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey
Key Differences
Scope Focus Integration
BCP is broader, covering BCP aims to maintain BCP integrates various
all organizational functions, overall business operations, organizational departments
whereas IT/DR is focused while IT/DR specifically and processes, whereas
exclusively on IT infrastructure. concentrates on recovering IT/DR primarily involves
IT systems. IT departments.
Essential Components of an IT Disaster Recovery Plan
1
Identify the Goals of the Plan
Clearly outline the objectives and desired outcomes of the disaster recovery plan.
2
Contact Information of Important Parties
Maintain an up-to-date list of key contacts for quick communication during a crisis.
3
Runbooks and Procedures
Detailed runbooks and procedural documentation are crucial for guiding IT personnel
through the shutdown, backup, and recovery processes. These documents ensure recovery
steps are followed correctly and consistently. They should also include:
• Identification of Key IT Assets and Recovery Times: An essential first step in IT/DR
is identifying and cataloging all IT assets, including hardware, software, data,
and network components. This helps in understanding the scope of recovery and assigning
responsibilities for each asset's restoration, as well as their maximum allowable downtime.
• List of Software, License Keys, and Systems: Ensure all necessary software, licenses,
and systems for recovery are documented.
• Response Actions in a Crisis: Detail the steps that will be taken to respond to various
IT incidents.
• Insurance Coverage Documentation: Document all relevant insurance policies
that could aid in recovery.
• Plans for Financial, Legal, and Media Issues: Prepare strategies for handling financial
impacts, legal matters, and media communication.
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4 Regular Testing and Updates
IT environments are dynamic, so IT/DR plans must be tested and updated regularly.
This ensures that the recovery processes remain relevant and effective in the face
of changes within the IT infrastructure.
5 Alignment with Business Continuity Objectives
IT/DR efforts should align with the overall business continuity objectives. This alignment
ensures that IT recovery supports the goal of maintaining essential business functions
during and after a disaster.
Disaster recovery plans are detailed and robust, even though they function as a component
of the broader business continuity plan. Creating these plans requires careful consideration
and extensive information to ensure that IT systems remain secure, protected, and resilient
during a disaster.
The Need for Both a Business Continuity Plan and an IT Disaster
Recovery Plan
Having both a business continuity plan and an IT disaster
recovery plan is essential for a holistic approach 60% of small and midsize
to organizational resilience. While a BCP ensures that the overall businesses that were
business operations can withstand disruptions, IT/DR ensures victims of a cyberattack
that the IT systems, which are often the backbone of these went out of business
operations, can be restored quickly and efficiently. Think of IT/DR entirely within six months.
as the bridge between what your organization needs to operate –US National Cyber Security Alliance
versus what your IT team can deliver.
How BCP and IT/DR Plans Can Work in Tandem
BCP and IT/DR must work together to provide a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy.
Here’s how they complement each other:
Interdependency:
Most modern business functions rely heavily on IT systems. Therefore, an effective IT/DR plan
is critical to the success of a BCP. For example, a retail business cannot continue operations
without its inventory management and point-of-sale systems, both of which depend on
IT infrastructure.
Business Impact Analysis:
This analysis helps identify which business functions are critical and what IT requirements
are needed to support these functions. This step is crucial for both the BCP and IT/DR,
ensuring that IT recovery efforts align with business priorities.
Coordinated Efforts:
Effective disaster recovery requires close coordination between business and IT teams.
While IT teams focus on the technical recovery, business teams can manage operational
continuity, customer communications, and other critical functions.
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IT/DR Planning for Regulatory Compliance
IT Disaster Recovery (IT/DR) planning is crucial for compliance with various regulatory standards,
particularly in sectors handling sensitive data. Here's how IT/DR is required for compliance
in key industries:
Regulatory Body Requirements
• FINRA Rule 4370 requires broker-dealers to create and maintain a written BCP.
FINRA (Financial • Financial institutions are required to maintain robust IT/DR strategies to safeguard
Industry Regulatory client information and ensure business continuity.
Authority) • Compliance necessitates procedures to promptly recover and resume operations
during a disaster, protecting investors and maintaining market integrity.
• Applies to all U.S. financial institutions, emphasizing the importance of IT/DR within
its guidelines.
FFIEC (Federal Financial
• Financial institutions are required to have IT/DR and a BCP as part of their overall
Institutions Examination
IT risk management.
Council)
• The IT Examination Handbook outlines the need for effective disaster recovery
planning to mitigate risks to critical systems and data.
OCC (Office of the
• Requires financial institutions, including banks, life insurance, and cyber security
Comptroller of the
insurance companies, to have IT disaster recovery plans.
Currency)
• IT/DR is a crucial component in achieving compliance with ISO 22301, the international
ISO 22301 (International standard for Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS).
Organization for • This standard requires organizations to establish, implement, maintain,
Standardization) and continually improve a documented management system to protect against,
reduce the likelihood of, and ensure recovery from disruptive incidents.
• Healthcare organizations must implement comprehensive disaster recovery plans t
HIPAA (Health Insurance o protect patient data
Portability and
Accountability Act) • This includes ensuring the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of electronic
protected health information (ePHI) during any disruption
• California • Indiana • New York • Texas
States & Local Agencies
• Florida • Maryland • North Carolina • Washington
Requiring IT/DR Plans
• Georgia • Minnesota
Beyond these specific regulations, industries such as healthcare, finance, and government are
increasingly subject to stringent data protection laws and standards, including the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), The Digital
Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the U.S.
These regulations underscore the necessity for IT/DR to ensure compliance, protect sensitive
information, and maintain operational resilience. Including IT/DR in a business continuity plan
not only meets regulatory requirements but also enhances organizational preparedness against
potential disruptions.
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What to Consider When Centralizing Your
BCP & IT/DR Plans
Managing your BCP and IT/DR can be challenging. While IT/DR
focuses on the technical aspects of disaster recovery, it must Building our plans in Preparis
be integrated with broader business continuity strategies is exactly as easy as we
to ensure organizational resilience. Platforms like Preparis expected it to be. Preparis
provide a centralized approach to managing both, ensuring that simplifies IT/DR planning by
combining all of our needs
businesses can maintain operations and recover quickly from
under one umbrella
disruptions utilizing a single continuity software program.
–Director of BC/DR,
When selecting a business continuity and disaster recovery Insurance Company
platform, consider the following:
Ease of Use and Time Savings Integration Across Continuity and Recovery
Choose software that doesn’t just automate Business continuity and IT disaster recovery
tasks but genuinely saves you time. The right shouldn’t operate in silos. Your platform should
tool should simplify planning by directly provide seamless integration across these
gathering essential information from subject functions, allowing you to respond holistically
matter experts in business processes and when incidents occur. This includes assessing
IT, who may not be experts in planning. the impact on your operations, coordinating
Instead of spending countless hours communications, maintaining essential
interviewing and manually gathering data, processes, and recovering the technology
look for a platform that streamlines this that supports them—all from one place.
process and consolidates key insights, An integrated solution that covers alerting,
allowing you to focus on strategic decision- risk management, IT recovery, and business
making rather than data entry. continuity ensures your organization stays
resilient, no matter what comes your way.
Actionable and Testable Plans Compliance Support
It’s crucial that your platform turns gathered In today’s regulatory environment, compliance
data into practical, easy-to-follow plans. is more than just a checkbox—it’s a critical
These plans should clearly outline roles aspect of resilience. A good platform should
and who is responsible for what during come equipped with templates, reports, and
recovery, prioritize which systems or processes guidelines that align with key standards and
to restore first, and map out the steps needed regulations like ISO 27001, FFIEC, and DORA.
for recovery based on business needs and By using these built-in resources, you’ll not only
technical dependencies. The ability to test save time and effort during audit preparations
these plans regularly is essential, allowing but also ensure that your recovery strategies
your teams to build confidence and muscle meet industry best practices and can stand
memory so they can execute quickly up to scrutiny.
in a real crisis.
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Summary
As technology plays a bigger role in how businesses run, having a strong IT/DR plan and a BCP
is more important than ever. With more companies using cloud services, AI, and automation,
the risks to IT systems are growing, and so are the rules that need to be followed. The IT/DR tool
in the Preparis Platform gives businesses an easy way to manage both IT/DR and BCPs in one
place. This helps ensure that your business can quickly recover and keep running smoothly
if something goes wrong. Using Preparis, business organizations can simplify recovery,
stay compliant, and stay strong in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
The Preparis platform empowers real business leaders to make continuity planning a strength
of their business through a simple, self-guided workflow. Built upon the principles of visibility, knowledge,
and control, Preparis is the first platform to remove the complexity from continuity and put the power
in your hands — right where it belongs.
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© Copyright 2024 – Preparis. All Rights Reserved.
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