Business continuity and disaster recovery definition
Business continuity and disaster recovery refer to established processes that organizations implement to ensure resilience and quick recovery from disruptions. While both are important, business continuity and disaster recovery focus on different areas. Business continuity focuses on maintaining critical business operations during a disruption and covers all aspects of the business, including personnel, processes, facilities, and technology.
Disaster recovery focuses on restoring IT systems and data after a disruption. It specifically targets technology and data recovery with the aim to restore systems and data to full functionality as quickly as possible.
See also: disaster recovery as a service
Key elements of business continuity
Business continuity refers to the proactive planning that organizations undertake to ensure that critical business functions can continue operating during and after a disaster or crisis. The goal is to minimize downtime and ensure that essential services are maintained.
- 1.Business impact analysis. Identifies the critical processes within an organization, assesses their importance, and determines the impact of a disruption on the business.
- 2.Risk assessment. Identifies potential threats and evaluates their likelihood and potential impact on business operations.
- 3.Continuity planning. Establishes procedures to ensure that critical functions and processes can be quickly restored after a crisis.
Key elements of disaster recovery
Disaster recovery is a part of business continuity focused specifically on the restoration of IT systems, data, and infrastructure following a disruption.
- Data backup and recovery. Ensures that critical data is backed up regularly and can be restored quickly in the event of data loss or corruption.
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO). It sets the time frame for how quickly systems should be restored.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Refers to the maximum amount of data loss that is acceptable.
