Is your disaster recovery strategy nonexistent, outdated or a simple backup-only approach? Emergencies are unpredictable. Once a ransomware attack, hardware failure or human error emerges, your company may face significant repercussions, including prolonged downtime and the risk of reputational damage and financial losses.
In 2025, the global average cost of a data breach was $4.4 million. For example, CrowdStrike experienced an industry-wide IT disruption that affected the company and over 8.5 million devices worldwide. The sheer scale and unpredictability of such disasters make having a recovery plan all the more vital. While most businesses back up their data, few have a documented process to restore organizational continuity quickly.
This article explains what a disaster recovery plan is, what it entails and how you can compile one.
What Is an IT Disaster Recovery Plan?
An IT disaster recovery plan is a documented methodical proposal for managing situations that occur in the event of natural or human-made disasters. The steps of a disaster recovery plan typically revolve around taking actions that help a business resume operations as quickly as possible. Business continuity systems stress the importance of a disaster recovery plan.
Such a method is fundamental to preventing or alleviating data loss and recovering systems. Therefore, disaster recovery plans must be developed in conjunction with business continuity systems.
Most or all businesses rely on technology for almost every operational process. Companies use technology like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and email every day to communicate effectively. Additionally, some organizations use electronic data interchange (EDI) to make electronic transactions — like invoices and payments — between partners.
Businesses implement servers that are capable of storing large amounts of data through the cloud or housing them physically to hold their most vital information and run processes efficiently. Laptop or desktop computers are also essential for most office spaces.
This technology may extend outside the office into wireless devices. But depending on the technology your business uses and the details of the disaster, your network could still be compromised. This issue is why the very first step in developing an IT disaster recovery plan should be identifying vulnerabilities and risks, as well as setting objectives for recovery.
Why Daily Backups Don’t Count as a Recovery Plan
Daily backups are a mission-critical IT function, but they don’t qualify as a complete disaster recovery plan. While a backup copies your data, a recovery plan defines how you will restore your entire IT environment, including the systems, processes and personnel required to put that data back into a usable state.
Backups and disaster recovery differ in scope and speed. Restoring from backups can take days, leading to prolonged downtime and operational disruption. A DRP should include defined recovery time objectives that enable failover in hours or even minutes. In many cases, DRP strategies aim for near‑zero downtime.
Remember, backups protect your data, while disaster recovery protects your business. Relying on one without the other will leave you vulnerable.
Metrics That Matter — RTO and RPO
Before you can build a robust IT DRP, you must establish two crucial metrics in the case of an IT disaster.
- Recovery time objective: The maximum acceptable duration of downtime. For example, your RTO might be to have your email and order-processing systems operational within four hours of an outage.
- Recovery point objective: The maximum acceptable data loss measured in time. If a server fails at 5 p.m. and your RPO is one hour, your most recent backup must be from no earlier than 4 p.m.
You’ll notice a distinct trade-off between speed and cost. Lower RTOs and RPOs force your organization to invest in infrastructure, automation and expertise. Higher thresholds reduce costs but increase operational risk. Organizations aiming for aggressive recovery targets typically need a highly skilled IT team to support them.
Determine whether it is a valuable strategy to outsource your disaster recovery to a third party that hosts and manages the necessary infrastructure and has the experience to help you create and manage a robust DRP. Many business leaders now recognize the value of disaster recovery as a strategy, with its market size projected to grow to over $46 million by 2032, up from $16 million in 2025.
10 Steps to Build an Effective IT DR Plan
Here are 10 actionable steps for creating an IT DRP.
1. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis
Identify which components of your IT infrastructure are linchpins of your organization. Then, you can pinpoint which systems will cause the most disruptions when they fail and how long you can function without them.
A business impact analysis links your IT environment to real‑world consequences, such as:
- If email goes down, how does that affect internal and external communication?
- Can you still process payroll if the financial system fails?
- Which services will come to a halt if student information systems go offline?
2. Perform a Risk Assessment
The primary goal of risk assessment is to determine your most pressing threats, such as cyberattacks, human errors, power outages, aging hardware or natural disasters.
These will vary depending on your location. For example, for Pennsylvania-based organizations, likely culprits could be weather-related risks and regional infrastructure concerns. Understanding your specific risks allows you to focus your resources on the most probable threats.
3. Set Your RTO and RPO
Define how long you’re willing to be offline and the maximum amount of data loss you’re willing to tolerate after an IT disruption. Your business can better control the situation by having realistic expectations. Together, the RTO and RPO establish recovery expectations and guide your technical planning.
4. Take Inventory of Your IT Assets
You cannot recover what you don’t know exists. Make a full list of all your IT assets — hardware, systems, applications, data and cloud services. Then, step back and identify which assets depend on each other to ensure the recovery happens in the correct order.
5. Assign Roles and Responsibilities
Confusion wastes valuable time in a crisis. Decide who is accountable for making decisions, contacting vendors and communicating with stakeholders or the public. A defined chain of command can prevent potential delays and finger-pointing.
Examples of valuable DRP team members include:
- Manager
- Technical lead
- Systems administrator
- BC manager
- Crisis communications coordinator
- Infrastructure lead
- Vendor coordinator
6. Determine Your Backup Strategy
Backups become meaningful in a DRP only when they align with your predefined recovery requirements. Determine backup frequency, storage locations and expected restoration times, using RTO and RPO to drive these decisions. Many organizations reduce their risk and bounce back sooner with a hybrid approach that combines local backups with cloud‑based replication.
7. Create a Communication Protocol
People expect accountability and answers when systems fail. Having a communication protocol in place will combat confusion and establish calm. Define how and when you will share updates with internal and external stakeholders.
8. Document the Failover Procedure
Failover procedures explain how operations will switch to backup systems or alternate environments to maintain continuity. Automated switching minimizes downtime with a preconfigured response. However, even if the failover procedure is not automatic, your IT team has documentation that allows them to recover more efficiently under pressure.
9. Test the Plan
Thoroughly test your DRP before an emergency strikes to reveal potential weaknesses. Regularly conducting simulations or full-scale failover tests will familiarize teams with their responsibilities and ensure all the moving parts harmonize.
10. Refine and Update
Your disaster recovery plan is not a static document. You’ll want to fine-tune it based on what you learn during each testing attempt. Your plan may even require revisions as technology changes over time, prompting you to adopt more advanced strategies. You should also document changes to your IT infrastructure, RTO and RPO as you go along.
Experience Expert DRaaS From Morefield
A well‑designed recovery plan can be the difference between a minor IT disruption and a business‑defining crisis. While any organization can benefit from a DRP, not everyone executes these documents correctly.
Partner with Morefield for proven solutions and exceptional service backed by decades of experience. Whether you need DRaaS, backup as a service or guidance in defining your RTO and RPO, we’ll help you build a strategy that aligns with your budget, risk tolerance and operational priorities. With more than 70 years in the industry, we understand the challenges organizations face and know how to design recovery plans that work in the real world.
Connect with us online to schedule a risk assessment and start building a custom DRP tailored to your needs.
