How to create a business continuity plan

Businesses today operate in an always-connected world where customers expect services to be readily available. However, as businesses work to meet these evolving expectations, the risks that threaten their operational continuity have also advanced. From cyberattacks and natural disasters to insider threats and human error, the disruptions to business continuity are growing in both frequency and complexity. That’s why business continuity planning (BCP) has become a top priority for IT teams and MSPs.

Business continuity planning ensures that your organization — or your client’s — can continue running critical functions during and after an unexpected disruption. It helps build resilience, reduce downtime and keep service levels consistent, even in high-pressure scenarios. A robust business continuity plan can not only secure your operations and data but also preserve your finances and reputation.

In this article, we’ll explore why a business continuity plan is essential and provide a step-by-step guide to building one that’s practical and effective. If you want to dig deeper into the components of a business continuity plan and learn what it is in detail, read our blog on what a business continuity plan is.

Why do you need a business continuity plan?

Disruptions don’t wait for the right moment. A single outage, attack or mistake can bring your operations to a halt, damage customer relationships and cause long-term financial impact. Without a business continuity plan, your response becomes reactive rather than strategic, often resulting in prolonged downtime, regulatory issues or permanent data loss. A business continuity plan helps you respond quickly and effectively, giving your team a clear framework to minimize disruption and maintain critical operations, even under pressure.

Without a clear BCP, organizations face significant risks, including:

• Lost revenue: Every minute of downtime can directly impact your bottom line, especially in service-driven environments.
• Damaged reputation: If services aren’t available when needed, customers lose confidence and may turn to competitors.
• Data loss: Unprotected data can be corrupted or permanently lost during a disruption.
• Compliance violations: Many industries require continuity planning. Without one, you may fail audits or face penalties.
• Operational chaos: Without structure, recovery becomes guesswork, creating confusion and delays.

A business continuity plan is more than a risk management tool; it’s a commitment to staying resilient, responsive and reliable when it matters most.

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan provides a structured, repeatable approach to keeping the business running during a crisis. It outlines exactly what needs to happen, who’s responsible and how to maintain essential operations without delay.

Rather than relying on improvised decisions, a BCP gives teams a shared framework to follow. It aligns priorities, defines critical functions and ensures recovery steps are clear and coordinated. At its core, the purpose of a BCP is to keep your response as fast, focused and effective as possible.

10 steps for creating a business continuity plan

Creating a business continuity plan is a practical, step-by-step process. It involves gathering input across the organization, assessing potential risks, setting realistic recovery goals and turning those insights into a clear, executable plan. A strong BCP should also be tested, improved and updated regularly to keep pace with the evolving operations and threats.

Here are the 10 steps to build a business continuity plan that works in the real world:

1. Form a business continuity planning team

Start by assembling a cross-functional team responsible for developing and maintaining the BCP. This team should represent critical departments like IT, operations, HR, finance and communications. Each member should understand their area’s key processes and be empowered to contribute insights and decisions.

Assign a team leader or coordinator to drive the process forward, ensure accountability and coordinate collaboration. The team should also have the authority to act quickly during disruptions.

2. Identify critical business functions

List all the key functions and services your organization delivers. Then, identify which of these are vital to daily operations or long-term business survival. Not all processes carry the same weight — the goal is to prioritize by operational impact and interdependencies.

Ask:

• Which functions would cause the greatest disruption if unavailable?
• What do employees and customers rely on most?
• Which systems or processes have legal, regulatory or contractual obligations tied to them?

Document your findings, and that list should guide your risk analysis, impact assessment and recovery priorities.

3. Perform a risk assessment

Next, identify the events or scenarios that could disrupt your critical functions. This includes both external and internal threats. Common examples include:

• Cyber incidents such as ransomware or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
• Natural disasters like floods, wildfires or storms
• IT infrastructure failures (hardware or software)
• Insider threats or human error
• Third-party or supply chain disruptions

Assess each risk for two factors: likelihood and impact. This helps prioritize which risks need immediate planning and mitigation versus those that require monitoring.

4. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)

A business impact analysis helps quantify what would happen if a critical function is interrupted. It measures the financial, operational and reputational consequences of downtime.

To conduct a BIA:

• Gather data through interviews, surveys or documentation.
• Identify dependencies and resource requirements for each function.
• Calculate acceptable downtime (maximum tolerable downtime or MTD).
• Estimate potential costs of disruption over time.

This information forms the foundation for your recovery strategies.

5. Define recovery objectives (RTO and RPO)

Recovery objectives help you set measurable goals for bringing systems and processes back online.

• Recovery time objective (RTO): The maximum period a process or system can be down without causing unacceptable damage.
• Recovery point objective (RPO): The maximum acceptable data loss, measured in time, such as the most recent backup point.

Balance recovery speed, system importance and available resources to set realistic RTO and RPO targets.

For a deeper look into setting RTO and RPO and learn why they are central to a strong business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy, read our detailed blog on RTO and RPO.

6. Develop response, recovery and communications strategies

With risks and objectives defined, create actionable strategies for:

• Incident response: Steps to take immediately after a disruption, such as securing systems, notifying key personnel or initiating emergency procedures.
• Recovery: Procedures for restoring systems, either locally or in the cloud, or relocating teams.
• Communications: Who needs to be informed, when and how — including employees, customers, vendors, partners and regulatory bodies.

Use standardized templates, call trees and predefined messages to speed up communications during high-stress moments.

7. Document the business continuity plan

All strategies, contact lists, procedures and recovery steps should be captured in a clear, accessible document. Use consistent formatting and include:

• Plan objectives and scope
• Team roles and contact information
• Risk assessments and BIA results
• Step-by-step response and recovery actions
• Communication workflows
• Maintenance and testing schedule

Document version control is also critical. Make sure your plan is stored securely and accessible in the event of a system outage.

8. Assign roles and train employees

Even the best plan fails without people who know how to use it. Once roles are defined, train employees on their specific responsibilities during an incident.

This includes:

• Regular training sessions for team leads and support staff.
• Job aids or quick-reference guides for critical roles.
• Tabletop exercises or live simulations to build familiarity and confidence.

Training should be ongoing, not a one-time task.

9. Test and validate effectiveness

Testing helps ensure your plan holds up under pressure. It’s the best way to uncover gaps, inefficiencies or outdated information.

Use a combination of:

• Tabletop exercises: Discussion-based walkthroughs of a scenario.
• Simulation drills: Controlled, real-time exercises with limited system disruption.
• Technical failovers or restores: Tests of backup and recovery systems.

Evaluate test results against your RTOs and RPOs and then document improvements.

10. Continuously review and update.

A business continuity plan isn’t one-and-done. It should be reviewed regularly to ensure it reflects your current business environment, systems and risks.

• Revisit your plan after any major organizational change.
• Update contacts, technologies, vendors and recovery strategies as needed.
• Incorporate lessons learned from tests and actual incidents.
• Schedule annual reviews to maintain relevance.

An up-to-date plan is a reliable plan, and reliability is what continuity planning is all about.

Build your business continuity plan with Datto

Building and maintaining a business continuity plan requires reliable tools that keep up with modern threats. Datto’s BCDR solutions are designed to support every stage of the continuity planning process, helping MSPs and IT teams protect critical systems, validate recovery workflows and keep operations running with confidence.

From automated backups to instant recovery and centralized management, Datto simplifies business continuity so you can focus on delivering uninterrupted services. Here’s how Datto helps you strengthen and streamline your continuity strategy:

Immutable backups with built-in ransomware detection

Datto appliances run on a hardened Linux-based OS, reducing exposure to common vulnerabilities that target Windows-based software. Backups are also stored in the immutable Datto Cloud, which is protected with enterprise-grade security and built-in ransomware detection. Even in the event of a ransomware attack, your backup data remains secure and recoverable, giving you peace of mind that your recovery point is clean and usable.

Patented instant virtualization

With Datto’s patented instant virtualization, MSPs and IT teams can restore systems in minutes, not hours. You can instantly virtualize the systems locally, on Datto appliances, or in the Datto Cloud, restoring access to critical applications without delay.

Automated backup verification

Knowing your backups exist isn’t enough; you need to know they work. Datto BCDR automatically tests and verifies every backup using screenshot verification and advanced integrity checks. You get daily proof that your data is restorable, functional and ready for recovery when it’s needed most.

Seamless management

Datto’s centralized business continuity and disaster recovery dashboard makes backup and recovery management effortless. This is especially beneficial for MSPs who get complete visibility into all client systems. From a single pane of glass, you can monitor backup health, manage recovery points and resolve issues quickly. Whether supporting five clients or five hundred, Datto scales with your business and reduces the time it takes to protect, recover and respond.

Datto helps you take control of your business continuity with features that are proven, practical and purpose-built. Ready to make continuity planning easier and more effective? Explore Datto BCDR solutions to see how you can build a resilient, recovery-ready business.