What is a disaster recovery plan? Types, elements, steps and best practices
IT disruptions strike fast and unexpectedly, whether triggered by cyberattacks, system failures or natural disasters. When they do, the recovery speed determines whether the impact is a minor setback or a major blow to the business. That’s why disaster recovery planning is vital for IT teams and MSPs. A robust disaster recovery plan (DRP) enables organizations to rapidly restore infrastructure and operations with minimal impact on data, uptime and productivity.
In this article, we’ll explore what a disaster recovery plan is and why it’s essential for IT teams and MSPs aiming to eliminate data loss and reduce downtime. Along the way, we’ll examine the value it brings to business continuity, the various approaches organizations can take and the key elements, steps and practices that shape an effective and reliable disaster recovery strategy.
What is a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan is a documented framework that outlines how an organization will restore its IT systems, data and operations after a disruptive event. It provides a clear path to recovery when incidents, such as cyberattacks, hardware failures or natural disasters, threaten business continuity.
As a key component of a broader business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy, a DRP focuses specifically on restoring critical technology and services online quickly. It helps minimize downtime, reduce data loss and ensure that teams can return to normal operations with confidence.
Why is it important to have a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan plays a crucial role in helping organizations stay operational when the unexpected happens by ensuring that recovery efforts are fast, coordinated and effective. It minimizes downtime, protects critical data and allows businesses to continue serving customers while avoiding costly interruptions. A DRP also helps maintain compliance with industry standards, supports contractual obligations and reinforces customer trust by demonstrating that the organization is prepared for any eventuality. In today’s digital-first world, disaster recovery planning is crucial for maintaining competitiveness and reliability.
What elements should a disaster recovery plan cover?
A disaster recovery plan is only as strong as the structure behind it. Each element plays a crucial role in determining how effectively an organization can respond to and recover from IT disruptions. From clear goals to reliable backups, every piece of the plan must work together to enable fast, coordinated recovery across systems, data and teams.
Here’s what a strong disaster recovery plan for IT environments should include:
Goals and objectives
Every disaster recovery plan must begin with clearly defined goals. These include outlining the plan’s scope and setting measurable targets, including:
- Recovery time objective (RTO): How quickly systems must be restored
- Recovery point objective (RPO): How much data loss is acceptable
These metrics help guide recovery priorities and ensure alignment with business requirements, regulatory obligations and service-level agreements (SLAs).
IT asset and system inventory
You can’t recover what you don’t know exists. An up-to-date inventory of all critical IT assets, including servers, applications, databases, endpoints, network hardware and cloud platforms, is essential. This inventory helps identify what needs to be restored first, enabling smarter decision-making during high-pressure recovery scenarios.
Personnel roles and responsibilities
When a disaster hits, confusion can waste valuable time. A DRP should clearly define who’s responsible for what, outlining roles across the recovery team, from incident leads and IT engineers to communications managers and vendor contacts. Establishing a clear chain of command ensures swift, coordinated execution during every phase of the recovery process.
Backup and replication procedures
Data is central to every organization, and losing it can be catastrophic. That’s why every disaster recovery plan must detail how data is backed up, how often it is backed up and where it’s stored. Whether using onsite appliances, cloud-based replication or a hybrid model, the goal is to ensure that data is always accessible when recovery is needed. It’s also critical to validate that backups are complete, consistent and tested regularly.
Disaster recovery sites and failover plan
If your primary infrastructure is unavailable, you need a fallback. Alternate recovery sites allow operations to continue even when core systems go offline. A DRP should outline how failover occurs, how services are switched to a secondary location and how systems are restored to the primary site once the crisis has passed.
Incident response and recovery procedures
Speed matters in disaster scenarios. Your DRP should include a step-by-step response plan that covers how incidents are detected, escalated and assessed. Once the event is contained, detailed recovery workflows should outline the specific steps needed to bring affected systems and services back online securely and efficiently.
Communication plan
In the midst of a disaster, timely and transparent communication is essential. Your plan should define how to communicate with internal teams, customers, vendors and other stakeholders. Include preferred channels, such as email alerts, SMS, collaboration tools or phone trees, and designate a spokesperson to handle media or external communications.
Testing and review process
A disaster recovery plan must be tested — not just created and forgotten. Routine disaster recovery testing helps validate that your recovery processes function as intended and that your team is prepared to respond effectively. From tabletop exercises to full-scale simulations, ongoing testing helps expose weaknesses and improve procedures.
Training and awareness program
Technology alone can’t ensure recovery; your people must be ready, too. Regular training and awareness sessions ensure that staff understand their responsibilities and are confident in executing the DR plan. Including disaster recovery drills in your training program reinforces readiness and reduces the risk of human error during a real event.
Types of disaster recovery plans
Disaster recovery isn’t one-size-fits-all. The right approach depends on an organization’s infrastructure, resources and business continuity goals. Some businesses rely on physical hardware, while others operate entirely in the cloud or virtualized environments. A tailored disaster recovery plan ensures recovery strategies align with specific IT setups and operational priorities.
Below are the most common types of disaster recovery plans, each suited to different needs and environments.
Data center disaster recovery plan
Designed for organizations with on-premises infrastructure, this plan focuses on restoring physical servers, storage devices, networking gear and facility-level systems. It covers everything from hardware redundancy and backup power supplies to climate controls and disaster recovery sites.
Use case: Ideal for enterprises with self-managed data centers or colocation environments that require continuity of physical infrastructure.
Network disaster recovery plan
When connectivity is lost, productivity grinds to a halt. This plan addresses the recovery of critical network components, including routers, switches, firewalls and wireless access points. It includes steps to reconfigure IP settings, restore connectivity, activate redundant links and secure remote access for teams working off-site.
Use case: Best suited for organizations that rely on complex internal networks or have multiple locations requiring stable and secure communication.
Cloud disaster recovery plan
This plan leverages cloud platforms to store backups and replicate data and applications in real time. In the event of a disruption, organizations can quickly restore workloads from cloud environments, often from geographically diverse regions. Cloud DR offers flexibility, scalability and cost efficiency.
Use case: Ideal for businesses with hybrid or fully cloud-based infrastructures that prioritize speed and scalability in recovery.
Virtualized disaster recovery plan
For businesses running virtual machines (VMs), this type of DR plan enables rapid recovery by restoring VM snapshots or spinning up pre-configured images. With orchestration tools, IT teams can automate failovers across hypervisors or into the cloud, reducing manual effort and recovery time.
Use case: Perfect for environments built on virtualization platforms like VMware or Hyper-V, where system portability and speed are key.
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS)
DRaaS offers an outsourced, cloud-based solution managed by a third-party provider. It handles backup, replication, failover and recovery with minimal effort from in-house teams. DRaaS solutions are typically scalable and include 24/7 support and compliance features.
Use case: A smart choice for SMBs or MSPs that want enterprise-level disaster recovery without the overhead of managing it internally.
Steps for creating a disaster recovery plan
Creating a disaster recovery plan requires a structured and strategic approach that covers every aspect of recovery. Each step helps ensure your organization is prepared to respond effectively when disruptions occur.
Below is a practical, step-by-step guide to building a reliable and responsive DRP:
- Assess risks and threats: Start by identifying the most likely threats to your IT environment. These may include cyberattacks such as ransomware, hardware malfunctions, power outages, natural disasters or human error. Understanding these risks helps shape the rest of the plan by highlighting where your vulnerabilities lie.
- Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA): Next, evaluate how different types of disruptions affect your operations. A BIA helps you pinpoint which systems, applications and services are mission-critical, and what the consequences are if they go down. This step helps prioritize recovery efforts and ensures resources are allocated where they’re needed most.
Fig 1: How to conduct a BIA
- Determine RTO and RPO: Establish your RTO and RPO — the maximum amount of time a system can be down before it impacts business, and the maximum amount of data your business can afford to lose. These benchmarks guide the design of your backup and recovery strategies. Try this RTO calculator to determine the right values for your or your client‘s environment.
- Develop recovery strategies: Once you’ve defined your recovery targets, you can begin planning how to meet them. This includes outlining how to restore applications, systems and data, as well as identifying the resources or platforms that will support recovery. Consider multiple scenarios — from partial outages to complete data center failures — to ensure your plan can handle various levels of disruption.
- Implement backup and failover systems: Implement the right technologies to support rapid recovery. This includes automated backup solutions, replication tools and failover systems that allow you to switch to a secondary infrastructure quickly. The goal is to minimize downtime and maintain operations, even when your primary environment is compromised.
- Document the DR plan: All strategies, procedures, contact information, roles and escalation paths should be thoroughly documented. This document must be easily accessible, regularly updated and shared with key personnel. A well-documented plan eliminates guesswork and speeds up decision-making during high-stress situations.
What are the benefits of a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan does more than restore lost files or reboot systems; it helps protect the organization’s reputation, maintain customer trust and ensure long-term operational stability. When a plan is built, tested and maintained properly, it becomes a powerful tool for business continuity, financial protection and organizational resilience.
A robust DR plan helps you:
- Improve response time and cyber resilience: When disruptions hit, every second counts. A disaster recovery plan enables faster identification, containment and resolution of incidents, whether it’s a cyberattack or a system failure. That speed not only limits the damage but also helps teams respond more confidently to future threats, making the organization more resilient over time.
- Reduce downtime and operational disruption: Without a plan, recovery is slower, riskier and more chaotic. A tested DRP provides IT teams with the roadmap they need to recover systems, restore data and get operations back on track quickly. Shorter downtime means less impact on employees, customers and the bottom line.
- Preserve trust with clients and stakeholders: Business disruptions not only affect operations but also affect the perception. An organization that can respond quickly and effectively to a crisis demonstrates to clients, partners and investors that it’s stable, secure and prepared. That confidence can be a key differentiator in competitive markets.
- Support compliance and financial stability: Many industries have strict requirements for disaster recovery and data protection. A documented and tested DRP demonstrates compliance, reduces legal exposure and helps avoid penalties. It also protects revenue by minimizing costly downtime and ensuring business continuity even in the face of serious threats.
Disaster recovery plan best practices
Creating a disaster recovery plan is just the beginning. To remain effective, it must evolve in tandem with your business, technology stack and threat landscape. These best practices represent the continuous improvement phase, ensuring your DRP remains reliable, relevant and ready to activate when needed most.
Provide ongoing training and awareness
Disaster recovery is a team effort. Every employee should know their role during a disruption, and this can only happen through consistent training. Conduct regular drills, refresher sessions and role-based exercises to reinforce responsibilities. When staff are well-prepared, response times improve and confusion is reduced in high-pressure scenarios.
Consistently test and update the plan
An untested plan is as risky as having no plan at all. Schedule regular tests — tabletop exercises, simulated attacks or full recovery drills — to validate that your DR strategy works. Use the results to update procedures, address gaps and reflect changes in your environment, such as new systems, vendors or compliance requirements.
Integrate DR with business continuity planning
Disaster recovery focuses on restoring IT, but it should never operate in a silo. Integrate it with your broader business continuity planning to align technology recovery with operational needs. This ensures that recovery efforts support the entire organization — not just infrastructure — and deliver a smoother return to full service.
Automate where possible with BCDR solutions
Modern BCDR solutions offer powerful automation capabilities that simplify backup, failover and recovery. Automating these processes not only accelerates recovery but also minimizes the risk of human error. By leveraging tools that handle backup, testing, replication and restoration, your team can focus on strategic decisions instead of manual tasks.
Build and implement your disaster recovery plan with Datto BCDR
Today’s BCDR solutions help organizations take a unified approach to business continuity and disaster recovery. By combining automated backup, seamless failover and flexible recovery, they enable businesses to maintain operations during disruptions and recover quickly.
Datto BCDR is purpose-built for this level of resilience. Designed for MSPs and IT teams, it simplifies disaster recovery and empowers organizations to protect critical systems, reduce downtime and ensure consistent access to data and applications.
Here’s how Datto BCDR helps you build a reliable, responsive business continuity and disaster recovery plan:
Instant virtualization for uninterrupted operations
Datto enables the instant virtualization of systems, either locally, in the cloud or both. If on-site infrastructure fails, Datto appliances can spin up virtual machines directly on the device, keeping critical systems running while recovery is in progress. When local recovery isn’t possible, Datto Cloud steps in, allowing you to virtualize systems off-site in minutes. This ensures business continuity with minimal disruption, even during large-scale outages.
Screenshot and application verification for guaranteed recoverability
Datto automatically verifies that every backup is not only successful, but also bootable and ready for recovery. Through screenshot verification, the system checks that restored backups launch correctly and that critical applications start up as expected. This added layer of validation gives IT teams confidence that backups will perform when it matters most, eliminating guesswork in high-pressure recovery scenarios.
Built-in ransomware resilience for maximum protection
Datto BCDR includes robust protection against ransomware and cyberthreats. Backups are saved in a write-once-read-many (WORM) format, making them immutable. This prevents tampering or encryption by ransomware actors. Combined with a hardened, Linux-based appliance architecture and in-built ransomware detection, Datto helps stop attacks early and ensures recovery points remain secure and usable.
Flexible recovery options to match any scenario
Whether restoring a single file or an entire environment, Datto provides IT teams with total control over how recovery occurs. Options include file and folder-level restores, volume restores, bare-metal recovery, full-system virtualization and ESX upload. This flexibility allows recovery to be tailored to the specific needs of each incident, minimizing downtime while maximizing efficiency.
With Datto BCDR, organizations can move from reactive recovery to proactive resilience. It provides the tools, automation and peace of mind IT teams need to keep systems running and data protected — no matter what comes next.
Ready to take control of your business continuity and disaster recovery? Explore Datto BCDR today.
