Disaster recovery and business continuity are related, but they are not the same. Confusing the two leads to plans that look good on paper and fail in practice.

This guide explains the difference and gives a practical way to plan for both.

Disaster recovery: restore systems and data

Disaster recovery (DR) is about bringing systems back after a failure.

DR focuses on:

  • Restoring infrastructure and data
  • Meeting RTO and RPO targets
  • Recovering after regional outages or data loss

Reference:

Business continuity: keep the business running

Business continuity (BC) is about keeping critical operations going, even when systems are down.

BC focuses on:

  • Customer support and communications
  • Manual workarounds when systems are offline
  • Prioritizing the most important business processes

Reference:

1. Start with critical business functions

BC planning starts with the business, not the servers.

Practical steps:

  • List critical processes that must continue (support, payments, onboarding).
  • Rank them by business impact.
  • Map each process to supporting systems.

2. Set RTO and RPO targets

DR planning needs clear targets.

Practical steps:

  • Define RTO and RPO per critical system.
  • Use tiers (15 minutes, 4 hours, 24 hours).
  • Get leadership sign-off on tradeoffs.

3. Choose the right DR strategy

Not every system needs multi-region active-active.

Options:

  • Backup and restore
  • Pilot light
  • Warm standby
  • Multi-site active-active

4. Define continuity workarounds

If a system is down, what do people do next?

Practical steps:

  • Define manual processes for core tasks.
  • Provide templates for customer communications.
  • Document how to access key data during outages.

5. Test both plans

DR and BC plans should be tested separately.

Practical steps:

  • Run DR restore tests quarterly.
  • Run a continuity tabletop exercise twice a year.
  • Track improvements and update runbooks.

6. Align ownership and communication

Plans fail when ownership is unclear.

Practical steps:

  • Assign DR owners per system.
  • Assign BC owners per business process.
  • Define internal and external communication paths.

Communication is part of continuity

BC plans should include simple communication steps.

Practical steps:

  • Define who updates the status page
  • Prepare a short customer update template
  • Assign an internal comms owner

Map dependencies that affect recovery

You cannot recover faster than your dependencies.

Practical steps:

  • List critical internal systems and vendor dependencies
  • Note dependency recovery times if known
  • Add alternatives for the most critical dependencies

7. Keep plans short and accessible

Short plans get used. Long plans get ignored.

Practical steps:

  • Use one-page runbooks for DR.
  • Store BC plans in a shared, accessible location.
  • Review plans annually and after major changes.

Example scenario

A short example helps show the difference in practice.

Scenario:

  • A regional outage takes down your primary database
  • DR plan: restore to the standby region within the RTO
  • BC plan: customer support uses a status page and a manual queue

Both plans matter, but they solve different problems.

Starter plan for small teams

If you need a quick start, keep it small and repeatable.

Starter plan:

  • Define RTO/RPO for the top three systems
  • Document one DR runbook and one BC workflow
  • Run a tabletop exercise and record gaps

Include third-party dependencies

Continuity plans should account for vendor outages too.

Practical steps:

  • List critical vendors and their impact
  • Document vendor outage contacts
  • Add vendor SLAs to the plan

Test cadence and success criteria

Plans only work if they are tested.

Practical steps:

  • Test DR restores quarterly
  • Run BC tabletop exercises twice a year
  • Record recovery times and gaps

Define minimum service levels

Business continuity should set a baseline for what must keep working.

Practical steps:

  • Define which customer actions must remain available
  • List the minimum data needed to operate
  • Document the manual steps to reach that baseline

Quick checklist

  • Critical business processes identified
  • RTO and RPO targets agreed
  • DR runbooks tested quarterly
  • BC workarounds documented
  • Ownership and comms paths defined

Clarity beats complexity. A short plan that teams can follow is more valuable than a long document no one reads. Review it after incidents and update it while lessons are fresh.

Closing thought

Disaster recovery restores systems. Business continuity keeps the business moving when systems are down. You need both, and each requires a focused plan.

If you want help defining DR targets or building a continuity plan that fits your team, we can help. We focus on practical plans that teams can actually use. Reach out through our consulting page to start a quick conversation.