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Building a disaster recovery plan is one thing. Having the right support to implement, test and manage it is another. Talk to our team if you'd like expert help putting a plan into practice.
In short
A disaster recovery (DR) plan defines how your business responds to and recovers from major disruptions - from cyber attacks and hardware failure to natural disasters and human error. This guide walks through the 10 essential steps to build or review your DR plan, covering objectives, RTO/RPO definitions, team preparation, incident response, testing and more.
We've also produced a free downloadable checklist you can work through with your team, which includes specific action items and expert tips for each step.
What is a disaster recovery plan?
These days, we're primed to expect the unexpected. It used to be a common misconception that only large enterprises or global corporations need a well-rounded disaster recovery plan. But of course, disruptions - whether from cyber attacks, natural disasters, or system failures - affect businesses of every size and in every sector. Preparing for the unexpected is not just good practice, it's essential.
A disaster recovery plan forms the foundation of your response to major disruptions and is also useful for planned events such as migrations, upgrades and office moves. At its most basic, a disaster recovery plan defines how your data is backed up, where it's stored, and who's responsible for restoring operations. For larger organisations, the plan becomes more complex, factoring in alternative workspaces, communication strategies, equipment replacement, and more.
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Download the free checklist
This guide is paired with a free, printable 10-step disaster recovery checklist with specific action items, expert tips and a DR plan review log, ready to use with your team.
Download the checklist (PDF)Written by Wavenet's business continuity specialists.
Below, we share the ten essential steps to help you create an effective disaster recovery plan that supports business continuity, complete with explanations and top tips for successful planning.
You can also tick off each checklist item directly on this page as you work through the steps.
1. Set clear objectives
Start by outlining the purpose of your disaster recovery plan. What are you trying to achieve?
Common goals include:
- Reducing downtime and service interruptions.
- Minimising financial and operational impact.
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Safeguarding business reputation.
- Establishing temporary workarounds for disrupted operations.
- Training employees to respond effectively during incidents.
Top tip: clarity at this stage will shape the direction of your plan and help ensure alignment with your overall business strategy and buy-in from the wider business.
Checklist - Step 1
Expert tip: Clarity at this stage shapes the direction of your plan and secures business-wide alignment from day one.
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- Define the purpose, scope and intended outcomes of the DR plan
- Identify the business priorities the plan must protect (revenue, operations, reputation, compliance)
- Map all applicable regulatory requirements (e.g. GDPR, industry standards)
- Establish acceptable downtime and data loss thresholds at a high level
- Secure senior leadership approval and sponsorship
- Align DR objectives with the wider business continuity strategy
2. Build a complete view of your IT estate
List every critical component of your IT infrastructure, such as servers, applications, devices, networks, and cloud services. Where is each system hosted? Which ones are business-critical?
Group applications and systems into categories such as:
- Essential for daily operations.
- Important but not immediately critical.
- Non-essential (can wait a few days).
Once you have defined your most critical applications you will be able to see which ones you need to prioritise above all others in the event of a disaster.
Top tip: this needs to be done from a business perspective, with collaboration from all business functions to understand the business impact of downtime and data loss across your IT landscape.
Checklist - Step 2
Expert tip: Take a business-first approach, working across departments to understand the true impact of downtime and data loss.
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- Create a full inventory of systems, applications, infrastructure and devices
- Document hosting environments (on-premises, cloud, hybrid)
- Classify systems - define what is business-critical, important, non-essential, and so on
- Identify system interdependencies and possible single points of failure
- Map data flows and key integrations
- Assign a business owner to every critical system
- Review and validate the inventory within the last 12 months
3. Define your RTOs and RPOs
Let's take a moment to clarify what we mean by RTO and RPO. Your RTO (recovery time objective) defines the maximum amount of time a system or application can be down before the impact becomes unacceptable to your business. In other words, it answers the question: "How quickly do we need to recover this system?" Your RPO (recovery point objective) defines the maximum amount of data loss your business can tolerate, answering: "How much data can we afford to lose if something goes wrong?"
Understanding these objectives is critical because they directly shape your disaster recovery strategy and business continuity planning. RTO and RPO help you:
- Prioritise systems and data: critical systems with short RTOs or low RPOs get restored first, minimising operational disruption.
- Optimise costs: not all systems require rapid recovery or frequent backups, so you can allocate resources efficiently.
- Choose the right technology: they guide decisions on hardware, software, and backup solutions to meet your recovery needs.
- Protect your business: by defining tolerances for downtime and data loss, you ensure your organisation can survive outages, cyber attacks, or other disasters with minimal impact.
In short, RTO tells you how fast you need to recover, and RPO tells you how much data loss is acceptable. Together, they form the backbone of a resilient, cost-effective recovery plan.
Top tip: regularly review and update your RTOs and RPOs to reflect changes in your business priorities, system usage, and the value of your data. This keeps your recovery plan aligned with what matters most.
Checklist - Step 3
Expert tip: Review recovery objectives regularly to keep pace with changing business priorities and data value.
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- Define RTOs for all systems
- Define RPOs for all systems
- Centralise all RTO/RPO data in a single, controlled register
- Validate targets with business stakeholders, not just the IT department
- Ensure backup frequency aligns with RPO requirements
- Confirm recovery solutions can meet RTO targets
- Review and update RTO/RPOs within the last 12 months
4. Prepare your disaster recovery team
A disaster recovery plan is only as effective as the people executing it. Assign roles and responsibilities for each stage of your recovery process.
Top tip: keep your disaster recovery documentation up to date and easily accessible, and ensure staff are cross-trained so colleagues can step in if specialist team members are on leave or unavailable during an incident.
Checklist - Step 4
Expert tip: Cross-train your team and keep documentation accessible so the plan works even when key individuals are unavailable.
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- Define all DR roles, responsibilities and accountabilities
- Assign named individuals and deputies for every role
- Deliver targeted DR training for all responsible staff
- Document escalation routes and decision authority
- Store contact details in both the DR plan and offline copies
- Schedule regular training refresh cycles
- Verify backup personnel can carry out primary roles independently
5. Establish a communication strategy
During a crisis, clear and timely communication is vital. Your plan should detail how you will communicate with:
- Employees and users.
- Internal stakeholders.
- Customers.
- Vendors and partners.
Top tip: in the event of an incident, you will be called upon to keep stakeholders updated. Ensuring you have backup contact methods and creating pre-approved message templates can streamline communications during high-pressure situations.
Checklist - Step 5
Expert tip: Pre-approved templates and backup communication methods save critical time during high-pressure incidents.
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- Define internal communication methods during incidents
- Define an external communication approach for customers, suppliers and partners
- Create and approve message templates for common scenarios
- Document alternative communication channels if core systems fail
- Assign a communications lead for incidents
- Include out-of-hours contact arrangements
- Define PR and media escalation processes
6. Strengthen prevention and resilience
While not all disruptions can be prevented, mitigation should still be a key component of your disaster recovery plan.
For example:
- Install automated fire suppression systems.
- Maintain updated cyber security protocols.
- Monitor system performance for early signs of failure.
Top tip: focus on proactive prevention by combining technology, processes, and regular monitoring - this reduces the chance of incidents and limits their impact if they do occur.
Checklist - Step 6
Expert tip: Combine technology, process and proactive monitoring to reduce both the likelihood and impact of incidents.
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- Review and update cyber security controls within the last 12 months
- Implement endpoint protection, firewalls and intrusion detection
- Establish patching and vulnerability management processes
- Enable proactive monitoring for performance, uptime and threats
- Assess physical security across all key locations
- Evaluate third-party and supply chain risks
- Complete a formal cyber security risk assessment within the last 12 months
7. Define incident response procedures
Outline step-by-step actions to be taken during a disaster, covering more than just IT systems. How will you maintain communication? How will you contact key staff? Can incoming calls be rerouted?
Top tip: keep response procedures detailed, accessible, and easy to follow, and ensure all staff know their roles so critical actions can be executed quickly and efficiently during a disaster.
Checklist - Step 7
Expert tip: Keep procedures clear, accessible and easy to follow so teams can act quickly under pressure.
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- Document step-by-step response procedures for likely incident scenarios
- Cover IT recovery, operational continuity, communications and customer impact
- Define who activates the DR plan and under what conditions
- Include telephony and call rerouting processes
- Ensure procedures are accessible offline and not system-dependent
- Review procedures with all relevant teams
- Confirm all instructions are clear, structured and jargon-free
8. Enable alternative working arrangements
If your physical office becomes unusable, your disaster recovery plan should include alternative workspace arrangements.
This may involve:
- Relocating staff to other company sites.
- Pre-arranging access to alternative workspace.
- Enabling remote work setups.
Top tip: ensure equipment, connectivity, and security controls are in place to maintain productivity and compliance from any location.
Checklist - Step 8
Expert tip: Ensure connectivity, equipment and security controls are ready in advance to maintain productivity anywhere.
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- Identify viable alternative workspace options (remote, secondary sites, recovery facilities)
- Secure access to work area recovery facilities where required
- Document activation processes for alternative workspaces
- Implement secure remote access (VPN, cloud platforms, MFA)
- Ensure compliance and data security controls extend to remote working
- Test remote access capability for critical users
- Define workspace and equipment requirements for key teams
9. Validate your disaster recovery environment
If your main IT infrastructure is taken offline, you'll need a secondary location where critical systems can be restored.
This could be:
- A dedicated backup data centre.
- A virtualised environment in the public cloud.
- A colocation site with mirrored infrastructure.
Top tip: ensure your disaster recovery site is configured to automatically replicate workloads and support real-time recovery.
Checklist - Step 9
Expert tip: Ensure your DR environment can automatically replicate workloads and support rapid, real-time recovery.
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- Define and document the DR site (cloud, colocation or physical)
- Confirm geographic separation from the primary environment
- Test failover from primary to DR site
- Verify data replication meets RPO requirements
- Document failback procedures to the primary site
- Review SLAs and support arrangements with providers
- Confirm DR capacity can handle peak operational demand
10. Test, review and continuously improve
Your disaster recovery plan isn't complete until it's been tested. This is arguably the most critical step to get right - firstly because it will demonstrate your success in applying all of the previous steps, and secondly because unless you've tested your plan, you simply don't know whether it will hold up when you need it most.
Regular testing:
- Validates that procedures work.
- Confirms staff understand their roles.
- Uncovers gaps in information, communication, or recovery processes.
Top tip: run simulations frequently and update the plan based on lessons learned. It's far better to identify weaknesses during a test than during a real incident.
Checklist - Step 10
Expert tip: Regular testing is critical - it's the only way to prove your plan works and identify gaps before a real incident.
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- Complete a full DR test or simulation within the last 12 months
- Record outcomes, gaps and lessons learned
- Remediate all critical issues identified during testing
- Schedule the next DR test with a fixed date
- Review the plan after major changes, incidents or acquisitions
- Store the DR plan securely with an accessible offline copy
- Secure annual senior leadership review and approval
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Download the complete checklist
The 10-step checklist above is available as a free PDF - with all action items, expert tips and a DR plan review log you can use with your team.
Download the 10-step DR checklist (PDF)Final thoughts
Building a comprehensive disaster recovery plan takes time and co-ordination, but it's an investment in your business's resilience and continuity. A well-documented and regularly tested plan ensures that you're prepared to act quickly, recover efficiently, and continue serving your customers - even when the unexpected occurs.
Most organisations have some form of DR plan - but fewer have one that's been properly tested, kept up to date, and aligned to how the business actually operates today. If you're not confident yours would hold up, we can help. Download the checklist to get started, explore our disaster recovery services, or speak to a specialist today.
Need help putting your disaster recovery plan into practice?
Our experts can support you with business impact analysis, disaster recovery audits, and supplier assessments. Using our advanced Shadow-Planner software, we help you map critical systems, assess dependencies, and build a responsive, effective recovery strategy.
We also offer comprehensive recovery services to ensure your business stays resilient. From disaster recovery services to data protection solutions and work area recovery (WAR), our team helps you implement practical, tailored strategies so you can quickly recover systems, data, and operations when incidents occur.
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