What is disaster recovery?

02/09/25 Wavenet
disaster-recovery

When most people hear the term disaster recovery, they think of large-scale emergencies like floods, fires, or even national crises. While these events can certainly impact businesses, in reality, modern disasters are far more likely to come from cyberattacks, ransomware, cloud outages, or human error.

Simply put, a disaster is any event that severely disrupts your organisation’s ability to operate normally. And in today’s always-on digital world, downtime of even a few hours can have lasting financial and reputational consequences.

What counts as a business disaster?

Business disasters can come from many sources. While natural disasters remain a concern, the leading threats in 2025 are digital:

  • Cyber-attacks and ransomware
  • Data breaches or data loss
  • Cloud or service outages
  • Human error (accidental deletions, mis-configurations)
  • Hardware failure
  • Software corruption
  • Power outages
  • Physical disasters (fire, flooding, building damage)

What is disaster recovery in business?

Disaster recovery (DR) is a defined set of policies, processes, and technologies that allow an organisation to restore critical IT systems, applications, and data after an unexpected event.

It forms a vital part of business continuity planning (BC/DR). While business continuity focuses on keeping operations running, disaster recovery ensures that the technology and data your business relies on can be restored quickly.

Why disaster recovery planning is essential

Downtime is more costly than ever. Customers expect constant availability, regulators enforce stricter compliance, and reputations can be damaged overnight.

  • 40% of businesses never fully recover after a disaster
  • Many still lack an up-to-date, tested DR plan

The risks of not having a plan far outweigh the costs of implementing one.

Key benefits of a disaster recovery plan

An effective DR plan brings both protection and peace of mind:

  • Minimises disruption to operations
  • Keeps customers and partners satisfied
  • Protects brand reputation
  • Reduces revenue loss
  • Ensures business continuity

Beyond recovery, the right DR strategy can also improve overall IT efficiency, strengthen security, and support long-term growth - particularly when leveraging cloud-based solutions.

Modern approaches to disaster recovery (Cloud & DRaaS)

Since 2019, DR has evolved significantly. Today’s leading solutions include:

  • Cloud Disaster Recovery (Cloud DR): Flexible, scalable recovery using cloud infrastructure
  • Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): Fully managed recovery solutions, reducing in-house burden
  • Zero-Trust Security & Cyber Resilience: Integrating DR with cybersecurity to defend against ransomware
  • Automation & Orchestration: Faster failover, reducing manual intervention
  • AI-Driven Monitoring: Predicting outages or identifying vulnerabilities before they escalate

How to create a disaster recovery plan (step by step)

To get started, identify and prioritise your critical assets:

  • Applications
  • Data
  • Hardware and infrastructure
  • Communications and collaboration tools

Then answer key questions:

  • How quickly must systems be restored? (Recovery Time Objectives – RTOs)
  • How much data can you afford to lose? (Recovery Point Objectives – RPOs)
  • Who is responsible for executing the plan?
  • How often should the plan be tested?

Testing is essential. A plan is only as good as its last test.

How disaster recovery supports business continuity

A well-designed plan doesn’t just save time in a crisis - it also:

  • Improves staff training and awareness
  • Ensures compliance with legal and industry standards
  • Enhances security posture
  • Identifies gaps and inefficiencies in current systems
  • Builds trust with customers and stakeholders

Disaster recovery in a nutshell

  • A disaster is any event that stops your business from operating normally
  • Disaster recovery restores IT systems, data, and communications after such an event
  • A robust DR plan minimises downtime, protects revenue, and ensures customer trust
  • Modern solutions like cloud DR and DRaaS make resilience easier and more cost-effective than ever

 

Unexpected disruptions can happen at any time - talk to us today and make sure your business is ready to recover fast.

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