Disaster Recovery Plan Versus Business Continuity Plan

Creating a disaster recovery plan is important for any business. A disaster recovery plan is different from a business continuity plan. A business continuity plan is a more comprehensive plan than a disaster recovery plan. Both offer your business protection in the event of something causing it to shut down operations.

Choosing a Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity Plan

A disaster recovery plan lays the foundation of how a business will resume operations after a disruptive event occurs. The event may be anything from a large natural disaster to a computer virus. A business continuity plan focuses on keeping the business open for any reason, even when an employee calls in sick or a problem occurs with a supplier. This plan is more comprehensive in the amount of coverage it offers. The goal is to keep the business making money. People often mix the two terms and both fall under the same description when abbreviated BC/DR.

Business Continuity Plan

To be more specific, a business continuity plan outlines the steps taken when a disaster occurs. This type of plan prepares for numerous types of problems that can occur. It outlines specific actions each employee, management personnel or other key personnel will take in order to restore the operation of critical elements within the business that are either partially or critically disrupted.

This type of tool plans for a multitude of disaster types. These disasters may occur at multiple locations or affect the entire region. It will include disasters such as pandemic illnesses, earthquakes or fires. Another important aspect of this plan is that it is always evolving. If a new type of potential disaster surfaces, management adjusts the plan to better reflect this.

Disaster Recovery

In a disaster recovery plan, the focus is on the data, software, hardware and other key aspects of the business. This plan is often part of a larger business continuity plan. The goal with this plan is to restore normal function of the business in specific instances. This more specific type of plan may not outline all of the risks the business faces.

Plan Details

Both plans outline what employees should do in the event of a business outage. This includes providing solutions for the following.

Communication: Who will the employee communicate with to learn what to do about the problem?
Location: Where do employees go in the event of being unable to go to the physical structure of their job?
Do: What will employees need to do to keep doing their job properly?

Each company's specific, detailed plan will vary significantly, based on the size and structure of the company. The plan will focus on the areas critical to the business's function. For many businesses, the focus is on supply chain logistics to ensure necessary supplies reach the business in the event of a disaster. Other businesses need to ensure technology is working properly in order to keep the business running.

These plans focus on the business's primary need as the first step in the plan. If a manufacturing company loses power due to a natural disaster, the plan will outline steps to restore critical function to the location. This may mean bringing in backup power generators within a short amount of time. The plan will focus on whatever the business's most vulnerable areas are to maintaining operation.

In a business continuity plan, the details of operations are very specific, for any type of operational failure. The business's most important resources, including its physical structure, human resources and IT, are part of the plan.

Each of these plans is critical to maintaining business operations in the event something goes wrong. A business without this type of planning may suffer extensively in the event that a natural disaster occurs or the top management personnel are in an accident. With these plans, the business members use the practiced steps to get the business functional, in a step-by-step fashion, until it can fully recover from the event.