A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a set of procedures that enables a company to restore its IT systems, applications and data following a major incident.
A cyberattack, ransomware, IT failure, human error or even a physical disaster can make some or all systems unavailable. Without proper preparation, restoring them can take a considerable amount of time and have a major impact on business operations.
A DRP helps anticipate this situation by defining how the company should respond and in what order systems should be restored.
For example, a company may determine that its email system, management software and certain databases are essential to its operations. The DRP then defines the procedures, responsible individuals and resources required to restore these systems as a priority.
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Backups generally play a central role in a DRP. However, simply having copies of data is not enough: the company must also know how to restore them, verify that they work and regularly test the procedures that have been put in place.
An effective DRP must therefore be documented, regularly updated and tested. IT systems evolve, new applications are deployed and responsibilities within teams may change.
A Disaster Recovery Plan does not prevent a cyberattack. It comes into play once an incident has already occurred, helping to limit its impact and speed up the return to normal operations.
In cybersecurity, planning for recovery is just as important as preventing an attack: the objective is to know how to get back up and running quickly when security measures have not been enough.