AiVibeDisaster Recovery (DR)
Disaster recovery (DR) is the planning, technology and procedures used to restore IT systems and data after a major disruption, guided by recovery time and recovery point objectives set for each critical system.
Disaster recovery (DR) is the set of policies, tools and procedures used to restore IT systems and data after a disruptive event such as a data-centre outage, cyberattack, hardware failure, human error or natural disaster. A DR plan identifies critical systems, sets recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) for each, and defines how backups, replicas and alternative infrastructure will be used to bring them back. DR is the IT component of wider business continuity planning.
Common cloud DR strategies, in order of increasing cost and decreasing recovery time, are backup and restore, pilot light, warm standby and multi-site active-active. Cloud platforms have made off-site recovery more affordable because standby capacity can be provisioned on demand. In manufacturing, DR plans cover not only business systems but also MES, historians, SCADA servers and the configuration and program backups of controllers.
A DR plan is only credible if it is tested regularly through restore drills and failover exercises, and if backups are protected from ransomware with immutable or offline copies. Dependencies such as identity services, DNS and network links are often overlooked. ISO 22301 specifies requirements for business continuity management systems, and ISO/IEC 27031 gives guidance on ICT readiness for business continuity.
Key points
- DR plans set RTO and RPO targets for each critical system
- Cloud strategies range from backup and restore to multi-site active-active
- Immutable or offline backups protect recovery data from ransomware
- Untested plans are unreliable; restore drills and failover tests are essential
Where AiVibe comes in
AiVibe Software Services delivers cloud solutions on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or on-premise, together with cloud security, legacy modernisation, data analytics and AI and machine learning services.
Related terms
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO)Cloud & AI Infrastructure
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO)Cloud & AI Infrastructure
- High Availability (HA)Cloud & AI Infrastructure
- Cloud RegionCloud & AI Infrastructure
- Object StorageCloud & AI Infrastructure
- Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)PLC & Industrial Control