Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan the same thing as having data backups?
No, and the difference is critical. While backups are just copies of your data, a Disaster Recovery plan is a comprehensive strategy that dictates how and how quickly you restore that data and resume operations. A true DR plan includes defined roles, communication protocols, and specific timelines (RTO/RPO) to ensure your business survives a catastrophic event, rather than just having the files saved on a hard drive somewhere.
2. How do Managed IT Services improve our ability to recover from a disaster?
Partnering with a Managed IT Service provider moves you from a “reactive” to a “proactive” stance. Instead of scrambling to find a solution after a disaster strikes, a managed provider helps you design and implement a robust plan beforehand. They handle the regular testing, updates, and monitoring of your backup systems, ensuring that if the worst happens, you have a team of experts ready to execute a proven recovery process immediately.
3. What are RTO and RPO, and why should a small business care?
These are the two most important metrics in your plan:
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Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The maximum amount of time your business can afford to be offline (e.g., “We must be back up within 4 hours”).
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Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The maximum amount of data loss you can tolerate (e.g., “We can only lose the last 15 minutes of work”).
Defining these helps you choose the right technology and budget, ensuring you aren’t overspending on unnecessary speed or underspending and risking too much data loss.
4. Why is Disaster Recovery planning considered a “strategic investment” rather than just an IT cost?
The cost of downtime is often far higher than the cost of prevention. With unplanned downtime costing businesses thousands of dollars per minute in lost revenue and reputation, a DR plan is an insurance policy for your company’s survival. It protects your brand’s reputation, ensures client trust, and guarantees that a single event—whether a cyberattack or a natural disaster—doesn’t put you out of business.
5. How often should we test our Disaster Recovery plan?
A plan that isn’t tested is just a theory. Best practices suggest testing your DR plan at least annually, or whenever there are significant changes to your IT infrastructure. Managed IT providers often facilitate these “fire drills” to identify gaps in the process, ensuring that when a real emergency occurs, your team executes the plan with confidence and precision.
