When it comes to protecting critical data, businesses need to understand the importance of having a managed backup strategy and business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Many people think that business continuity and disaster recovery are the same, but these terms are not interchangeable. The differences between these two essential plans fall on the usage and applications needed to ensure safeguarding business operations. Today, we will introduce you to the question – what is the difference between a disaster recovery plan (DRP) and a business continuity plan (BCP)?
Disaster recovery at the glance
Disaster recovery plans are essential to understanding how a business will respond to a disruptive event. It includes natural disasters, acts of terror, fire, cybercrime, etc. DRP is elaborated to have determined measures in case of the event and return to normal operations as soon as possible.
Business continuity at the glance
A business continuity plan highlights the exact activities a business should perform during and after a disaster. For instance, it might include the procedure on how the enterprise will continue to work in case of moving to another location. BCP can also incorporate minor disasters or short interruptions into the planning.
Similarities between DRP and BCP
While business continuity and disaster recovery planning are quite different aspects, they still can overlap in some business areas. This way, it is important to implement DRP and BCP together. These strategies create a specific background for businesses that helps them prepare for sudden events or disasters. Nonetheless, these practices are looking for the most minimizing causes of a disaster before it occurs at all. Business continuity in tandem with disaster recovery work to prepare enterprises for pandemics, fires, natural or artificial disasters, cyberattacks, and more. Businesses need to review these two strategies to make sure they meet their requirements in terms of emergency management.
Differences between DRP and BCP
- A disaster recovery plan concentrates on restoring IT infrastructure and data access after a disaster. At the same time, business continuity plans work to keep a business workflow active during disasters. In short, the first strategy is essential to restore infrastructure, and the second works to maintain continuity in the enterprise.
- DRP and BCP are associated with delivering different goals, too. Disaster recovery can limit inefficient system functionality, while business continuity helps limit the downtime of operations.
- Disaster recovery strategies tend to create extra employee safety measures, while business continuity plans are mostly needed to maintain business operations.
- A business continuity plan involves supporting communication methods at the peak of a crisis. At the same time, businesses use disaster recovery to restore the previous functionality. A business continuity disaster recovery plan should be implemented equally to ensure business stability in case of disasters.