Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery: What's the Key Differences And Why Does It Matter?

Do you know? A Prescient Solutions study shows that 80% of businesses could not recover from unexpected disasters. Among this percentage, 41% of businesses experience serious downtime every other week or month, causing heavy revenue losses, as revealed by Trilio.

It sounds like a nightmare, right? Unfortunately, this isn't just a nightmare, but the harsh reality of organizations that do not practice business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR).

You might be wondering, aren't both terms the same? While both practices are essential for the proper functioning of a business, they have distinct roles.

In this blog, we will look further into it! Let’s get started!

What Is Business Continuity?

Business continuity ensures that the organization continues to work during and after the disaster takes place.

In simple terms, it is about having a backup plan so that the business continues to run its operations even during unexpected events.

Think of it this way: Imagine a normal day at a restaurant. Their usual operations are: taking orders, cooking food, and serving customers. But what if there's a power outage? A business continuity plan would be like having a backup generator and flashlights. This allows the restaurant to keep running even without power.

They might take phone orders instead of using the computer system and use flashlights to see while they cook and serve food. The key functions can still happen, even with a disruption.

What Is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity and focuses on getting things back to normal after a disruption. Imagine it as a toolbox that fixes the damage caused by unexpected events.

Suppose a cyberattack hits your business, which causes important file lockouts, equipment to act strangely, and applications to result in wrong information.

Disaster recovery acts as a tool that fixes all these issues and helps you bounce back to normal.

Leveraging cloud computing in your business will recover files through backed-up data. It might involve IT specialists who could configure the equipment correctly. Additionally, this tool involves multiple ways to reinstall applications quickly, which again gives the correct outcomes.

Importance of Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

The world is unpredictable, and businesses are prone to threats that highly impede their functioning. Be it any natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis, or man-made hindrances including cyberattacks, data theft, malware, and more.

Implementing both business continuity and disaster recovery is vital for businesses of all sizes. Here’s why:

Maintains Customer Satisfaction

Practicing business continuity in your business ensures that your customers do not go to your competitors while you are suffering from a disaster. It keeps your business running and ensures uninterrupted services, helping to maintain trust and loyalty.

Protects Business Reputation

A business that can recover swiftly from disruptions demonstrates preparedness and resilience. Therefore, this fosters confidence among investors, partners and stakeholders.

Reduces Financial Losses

As discussed, downtime can cause significant revenue losses for businesses. Implementing these practices in your business can help reduce downtime and recover quickly, which minimizes these financial losses.

How Are Disaster Recovery And Business Continuity Similar?

Here are the similarities:

• These offer various strategies that help businesses prepare for sudden events.

• Businesses practice them to deal with natural calamities as well as human-made disasters.

• Both practices need regular reviewing and refinements to scale up with the business’s evolving goals.

However, there are some must-know differences that businesses should be aware of.

What Is The Difference Between Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery?

Business Continuity Plan Vs Disaster Recovery Plan

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is an action plan created to ensure the continuity of a business during a crisis. It is created by considering the long-term vision of a business and focusing on it as a whole entity. If followed correctly, the business can function without any hindrance with minimal disruption.

All the important functions of a business

What does this plan include?

• Different event scenarios that can impact the business

• Impact analysis of those events

• Prevention and mitigation steps and strategies

• Essential communication methods

• Details of key role employees who are responsible for executing the plan

• Training modules

• Continuous reviewing tools

• Refinement strategies of the plan

Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a response action plan that is immediately implemented by the business to recover from the damage caused by the disaster.

It is a part of a business continuity plan and focuses on specific areas of a business, i.e., the damaged areas. If followed correctly, the business can cope with the damage and get back to its normal functioning state.

What does this plan include?

• Details of disaster recovery team
• Identified processes and functions of the business that are prone to damage
• Potential disaster risks and their impact analysis
• Recovery protocols, strategies and technologies
• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): Timeframe to implement recovery strategies
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO): Limit/age of data backups as to how old data backup can be utilized by the business
• Details and contact information of vendors, suppliers and other third parties related to business

The difference table is as follows:

Best Practices For Ensuring Good BCP And DRP Implementation

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Implementation:

• The information should always be updated from time to time.
• The purpose and scope of implementing BCP should be clear.
• Clear guidelines should be established explaining when and how to implement BCP.
• Formation of a schedule that ensures regular reviewing, updating, and testing of the plan.

Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) Implementation:

• Data backups should be stored off-site.
• Try storing your data at multiple locations so that if your primary backup location fails, you have backup elsewhere.
• The latest data backup must be performed to ensure better disaster recovery.
• Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) must be established to ensure faster recovery from the damage

Conclusion

Disaster recovery and business continuity are different sides of the same coin. They work together to ensure that business continues to run even during disruptions.

While business continuity focuses on keeping the business operational, disaster recovery tackles a specific challenge and restores IT systems and data after a major incident.

By understanding the key differences and implementing both plans, you'll be able to deal with any crisis and ensure a swift return to normalcy. In order to ensure a seamless implementation of both practices in your business, you can gain assistance from a cloud consulting firms. These companies have expert teams that provide precise cloud consulting services to businesses, ensuring successful and seamless working.

Remember, don't wait for disaster to strike before putting a plan into action. Proactive planning is the best defense against unforeseen events, allowing your business to weather any storm.