The DR Plan Problem
Every company has a DR plan. Few have tested it under realistic conditions. In our BCDR assessments, 68% of DR plans have critical gaps preventing recovery within stated RTO targets.
Define Recovery Targets First
RTO (How long can this system be down?):
- Core banking: 15 minutes
- E-commerce: 2 hours
- HR system: 24 hours
RPO (How much data can you afford to lose?):
- Transaction systems: 0 (real-time replication)
- Customer databases: 1 hour
- Analytics: 24 hours
Five Failure Modes We See Most Often
1. Backup that can't restore — never been tested
2. Documentation out of date — references decommissioned servers
3. Dependencies not mapped — authentication service has 6hr RTO blocking 2hr app RTO
4. DR site too similar to production — same data center doesn't protect against facility failure
5. Staff who've never done it — first runbook execution is during actual incident
Recommended Testing Cadence
- Monthly: Backup restoration test
- Quarterly: Component failover test
- Semi-annually: Full DR drill
- Annually: Tabletop exercise with all stakeholders