Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery terms share the long-term goal of keeping your business continuing its core operations. That’s why it is easy to get fogged about them. Yes, they are closely related and often work in tandem, but they aren’t the same and remain different in how they operate.
Business Continuity is a general term that focuses on supporting necessary operations during the crisis and immediately after. On the other hand, Disaster Recovery refers to getting yourself back after and restoring your business’s data and infrastructure.
Understanding the differences between Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery is essential for making your business operate efficiently and effectively.
Fortunately, Business Continuity Services can do both by scheduling effective Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans to continue functioning your business’s operations.
Now, Let’s dive more deeply into the meaning of both terms and know the 5 crucial differences between Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery!
What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity Term is what it sounds like; it is a way to describe your business’s planning process to keep mission-critical operations running until a particular disaster is resolved.
This planning process begins with a risk assessment and impact analysis. It includes planning ways to operate your business, distributing roles over your employees and giving them tools required for work, and securing and equipping a proper workplace in case of natural catastrophes, cyber-attacks, service outages, and other incidents that can tie up your business’s operations.
What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster Recovery Term focuses on the immediacy of your business’s plans to identify the source of the incident and apply various ways to help to guide it in its response to the crisis and provide direction on returning to normal processes safely.
What are the key differences between Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery?
As we said above, Business Continuity is the plan for maintaining your business functions during and after the crisis; however, Disaster Recovery is the plan for restoring those business functions safely and in time. Yes, they do go together, but they have differences.
Scope of Work
The first and the most critical difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is Business Continuity is wider in scope, and Disaster Recovery is narrower.
Whereas Business Continuity includes all your business’s essential procedures crucial to keep it running when a crisis arises, Disaster Recovery focuses on your business’s systems adversely impacted and how to recover, replace, or restore them to get back up and running.
Planning and Actions Taken
The second and most significant and influencing difference in Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery is the planning steps for both.
As your business adopts a Business Continuity strategy, Your Business Continuity planning team will perform a business impact analysis for different crisis scenarios.
Once your team creates a list of potential vulnerabilities, you must train your employees and regularly assess and update this strategy for maintaining those functions during the crisis.
Time Frame
The third difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is the timing your business would implement its prepared strategies.
While Business continuity plans are placed in action the first moment a crisis occurs and maintained during and after. Disaster recovery plans are strategies that should be maintained after this crisis is already over and until your business returns to normal.
Procedures and Actions Taken
Procedures and steps taken to defend Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery will depend on what kind of crisis your business will face. That’s why considering multiple strategies when implementing your business plans is critical.
Let’s have an example to come up with this crucial difference to reality. In the case of Covid 19, you would instruct, check, and administer all your employees to ensure safety during the pandemic. Then, you had to warn all stakeholders about the threats that will face the business. Also, you had to maintain your business’s infrastructure and communication methods to be able to manage all work from home.
Once a crisis has decreased, Disaster Recovery strategies come into the role to ensure all data and technology are accessible and recoverable and let your business functions return to normal. So, you would restore, fix, and maintain all your business’s software and hardware. Also, you would welcome your employees back into the workplace after settling it. Finally, you start your business’s functions to be able to go back to normal.
Stakeholders Involvement
Stakeholders concerned with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery will overlap substantially.
So, you must put their well-being at the top of your priorities and be ready to share relevant information with your stakeholders before, during, and following a crisis. However, this relevant information can be vary.
For example, you can share Business Continuity Plans with the primary stakeholders and the Disaster Recovery plans with the key stakeholders.
Why does your business need All-in-one Business Continuity Services?
Ultimately, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are crucial for your business to continue functioning during and after trouble. So, you cannot have a business continuity plan without a disaster recovery plan because both will be more effective if they work together.
Using an integrated procedure will offer your business the standards to improve and protect its critical functions and gain a clear view of different crises you may face.
So, dealing with Business Continuity Services can make it more effortless for your business to gain visibility into its procedures, develop and maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and implement them correctly.
Takeaway
No one can deny that small, medium-sized, or large corporations may be embroiled in a disaster when it least expects it. However, having well-prepared plans can shape your future and help your business recover after any significant crisis.
With Innovation Networks’ Business Continuity Services, your business can establish powerful plans focusing on risk management, documentation, and recovery procedures. Also, our easy-to-read dashboard will keep users viewing activities, track task completion and time frames, and KPIs of your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery updated Plans.
So, if you haven’t yet created an effective plan to save your business, it’s better not to wait for a disruption to occur. Contact us now! Our Business Continuity Services are the place to start.