What is a disaster recovery plan (DRP)

This episode of Techsplainers explores disaster recovery plans and how they help organizations restore systems, recover data and resume operations after an unplanned disruption. It explains what a DRP is, the kinds of incidents it is built for—from ransomware and outages to natural disasters—and why these plans are essential for cyber resiliency. The episode walks through the difference between a disaster recovery plan, a business continuity plan and an incident response plan, showing how each plays a distinct role before, during and after a crisis. It also covers the core metrics that shape recovery strategy, including recovery time objective and recovery point objective, along with the role of business impact analysis in setting priorities. Listeners will also learn what a strong DRP should include: clearly assigned roles, risk assessments, asset inventories, dependency mapping, backup and redundancy plans, failover and failback procedures, communication protocols and ongoing testing. The discussion also touches on disaster-recovery-as-a-service and where it fits. Along the way, the episode highlights key benefits such as reduced downtime, lower recovery costs, better insurance positioning and fewer penalties in regulated industries. Find more information at https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/disaster-recovery-plan Find more episodes: https://www.ibm.biz/techsplainers-podcast Narrated by Anna Gutowska