In today’s always-on world, downtime can cost businesses not just money but reputation. A robust cloud disaster recovery plan is essential to keeping your operations resilient. Here’s how to build one that works:

🧐 Assess Business Impact

Before you can protect your systems, you need to understand which ones matter most. Start by identifying mission-critical applications and potential risks. What would an hour of downtime cost you? How about a day? Map out dependencies and prioritise your recovery efforts accordingly. This step ensures you’re not overengineering solutions for low-priority systems or underpreparing for critical failures.

👉 What’s the first system you’d restore in a disaster scenario?

⏳ Define RTO and RPO

Not all systems have the same recovery needs. Define your Recovery Time Objective (RTO)—how quickly you need systems back online—and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)—how much data loss is acceptable. For example, a financial service might require an RTO of minutes, while an internal reporting tool could manage with hours. These metrics ensure your recovery plan aligns with your business priorities.

👉 Have you established clear RTO and RPO goals for your organisation?

🛡️ Implement Redundancy

Redundancy is your first line of defence. Use multiple availability zones and geographic regions to replicate data and services. A good rule of thumb? Ensure at least one redundant copy is geographically distant from the primary system. For example, storing backups only in a single region leaves you vulnerable to regional outages—just ask anyone impacted by major cloud provider downtime!

👉 How do you handle redundancy in your disaster recovery strategy?

🔄 Automate Backups and Testing

A recovery plan is only as good as its last test. Automate backups to ensure your data is consistently protected and conduct regular disaster recovery drills. It’s not enough to assume your backups will work—test them. Whether it’s simulating hardware failure or regional outages, practising recovery minimises surprises when it matters most.

👉 When was the last time you tested your disaster recovery plan?

⚙️ Utilise Automation and Orchestration

Speed is critical during a recovery event. Automation tools like AWS CloudFormation or Terraform can rebuild infrastructure in minutes, while orchestration platforms streamline the sequence of recovery tasks. Instead of manually provisioning resources, automation ensures consistency and reduces human error—two things you can’t afford during a crisis.

👉 What automation tools do you trust to keep your recovery process fast and reliable?

Building a disaster recovery plan isn’t just a technical task—it’s a business priority. From assessing impact to automating recovery, every step you take increases your organisation’s resilience.

💬 What are tools or tips you’d recommend for building a bulletproof disaster recovery plan?