What is Disaster Recovery (DR)?
Disaster recovery is the set of plans and technologies for restoring systems and data after a major outage, failure, or catastrophic event.
Definition
Disaster Recovery (DR) is the practice of preparing for and recovering from events that severely disrupt IT systems, such as hardware failure, cyberattacks, data corruption, or natural disasters. It centres on two key objectives: the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), how quickly systems must be restored, and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO), how much recent data loss is acceptable. DR relies on backups, replication, failover environments, and tested recovery procedures. It is a critical part of business continuity planning for any system the business depends on.
How Disaster Recovery Works in ERP
Because an ERP often runs core operations, its disaster recovery plan defines how quickly it must be back online and how little data can be lost, then provisions backups and replicated environments to meet those targets. Cloud ERP vendors typically include DR through geographically redundant data centres and regular backups, with recovery objectives stated in their service agreements. On-premise or private-cloud deployments require the organisation to design and test its own DR setup. Regular testing is essential because an untested plan may fail when it is actually needed.
ERP Vendors with Strong Disaster Recovery
Frequently Asked Questions
What are RTO and RPO?
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum acceptable time to restore a system after an outage, and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of recent data loss, measured as the time between the last good backup and the failure.
Does cloud ERP handle disaster recovery automatically?
Cloud ERP vendors typically provide DR through redundant data centres and backups described in their service agreements, but customers should still verify the stated recovery objectives meet their needs and understand their own responsibilities.