A disaster recovery plan is designed to:

Question

Accepted Answer

Restore IT systems and data after a disruptive event. A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented set of procedures and strategies designed to restore IT systems, data, and infrastructure after a disruptive event such as a natural disaster, cyberattack, hardware failure, or power outage. The DRP specifies recovery time objectives (RTO), recovery point objectives (RPO), backup procedures, alternative processing sites, and the roles and responsibilities of recovery team members.

Preventing all disasters from occurring is impossible; while risk mitigation can reduce the likelihood and impact of some events, the purpose of disaster recovery is to enable recovery when disasters do occur despite prevention efforts. Replacing physical equipment on a regular schedule describes an asset refresh or lifecycle management program, not a disaster recovery plan. Training employees on daily operations describes routine IT training, not the specific procedures for restoring systems after a disruption.

Disaster recovery planning is a critical IT management concept on the DSST Management Information Systems exam. Students should understand key DRP concepts including RTO (maximum acceptable downtime), RPO (maximum acceptable data loss), hot/warm/cold backup sites, backup strategies (full, incremental, differential), business impact analysis, and the relationship between disaster recovery planning and broader business continuity planning.

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