CTS - Computer Technology Specialists
Disaster Recovery Planning Guide
A disaster recovery plan defines how a business restores its IT systems and data after an outage, cyberattack, or hardware failure — and the documented RTO and RPO targets determine what backup architecture and recovery procedures are required to meet that commitment.
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RTO and RPO — the two numbers every DR plan starts with
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum amount of time the business can be offline before the impact is unacceptable. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum amount of data loss that is acceptable — how far back in time the restore can go. These two numbers drive every other decision in disaster recovery design. A business with a 4-hour RTO and 1-hour RPO needs different backup architecture and recovery procedures than one that can tolerate 24 hours of downtime and a full day's data loss.
What a disaster recovery plan must include
A complete disaster recovery plan includes: documented RTO and RPO targets by system, a current asset inventory covering all servers, workstations, network devices and cloud services, backup schedules and retention policies, tested restore procedures with step-by-step runbooks, escalation contacts and roles for the incident response team, a communication plan for staff and clients during an outage, and a defined recovery sequence specifying which systems are restored first. Without tested runbooks, a DR plan is a statement of intent rather than an operational capability.
Ransomware-ready backup design
Standard backups do not provide ransomware protection if the backup target is accessible from the same network as the infected systems. Ransomware variants routinely attempt to encrypt or delete backup data before triggering visible encryption. Immutable backups — where data is written in a locked state that cannot be modified or deleted during the retention period — prevent this. CTS designs backup solutions with immutable retention using cloud storage with object lock, air-gapped or offsite copies, and separate credentials for backup management that are not used anywhere in the production environment.
Testing your disaster recovery plan
A DR plan that has not been tested is an unvalidated assumption. CTS recommends at minimum an annual tabletop exercise — walking through the recovery scenario step by step to identify gaps in the runbook — and a partial restore test confirming that backup data is actually recoverable within the documented RTO. For critical systems, a full recovery test in an isolated environment provides the highest confidence. Test results should be documented and used to update the plan.
DR for Microsoft 365 and cloud workloads
Microsoft 365 cloud data — Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams — requires a separate backup strategy. Microsoft provides high availability but not point-in-time restore. A ransomware attack that corrupts or mass-deletes cloud data falls outside what Microsoft will recover. CTS deploys third-party Microsoft 365 backup with long retention and point-in-time restore for all managed clients. Azure workloads use Azure Backup or replication to a secondary region depending on the RTO requirement.
How CTS builds and tests disaster recovery plans
CTS produces a documented DR plan for each managed IT client, covering RTO/RPO targets, system inventory, backup architecture, restore runbooks, and contact lists. Plans are reviewed annually and updated when the environment changes. CTS conducts backup restore tests and documents the results. For clients with tighter RTO requirements, CTS can design high-availability architectures that reduce recovery time from hours to minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity?
Disaster recovery focuses specifically on restoring IT systems and data after a failure. Business continuity is broader — it covers how the business continues operating during an extended outage, including manual workarounds, alternate locations, communication plans, and customer management. A complete DR plan sits inside a broader business continuity framework.
How often should backups be tested?
CTS recommends testing restore procedures at least annually, with quarterly checks confirming that backup jobs are completing successfully and that backup data is accessible. For businesses with tight RTO requirements, more frequent testing is warranted. Test results should be documented — cyber insurers and some regulators now ask for evidence of tested recovery capability.