BCDR means business continuity and disaster recovery: the coordinated work of keeping essential services running through a disruption and restoring the technology and data those services rely on. A useful starting point is to identify critical functions and dependencies, assess disruption impacts, set recovery time and data-loss objectives, select workable strategies, protect backups, and exercise and update the plans.
What BCDR means—and how continuity differs from recovery
NIST describes information-system contingency planning as a coordinated strategy of plans, procedures, and technical measures for recovering systems, operations, and data after disruption. Possible measures include alternate equipment, temporary manual processing, and recovery at another location (NIST: Contingency Planning).
A practical distinction is that business continuity focuses on resuming critical business services, while disaster recovery focuses on restoring the technology, applications, and data that support those services. British Columbia’s government policy uses this distinction, but organizations may use the terms differently (BC Public Service Policy Chapter 16: Business Continuity Management).
The distinction matters because restoring a server is not the same as restoring a service. A continuity plan addresses how the organization will deliver its priority work during disruption; a recovery plan addresses how the supporting systems and information will be brought back. The plans need to connect: service priorities should guide technology recovery order, and technology recovery should enable the service to resume.
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How to build a BCDR plan
1. Identify critical services and their dependencies
Begin with the services or functions that must continue or resume, rather than with a list of servers. For each one, record the people, facilities, equipment, applications, data, communications, suppliers, and other dependencies it needs. Include dependencies that may be shared across several functions. British Columbia’s policy calls for documenting resource requirements and dependencies; the same mapping is a useful planning practice beyond that jurisdiction.
2. Assess impact and set priorities
A business impact analysis (BIA) identifies and prioritizes business functions and considers how the consequences of an interruption change over time. It helps determine which functions need attention first and what resources or recovery arrangements they require. NIST’s federal information-systems contingency planning guidance likewise describes evaluating systems and operations to establish planning priorities (NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1).
Consider operational, financial, customer, and other relevant consequences as disruption continues. The appropriate priorities depend on the organization and its obligations; a generic ranking or recovery timetable cannot substitute for a BIA.
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3. Set recovery objectives
Use the impact analysis to define objectives for each critical function and its supporting systems. Two common terms are:
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- Recovery Time Objective (RTO): the amount of time a function can tolerate interruption before the consequences become unacceptable.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO): the point in time to which backed-up data must be recoverable, relative to the disruption. It expresses how much recent data loss the organization can tolerate.
RTO and RPO are organization-specific targets, not universal service levels. They should reflect the function’s impact, dependencies, and feasible recovery arrangements. A system-level target should support the business function it serves.
4. Choose strategies and document usable procedures
Select approaches that match the service’s objectives and actual constraints. Depending on the function, a plan might use alternate equipment, temporary manual processing, or an alternate location. These are examples of options, not a checklist that every organization must adopt.
Document who can activate the plan, who owns each action, how staff and other affected parties will communicate, what resources are needed, and the procedures for operating during disruption and restoring normal service. Include activation conditions and dependencies so staff can act without having to infer the recovery order during an incident. NIST’s contingency-planning guidance describes this coordinated use of plans, procedures, and technical measures.
5. Protect backups and plan for cyber recovery
For ransomware and other cyber incidents, CISA recommends keeping offline, encrypted backups of critical data and regularly testing their availability and integrity in a disaster recovery scenario. Recovery planning should also prioritize critical systems and account for avoiding reinfection as systems are restored (CISA: #StopRansomware Guide).
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesA backup is useful only if it can be accessed and restored when needed. A small organization might use an encrypted external drive kept offline in secure storage as one part of a backup approach; that is an implementation example, not a CISA-prescribed device or a complete enterprise recovery architecture. Test restoration, not just whether a backup job reports success.
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6. Exercise, maintain, and improve the plans
Plans should be exercised against realistic disruption scenarios, reviewed when services or dependencies change, and improved using lessons learned. NIST SP 800-184 recommends prioritizing recovery resources, developing realistic test scenarios, and continually improving recovery planning (NIST SP 800-184). Exercises can reveal unclear responsibilities, missing dependencies, unworkable assumptions, or recovery objectives the chosen strategy cannot meet.
British Columbia’s policy is an example of a jurisdiction-specific framework that calls for regular maintenance and exercises. Its requirements apply in its own government context; organizations elsewhere should check the rules that govern them rather than treating that policy as universal.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to compare recovery strategies
Compare each proposed strategy against the business function it is meant to support. A strategy is not adequate merely because it can restore one component; it must enable the required service within its objectives.
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- Does it support the function’s RTO and RPO?
- Does it cover the function’s dependencies and recovery priority?
- Are the people, facilities, equipment, and funding available when needed?
- Does the approach fit the organization’s financial planning and operational needs?
- Have exercises shown that the strategy works in practice and exposed gaps?
British Columbia’s policy specifically links strategy selection to RTO/RPO needs, financial planning, and exercise results. These are useful comparison dimensions, but its policy requirements are not universal rules.
What this guide cannot decide for your organization
A foundational BCDR guide can help structure the work, but it cannot set your recovery targets, restoration order, legal obligations, or preferred recovery architecture. Those depend on your services, dependencies, impact analysis, and jurisdiction. NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1 is written for federal information systems, so organizations in other settings should adapt its guidance to their own requirements rather than assume its federal context applies directly.
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