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Global Accelerated Learning • Est. 1999
Glossary Term Disaster Recovery (DR)

Training Camp • Cybersecurity Glossary

What is Disaster Recovery (DR)?

The tasks and activities required to restore critical IT systems, data, and infrastructure after a disruption and reinstate regular operations, minimizing downtime and data loss.

Glossary > Incident Response & Forensics > Disaster Recovery (DR)

Understanding Disaster Recovery (DR)

Those tasks and activities required to bring an organization back from contingency operations and reinstate regular operations. Disaster recovery encompasses the plans, procedures, and technologies used to restore critical IT systems, data, and infrastructure following a disruptive event. DR focuses on minimizing downtime and data loss through defined recovery processes and technologies. DR requirements are specified in frameworks like ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, and various regulatory standards. Organizations implement DR through documented plans, backup systems, alternative processing sites, data replication, and regular testing. For example, a financial services company might implement a comprehensive DR strategy including real-time data replication to a geographically distant backup site, automated failover capabilities, and quarterly recovery exercises to ensure they can restore operations within their defined RTO of 4 hours. Related terms: Business continuity, Recovery Time Objective RTO, Recovery Point Objective RPO, Backup, Failover, Alternate processing site, Disaster recovery testing.

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