IT Resilience Vs. Disaster Recovery: What Is the Difference?

The technology world is full of buzzwords. So much so that sometimes this industry jargon becomes more confusing than it is helpful. Instead of clarifying a matter, some buzzwords can complicate it, making it less likely that people will understand what is being talked about. For this reason, it is necessary to, now and then, stop for a moment to make sure the tech language remains in the realms of what we can understand.

A good example of this kind of jargon is "disaster recovery" and "IT resilience". Today, it is not uncommon to find industry players using these two phrases interchangeably. But for people seeking to understand, using them this way often creates confusion. Because the next time you visit IT Disaster Recovery Services Providers these phrases may show up during your conversation, let us take some time to explain what each of them means and the implications of each to business enterprises.

What is disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery refers to the protocols that a business sets in place towards the restoration of access to its critical systems as well as data every time an interruption occurs. These protocols will often include the procedures to be followed and the policies to be used to get a business back to its normal operations.

Disaster recovery focuses on creating a streamlined process than makes data recovery easy and fast, reducing downtime for the business.

By creating a disaster recovery plan, businesses are somewhat assured that when a disaster strikes, they will get back to the normal business processes fast enough to avoid making huge losses as well as ruining their brand. When creating a disaster recovery plan, a business will typically ensure it has the right tools, procedures and policies that meet its set goals in recovery with regard to speed (recovery time objective) and restoration point (recovery point objective).

In the majority of people’s minds, disaster recovery becomes necessary only after a major disaster like an earthquake or a tsunami takes place. However, for businesses, disaster recovery becomes necessary every time the enterprises lose access to its files or its system. This is because, a short time locked out of their business systems can result to thousands of dollars’ worth of business disappearing in thin air.

The problem with line of thinking of disasters as only those big events like floods, fires and earthquakes is that you may be tempted to take lightly the need to create a disaster recovery plan. After all, such big disasters are uncommon. But when you consider a disaster as the likelihood that an event where your business losses data or access to its files will take place, then you can put in place the necessary protocols to safeguard your business.

Also read: RPO and RTO: What is the Difference?

What is IT resilience?

IT resilience refers to the overall protocols within which a business maintains access to its data and systems regardless of the events that take place, including when disasters strike. This means that IT disaster is a part of IT resilience. IT resilience is about process of making sure that the critical processes of a business enterprise are not interrupted no matter what, rather than the investments a business makes towards mitigating possible threats.

The objective of a business enterprise is to sustain a near-continuous access to its data every minute of every day. For most business leaders, a downtime of more than four hours is unacceptable, thus any workable plan must allow for full recovery before the lapse of four hours. The only way to achieve this is by approaching recovery in terms of IT resiliency rather than disaster recovery.

The Main Difference Between Disaster Recovery and IT Resilience

While disaster recovery focuses on recovering from a disaster, IT resilience focuses on the proactive measures that a business can put in place to keep running even when the worst comes knocking. IT resilience avoids disasters, disaster recovery finds ways to get back up when a disaster knocks down the business systems or locks out its users from access to mission-critical files and processes.