Disaster Recovery Planning That Won't Gather Dust Disaster Recovery Planning That Won't Gather Dust

Disaster recovery planning that won’t gather dust

You probably have a “plan” somewhere. A binder. A PDF. Maybe an email thread. In a real outage—ransomware, a power cut, a busted sprinkler—no one opens any of it. People text the boss and start guessing.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Most small businesses know they need backup plans; few have ones they can actually run. The good news: a usable plan is short, specific, and tested. I’ll show you a simple approach I use with teams from 5 to 150 people—one that fits your day-to-day, not your bottom drawer.

Why most plans fail when you need them most

• They’re too long and too generic. No one reads 40 pages during a crisis.
• They live outside daily work. If it’s not part of your regular rhythm, it goes stale.
• They’re “IT-only.” Continuity is a business problem that needs operations, finance, HR—and leadership.
• They ignore today’s realities: hybrid work, cyberattacks, and vendor dependencies.
• They’re never tested. An untested plan is a wish.

The risk isn’t abstract. A few hours of downtime can cost thousands in lost revenue, penalties, and reputation. Cyber incidents now hit small firms routinely. Waiting until “when things slow down” is the real risk.

The Minimum Viable Continuity (MVC) approach

Make continuity simple, owned, and repeatable. Three parts:

1. One-page plan that anyone can run
2. A handful of scenario runbooks
3. A 90-minute quarterly habit to test and tune

1) The one-page plan (front page you’ll actually use)

Keep this to a single page. Print it. Save it offline. Put a QR code in the break room.

• Purpose and scope: What this plan covers (IT outages, building loss, ransomware, supplier failure).
• Activation triggers: “If X happens, Incident Lead activates plan.”
• Roles and backups:
  • Incident Lead (owner/GM)
  • IT Lead (internal or MSP)
  • Operations Lead
  • Communications Lead
  • Finance/Insurance Lead
  • Named backups for each role
• Contact tree: Mobile, SMS, personal email, chat channel, and one alternative method if corporate systems are down.
• Top systems and targets:
  • Critical functions (e.g., orders, payroll, customer support)
  • RTO (how fast you must restore)
  • RPO (how much data you can afford to lose)
• Backups and where they live:
  • Primary, local, offsite/cloud, and immutable/offline copies
• Alternate working setup:
  • Remote access steps
  • Secondary site/coworking address and access details
• First-hour checklist:
  • Safety check, activate roles, confirm outage type, communicate status, start relevant runbook
• Last updated date and owner

Tip: If you run an ERP (e.g., SAP Business One/S/4HANA) list the database name, backup location, and who can authorize a restore or failover.

2) Five scenario runbooks (2–3 pages each, max)

Write step-by-step checklists for the most likely events:

• Ransomware or major cyberattack
  • Isolate affected devices, disable single sign-on temporarily, confirm backups are clean, restore to last known good, force credential resets, notify insurer and legal as needed.
• Building loss or power outage
  • Switch to remote operations, move to alternate site, use LTE hotspots, prioritize processes by RTO.
• Cloud or server failure
  • Failover steps, who to call, what to test first (logins, orders, shipments, payments).
• Supplier failure or logistics disruption
  • Approved alternates, minimum viable product/service, customer communication script.
• Staff outage (flu wave, strike, travel disruption)
  • Cross-trained backups, critical SOPs, reduced service roster.

Each runbook includes:

• Activation criteria
• Roles and who decides to fail over/fallback
• Systems to restore in order
• Data restore points (RPO) and validation checks
• Customer/partner communication scripts
• “Return to normal” steps and after-action review prompts

3) The 90-minute quarterly habit

Put it on the calendar. Don’t overthink it.

• 15 min: Pick a scenario and name the Incident Lead.
• 45 min: Tabletop walk-through. Follow the runbook out loud.
• 15 min: Perform a technical mini-test (e.g., restore a single file or VM snapshot to a sandbox).
• 15 min: Capture gaps, assign fixes, set next review.
• Optional 10 min: Update the one-page plan and runbooks on the spot.

Automate reminders so this never slips. If your collaboration suite or project tool can schedule recurring tasks, use it. AI assistants can nudge owners, summarize actions, and track due dates.

Build it fast: a 7-step sprint you can finish this month

1. Form a continuity squad (3–5 people)

• Include owner/GM, IT (internal or MSP), operations, and someone who communicates well.

2. Do a one-hour business impact mini-analysis

• List 8–12 critical processes (orders, cash collection, payroll, customer support).
• For each, set RTO and RPO and note dependencies (people, apps, data, vendors).

3. Fix backups first

• Follow 3-2-1: three copies, two media, one offsite/immutable.
• Test a small restore this week. Time it. That’s your real baseline RTO.

4. Map communication channels

• Primary: company chat/email. Backup: SMS/phone tree. External: client email list or status page.
• Pre-write two messages: “We’re investigating” and “Service restored” with ETA language.

5. Document the one-page plan

• Fill in roles, contacts, systems, RTO/RPO, backup locations, and alt work setup.

6. Write your top two runbooks

• Start with ransomware and power/building outage. Keep them concise.

7. Schedule your first tabletop

• 90 minutes. Next week. Invite the squad. Bring printouts and a hotspot.

Use AI and automation where it actually helps

• Early warning: Many monitoring tools now flag anomalies (spiking CPU, unusual logins) and can trigger alerts before people notice.
• Smarter prioritization: Use analytics to see which systems drive revenue and which users are most critical, then align RTO/RPO.
• Maintenance: Automate quarterly reminders, ownership nudges, and post-mortem summaries.
• Faster recovery: Scripted workflows can spin up clean environments, apply configs, and validate health checks—especially useful for ERP and file servers.

Keep the human in the loop. AI accelerates the routine; people decide trade-offs.

Real-world snapshots

• Professional services firm (35 staff)

  • Problem: Backups existed, never tested. Remote work was ad hoc.
  • What we did: One-page plan, monthly 15-minute file-restore test, quarterly tabletop, comms scripts.
  • Result: RTO dropped from “maybe a day” to 2 hours for core apps. Zero panic in a regional outage; clients got a status update in 12 minutes.

• Manufacturer (80 employees, ERP + shop floor)

  • Problem: Ransomware in a vendor’s update chain.
  • What we did: Isolated identity services, restored ERP from immutable backups, ran manual pick/pack using printed work-to lists, shipped priority orders from an alternate bay.
  • Result: 60% operations within 12 hours, 90% by hour 36. No ransom paid.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Practical templates and resources

• Planning checklists: SBA and Ready.gov business continuity toolkits
• Industry guidance: Disaster Recovery Journal
• Risk reduction: Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)
• Hands-on help: Local Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs)

If you use SAP or another ERP, ask your partner for their DR guide. Verify database backup frequency, log shipping, and a tested restore-to-sandbox procedure.

Quick-start assets you can copy today

One-page plan skeleton

• Purpose and scope
• Activation triggers
• Roles and backups with all contact methods
• Top five processes with RTO/RPO
• Systems and backup locations (primary, local, offsite/immutable)
• Alternate work setup (remote steps, secondary site)
• First-hour checklist
• Last updated and owner

90-minute tabletop agenda

• Scenario: [ransomware | power outage | supplier failure]
• Objectives: Validate comms, test decision-making, find gaps
• Walk-through roles and first-hour actions
• Validate restore steps or vendor escalation
• Draft customer message
• Capture improvements, assign owners, set due dates

Monthly 15-minute backup test

• Restore one file/DB table/VM snapshot to a sandbox
• Validate integrity and access
• Record time to restore (RTO) and last backup point (RPO)
• Log result and fix issues this week

Implementation roadmap (30/60/90 days)

• Days 1–30: Create the one-page plan, set RTO/RPO, confirm 3-2-1 backups, run first tabletop.
• Days 31–60: Write two runbooks, tighten vendor SLAs, formalize remote access, pick an alternate site.
• Days 61–90: Automate reminders, add AI-driven monitoring where appropriate, perform a full restore test, train backups for each role.

What to remember

• Short beats perfect. A one-page plan plus a few runbooks will outperform a thick binder every time.
• Make it a habit. Quarterly practice turns chaos into choreography.
• Measure what matters. RTO and RPO guide smart trade-offs when seconds count.

When the lights go out—or the login screen locks up—you won’t be hunting for a PDF. You’ll be running a plan your team knows by heart.

One action for this week: block 90 minutes on the calendar, invite your continuity squad, and run the tabletop using the agenda above. That single move turns “we should plan” into “we’re ready.”

From there, layer in automation, refine runbooks, and keep practicing. Resilience isn’t a document—it’s a capability your team builds a little stronger every quarter.