Disaster Recovery Definitions

This glossary explains the meaning of key words and phrases that information technology (IT) and business professionals use when discussing disaster recovery and related software products. You can find additional definitions by visiting WhatIs.com or using the search box below.

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  • B

    business continuity

    Business continuity is an organization's ability to maintain critical business functions during and after a disaster has occurred.

  • business continuity policy

    A business continuity policy is a set of standards and guidelines that an organization enforces to ensure resilience and proper risk management.

  • business continuity software

    Business continuity software is an application or suite designed to make business continuity planning/business continuity management (BCP/BCM) processes, metrics and compliance more efficient and accurate.

  • What is a business continuity plan (BCP)?

    A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document that consists of the critical information an organization needs to continue operating during an unplanned event.

  • What is a business continuity plan audit and how do you create one?

    A business continuity plan audit is a formalized method for evaluating how business continuity processes are being managed.

  • What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide

    Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event.

  • C

    call tree

    A call tree is a layered hierarchical communication model used to notify specific individuals of an event and coordinate recovery if necessary.

  • change control

    Change control includes the various steps needed to process changes made to a product or system. Completion of change controls in a systematic fashion is part of a change management process.

  • cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR)

    Cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) is a combination of strategies and services intended to back up data, applications and other resources to public cloud or dedicated service providers.

  • crisis communication

    Crisis communication is a strategic approach to corresponding with people and organizations during a disruptive event.

  • crisis management plan (CMP)

    A crisis management plan (CMP) outlines how an organization should respond to a critical situation that if left unaddressed, could negatively affect its profitability, reputation or ability to operate.

  • D

    data recovery

    Data recovery restores data that has been lost, accidentally deleted, corrupted or made inaccessible. Learn how data recovery works, causes of data loss and data recovery techniques.

  • data replication

    Data replication is the process of copying data from one location to another.

  • disaster recovery (DR)

    Disaster recovery (DR) is an organization's ability to respond to and recover from an event that negatively affects business operations.

  • disaster recovery (DR) site

    A disaster recovery (DR) site is a facility an organization can use to recover and restore its technology infrastructure and operations when its primary data center becomes unavailable.

  • disaster recovery (DR) test

    A disaster recovery test is the examination of each step in a disaster recovery plan to ensure that an organization can recover data, restore business critical applications and continue operations after an interruption of services.

  • disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS)

    Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud computing service model offered by third-party vendors that provides failover in the event of a natural catastrophe, power outage or other type of business disruption.

  • disaster recovery plan (DRP)

    A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented, structured approach that describes how an organization can quickly resume operations after an unplanned incident.

  • disaster recovery team

    A disaster recovery team is a group of individuals focused on planning, implementing, maintaining, auditing and testing an organization's business continuity and disaster recovery procedures.

  • E

    emergency communications plan (EC plan)

    An emergency communications plan (EC plan) is a document that provides guidelines, contact information and procedures for how information should be shared during all phases of an unexpected occurrence that requires immediate action.

  • emergency notification system

    An emergency notification system is an automated method of contacting a group of people within an organization and distributing important information during a crisis.

  • F

    fault tolerance

    Fault tolerance is the capability of a system to deliver uninterrupted service despite one or more of its components failing.

  • I

    ISO 22301 (International Organization of Standardization standard 22301)

    International Organization of Standardization standard 22301 (ISO 22301) is a proposed standard that would call for meeting specific societal security requirements for disaster preparedness and business continuity management systems (BCMS). It is currently in draft form that, if approved, would call for requirements for creating a BCMS, as well as managing and improving that system.

  • ISO/TS 22317 (International Organization for Standardization Technical Standard 22317)

    ISO/TS 22317 is the first formal standard to address the business impact analysis process.

  • N

    natural disaster recovery

    Natural disaster recovery is the process of recovering data and resuming business operations following a natural disaster.

  • network disaster recovery plan

    A network disaster recovery plan is a set of procedures designed to prepare an organization to respond to an interruption of network services during a natural or humanmade catastrophe.

  • network load balancing (NLB)

    Network load balancing (NLB) is a feature in multiple versions of the Microsoft Windows Server operating system (OS), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud service providers that distribute network traffic among multiple servers or virtual machines (VMs) within a cluster to avoid overloading any one host and improve performance.

  • O

    operational resilience

    Operational resilience is a business's ability to respond to and overcome adverse circumstances during operation that might cause financial loss or disrupt business services.

  • organization resilience

    Organizational resilience is an organization's ability to anticipate issues ahead of time and develop a plan for handling identified problems.

  • P

    pandemic plan

    A pandemic plan is a documented strategy for business continuity in the event of a widespread outbreak of a dangerous infectious disease.

  • R

    ransomware recovery

    Ransomware recovery is the process of resuming operations following a cyberattack that demands payment in exchange for unlocking encrypted data.

  • What is risk mitigation? Strategies, plan and best practices

    Risk mitigation is a strategy to prepare for and lessen the effects of threats faced by a business.

  • S

    synchronous replication

    Synchronous replication is the process of copying data over a network to create multiple current copies of the data.

  • T

    tabletop exercise (TTX)

    A tabletop exercise (TTX) is a disaster preparedness activity that takes participants through the process of dealing with a simulated disaster scenario.

  • V

    virtual disaster recovery

    Virtual disaster recovery is a type of DR that typically involves replication and enables a user to fail over to virtualized workloads.

  • W

    warm site

    A warm site is a type of facility an organization uses to recover its technology infrastructure when its primary data center goes down. A warm site features an equipped data center but no customer data.

  • Windows file share witness (FSW)

    A Windows file share witness is a file share that is available to all nodes in a high-availability cluster.