Should we focus more on business continuity or disaster recovery?

Both business continuity and disaster recovery are critical, but business continuity should come first.

Business continuity is your proactive strategy—it’s how you keep your operations running during a disruption, whether it’s a cyberattack, power outage, or natural disaster. It includes planning, training, redundant systems like cloud backups, and remote work capabilities to minimize downtime and protect your core functions.

Disaster recovery, on the other hand, is reactive. It kicks in after a crisis hits and focuses on restoring IT systems, data, and infrastructure.

Think of business continuity as building a storm-proof house. Disaster recovery is what you do after the storm passes. If you invest in continuity, you reduce the chaos—and the costs—of recovery.

Key takeaway:

Focus on business continuity planning to prevent disruptions. But don’t skip disaster recovery planning—you still need a solid recovery strategy for major incidents.