Disaster recovery (IT) is defined as the set of processes cum policies cum procedures that go into the "recovering and continuation of technology-related infrastructure that is critical to the basic functioning of an organization in the event of disasters that are natural or deliberate".

Disaster recovery planning (DRP) comes as part of overall business continuity planning (BCP). It typically includes planning for the resuming of software applications, data, the hardware, network/ communication and all other IT related infrastructure. The general steps that are followed while creating a DRP include:

· Identifying the scope - the boundaries and limitations for the disaster recovery plan.

· Carrying out a BIA or business impact analysis to assess the possible financial loss if a disaster were to strike

· Getting the buy-in of top management for DRP and investing for the same

· Getting the participation of every team concerned in the planning, training and execution stages

· Implementing the DRP - to be done by the team dedicated for this

The National Institute of Standards and Technologies has come out with tools which can be used to create effective BCPs/ DRPs.

There are control measures like prevention measures, detection measures and correction measures which are mechanisms that can be used to reduce/ eliminate threats to computer security and safety. It is important for all the procedures and processes to be documented and tested out regularly. Data can be protected by making back ups on tapes or other storage systems and sending them physically/ electronically to off-sites (which are sites away from the place where the current data is - could be another part of the city or even be another city). UPS, Fire prevention steps, anti-virus, WAN optimization technology - all this form an important part of a strong business continuity/ disaster recovery process.