Disaster Recovery Plan Review and DRaaS Options
A DR plan that lives on the server it is meant to recover will not help. We review your plan, runbooks and failover options.
Failover keeps you running while you restore
For systems with short RTOs, a secondary site, cloud failover or DRaaS may be the only way to meet the target.
A tabletop exercise finds the gaps before an outage does
We check when the plan was last exercised and what changed afterwards.
What a disaster recovery plan must cover
A disaster recovery (DR) plan says who does what, in which order, to restore technology after a disruption. It is part of business continuity, which also covers people, facilities and manual workarounds. NIST SP 800-34 is a widely used reference.
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) runs a standby copy of key systems at a provider so they can be started quickly. It shortens downtime but adds cost and a vendor to manage.
For incident response planning and advisory, see incident response guidance; for continuity planning, see BCDR services.
What we review in a DR plan
| Element | What we look for |
|---|---|
| Scenarios | Ransomware, hardware failure, site loss, cloud and internet outage |
| Runbooks | Step-by-step restore instructions for each tier 1 system |
| Roles | Who declares a disaster, who restores, who communicates |
| Contacts | Staff, vendors, insurer and counsel, available offline |
| Failover | Secondary site, cloud or DRaaS for systems with short RTOs |
| Exercises | Last tabletop or recovery test, findings and follow-up |
What we look for and why
Reachable during an outage
Keep a copy of the plan and contact list where staff can reach it without the network, such as printed or on a separate system.
Linked to incident response
Ransomware recovery starts in the incident response plan. The two plans must hand over cleanly.
DRaaS is a contract
Check failover tests, recovery times and costs in writing before you rely on a provider.
A finding from the sample report
- Area
- Disaster recovery and continuity plan
- Finding
- DR plan stored only on the file server it covers
- Severity
- Medium
- Evidence
- The DR plan (last updated two years ago) is a Word document on FS01. It has no runbooks, lists two staff who have left, and has never been exercised. No printed or off-network copy exists.
- Fix
- Update the plan with current contacts and runbooks, keep copies off the network, and run a tabletop exercise within 90 days.
Every finding in the real report has this shape. See the full sample report
A read-only audit in five steps
Scoping call
We confirm your systems, backup products, cloud services, compliance needs and who on your side should take part.
Documents and interviews
We request your backup reports, DR plan, restore test records and BIA, and interview your IT lead and the business owners of critical systems.
Read-only review
We review backup consoles and cloud vaults through a read-only role or a screen-share. Nothing is installed or changed.
Analysis
96 checks in 8 domains, each rated Pass, Partial, Fail or Not applicable, with the evidence behind it.
Report and roadmap
Executive summary, technical report, risk register, remediation roadmap and Excel workbook, walked through on a call.
Where to go next
Incident response guidance
Planning for the first hours of an incident.
RPO, RTO, uptime and availability
Deciding when failover is needed.
Want a quick self-check first? Backup and disaster recovery self-assessment · Ransomware recovery cost estimator
Page 10 of 16: Disaster recovery plan & DRaaS
- 1. Backup & Disaster Recovery Audit (hub)
- 2. Backup strategy: 3-2-1 and 3-2-1-1-0
- 3. Immutable & air-gapped backups
- 4. RPO, RTO, uptime & availability
- 5. Backup security hardening
- 6. Cloud backup for business
- 7. Microsoft 365 backup
- 8. Server, VM & database backup
- 9. Restore testing & evidence
- 10. Disaster recovery plan & DRaaS (this page)
- 11. Backup vendor selection guide
- 12. Backup compliance requirements
- 13. Sample report
- 14. Backup & DR checklist
- 15. Pricing
- 16. How to audit backups
Guided by Ali Hassani, CISO
Certified CISO (C|CISO) and CISSP with 25+ years in IT, cybersecurity, compliance and infrastructure, and dozens of Microsoft and Cisco certifications, including MCSE, MCITP, MCSA Security, CCNP and CCNA. Every backup and disaster recovery audit is read-only, vendor-neutral and written so an owner and an administrator can both act on it.
Questions IT leaders ask
Do we need DRaaS?
Only if restore from backup cannot meet the RTO for key systems. The audit shows the measured gap so you can weigh DRaaS against other options.
Can you write our DR plan?
The audit reviews the plan you have. Writing or rebuilding a plan is advisory work covered on the BCDR services page.
Do you change anything in our backup system?
No. The audit is read-only. We review settings, job history and documents through a read-only role or a screen-share with your administrator. We never change, delete or run backup jobs.
Implementation partner
OC Security Audit stays independent and read-only, and does not resell any backup product. If you want hands-on help installing or reconfiguring the product you choose, adding immutable storage or running restore tests, IT Perfection can do that work and support ongoing operations.
Make sure the plan works when the network does not
Schedule a consultation. We scope the backup and disaster recovery audit in 30 minutes and quote one fixed price: $3,500, any organization size.
Read-only audit. No changes to your systems. Irvine, Orange County and Southern California on-site; remote nationwide.