Although the terms are often used interchangeably in error, it is crucial that disaster recovery, business continuity and backups are keenly distinguished, writes David Metzger, senior solutions engineer at TierPoint, in Data Center Journal. Business continuity plans detail your company’s response and recovery from disaster, while disaster recovery is a sub set of the larger pan (usually IT based) to keep data safe and recoverable. Backups, on the other hand, “aren’t traditionally automated for application recovery—a fundamental difference between backups and replication technologies,” says Metzger.
He suggests using offsite backups and real-time replication as complementary parts of a business continuity plan, instead of choosing one or the other.
“Many people mistakenly choose either replication or traditional backup based only on an application’s recovery-time objective (RTO) and recovery-point objective (RPO). Backups should never be your standalone disaster-recovery solution,” he writes.
For a more detailed analysis on choosing the best methods for disaster recovery, also check out Trevor Pott’s article in Virtualization Review.
Sources:
http://www.datacenterjournal.com/key-differences-disaster-recovery-business-continuity-backups/
