Differentiate business continuity planning and disaster recovery.

Differentiate business continuity planning and disaster recovery.

• A. DR focuses on keeping business operations running; BCP focuses on restoring IT systems after a disruption.
• B. BCP includes only IT systems; DR includes only business processes.
• C. BCP focuses on keeping business operations running; DR focuses on restoring IT systems after a disruption.
• D. BCP and DR are interchangeable terms.

Answer: (C)

This differentiates two related but distinct parts of preparing for disruptions. Business continuity planning focuses on keeping essential business operations going during and after an interruption—covering people, processes, facilities, communications, and how the organization continues delivering products or services even when things go wrong. Disaster recovery concentrates on restoring IT systems, data, networks, and applications after a disruption so those operations can resume, making it the technology-specific side of the broader continuity effort. Often, a disaster recovery plan sits inside a broader business continuity plan, which is why the idea that they’re interchangeable or that each is limited to the other’s scope doesn’t fit. The best distinction is that keeping the business running is the aim of BCP, while restoring IT capabilities after a disruption is the aim of DR.

This differentiates two related but distinct parts of preparing for disruptions. Business continuity planning focuses on keeping essential business operations going during and after an interruption—covering people, processes, facilities, communications, and how the organization continues delivering products or services even when things go wrong. Disaster recovery concentrates on restoring IT systems, data, networks, and applications after a disruption so those operations can resume, making it the technology-specific side of the broader continuity effort. Often, a disaster recovery plan sits inside a broader business continuity plan, which is why the idea that they’re interchangeable or that each is limited to the other’s scope doesn’t fit. The best distinction is that keeping the business running is the aim of BCP, while restoring IT capabilities after a disruption is the aim of DR.