Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct a comprehensive Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to identify critical processes and dependencies.
• Define quantifiable Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO).
• Select and justify appropriate disaster recovery strategies (e.g., hot site, cloud recovery).
• Develop and maintain detailed, executable Disaster Recovery plans (DRPs).
• Design and manage a rigorous BC/DR testing, exercise, and maintenance program.
• Manage the communication and coordination aspects during a crisis and recovery.
• Integrate BC/DR planning with cyber incident response and security strategy.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements for resilience.

• IT Managers and Directors
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Coordinators
• IT Operations and Infrastructure Managers
• Risk and Compliance Professionals
• Security Managers responsible for resilience
• Emergency Response and Crisis Management Team Members

• Group activities to conduct a BIA for a sample business process.
• Scenario-based simulation exercises (e.g., network failure, ransomware attack).
• Workshops on developing RTO/RPO targets and calculating the cost of downtime.
• Individual exercises in drafting a detailed DR procedure step.
• Discussions on cloud-based DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service).

Unit 1: Fundamentals of Resilience

• Defining Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR), and Resilience.
• The BC/DR lifecycle and its continuous nature.
• Key terminology: Incident, Disaster, Crisis, Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
• The importance of leadership and governance in a crisis.

• Methodology for conducting a BIA and gathering data from business units.
• Identifying and prioritizing critical business processes and their dependencies.
• Determining the Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD).
• Defining the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

Unit 2: Recovery Strategy and Planning

• Evaluating infrastructure recovery options (hot, warm, cold sites, cloud).
• Strategies for data backup, replication, and restoration.
• Selecting appropriate service continuity options for applications.
• Cost-benefit analysis of different recovery strategies.

• Structuring the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) document.
• Defining roles, responsibilities, and emergency contact lists.
• Detailed step-by-step procedures for activation and recovery.
• The role of the communication plan during an incident.

Unit 3: Implementation and Technical Recovery

• Designing a robust backup architecture (e.g., 3-2-1 rule).
• Implementing continuous data replication for near-zero RPO.
• Managing cloud backup and long-term archival.
• Automating the restoration process and validation.

• Detailed procedures for recovering critical infrastructure (network, compute, storage).
• Sequence of application and database recovery.
• Procedures for failover and failback (switching between sites).
• The role of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in rapid recovery.

Unit 4: Testing, Maintenance, and Management

• Types of BC/DR tests: checklist, walk-through, simulation, and full-scale.
• Designing and scheduling a comprehensive testing program.
• Documenting test results, gaps, and corrective actions.
• Post-test review and incorporating lessons learned.

• Establishing a plan maintenance schedule (review, update, distribution).
• Managing plan changes due to infrastructure or business process changes.
• Integrating BC/DR planning into the organization's change management process.
• Compliance with BCP/DRP standards (e.g., ISO 22301).

Unit 5: Crisis Management and Communication

• Developing a crisis communication plan for internal and external stakeholders.
• Establishing the Crisis Management Team (CMT) structure and roles.
• Managing media inquiries and public relations during an outage.
• Coordinating with emergency services and external partners.

• The role of the business teams during recovery activities.
• Manual workarounds and interim processing procedures.
• Transitioning back to normal operations (failback planning).
• Conducting a post-disaster review (PDR) of the entire event.