--- title: Four Tips for a Sound Disaster Recovery Plan description: "Organizations of all sizes are dealing with more data today than ever before. Much of this data is so integrated into business processes that it ensures businesses keep functioning. Our data dependency makes it vital to set up systems that protect critical data on a day-to-day basis, so now matter what—power outage, device theft or human error—business doesn’t skip a beat. However, it is also important to build a robust Disaster Recovery Plan for your data in the event of a worst-case scenario. Developing an entire Disaster Recovery Plan from scratch can be an overwhelming process, so I have come up with five simple tips to help you get started in building your own sound and foolproof plan: 1. Assume the Worst" canonical_url: https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/four-tips-sound-disaster-recovery-plan/ locale: en last_updated: 2026-10-27 --- [Acronis Blog](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/) # Four Tips for a Sound Disaster Recovery Plan Organizations create, manage, and rely upon data more today than ever before. This dependency makes round-the-clock data protection vital to ensure your business doesn’t miss a beat, no matter what — power outage, device theft, or human error. [Learn More](https://www.acronis.com/en/products/cyber-protect/) [![Image 2: Acronis Editorial Team](https://staticfiles.acronis.com/images/content/d85707ae91461544212d39836dc32b42.png)](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/authors/acronis/ "Acronis Editorial Team") [Acronis Editorial Team](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/authors/acronis/) 2 min read Last updated 26 June 2019 Organizations create, manage, and rely upon data more today than ever before. This dependency makes round-the-clock data protection vital to ensure your business doesn’t miss a beat, no matter what — power outage, device theft, or human error. For businesses and MSPs alike, this growth in data dependence is becoming so significant that to succeed in modern times, more than a thorough data protection plan, is needed. Today, it’s important to build a robust disaster recovery (DR) plan for your organization to fall back on in the event of a natural, or man-made, disaster. Yet developing a disaster recovery plan from scratch is an overwhelming process. To help streamline this process for your business or for your customers’, follow these four simple tips to ensure that you have a sound, foolproof plan ready to be implemented: ## 1. More risk demands more redundancy Dedicate a portion of your DR plan development time to identify the most complex (and thereby most risk-prone) steps. There’s no such thing as a perfect plan and for these risky steps, it’s essential to have a Plan B – and a Plan C isn’t a bad idea either. We always advise businesses to follow the [3-2-1 rule of backup](https://www.acronis.com/en-us/blog/posts/3-2-1-simple-rule-complex-data-protection) to ensure that even the most error-prone steps in your DR plans are protected in case of any process issues. ## 2. Choose simple and flexible backup solutions When choosing a backup vendor, simplicity and flexibility should be at the top of your priority list. Even if a backup tool seems to guarantee perfect replication, it won’t be used if it’s too complex to work with. For example, file-based backup software may require you to reinstall your entire operating system and all your applications from scratch. A simpler, disk imaging solution will allow you to restore everything in a single pass so everything is exactly the way it was before the disaster. At the same time, look for a flexible option that will give you the ability to choose alternative routes when it comes to hardware or even a platform. Hardware changes rapidly nowadays, so it’s important that your data can adapt quickly. ## 3. Be critical of your plan Disaster recovery plans act as an insurance policy against the things that you can’t anticipate. To meet such an important – and often ambiguous – goal, they need to account for a wide variety of things that can go wrong. Before finalizing your plan, be critical of how thorough it is and how dependable your system is. When in doubt, ask for constructive feedback from your team, your superiors, your vendors, your system integrator, or anyone else who might be able to help you spot problems before it is too late. The goal isn’t to develop a disaster recovery plan quickly, it’s to develop an effective disaster recovery plan that lasts. ## 4. Test, Test, and Test Again Your disaster recovery plan won’t be smooth or dependable unless you put it to the test and ensure it has been effectively implemented. Otherwise your ability to recover is purely theoretical. Test your plan on available hardware and on virtual machines for extra resilience. To make sure your plan is comprehensive, divide your team and challenge one to sabotage the other’s disaster recovery environment. Then let the other team attempt to recover their data and find out if your plan works. This way you can identify issues, resolve them, and further improve your disaster recovery plan. [Cybersecurity](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/tags/cybersecurity/) [Cyber protection](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/tags/cyber-protection/) ## Written by ![Image 3: Acronis Editorial Team](https://staticfiles.acronis.com/images/content/d85707ae91461544212d39836dc32b42.png) Acronis Editorial Team Acronis is a global cyber protection company that provides natively integrated cybersecurity, data protection, and endpoint management for managed service providers (MSPs), small and medium businesses (SMBs), and enterprise IT departments. [Previous post](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/four-worlds-most-innovative-corporate-labs/) [Four of the World’s Most Innovative Corporate Labs](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/four-worlds-most-innovative-corporate-labs/) [Next post](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/it-admins-top-4-holiday-wishes/) [The IT Admin’s Top 4 Holiday Wishes](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/it-admins-top-4-holiday-wishes/) About Acronis Acronis is a leader in AI-native cyber protection, unifying data protection, cybersecurity, IT operations and hybrid infrastructure to deliver business continuity, security and compliance with less cost and complexity. More than 21,000 service providers trust Acronis to protect over 750,000 businesses in 150 countries. Acronis is headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. [Add as a preferred source on Google](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=acronis.com) ## Related stories Want to learn more? Read the latest stories featuring this solution on our blog. [Acronis Blog](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/) ![Image 4: stc Bahrain and Acronis partner to bring advanced endpoint security to businesses in Bahrain](https://staticfiles.acronis.com/images/blog-card/9600f3eea83b8f4e168ea6c1409c8c26.png) [stc Bahrain and Acronis partner to bring advanced endpoint security to businesses in Bahrain](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/stc-bahrain-and-acronis-partner-to-bring-endpoint-security-to-businesses/) We are proud to announce a strategic partnership with stc Bahrain, expanding access to advanced cybersecurity services for businesses across Bahrain. **October 26, 2026**3 min read ![Image 5: Introducing New Acronis CEO: Prakash Panjwani](https://staticfiles.acronis.com/images/blog-card/30cb571f6f1aaa131733e5727a4a250c.png) [Introducing New Acronis CEO: Prakash Panjwani](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/introducing-new-acronis-ceo-prakash-panjwani/) We are pleased to announce the appointment of our new Chief Executive Officer, Prakash Panjwani. A veteran cybersecurity CEO, Panjwani previously served as CEO of WatchGuard Technologies and SafeNet. **October 15, 2026**2 min read ![Image 6: Acronis expands MDR toward broader workspace protection](https://staticfiles.acronis.com/images/blog-card/18e90e89f5ec4ef0901f19008d4ccbf2.png) [Acronis expands MDR toward broader workspace protection](https://www.acronis.com/en/blog/posts/acronis-expands-mdr-toward-broader-workspace-protection/) Acronis is expanding the MDR service with capabilities that make this expertise easier to deliver and help partners address more risks. The developments build on a broader commitment to managed security: helping service providers protect the connected workspace while giving customers access to the expertise needed to investigate threats, respond effectively and maintain business continuity. **October 13, 2026**6 min read