Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Policy
Document Version: 1.0
Last Updated: July 19, 2025
1. Purpose
This policy establishes the framework for business continuity and disaster recovery at [Your Company Name], ensuring the organization can continue critical operations and recover from disruptive events with minimal impact. This policy supports compliance with SOC 2 requirements for system availability and processing integrity.
2. Scope
Applies to all critical systems, infrastructure, applications, and personnel essential to maintaining business operations and service delivery. This includes cloud services, physical infrastructure, and third-party dependencies.
3. Objectives
- Ensure the continuity of key business functions during and after a disruptive event.
- Minimize downtime and data loss in the event of a disaster.
- Ensure timely and effective recovery of IT systems and data.
- Define roles, responsibilities, and recovery processes.
4. Definitions
- BC (Business Continuity): Plans and processes to continue operations during and after a disruption.
- DR (Disaster Recovery): Technical processes for restoring IT infrastructure, systems, and data.
- RTO (Recovery Time Objective): Maximum acceptable time to restore a system after a failure.
- RPO (Recovery Point Objective): Maximum acceptable data loss measured in time.
5. Policy Requirements
5.1 Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
- Conduct and maintain a BIA to identify critical systems, data, and business functions.
- Define RTO and RPO for each critical function.
5.2 Risk Assessment
- Perform periodic risk assessments to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities to critical operations.
- Evaluate likelihood and impact of disruptions such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or utility outages.
5.3 BC/DR Plans
- Maintain documented and approved BC and DR plans.
- Include roles, responsibilities, communication plans, escalation procedures, and recovery workflows.
- Plans must cover scenarios such as system failure, data center outage, cyber incidents, and regional disasters.
5.4 Backup and Replication
- Perform regular, automated backups of critical data.
- Ensure backups are encrypted, verified, and tested for restorability.
- Store backups in geographically diverse locations.
5.5 Cloud & Third-Party Resilience
- Validate BC/DR capabilities of cloud providers and vendors supporting critical services.
- Ensure SLAs address availability, recovery times, and data protection.
5.6 Testing and Exercises
- Test the BC/DR plan at least annually or after significant changes.
- Conduct tabletop exercises and technical failover simulations.
- Document results and apply lessons learned to improve plans.
5.7 Communication Plan
- Establish a communication protocol for informing employees, customers, and stakeholders during a disruption.
- Designate spokespersons and escalation contacts.
5.8 Roles and Responsibilities
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| BC/DR Owner | Oversees development, maintenance, and testing of BC/DR plans |
| IT Operations | Ensures technical recovery procedures are up to date |
| Security Team | Coordinates with response teams in case of cyber incidents |
| Management | Approves plans and ensures resourcing |
5.9 Plan Maintenance
- Review and update the BC/DR plan at least annually or following major organizational or infrastructure changes.
6. Compliance and Monitoring
- Compliance with this policy is monitored through internal audits and periodic reviews.
- Violations or failures are addressed through corrective action and root cause analysis.
7. References
- SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria (CC7.1, CC7.2, CC7.3, CC7.4, CC9.1)
- NIST SP 800-34: Contingency Planning Guide
- ISO 22301: Business Continuity Management Systems