Disaster recovery isn't a document. It's a drill.

Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery is the work that turns a documented RTO into a tested one. Business impact analysis, recovery design across cloud and on-premise, runbook authoring, live failover testing, and the operating cadence that keeps recovery capability matched to how the business actually runs.

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Why This Matters

The plan that survives the drill is rare. The plan that survives the actual disruption is rarer.

Most BC and DR programs are documents. They identify critical processes, set RTOs and RPOs, name recovery sites, and live in a binder until the next audit. The first real test is the day production goes down, and the gaps surface in the order that hurts most: data older than the RPO, applications outside the runbook, dependencies nobody mapped, recovery sites that have drifted from production. The recovery time on paper is not the recovery time the business gets.

The work is making continuity testable and tested. Business impact analysis that captures actual operational dependencies, not the org chart. Recovery designs across cloud, on-premise, hybrid, and SaaS dependencies. Runbooks rehearsed under realistic pressure with the business stakeholders who would have to operate during a real disruption. Live failover testing on a cadence the regulators and the auditors actually expect. The RTO you commit to is the RTO you have measured.

By The Numbers

76%

of organizations experienced at least one ransomware attack in the past 12 months. Most recovered less data than their plan assumed they would.

Veeam · Data Protection Trends Report

$300k

is the per-hour cost of unplanned downtime reported by 91% of mid-market and enterprise organizations. The recovery time on paper sets the budget the business can absorb; the drill is what proves you can hold it.

ITIC · Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey

32%

of data breaches in 2024 involved ransomware or extortion, the most common trigger for an actual disaster recovery invocation in the mid-market.

Verizon · Data Breach Investigations Report 2024

Three situations where the recovery posture needs to be real.

Who This Is For

Situation 1

RTO commitments outpacing the program

Customer contracts, internal SLAs, and regulatory expectations have specific RTO and RPO numbers attached. The plan documents them. The technical reality has not been validated, and the gap between commitment and capability is widening.

Situation 2

Just had a ransomware or major outage

Something hit. Operations went down. The recovery worked in pieces and took longer than the documented RTO. The post-incident review surfaces gaps the program never tested. The board wants a credible recovery posture before the next event.

Situation 3

New regulatory operational resilience requirement

DORA, FFIEC operational resilience guidance, NYDFS Part 500 amendments, state insurance regulators. The bar on operational resilience has risen, and the program needs to clear a higher standard with documented evidence.

Best Outcome

RTOs that match what the technology can actually deliver. Where the commitment exceeds capability, the gap is closed in design or renegotiated in contract, not surfaced during the real disruption.

Best Outcome

A program rebuilt around tested recovery. BIA refreshed against the incident's lessons. Runbooks rewritten and rehearsed. Failover tested on cadence.

Best Outcome

A continuity program aligned to the specific regulatory standard reaching you, with the evidence of testing and exercise the regulator expects on file.

Six elements of operational resilience. Each one designed, tested, and maintained.

Operational resilience is not a DR plan. It is six elements working together, each one with its own analysis, design, and testing discipline. We build each one explicitly and tie them into a single program your auditor and your business stakeholders can both walk through.

How It Works

Element 1

Business Impact Analysis

Critical business processes identified with the business owners, not by org chart. Each process has its actual operational dependencies, its tolerance for disruption, and its impact curve over time. The BIA is the foundation, refreshed annually.

Stream 2

Recovery Objectives

RTO, RPO, and MTPD calibrated to the BIA, the customer commitments, and the regulatory standard. Where commitments exceed capability, the gap is closed in design or renegotiated in contract, not surfaced during the disruption.

Stream 3

Recovery Design

Recovery architecture across cloud, on-premise, hybrid, and SaaS dependencies. Replication strategy, failover mechanics, alternate-site arrangements, third-party dependencies, and the manual workarounds for processes that cannot be automated.

Stream 4

Runbooks

Step-by-step recovery procedures for the scenarios most likely to disrupt operations. Written for the people who would actually execute them under pressure. Versioned and refreshed against infrastructure changes.

Stream 5

Testing & Exercises

Tabletop exercises with the business, technical DR drills, partial failovers, and full failover tests on the cadence the regulator and the business expect. After-action reports drive specific changes.

Stream 6

Maintenance & Governance

Change management to keep recovery capability matched to production. Annual BIA refresh. Quarterly stakeholder reviews. The program absorbs new applications, new vendors, new business lines, and new regulatory requirements as they land.

The operational resilience to survive a critical disruption.

What's Included

After this engagement, you will have:

A business impact analysis with the business in the room

Critical processes named by the business owners, with actual operational dependencies, disruption tolerance, and impact curves documented. The BIA reflects how the business actually runs.

After this engagement, you will have:

RTO and RPO calibrated to capability

Recovery objectives tied to the BIA, validated against the technical capability, and tested under realistic conditions. Where the commitment exceeds capability, the gap is documented and closed.

After this engagement, you will have:

Recovery designs across cloud and on-premise

Replication strategies, failover mechanics, alternate-site arrangements, SaaS dependencies, and third-party recovery commitments mapped end-to-end. The design works as a system, not as a collection of application recoveries.

After this engagement, you will have:

Runbooks written for the people executing them

Step-by-step recovery procedures, written for the operators who would run them at 3 a.m. under pressure. Versioned, rehearsed, and refreshed against infrastructure changes.

After this engagement, you will have:

A testing program on cadence

Tabletops with the business, technical drills, partial failovers, and full failover tests scheduled to the standard your regulators and auditors expect. After-action reports drive specific program changes.

After this engagement, you will have:

A continuity governance forum

Quarterly review with the business, technical, and compliance leads. Recovery posture, test results, change impact, and regulatory horizon on the agenda. The program stays current between major drills.

After this engagement, you will have:

Regulatory evidence on file

Test results, exercise reports, BIA refreshes, governance minutes, and change records mapped to ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, DORA, and the sector-specific operational resilience rules reaching your environment.

After this engagement, you will have:

A handoff into ongoing operations

The program operates after we step back. Annual BIA refresh, quarterly governance, scheduled testing cadence. Your team or our Managed Security Services runs the cadence with the same playbook.

Four failure modes of continuity programs. The specific decisions we make instead.

Most BC and DR programs collapse along one of four lines. The plan looks complete, the testing looks current, and then the disruption surfaces a gap nobody had reason to expect. These are the four most common failure modes.

What We Don't Ship

Documented RTOs, untested capability

The plan sets RTOs that the technology cannot achieve. The number is comforting until the disruption arrives. We validate RTOs and RPOs under realistic conditions and close the gap in design or in contract before the disruption tests it.

Technical drills without the business

DR drills that test failover mechanics but never involve the business stakeholders who would actually operate during a disruption. The recovery works technically and stalls operationally. We run exercises with the business in the room, not just the infrastructure team.

Drift between plan and production

The plan was right when it was written. New applications, new vendors, new SaaS dependencies have entered production since. The plan no longer matches the environment it is supposed to recover. We wire change management into the program so the plan tracks production, not the original architecture review.

SaaS and third-party dependencies missing

The recovery plan covers the applications you own and ignores the SaaS platforms, payment processors, and managed services the business actually depends on. We map third-party recovery commitments, test the dependencies that matter, and document the contingencies where the third party cannot meet the requirement.

Four phases. Scoped to the business's actual dependencies and the regulatory standard reaching you.

How It Works

Phase 1

Analyze

Business impact analysis run with the business owners. Critical processes named, dependencies mapped, disruption tolerance measured. RTO and RPO targets validated against capability. Gaps between commitment and capability documented.

Phase 2

Design

Recovery architecture designed across cloud, on-premise, hybrid, and SaaS dependencies. Replication strategy, failover mechanics, alternate-site arrangements, and manual workarounds documented as a system. Third-party dependencies mapped and contracted.

Phase 3

Test

Tabletop exercises with the business. Technical drills on the application stack. Partial failovers on cadence. Full failover testing scheduled to the standard your regulators and auditors expect. After-action reports drive specific program changes.

Phase 4

Operate

Annual BIA refresh. Quarterly governance forum. Change management wired into the program so the plan tracks production. New applications, new vendors, and new business lines absorbed into the program as they land.

You Walk Away With:

A current BIA owned by the business, refreshed against the latest operating model.
A validated RTO and RPO register tied to capability.
A gap analysis between commitments and what the technology can deliver.

You Walk Away With:

A recovery architecture document signed off by technical and business leads.
Runbooks written for the operators who would execute them.
Third-party dependency map with contracted recovery commitments.

You Walk Away With:

Scheduled testing cadence with documented after-action reports.
Specific runbook and design changes traceable to test findings.
Regulator-ready evidence of testing and exercise.

You Walk Away With:

A live continuity program with annual and quarterly cadence in place.
Change management wired to keep the plan current with production.
A handoff to your team or to Managed Security Services.

Differentiator: XXXX

A governance framework grounded in regulated-industry research — not a consulting template.

Our framework is built from active research with clinicians, compliance officers, and AI practitioners in the industries that can't afford to get it wrong — health systems, financial services, insurance. It's anchored to NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001, and it's the same framework we operate behind every Fortellar Secure AI engagement.

Operating Posture

76%

Engineer-led coverage

76%

Engineer-led coverage

76%

Engineer-led coverage

76%

Engineer-led coverage

XXXXX

Expertise This Work Draws On

The components behind a tested continuity program.

Cybersecurity & Compliance

Business Impact Analysis

Critical process identification with business owners, operational dependency mapping, disruption tolerance measurement, and the discipline that keeps the BIA reflecting how the business actually runs.

Cloud & Technology Infrastructure

Recovery Architecture

Recovery design across cloud, on-premise, hybrid, and SaaS dependencies. Replication strategies, failover mechanics, alternate-site arrangements, and manual workarounds documented as a single system.

Technology & Security Operations

Testing & Exercise Design

Tabletop design for executive and business participation, technical drill scoping, partial and full failover testing, and the after-action discipline that turns tests into specific program improvements.

Cybersecurity & Compliance

Operational Resilience Compliance

Alignment to ISO 22301, NIST SP 800-34, DORA, FFIEC operational resilience guidance, NYDFS Part 500, and the sector-specific resilience standards reaching your environment.

See Expertise

Secure AI
Activation

Need the inventory and governance baseline first? Start here before handing agents to a managed service.

Where clients go after migration.

AI Agent
Build

Need agents built before they can be managed? We design and build them to the same ops discipline that will run them.

Security Operations & Monitoring

Your SOC already covers the estate. Managed Agent Services extends that into the AI layer without a parallel team.

Where To Next

Learn More

A documented RTO without a tested one is a commitment you cannot defend.

Thirty minutes with a senior partner. Bring the current BC and DR plan, the RTOs and RPOs you have committed to, and the regulatory standard reaching your environment. We will tell you what testing would actually validate.

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