In business, unpredictability is a constant. A rogue employee clicks on a phishing email. A fire guts your server room. Load-shedding escalates to blackouts. Suddenly, your systems are down, your data is gone, and your revenue is on pause, if not in free fall. This is where Disaster Recovery (DR) becomes more than just a checkbox in an audit. It becomes your business’s safety net, life jacket, and get-out-of-chaos plan all rolled into one.
At Centric Data, we’ve seen it all. From ransomware attacks that froze entire networks to electrical issues that wiped out on-premises infrastructure. Yet time and again, businesses with strong DR plans not only survived, they thrived after the crisis.
This article explains why DR matters, what a modern DR strategy looks like, and how your business can build one that does not just exist on paper but works under pressure.
What Is Disaster Recovery (Really)?
Disaster recovery refers to the strategies, tools, and processes a business puts in place to restore IT systems, data, and operations after a disaster. That “disaster” could be anything from:
- A cyberattack
- Flood, fire, or earthquake
- Power failures or load-shedding
- Hardware failures
- Human error
- Software bugs
- Political unrest or civil disruption
Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity, a broader discipline focused on keeping the business operational. DR is more narrowly focused on IT resilience.
Why It Matters: The High Cost of Downtime
Downtime is expensive. According to a Gartner report, the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute, which translates to over $300,000 per hour. For SMEs in Southern Africa, the numbers may vary, but the consequences are just as severe.
- Loss of revenue: Transactions cannot go through
- Brand damage: Customers start to lose trust
- Data loss: Especially damaging if you are subject to data protection regulations like Zimbabwe’s Cyber and Data Protection Act (2021) or South Africa’s POPIA
- Customer churn: No one likes a vendor that disappears mid-transaction
- Operational paralysis: Employees cannot work without access to tools or data
Even a small outage can ripple across departments, suppliers, and customers. And if you do not recover quickly, it becomes a long-term reputation problem.
“It Won’t Happen to Us” — The Most Dangerous Lie in Business
Many businesses, especially smaller ones, think they are too niche, too low-profile, or too local to be targets. But the data paints a different story.
- 46 percent of cyberattacks globally target small to medium enterprises (Verizon DBIR, 2024)
- The rise of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) makes it easier than ever for criminals to target unprepared organisations
The truth is this: Every business is a target. Every business is vulnerable. Only those with solid DR plans are resilient.
Key Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan
You do not need a PhD in IT to understand DR, but you do need a comprehensive, testable, and tailored plan. At Centric Data, we help clients design DR systems based on four core components:
1. Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Start by identifying the disasters you are most vulnerable to:
- Power outages
- Internet downtime
- Natural disasters
- Cybercrime
Then ask: What happens to our business if this system goes down? How long can we afford to be offline before real damage begins? This helps you rank your risks and identify critical systems and data that need the fastest recovery.
2. Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)
- RTO is how fast you need a system back online
- RPO is how much data you can afford to lose (measured in time)
For example, if your RPO is 15 minutes, your backups need to run at least that frequently. High-frequency backups result in a lower RPO.
3. Data Backup Strategy
This is the foundation of disaster recovery. You need:
- Regular automated backups
- Off-site or cloud storage
- Encryption at rest and in transit
- Versioning so you can roll back to clean states
We often recommend a 3-2-1 backup strategy:
- 3 copies of your data
- 2 different storage media
- 1 copy stored off-site (preferably in the cloud)
4. Disaster Recovery Infrastructure
Depending on your budget and needs, this could include:
- Hot sites (fully operational replicas that activate instantly)
- Warm sites (pre-configured backups that take a few hours to activate)
- Cold sites (basic infrastructure ready to install your backups)
You can also leverage Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) platforms like Veeam, Acronis, or Azure Site Recovery, all of which Centric Data supports.
Testing: The Make-or-Break Step
It is not enough to have a disaster recovery plan. You need to test it.
- Conduct quarterly or semi-annual DR drills
- Simulate ransomware, data deletion, or power failures
- Measure your RTO and RPO against your actual response
In 2022, Centric Data helped a regional logistics company recover from a crypto-ransomware attack in under 3 hours, only because their DR system had been tested just two months prior.
If you cannot execute your DR plan under pressure, it might as well not exist.
Cloud, Hybrid, or On-Prem: What Works Best?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. But here is a basic guide:
- Cloud-native businesses benefit from cloud DR tools such as AWS Backup or Google Cloud Disaster Recovery
- Hybrid businesses (common in Southern Africa) should build hybrid DR systems with on-prem backups and cloud failover
- On-prem-heavy organisations need strong off-site replication and backup strategies
At Centric Data, we usually recommend a hybrid-first strategy. Fast on-prem recovery with secure cloud-based redundancy.
Cybersecurity and DR Go Hand in Hand
You cannot talk about DR without mentioning cybersecurity. After all, 90 percent of disasters today are digitally driven (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, 2024). That includes:
- Ransomware
- Insider threats
- Supply chain attacks
Your disaster recovery strategy must include:
- Immutable backups
- Endpoint protection
- Zero Trust principles
- Role-based access controls
DR is your last line of defence. But it should not be your only one.
Legal and Compliance Considerations
Data loss can get you into legal trouble. Under Zimbabwe’s Cyber and Data Protection Act and similar laws across the continent, companies are expected to safeguard user data and report breaches promptly.
Failure to restore systems or notify regulators can lead to:
- Fines
- Revocation of licenses
- Public scrutiny
A documented DR plan and an audit trail of tests demonstrate due diligence and can reduce liability.
Where to Start: The DR Kickstart Checklist
If you do not have a DR plan yet, here is a simple checklist to get started:
- Identify your business-critical systems
- Determine your RTO and RPO for each
- Set up regular, automated backups
- Choose a backup and DR solution (on-prem, cloud, or hybrid)
- Assign DR roles and responsibilities
- Draft the recovery playbook
- Test and iterate quarterly
- Document everything
Need help? That is where we come in.
How Centric Data Can Help
At Centric Data, we specialise in resilient IT infrastructure and disaster recovery for SMEs and enterprises across Africa. Our services include:
- DR consulting and risk assessment
- Backup and replication setup
- DRaaS configuration and management
- DR testing and compliance reporting
- On-prem to cloud migration
We do not just set it up and walk away. We test, monitor, and adapt as your business evolves.
Final Thoughts: Do Not Wait for a Wake-Up Call
Disasters do not announce themselves. They do not wait for a quiet quarter. But the businesses that bounce back are the ones that planned ahead, backed up often, and tested rigorously.
Think of disaster recovery as a seatbelt for your business. You hope you will never need it, but when the crash comes, it is the only thing keeping you alive.