When disaster strikes, what will happen to your business?
FD Consulting builds custom disaster recovery and business continuity plans, so that when ransomware hits, a server dies, or a pipe bursts, everyone knows exactly what to do and your business keeps running.
of small and midsize businesses have no disaster recovery plan, meaning most are one bad day away from a recovery they have never thought through.
Disaster recovery and business continuity are not the same thing, and you need both.
They describe two different, critical parts of your resilience strategy. Understanding the distinction is the first step to building a plan that actually protects your business.
Disaster Recovery: how do you recover?
DR focuses on restoring your IT infrastructure after a disruption: recovering data from backups, getting servers running again, and returning your technology to a working state.
Business Continuity: how do you keep going?
BC focuses on keeping your business functioning, serving customers, processing orders, communicating, while your IT systems are being restored. FD Consulting plans both as mutually supporting strategies.
53% of businesses recover operations within a week, another 28% take up to a month, and 18% take between one and six months. With the right plan and preparation in place, you could be among the 16% up and running within a day. Without it, the timeline is likely far longer, and the outcome could even be permanent closure.
"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."
Your plan should cover both the worst and the most likely disasters.
We do not build a generic plan and hand it out one-size-fits-all. We identify every realistic disaster scenario for your specific business, and build a response for each one.
Ransomware attack
Malware locks you out of your own systems and demands payment. Without immutable backups and a solid recovery plan, you could end up paying the ransom or starting over from scratch.
Fire, flood, or power loss
On-site servers, workstations, and records can be destroyed in minutes. If your backups are stored on-site, your data goes with them. A DR plan ensures your data survives even if your building does not.
Human error
More than 60% of downtime events are caused by human error, such as an accidentally deleted database or a misconfiguration wiping a server. Most are entirely recoverable with the right procedures.
Hardware failure
Servers fail. Hard drives die. Network equipment fails without warning. Hardware failure is the single most common cause of downtime, and among the most preventable with a tested backup strategy.
"We back up to the cloud" is not enough
Cloud storage helps against hardware failure, but not ransomware that encrypts your synced files, accidental deletions, or account compromise. A real DR plan includes immutable, tested, offline backups.
How FD Consulting builds your BCDR plan.
Every plan starts with understanding your business. Here is how we work.
Identify critical systems
We map everything your business depends on, software, hardware, data, vendors, and rank what has to come back first.
Map disaster scenarios
We identify every realistic threat, cyber, physical, human, and operational, and assess the likelihood and impact of each.
Build step-by-step responses
For each scenario, a documented response: who does what, in what order, with what tools and access. No guesswork during a crisis.
Verify your backups
We test your backups to make sure they actually work. A surprising 58% of data backups fail when called upon. We make sure yours will not.
Train your team, keep it current
A plan no one has read helps no one. We train your team on their roles, set a review schedule, and update the plan as your business changes.
A complete BCDR plan: documented, tested, ready to use.
Not a checklist. Not a template with your name on it. A custom, working plan built around how your specific business actually operates.
Documented recovery procedures
Step-by-step instructions for each scenario, written clearly enough to follow under pressure.
Recovery time objectives
Realistic targets for how long each system should take to recover, setting expectations for leadership, IT, and your insurer.
Contact trees & vendor lists
Who to call when something goes wrong: employees, vendors, IT, insurance, organized and ready before you need it.
Backup verification report
Documented proof that your backups work, including test restoration results. Required by many cyber insurance carriers.
Business continuity protocols
How you keep running while IT is restored: temporary workflows, communication plans, and customer-facing protocols.
Plan maintenance schedule
A review cadence so your plan stays current as your business, staff, and technology change.
The cost of being unprepared.
average downtime following a ransomware attack in the US. Every day costs revenue, productivity, and trust.
of companies suffering catastrophic data loss do not survive: 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years.
of data backups fail when actually needed. Testing is the difference between a backup and a false sense of security.
Common questions about BCDR.
What's the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity?
Disaster recovery restores your IT systems after a failure. Business continuity keeps your business operating while that recovery happens. A DR plan without a BC plan means you can eventually recover your systems but might lose customers and miss payroll in the meantime. We build both as one integrated strategy.
We back up to the cloud, isn't that enough?
Cloud backups are a good start but have real limits. Ransomware can encrypt cloud-synced files, and accidental deletions propagate immediately. Research shows 58% of backups fail when actually needed. A complete strategy includes immutable, offline backups with tested restoration procedures.
Do you help us actually recover, or just plan?
Both. We build your plan before a disaster so you are prepared, and if disaster strikes we help you execute that plan and get back online as quickly as possible.
How long does it take to create a BCDR plan?
For most businesses, two to four weeks, depending on the complexity of your systems and how much documentation already exists. Some components, like backup verification, can begin immediately.
How often should we update our plan?
At minimum, review it annually, and also whenever you make significant changes: new software, new people in critical roles, new locations, or after any incident. We build a review schedule into every plan.
Does a BCDR plan help with cyber insurance?
Yes. Carriers increasingly require documented evidence of disaster recovery plans, tested backups, and incident response procedures as a condition of coverage. We document your plan in a form your carrier can review.
BCDR planning works best alongside
Cybersecurity Consulting
A BCDR plan tells you what to do when a breach happens. A security assessment helps prevent one in the first place.
Employee Cybersecurity Training
More than 60% of downtime is human error. Training your team is one of the most effective ways to reduce the likelihood of a disaster.
IT Security Audit
An audit documents your environment, controls, and backup practices, the baseline your BCDR plan and insurer both need.
Don't let the first time you use your DR plan be when you actually need it.
The best time to build a disaster recovery plan is before you need one. Schedule a free conversation and we will assess where you stand and what it would take to protect your business.