What is a DR gap analysis?

A DR (Disaster Recovery) gap analysis is a systematic process used to identify discrepancies between an organization’s current disaster recovery capabilities and its desired state. The goal is to uncover weaknesses in existing plans, tools, or processes that could prevent the organization from recovering critical systems and data during a disruption. This analysis typically involves reviewing technical infrastructure, recovery objectives, testing procedures, and documentation to ensure alignment with business continuity requirements. For developers, this means evaluating whether the systems they build or maintain can meet recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) defined by the business.

The process starts by mapping the current DR setup, including backup strategies, redundancy mechanisms, and failover processes. Developers might assess, for example, whether database backups are automated, encrypted, and stored offsite, or if application servers are configured for rapid redeployment in a secondary environment. Next, the analysis compares this setup against predefined benchmarks, such as industry standards (e.g., ISO 22301) or internal SLAs. A common gap might be the lack of automated failover for a cloud-based service, which could extend downtime beyond acceptable RTOs. Other gaps might include insufficient testing frequency—such as only conducting annual DR drills—or reliance on outdated backup tools that cannot handle the scale of current data volumes.

Addressing these gaps often involves technical improvements. For instance, a team might discover their backups are stored in the same region as production data, creating a single point of failure. To resolve this, developers could implement cross-region replication in their cloud provider. Another example: if manual scripting is used for recovery tasks, replacing it with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) templates could reduce human error and speed up restoration. By closing these gaps, organizations minimize downtime risks and ensure systems align with business needs. For developers, this process provides clarity on where to focus engineering efforts, such as refining deployment pipelines or adopting more resilient architectures.