---
title: "Disaster recovery in software"
subject: "Instrumentation II"
chapter: 9
key: "semester_5/instrumentation_ii:sw-disaster-recovery"
source: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_5/instrumentation_ii/sw-disaster-recovery
site: BCT Engineering
---

# Disaster recovery in software

Instrumentation II · Chapter 9: Software For Instrumentation And Control Applications

- Asked in: 2068 Chaitra, 3 marks
- Answer checked by Claude Sonnet 5.5 on 2026-10-14
- Page: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_5/instrumentation_ii/sw-disaster-recovery
- Whole chapter: https://www.bctengineer.com/md/semester_5/instrumentation_ii/chapter-9

## Question

What is disaster recovery in software? How could it be implemented at your organization?

## Short answer

Disaster recovery is the set of policies and tools to restore services after a disaster with minimal data loss and downtime. Implement it by conducting risk assessment and defining RTO/RPO, performing regular off-site backups, using redundant hardware and a remote disaster recovery site, and testing the plan through drills.

## Answer

**Disaster recovery (DR)** in software/IT is the set of policies, procedures and tools used to restore data, applications and services to normal operation after a disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, hardware failure, power loss, cyber attack, human error), with minimum data loss and downtime.

#### Implementation in an organisation
1. **Risk assessment and business impact analysis:** identify the critical systems and set targets: **RTO** (recovery time objective, how quickly service must be restored) and **RPO** (recovery point objective, how much data loss is acceptable).
2. **Regular backups:** full and incremental backups of data, configuration and software, stored off-site or in the cloud and encrypted; test restoring them.
3. **Redundancy:** mirrored/replicated databases and servers, RAID, UPS and generator, dual network links.
4. **Disaster recovery site:** a hot, warm or cold standby site (or cloud failover) in a different location. Kathmandu is earthquake-prone, so the site should be in another city.
5. **Written DR plan:** roles, contact lists, step-by-step recovery procedures and the priority of systems.
6. **Testing and training:** hold drills and update the plan periodically.
7. **Security and monitoring,** version control of software, and quick re-deployment scripts.

## Check yourself

The answer's key points as multiple-choice questions, with the correct option and why.

1. Disaster recovery is?
   A. Preventing all disasters
   B. Writing new software
   C. Restoring data and services after a disaster with minimum loss and downtime
   D. Only buying a UPS
   Answer: C. DR restores operation after disasters. (Key point: Definition)

2. RPO stands for?
   A. Real power output
   B. Rapid process option
   C. Restore priority order
   D. Recovery point objective
   Answer: D. RPO is allowed data loss; RTO is allowed downtime. (Key point: RTO RPO)

3. Where should the DR site be?
   A. In a different location such as another city
   B. In the same building
   C. Beside the main server
   D. Nowhere
   Answer: A. Separate location avoids the same disaster. (Key point: DR site)

4. What is essential about backups?
   A. Never test
   B. Store off-site and test restoring
   C. Keep only on same disk
   D. Avoid encryption
   Answer: B. Untested backups may fail. (Key point: Backups)

## Related in Instrumentation II

- [Software fault tolerance and recovery](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_5%2Finstrumentation_ii%3Asw-fault-tolerance-rollback) — Instrumentation II, chapter 9, asked 2×

## Related in other subjects

- [Ownership and structure for software company](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Forganization_and_management%3Aceo-software-ownership) — Organization and Management, chapter 4