Disaster recovery (DR) budget preparation is time-consuming, but with the right tools, the budgeting process for disaster recovery and business continuity (BC) programs can be less intimidating.
To get started, begin by identifying your large-expense items, such as offsite storage facilities, salaries, rent, utilities, hardware and software maintenance, travel and outside consulting. Then, use past-year data and available trending information to help you assess spending in a new year. For most small-expense categories, past-year trends will be sufficient to determine what to budget for the next year. The next step is to create assumptions, especially for major expense items, and review these assumptions once the budget has been completed.
Other considerations include funding your disaster recovery program, deciding which department budgets go to disaster recovery and business continuity, and what percentage of your IT department's budget should go to disaster recovery planning.
In this guide on disaster recovery budgets, learn how to manage DR and BC costs, who should fund DR and BC programs, and how to convince management you need more money for DR and BC planning. Read our step-by-step guide, and then download our free disaster recovery budget template.