An SME disaster recovery plan is designed to help a business get back up and running after a cyberattack, with priorities, target recovery times, verified backups, and clearly defined roles. Without one, recovery becomes a costly improvisation. For a French SME, the right approach isn’t a thick document—it’s a tested scenario that’s understandable to management, IT, business units, and service providers.
What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) for an SME?
The BCP, or business continuity plan, describes how to restore the IT system and resume critical applications following a major incident. In 2024, the ANSSI crisis management guide presents it as a complement to the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and focused on rebuilding the digital infrastructure after a disaster.
In practical terms, the disaster recovery plan (DRP) answers simple questions. Which servers need to be restarted from abord? Where are the backups? Who decides when an e-commerce site can go back online? Who communicates with customers, the insurer, the hosting provider, and the CNIL if personal data is involved?
For a business leader, the benefits are very tangible: reducing downtime, minimizing revenue loss, avoiding decisions made under stress, and demonstrating a basic level of preparedness to partners. This issue is no longer limited to large corporations. In its 2024 Cyber Threat Report, ANSSI notes that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), micro-enterprises, and mid-sized companies accounted for 37 % of the known ransomware victims reported to its services.
Ransomware encrypts files to render them unusable and often demands a ransom. The actual cost extends beyond the attack itself: production shutdowns, blocked orders, damaged reputation, technical remediation, legal counsel, and, in some cases, notification to the CNIL under the RGPD. To assess this risk from a business perspective, a useful benchmark is to compare the PRA to the Security level of exposed APIs and services, which are often overlooked in SME mapping initiatives.
What is the difference between PRA and PCA?
The BCP, or business continuity plan, outlines how to continue operations during a crisis. The Recovery Plan (RPA) outlines the process for resuming operations after the crisis—or during the crisis itself—ensuring that systems are properly restored.
The difference seems theoretical. Yet it changes budget priorities. A PCA may stipulate that customer service switch to a cell phone, a backup file created the previous day, and a backup email system. The PRA, on the other hand, outlines how to restore the CRM, verify that it is no longer compromised, reconnect the website, and restore access.
In 2024, ANSSI recommends having both a robust business continuity plan (BCP) designed to withstand cyberattacks and a disaster recovery plan (DRP). The U.S. FTC, in its recommendations to small businesses consulted in 2026, also distinguishes between the Disaster Recovery Plan—which focuses on recovery after an unforeseen event—and the Business Continuity Plan—which focuses on continuity during and after a disruption.
A common misconception is that a single backup is enough. That’s not true. A backup that hasn’t been tested, isn’t isolated, or is too old may be unusable when the time comes. The CNIL recommends, as of 2024, regular backups, restoration tests, and at least one backup retained for hors of the company—that is, hors of the site.
| Notion | Business-related question | SME Example | Budget Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCA | How do we keep going despite the shutdown? | Taking Orders by Phone and a Shared Backup File | Procedures, Alternative Tools, Formation |
| PRA | How do you make a fresh start? | Restoration of the site, the public building, and the permanent workstations | Backups, hosting, testing, technical expertise |
| RTO | How much downtime is acceptable? | E-commerce site restored in 8 hours, accounting in 48 hours | The shorter the deadline, the more expensive the architecture becomes |
| RPO | How much data can be lost? | Maximum loss of one hour of orders | The lower the acceptable loss, the more frequently backups must be performed |
RTO, RPO: Two Figures That Really Drive Costs
RTO, or Recovery Time Objective, refers to the maximum acceptable amount of time that a resource can remain unavailable before the impact becomes unacceptable. This is the definition used by NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1. In management terms: How many hours can you go without this tool?
The RPO (Recovery Point Objective) indicates the point in time at which data can be recovered using the most recent backup. In other words: Are you willing to lose 24 hours of data entries, 4 hours of orders, or almost nothing?
These two metrics help avoid vague discussions. A showcase website can tolerate 24 to 48 hours of downtime as long as the phone system is working. An online store or a business application used by sales representatives is much less tolerant of downtime. With this budget, it’s sometimes better to provide very robust protection for three critical systems rather than trying to restore everything quickly, everywhere.
In the projects we’re working on, we often see a disconnect between the perceived urgency and the actual dependencies. The executive cites the website, and then the team discovers that the quotes depend on outdated software, a shared email account, and an accounting system hosted by a third-party provider. The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is specifically designed to make these dependencies visible before an incident occurs.
The Minimum Requirements for an SME Business Continuity Plan
An effective business continuity plan for an SME can sometimes be as short as fifteen well-organized pages. The format is less important than clarity. The CNIL even recommends drafting a concise business continuity and disaster recovery plan (BC/DR plan) that includes a list of key personnel, people to alert, recovery tests, and regular plan drills.
The document must remain usable even without the usual IT manager. This includes paper copies. MesServicesCyber, in its NIS2 guidelines consulted in 2026, recommends maintaining an up-to-date printed list of individuals who can be called upon during a cyber crisis and their contact information. This is very practical: if email is encrypted, your digital directory is no longer of much use.
- Inventory of Critical Assets : website, ERP, CRM, email, shared files, mobile applications, API, production facilities.
- Priorities for Resumption : or Restart plan approved by management, not just by the IT department.
- RTO and RPO : acceptable latency and data loss thresholds for each service.
- Backup Strategy : frequency, location, encryption, site-based or line-based backup, person responsible for testing.
- Emergency Contacts : management, IT, hosting provider such as OVHcloud, domain registrar, web service provider, attorney, insurer, DPO, Cloudflare support (if used).
- Restoration Procedure : steps, required access, validation criteria, decision log.
- Communication : internal messages, customers, suppliers, authorities, with legal approval if personal data is involved.
For WordPress, for example, a disaster recovery plan (DRP) isn’t limited to backing up the database. It must also include media files, the theme, plugins, administrator access, DNS settings, the TLS certificate, logs useful for analysis, and the ability to restore to a clean environment. Plugin choices must align with this strategy; a thoughtful selection ofWordPress extensions that are maintained and useful already reduces part of the operational risk.
Backups, hosting, testing: what makes the difference on D-Day
The backup must be protected against the very attack it is meant to remedy. In 2026, MesServicesCyber reminds us that backups must be protected against incidents that could render them unusable, citing online storage as an example in the face of ransomware. This is a point that non-technical users often underestimate: ransomware can also encrypt a network drive that is permanently connected.
The rule of thumb is to have multiple copies stored on multiple platforms, at least one of which should be isolated. Depending on the context, this could involve hosting snapshots, S3-compatible object storage, an encrypted external backup, or an offline copy. OVHcloud, Scaleway, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud offer useful building blocks, but the tool is no substitute for a well-defined strategy.
An annual test is a reasonable minimum. MesServicesCyber specifies this for backup and recovery processes as part of the NIS2 objective “Business Continuity and Recovery.” For an exposed small or medium-sized business, an e-commerce site, or a mission-critical business application, a semi-annual test is often more realistic. Honestly, a disaster recovery plan that’s never been tested is mostly just a good intention.
The test must answer a simple question: Can the system be restored? How long will it take? What data will be lost? And who will validate the results? It may be a partial test. Restore a copy of the site to a temporary server, verify the customer database, and reconnect a mobile application test, then time it. For mobile apps, the recovery must include remote services; a Pre-publication security checklist helps ensure that application security and disaster recovery are not treated as separate issues.
Realistic Budget and Timelines for a French SME
Pricing varies significantly depending on the condition of the IT system, the number of applications, and the level of requirements. For a small or medium-sized business with a WordPress site, cloud-based email, and a few SaaS tools, a simple disaster recovery planning and recovery strategy (PRA/PCA) assessment typically costs between 2,000 and 5,000 euros (excluding taxes) when provided by French service providers. This covers the inventory, priorities, procedures, and an initial limited test.
When a company has an ERP system, internal servers, APIs, an e-commerce platform, or a mobile app, the total cost can easily range from 6,000 to 20,000 euros—and sometimes even more if the infrastructure needs to be overhauled. Then there are the recurring costs: backups, monitoring, disaster recovery hosting, testing, and documentation maintenance. Expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand euros per month, depending on the system’s criticality.
Implementation rarely happens overnight. A basic disaster recovery plan can be put in place within two to four weeks if access rights, contracts, and dependencies are known. For a more complex small or medium-sized business, six to ten weeks is a more realistic timeframe, especially if missing backups, outdated versions, or service providers without a clear commitment to recovery are discovered.
A common mistake is to rush into purchasing a backup platform without first defining RTO and RPO. Conversely, spending three months drafting perfect documentation without performing any restore tests doesn’t accomplish much. From the agency’s perspective, the natural instinct is to start with the critical workflows: sales, production, billing, and communications. The rest comes later.
NIS2, GDPR, and Cyber Insurance: How the PRA Is Changing Things
The European NIS2 Directive, adopted in 2022, requires affected entities to address business continuity, including backup management, disaster recovery, and crisis management. Not all SMEs fall directly within the scope of the directive, but many work with clients who do. As a result, these requirements are being incorporated into contracts.
The GDPR adds another dimension. If a cyberattack affects personal data, the company must be able to assess the incident, limit its impact, and, in certain cases, notify the CNIL and the individuals concerned. A documented disaster recovery plan does not eliminate the crisis, but it makes it easier to demonstrate that the company has taken the matter seriously.
When it comes to cyber insurance, public sources do not indicate a mandatory, standardized checklist for all French SMEs. Insurers and brokers, however, regularly mention backups, business continuity, business interruption, and incident management. Marsh noted in 2025 that indicators of ransomware preparedness include backup policies and procedures as well as technical controls.
Another warning sign to take seriously: the 2025 Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr Barometer, conducted among 588 French companies with fewer than 250 employees, reveals that nearly 6 out of 10 microbusinesses and SMEs still do not know how to assess the consequences of a cyberattack. The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) translates this uncertainty into a quantified scenario. To delve deeper into the technical exposure aspect, an analysis of access, APIs, and authentication mechanisms usefully complements the recovery process, particularly with modern approaches such as passkeys to replace certain web passwords.
Defining the scope of this type of project early on helps avoid most unpleasant surprises: vague priorities, unusable backups, contractors who can’t be reached, and delayed approval of the handover. An outside perspective often helps determine what needs to be back up and running within two hours and what can wait two days, without unnecessarily oversizing the infrastructure.
FAQ on the SME Business Recovery Plan
Is a business recovery plan mandatory for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?
While this does not apply to all small and medium-sized businesses, NIS2 requires the affected entities to implement business continuity and disaster recovery measures. Even in the absence of a direct obligation, customers, insurers, or lenders may request proof of backup and recovery procedures.
What is the difference between a backup and a disaster recovery plan?
A backup is a copy of data. The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is the comprehensive procedure for restoring systems, verifying their integrity, prioritizing services, and resuming operations within an acceptable timeframe.
How often should a PRA be tested?
Recent NIS2-related guidelines recommend at least one test per year. For a business that is highly dependent on digital technology, testing every six months is often a more prudent approach.
How long does it take to recover from a ransomware attack?
It depends on the RTO, the quality of the backups, and the scope of the attack. A well-prepared small or medium-sized business can restore certain services within a few hours, while an organization without a disaster recovery plan may be unable to operate for several days or weeks.
Who is responsible for drafting the PRA in an SME?
Management must define business priorities; the IT department or technical service provider outlines the recovery plan; and operational managers assess the impacts. A disaster recovery plan that focuses solely on IT often fails to address the real business challenges.