# ERP Disaster Recovery Readiness Assessment: Could You Restore Tomorrow? > Source: https://netray.co/tools/erp-disaster-recovery-readiness-assessment > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Free Tools ## Short answer Ten questions on backups, RTO/RPO, restore testing, and failover that score whether your ERP would survive ransomware or a hardware failure. ## Category erp-operations ## Tool **Kind:** assessment **Questions:** #### Does a written disaster recovery plan exist specifically covering the ERP and its dependencies? **Options:** ##### No plan exists in any form **Score:** 0 ##### A generic IT DR document mentions the ERP in passing **Score:** 1 ##### An ERP-specific plan exists but is more than two years old **Score:** 2 ##### A current ERP-specific plan exists and is reviewed annually **Score:** 3 #### Have recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO/RPO) for the ERP been defined with the business? **Help:** RTO is how long the business can operate without the ERP; RPO is how much data it can afford to lose. IT guessing these numbers is not the same as the business agreeing to them. **Options:** ##### Never discussed; nobody has numbers **Score:** 0 ##### IT has informal targets the business has never seen **Score:** 1 ##### Targets are documented but not validated against actual restore capability **Score:** 2 ##### Business-approved RTO/RPO exist and tested capability meets them **Score:** 3 #### How are ERP database and application backups performed and verified? **Options:** ##### We believe backups run; nobody checks **Score:** 0 ##### Backups run and failures generate alerts someone usually reads **Score:** 1 ##### Backups are verified daily with completion and size checks **Score:** 2 ##### Verified daily plus periodic automated restore validation **Score:** 3 #### When did you last perform a full test restore of the ERP database to a working state? **Help:** A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a capability. Restore testing is the single strongest predictor of actual recovery success. **Options:** ##### Never, or nobody can remember one **Score:** 0 ##### More than two years ago **Score:** 1 ##### Within the last 12-24 months **Score:** 2 ##### Within the last 12 months, with duration documented **Score:** 3 #### Is at least one backup copy offline, immutable, or otherwise isolated from your production network and domain? **Help:** Modern ransomware deliberately finds and encrypts or deletes online backups before detonating. **Options:** ##### All backups are online and reachable from the production domain **Score:** 0 ##### Backups are on separate storage but same credentials could reach them **Score:** 1 ##### One copy is offsite or cloud-replicated with separate credentials **Score:** 2 ##### An immutable or air-gapped copy exists and is tested **Score:** 3 #### Where would the ERP actually run if the primary server or site were lost? **Options:** ##### Nowhere identified; we would buy hardware and figure it out **Score:** 0 ##### A rough idea exists (spare host, cloud) but nothing is prepared **Score:** 1 ##### A standby environment exists but has not been failover-tested **Score:** 2 ##### A tested failover target exists with documented cutover steps **Score:** 3 #### Are the ERP's dependencies (integrations, EDI, label printing, file shares, license servers) documented for recovery? **Help:** ERP restores routinely succeed while the business stays down because EDI, printing, or interface middleware was forgotten. **Options:** ##### No dependency documentation exists **Score:** 0 ##### Dependencies live in a few people's heads **Score:** 1 ##### A dependency list exists but is not part of the DR plan **Score:** 2 ##### Dependencies are mapped in the DR plan with their own recovery steps **Score:** 3 #### Does the business have a documented way to operate during an extended ERP outage? **Options:** ##### No; production and shipping would simply stop **Score:** 0 ##### Informal workarounds exist for a day or two at most **Score:** 1 ##### Manual procedures exist for critical functions but are untested **Score:** 2 ##### Tested manual procedures plus a defined re-entry process for captured data **Score:** 3 #### Are DR roles, decision authority, and communication paths defined for an ERP outage? **Options:** ##### Nothing defined; an incident would be improvised **Score:** 0 ##### People assume the IT manager would handle it **Score:** 1 ##### Roles are named in the plan but contacts and alternates are stale **Score:** 2 ##### Current call tree, named decision-makers, and vendor contacts on file **Score:** 3 #### How often is any part of the DR capability exercised (restore drill, failover test, tabletop)? **Options:** ##### Never **Score:** 0 ##### Once, years ago, after a scare **Score:** 1 ##### Occasionally, when someone pushes for it **Score:** 2 ##### On a scheduled cycle at least annually, with findings actioned **Score:** 3 **Bands:** #### Exposed: Recovery Is Hope, Not Capability **Min:** 0 **Max:** 39 **Verdict:** A ransomware event or hardware failure today would likely mean one to three weeks of ERP downtime and permanent data loss, decided by luck rather than planning. For a manufacturer, that is shipping stopped, payroll data at risk, and customers finding second sources. **Recommendations:** - Verify tonight that backups are actually completing, then schedule a full test restore within 30 days; this single step converts hope into data - Get one backup copy immutable or off-domain immediately; it is the difference between a bad week and a company-threatening event - Agree even rough RTO/RPO numbers with operations and finance so recovery investment has a target - Write a one-page minimum-viable DR runbook: where backups live, restore order, who decides, who to call - Document ERP dependencies (EDI, printing, integrations) before the people who know them leave #### Partial Cover: Untested Assumptions **Min:** 40 **Max:** 69 **Verdict:** You have real components (backups, maybe a standby target) but the untested links between them are where recoveries actually fail. Environments in this band usually discover their true RTO during the incident, and it is typically two to four times the assumed number. **Recommendations:** - Run a timed full restore this quarter and compare the measured duration against your assumed RTO; close the gap you find - Failover-test the standby environment, including application configuration and printing, not just the database - Fold the dependency map into the DR plan with explicit recovery order and owners - Move backup isolation from 'separate storage' to genuinely immutable or air-gapped - Schedule an annual tabletop exercise with operations so manual workaround procedures get validated, not just written #### Recovery-Ready: Tested and Owned **Min:** 70 **Max:** 100 **Verdict:** You maintain a genuine recovery capability with tested restores, isolated backups, and defined ownership. Your remaining risk lives in drift: environments, integrations, and staff change faster than DR documents. Focus on keeping the tested state current. **Recommendations:** - Automate restore validation so testing happens continuously instead of annually - Re-baseline RTO/RPO whenever the database grows materially or new integrations land; last year's timings quietly expire - Extend DR exercises to full business simulation, including manual operations and data re-entry - Review vendor and cloud dependencies for their own DR posture; your recovery now depends on theirs - Document succession for every named DR role so the capability survives turnover ## Content **Intro:** This free ERP disaster recovery readiness assessment scores whether your organization could actually restore its ERP after ransomware, hardware failure, or site loss, as opposed to believing it could. Ten questions cover the components that determine real-world outcomes: backup verification, restore testing, backup isolation, failover targets, dependency mapping, manual operating procedures, and exercise cadence. It is written for IT leaders at manufacturers running SyteLine, LN, Baan, or similar systems, where ERP downtime means stopped shipments within hours. Three minutes of honest answers produce a readiness band and a sequenced remediation list. **Sections:** #### What the assessment measures and why testing dominates the score **Body:** The questions deliberately weight tested capability over documented intention, because incident retrospectives are unambiguous on this point: organizations with recent timed restore tests recover in roughly the time they expect, while organizations with untested backups discover corruption, missing transaction logs, forgotten dependencies, and restore durations two to four times their assumptions, all mid-crisis. The scoring treats an immutable backup copy and a recent full restore test as the two heaviest predictors of survival, followed by dependency mapping, which is the most common cause of 'database restored, business still down' outcomes. RTO/RPO questions check business agreement, not just IT documentation, because unvalidated targets are commitments nobody actually made. #### Benchmarks: downtime, cost, and what good looks like **Body:** Calibrate your answers against what actually happens to mid-market manufacturers, because the base rates are worse than most leadership teams assume. **Bullets:** - Unplanned ERP downtime for mid-market manufacturers is commonly estimated at 10,000-50,000 USD per hour once stopped shipments, idle labor, and expediting are counted - Ransomware recovery without isolated backups routinely takes two to four weeks; with tested immutable backups, two to five days is achievable - Mature environments run a full timed restore at least annually and a failover or tabletop exercise on the same cycle - A defensible mid-market target is often RTO of 24-72 hours and RPO of 15 minutes to 24 hours, depending on transaction volume; tighter targets require investment that should be a conscious business decision #### Turning your band into a plan **Body:** Whatever your band, sequence work by incident impact per dollar. Backup isolation and a timed restore test come first because they are cheap, fast, and eliminate the catastrophic tail outcomes. Dependency mapping comes second because it costs only effort and prevents the most common recovery failure mode. Standby environments and automation come third; they buy down RTO from days to hours, which matters enormously but only after the recover-at-all question is settled. Finally, put exercising on a calendar with named owners. DR readiness is not a project that completes; it is a capability that decays at the rate your environment changes, which for most ERP shops is faster than the annual review cycle assumes. #### How Netray builds and proves ERP recovery capability **Body:** Netray designs and implements DR specifically for ERP environments: backup architectures with immutable copies sized to your RPO, standby strategies from warm cloud replicas to full failover environments, and restore runbooks that cover the application layer, integrations, EDI, and printing that generic infrastructure DR plans miss. Critically, we prove it: every engagement ends with a timed, witnessed restore or failover exercise producing measured RTO/RPO numbers you can hand to leadership, insurers, and customers. For clients on our managed services, restore validation runs on an automated cycle, so readiness is continuously demonstrated rather than annually assumed. Assessment findings map directly into that engagement scope. **Cta:** Answer ten questions now, because the only bad time to discover your restore does not work is during the restore. **Faq:** #### We have backups. Why is that not enough? **Answer:** Because backups fail silently in ways only a restore reveals: corruption, missing transaction logs, unbacked-up application config, and encryption keys stored on the server that just died. Modern ransomware also specifically targets online backups before detonating, which is why isolation matters as much as existence. The organizations that recover quickly are distinguished not by having backups but by having recently restored from them and having one copy attackers cannot reach. #### What RTO and RPO should a mid-market manufacturer target? **Answer:** Start from business tolerance, not IT capability. Most mid-market manufacturers land at an RTO of 24-72 hours and an RPO between 15 minutes and 24 hours, reflecting what stopped shipping actually costs versus what tighter targets cost to engineer. The essential step is making it an explicit business decision: operations and finance agree on numbers, IT prices the capability to meet them, and leadership signs the gap or funds it. #### How much does a credible ERP DR capability cost? **Answer:** Less than most leaders fear, because the highest-impact layer is cheap: immutable backup copies, verified daily backups, a documented runbook, and an annual timed restore test are typically thousands per year, not hundreds of thousands. Warm standby environments that cut RTO to hours add meaningful but predictable cost, often justified against a single avoided day of downtime. The expensive tier, near-zero-RTO clustering, is rarely warranted below very high transaction volumes. ## Search terms ERP disaster recovery assessment, ERP backup and recovery plan, RTO RPO for ERP, ransomware recovery ERP, ERP restore testing, business continuity manufacturing ERP, SyteLine disaster recovery --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json