Functional Reporting For DR Programs A bar chart shows that 47% of respondents said that the head of DR reported to the infrastructure and operations function; 21% to security, 12% to business continuity; 6% to risk; 6% to enterprise architecture; and 9% to other functions. Base: 35 disaster recovery professionals. Source: Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal November 2025 Disaster Recovery Practices Survey.

Business Continuity Management Software: Core Use Cases Business continuity management software has four core use cases: business impact analysis, plan creation and maintenance, plan testing, and crisis management. This graphic has an associated spreadsheet that includes the objectives and top differentiators of each. Please access the spreadsheet for details.

Climate change is a priority for only 26% of respondents, which will leave many organizations unable to respond to costly weather-related disasters and extremes — after a record-breaking year of costly weather and climate disasters in the US in 2023. BC Leaders And Pros Face Too Many Priorities According to Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2023, organizations have identified several business continuity priorities for the next 12 months.

The top three responses were improved security (30%); on-demand capacity and scalability (26%); and improved disaster recovery and business continuity (26%). This graphic has an associated spreadsheet that includes all data presented. Please access the spreadsheet for details. Figure 5 Internal Private Cloud Concerns This bar chart shows what areas of concern respondents’ organizations had about adopting internal private clouds.

The top-five drivers are on-demand capacity and scalability (30%); improved disaster recovery and business continuity (28%); access to new and innovative services or infrastructure (27%); providing developers with fast, easy resources for test and development (25%); and ability to use as peak capacity for times of high usage, such as the holiday season (25%). This graphic has an associated spreadsheet that includes all data presented. Please access the spreadsheet for details.

Disaster Recovery Preparedness Is Evolving Many businesses understand the need for disaster recovery capabilities, but adoption and implementation of various practices and capabilities are mixed. Forrester and the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) have partnered to field a number of market studies in business continuity and DR to gather data for benchmarking and to guide research and publication of best practices for the industry.

Software resilience for business continuity. Some firms use SAM tools to ensure software resilience as part of their disaster recovery (DR) plans. A leading global bank integrated its SAM system with its DR plan, using real-time software inventory data to prioritize the restoration of core banking platforms within hours of a cyberattack.

Supplemental Material Research Methodologies For the Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal Q4 2024 Global Business Continuity Management Survey, Forrester and the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) conducted a joint survey from October to November 2024. The survey was fielded globally to business continuity, disaster recovery, and security and risk professionals affiliated with both Forrester Research and the DRJ. Additionally, on LinkedIn, we solicited responses from resilience professionals.

Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery plans. The recent CrowdStrike outage highlighted a critical risk: Even when a technology provider causes the disruption, the event also exposes weaknesses in your vendors’ resiliency. A similar outage could halt your operations and those of your partners. Ask for proof of robust business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.

Public Cloud Platforms: Core Use Cases Public cloud platforms has five core use cases: app modernization, data analytics and AI, disaster recovery and business continuity, enterprise application hosting, and scalable infrastructure. This graphic has an associated spreadsheet that includes the objectives and top differentiators of each. Please access the spreadsheet for details.