Your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the digital command center of your plant. If it goes dark, even for an hour, production stops, orders pile up, and customers wonder what happened. That is why an ERP disaster recovery plan is no longer a nice-to-have; it is mission-critical insurance for modern manufacturers.
In this article, we’ll explain how to create a disaster recovery plan, plus give you tips on how to avoid the disaster to begin with using Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) ERP.
Why ERP Disaster Recovery Matters
A well-tested plan saves money, reputation, and sleep. Consider these numbers:
- Unscheduled downtime drains 11% of annual revenue, about $1.4 trillion, from the world’s 500 largest companies, according to the 2024 True Cost of Downtime report by Siemens.
- A 2024 Forterro survey found the average UK mid-market manufacturer expects to lose £41,888 (≈$53,000) for a single day of ERP downtime.
Those figures underscore one truth: every minute without ERP visibility is expensive.
Common Threats to ERP Availability
Before diving deeper, here is a quick rundown of what you are up against:
- Cyberattacks and ransomware
- Hardware failure or power loss
- Natural disasters such as floods and wildfires
- Human error (e.g. someone pulls the wrong plug or deletes the wrong table)
- Software corruption after a faulty patch
Set Clear Objectives Before You Build
Jumping straight into technology decisions is tempting, but success starts with business goals. Think of the objectives below as the guardrails for every technical choice you will make.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
The maximum acceptable outage window (for example, 90 minutes).
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
How much data can you afford to lose (for example, 15 minutes of transactions)?
Compliance Requirements
Industry-specific rules on data retention or sovereignty.
Budget Boundaries
Capital and operating costs that leadership has pre-approved.
Write these objectives in plain language and share them with finance, operations, and IT so everyone is measuring success the same way.
The 7-Step ERP Disaster Recovery Plan
Below is a straightforward blueprint you can adapt to any ERP platform: on-premises, hybrid, or fully cloud-hosted.
1. Map Critical Processes and Data
Identify every business process that relies on the ERP, such as order entry, material planning, production scheduling, payroll, and more. For each process, note the dependent database tables, file shares, and integrations. A simple spreadsheet works; the key is visibility.
2. Perform a Risk and Impact Assessment
Score each process for likelihood of failure and potential business impact. A high-volume order portal with 24/7 demand earns a higher priority than an internal training module. Use the results to tier applications: Tier 1 must be back online first, Tier 2 next, and so on.
3. Define RTO and RPO Targets
Match each tier to realistic targets. For instance, Tier 1 might get a 30-minute RTO and a 5-minute RPO, while Tier 3 could tolerate eight hours of downtime. Make sure the numbers align with leadership’s tolerance for loss.
4. Select Your Backup and Replication Strategy
You have several architectural paths. The right mix balances speed, cost, and risk appetite.
Before we list them, remember: you rarely pick just one. Most manufacturers use a hybrid approach that layers quick-restore snapshots on top of deeper archival backups.
- On-premises mirror: A duplicate server rack in another section of the plant; fast but vulnerable if a site-wide disaster strikes.
- Co-location data center: Hardware you control in a third-party facility; strong physical security but higher capital expense.
- Cloud backups: Encrypted snapshots to services like AWS S3, Microsoft Azure, or Infor CloudSuite Storage; pay-as-you-go, highly durable, but requires bandwidth planning.
- Real-time replication (active-active): Two live ERP instances syncing continuously; near-zero RPO and sub-minute RTO, yet it is the most expensive option.
5. Document Roles, Responsibilities, and Runbooks
Write clear, step-by-step runbooks for failover, data restore, and system validation. Assign one owner per task—no ambiguity. Store the documents in a system that remains reachable during a crisis, such as a cloud knowledge base accessible from mobile phones.
6. Test Regularly from Tabletop to Full Failover
A plan nobody rehearses is a plan that will fail. Schedule quarterly tabletop simulations and at least one full failover test per year. After each event, capture lessons learned and update the runbooks immediately.
7. Review, Audit, and Improve
Technology changes; so do business processes. Set a recurring calendar reminder—many firms choose every six months—to review new integrations, regulatory shifts, or facility expansions that could alter risk exposure.
Technology Choices: Cloud vs On-Premises DR
Cloud options have matured, but an on-premises approach can still make sense for plants with strict data-sovereignty rules or limited internet connectivity.
Key considerations before deciding
- Cloud ERP offers near-infinite scalability and global redundancy.
- On-premises ERP provides direct hardware control and may lower latency for shop-floor devices.
- Hybrid models give you on-site speed with cloud-level resilience; often the best of both worlds.
Run a total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) comparison over five years, factoring in labor, power, cooling, and hardware depreciation.
Training and Change Management
A shiny new failover cluster will not help if employees freeze during an incident. Build people-focused steps into the plan:
- Short video tutorials that explain who calls whom
- Annual refresher courses tied to performance goals
- A post-incident survey to capture real-world feedback and reduce finger-pointing
Keep the Plan Alive with Monitoring and Automation
Modern ERP ecosystems generate thousands of health metrics every minute. Use automated alerts to detect anomalies, disk latency, replication lag, or unusual login activity before they snowball into outages. Pair those alerts with a runbook link so teams jump straight into fix-it mode.
Turn Plans into Peace of Mind
An ERP disaster recovery plan is not just an IT document; it is a revenue protection policy your entire plant relies on. By following the seven steps above (mapping processes, setting realistic objectives, choosing the right technology, and testing relentlessly), you can cut risk without cutting corners.
If you need expert guidance tailoring these steps to Infor SyteLine or another ERP platform, the Godlan team is ready to help. Reach out to schedule a no-pressure consultation and turn downtime anxiety into uptime confidence.
