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DRP and BCP
How much does a DRP cost?
A DRP is paid for in two stages: every month, the preparation (copies, agents, sometimes IP addresses); on the day of the disaster, switching on the standby servers, usually billed per day. Unlike a BCP, you do not pay for a fleet that runs 365 days a year.
Key points
- Monthly preparation: storage of recovery copies, one agent per server, public IP addresses if services are exposed.
- Activation: billed only on the days the standby runs, for a disaster or a real-world test.
- Hidden costs: staff time, annual real-world test, licences, returning to the original site.
- The right budget is judged against the cost of downtime, as recommended by NIST and the SGDSN (France), not in absolute terms.
What the bill is made of
- Storage of recovery copies. It costs more than plain backup storage, because it is designed to feed a restart, not just a file restore.
- One agent per server to be protected, often more expensive for a physical server than for a virtual machine.
- Public IP addresses, if services must be reachable from the Internet during recovery.
- Standby instances. Their type (processor, memory, disk) matches the servers being replaced.
- Activation. Billed only when the DRP is launched for a disaster or for a real-world test.
- Testing. A frequent technical check may be included; a real-world test is budgeted separately. A DRP that has never been tested has a hidden cost: failure on the day.
- Staff hours. Deciding, notifying, checking the application, returning to the original site.
The right budget depends on the cost of downtime
NIST, the US standards body, suggests looking for the balance point between two curves: the cost of unavailability, which rises with the length of the outage, and the cost of recovery resources, which rises the faster you want to restart. It groups standby sites into three families: ‘cold’ (cheapest, slowest to bring online), ‘warm’ and ‘hot’ (ready immediately, most expensive). A DRP to instances started on demand sits between cold and warm; a BCP, on the hot side.
The SGDSN, the French government’s general secretariat for defence and national security, recommends the same logic: calculate the cost of exceeding the maximum tolerable downtime and compare it with the cost of maintaining standby resources. If three people with a loaded cost of €40 an hour are unable to work for an eight-hour day, the outage already costs nearly €1,000 in salaries, before any lost revenue.
What drives the bill up or down
- The amount of history kept so that a clean version can be chosen.
- The number of servers in the DRP. Not every server needs to be in it.
- The size of the instances, matched to production or deliberately smaller in degraded mode.
- The length of activation: three days of standby cost three days, not a whole month, under the ‘per day’ model.
- Real-world tests: include one a year in the budget rather than discovering it as a surprise.
What a cheap DRP often leaves out
- No dated test.
- No IP address planned for exposed services.
- No one authorised to trigger it.
- Undersized instances.
- An encryption key known to only one person.
The monthly price is then low. The cost of the disaster is not. The other steps not to forget are in How do you build a DRP for an SME?.
At WeDoBack
Public prices excluding VAT as of October 2026, to illustrate the structure; they do not replace a quotation.
- DRP storage: from €175 excl. VAT per TB per month, decreasing with volume. Compare with SMART backup at €49.99 excl. VAT per TB, which does not prepare a restart.
- Agent: €6 excl. VAT per month for a virtual server, €20 excl. VAT for a physical server.
- Public IP addresses: €0.54 excl. VAT per address per month.
- Activation: billed per day in the event of a disaster, depending on the instance type.
- Tests: monthly boot test included, without touching production; real-world test, of up to ten hours, on quotation.
- Support: deployment assistance at €45 excl. VAT per hour; two hours of support per month included with INTEGRAL.
Preparation example, not an offer: two virtual servers, 2 TB to keep ready, one public IP address. Storage 2 × €175 = €350, agents 2 × €6 = €12, IP €0.54, i.e. about €363 excl. VAT per month as long as there is no disaster, plus the instances and days of activation when the time comes. A physical server replaces a €6 agent with a €20 agent.
Frequently asked questions
Does a DRP cost more than a backup?
Yes, because it prepares a restart, not just a file restore: suitable storage, standby instances, addresses, tests. In return, it saves you from waiting for a replacement server to be bought and installed.
How much does a day of activation cost?
It depends on the number and size of the standby instances, matched to the servers being replaced. Ask for this amount in writing before signing: it is the line that makes the difference when a disaster lasts several days.
Should tests be budgeted for?
Yes. A frequent technical check may be included, but a real-world test ties up instances and staff time. NIST, the US standards body, recommends exercising recovery capabilities and teams every year: plan for at least one real test per year.
Further reading
Sources
Documents consulted in October 2026.
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