What is Recovery?
Recovery refers to the process of restoring systems, data or processes after an incident such as data loss, Ransomware, human error or a system crash.
Backup is the preparation. Recovery is the moment of truth.
Without good Backups, recovery is often impossible. But a backup alone is not enough — recovery determines whether you can restore quickly, completely and reliably.
🎯 Examples of recovery scenarios
| Incident | Recovery actions |
|---|---|
| Ransomware | Restore the system from a clean Immutable Backup |
| Human error | Restore files or configurations from an earlier version |
| Corruption of PLC logic | Restore the last working backup to the controller |
| Server crash | Restore the entire VM or image via backup software |
| SCADA failure | Restore the local HMI configuration via Edge Backup or an air-gapped system |
🔁 Backup vs. recovery
| Backup | Recovery |
|---|---|
| Making a copy of data | Restoring data to a working state |
| A preventive process | A reactive process after an incident or outage |
| Part of Disaster Recovery | The end goal of every DR or Business Continuity plan |
| Often automated | Must be tested and validated |
| Focus on data preservation | Focus on continuity and system availability |
🧯 Why is recovery crucial?
- Backups are worthless if you cannot restore from them
- The speed of recovery determines the impact on production, reputation and safety
- Recovery determines whether you meet NIS2, ISO 27001 or sector-specific standards
- In OT environments, recovery can even be a matter of life or death (process safety)
🏭 Recovery in OT environments
- Restoring PLC configurations and firmware after corruption
- Re-deploying SCADA servers with the correct drivers and connections
- Synchronising Historian data from local buffers after network restoration
- Validating operator settings and recipe data from backup sources
- Important: test in an offline test environment or digital twin (where possible)
📌 In summary
Recovery is the practical side of Backup — the moment when it becomes clear whether you really are prepared. Without a tested recovery plan, a backup is only a false sense of security.