What does a resilience test programme cover across the year?

A programme cycles table-top exercises, functional recovery tests, full DR invocations and cyber-recovery simulations across scenarios such as site loss, storage failure, ransomware and supplier failure. Coverage is planned annually with owners, dates and success criteria.

How is a test scoped so it produces evidence rather than theatre?

Each test defines the scenario, in-scope workloads, entry and exit criteria, participants, timing and the specific claims being validated — RTO, RPO, decision authority, communication chain. Anything not evidenced during the test is recorded as an open item.

How is production protected during resilience testing?

Tests run against isolated networks, sandbox tenants or dedicated test volumes. Production access, credentials and change control are kept out of scope, and pre-test snapshots protect any target that touches shared infrastructure.

How are test findings converted into remediation?

Every finding is logged with owner, root cause, impact rating and due date. Remediation is tracked to closure in the same register the next test uses as its baseline, so recurring failure modes cannot hide across test cycles.

How is a cyber-recovery test different from a DR test?

Cyber-recovery tests assume compromised primary and secondary environments, exercising the cleanroom rebuild, integrity validation and staged reintegration. DR tests validate failover to a trusted secondary site under infrastructure or site-level failure.

How is executive and business-owner involvement structured inside a test?

Tests include decision points that belong to executives and business owners — invoke, extend, communicate externally — so they exercise the authority they would hold in a real event. Their participation is scheduled and recorded rather than hoped for on the day.

BCDR

Recovery Testing & Validation

Prove recovery before a real disruption.

Recovery-testing engagements plan and execute structured tests across backup, replication, and disaster recovery environments. Engagements cover restore verification, application-consistent recovery, isolated test failovers, component and partial failovers, controlled failbacks, runbook validation, and structured reporting of achieved Recovery Time and Recovery Point results.

"Untested recovery is not recovery."

Test Calendar

Scheduled

Rolling programme of tabletop, component, and failover tests.

Test Environment

Isolated

Recovery validated without impacting production.

Reporting

Evidenced

Timestamped results and exception tracking.

Platform ecosystem

Multi-vendor by design — protection, replication and recovery tooling is matched to the workload estate, not to a single vendor preference.

Veeam SureBackup
Commvault Auto Recovery
Rubrik LiveMount
Cohesity Instant Recovery
Zerto Test Failover
ASR Test Failover
Custom orchestration

Scope in detail

Backup Integrity & Restore Verification
Verify backup catalogue integrity and perform sample restores across representative workloads to confirm that recovery points are usable and recovery timings are understood.
Application-Consistent Recovery Validation
Validate that databases, message queues, and business applications recover in an application-consistent state and pass functional health checks after restart.
Isolated Recovery Testing
Execute recovery exercises in isolated networks and sandboxes so restore paths, dependencies, and configurations can be validated without impacting production.
Component-Level & Partial Failover
Exercise recovery at server, application, database, or site level to validate individual dependencies before combining them into broader failover scenarios.
Full Failover & Controlled Failback
Support full failover exercises where authorised, along with controlled failback, data reconciliation, and production stabilisation activities.
Runbook, Dependency & Credential Validation
Dry-run runbooks to surface drift, missing dependencies, outdated contacts, expired credentials, and misaligned configuration between production and recovery environments.
RTO / RPO Measurement
Instrument tests to measure achieved Recovery Time and Recovery Point, compare against defined objectives, and identify remediation for any gap.
Exception Tracking & Reporting
Log exceptions, track remediation actions to closure, and produce test evidence suitable for management, insurers, customers, and internal or external audit.

Where recovery breaks down

Recovery is tested only at audit time
Recovery exercises are performed only around audits or renewals, leaving long periods where actual recovery capability remains unproven.
Concern that testing will disrupt production
Fear of impacting live services discourages teams from exercising exactly the workloads and dependencies that matter most during a real event.
Infrastructure tested, applications overlooked
Tests confirm that virtual machines start and storage mounts, but application transactions, integrations, and user journeys are not validated end to end.
Results lack timestamped, structured evidence
Recovery outcomes are asserted verbally or in narrative form, without success criteria, exception tracking, or measurable evidence for management or audit review.

Engagement approach

Recovery testing delivered as a structured, evidence-producing programme that supports audit and governance requirements without unnecessary disruption to production.

Plan
Define scope, success criteria, workload tiers, approved test methods, dependencies, rollback procedures, and stakeholder responsibilities for the agreed programme.
Isolate
Build isolated networks, sandboxes, test bubbles, clean rooms, or non-disruptive failover environments where supported by the underlying platforms.
Execute & Measure
Perform authorised restore, component, application, tabletop, failover, and failback tests while recording actual timings, outcomes, and observed behaviour.
Report & Remediate
Document evidence, compare results with recovery objectives, identify exceptions, update runbooks, and implement corrective actions across affected platforms.

Deliverables & artefacts

Annual test calendar across tabletop, functional, DR
Isolated test bubble / clean-room configuration
Test scope, entry/exit criteria and success measures
Timestamped test evidence pack for audit
Exception register with owners and due dates
Post-test remediation change requests

End-to-End IT Integration and Support

From assessment and solution design through implementation, remediation, ongoing support, and lifecycle optimization.

Fix Failed Recovery Tests — Remediation Sprints

Recovery tests failing at application startup, credentials or DNS wrong, or runbooks missing dependencies? Jiva Technologies runs a defined-scope recovery-testing remediation engagement to diagnose failed exercises, correct procedures, and re-run authorised scenarios with measured outcomes and corrective actions.

Diagnose failed restores, application-startup errors, missing credentials, and infrastructure dependency issues
Correct recovery sequencing, runbooks, DNS, network, identity, firewall, and database procedures
Retest authorised recovery scenarios and document measured outcomes, exceptions, and corrective actions

Request a remediation scope

Recovery-Test Programme Support — AMC-Backed

Under an AMC, Jiva Technologies maintains a customer-approved recovery-testing programme — test plans, evidence collection, runbook updates after change, and management reporting against agreed success criteria.

Maintain agreed recovery-test schedules, scope, success criteria, rollback plans, and stakeholder responsibilities
Update runbooks and test cases after application, infrastructure, security, or business changes
Track test evidence, measured results, exceptions, remediation actions, and management reporting

Explore AMC & support contracts