Small and mid-market companies skip DR planning because it sounds like a nine-figure project. It doesn't have to be. You can get a defensible recovery plan written down in a week, for almost no money, if you're willing to make real choices.
Disaster recovery is two numbers and a plan. RPO: how much data can you afford to lose. RTO: how long can you be down. Most companies have never written these down for any system they run.
Start with three tiers. Tier 1 is the stuff that has to come back in hours. Tier 2 is end-of-day. Tier 3 is 'we'll get to it.' Most companies have five systems in tier 1. Not fifty.
Once you know the tiers, the budget gets easier. Tier 1 gets hot standby or fast-restore cloud. Tier 3 gets cheap object storage and a documented rebuild. You stop paying for the highest tier on everything.
Document the plan in a markdown file in a repo. Not a 60-page PDF that nobody opens. A runbook with commands, contacts, and a restore order.
Test once a quarter. Pick a tier 1 system. Restore it to a sandbox. Time it. Write down what broke. Fix it before next quarter.
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