IICTI Certified Backup and Disaster Recovery Professional

Holders demonstrate that they can apply and evaluate business impact analysis and recovery objective engineering, backup architecture and data protection trade-offs, cyber-resilient backup and ransomware recovery and database and application-consistent recovery, plus 7 further areas, in realistic professional scenarios, as defined in the AQSCERT scheme for Backup and Disaster Recovery Professional.

Who it is for: Professionals working, or preparing to work, in it operations roles.

1. 01Business impact analysis and recovery objective engineering7% of the exam

   • Evaluate business impact and derive defensible, dependency-aware recovery objectives and service tiers.
   • Scope: ISO 22301 and ISO 22317 BIA, ISO/IEC 27031, MTPD/MBCO, RTO/RPO derivation, workload tiering, upstream and downstream dependency mapping, cost-of-downtime modelling.
2. 02Backup architecture and data protection trade-offs22% of the exam

   • Architect backup topologies that balance RPO, restore speed, storage efficiency and cost across heterogeneous estates.
   • Scope: Incremental-forever and synthetic full, changed block tracking, deduplication and compression, application-consistent snapshots (VSS, fsfreeze), 3-2-1-1-0 rule, catalogue design and backup window engineering.
3. 03Cyber-resilient backup and ransomware recovery8% of the exam

   • Design a cyber recovery capability that ensures trusted, malware-free restoration after destructive attacks on production and backup systems.
   • Scope: Immutable WORM storage and S3 Object Lock compliance mode, logical and physical air gaps, isolated recovery environments and clean rooms, backup anomaly detection, NIST CSF 2.0 Recover, NIST SP 800-209.
4. 04Database and application-consistent recovery10% of the exam

   • Diagnose and execute complex database and multi-tier application recoveries to a consistent point in time.
   • Scope: Point-in-time recovery, Oracle RMAN, SQL Server Always On, PostgreSQL WAL archiving and pgBackRest, MySQL binlog, MongoDB oplog, cross-service consistency points for distributed applications.
5. 05Replication, high availability and DR topologies7% of the exam

   • Evaluate replication and DR topology trade-offs for latency, data loss exposure, cost and operational complexity.
   • Scope: Synchronous vs asynchronous replication, stretched clusters and quorum, split-brain prevention, active-active, warm standby and pilot light, journal-based CDP, failover and failback mechanics.
6. 06Cloud, SaaS and Kubernetes workload protection7% of the exam

   • Design protection for cloud-native, SaaS and containerized workloads that closes provider shared-responsibility gaps.
   • Scope: AWS Backup and Azure Backup with cross-region/cross-account vaults, Elastic Disaster Recovery, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, shared responsibility gaps, Kubernetes backup (Velero, Kasten K10).
7. 07DR orchestration and runbook automation7% of the exam

   • Architect automated, dependency-aware recovery orchestration that reduces recovery time and human error.
   • Scope: Zerto, VMware Live Recovery/SRM, Azure Site Recovery, runbooks as code, dependency-ordered recovery plans, network and DNS re-pointing, identity system recovery (AD forest recovery).
8. 08Recovery testing, validation and evidence8% of the exam

   • Lead a recovery testing programme that proves recoverability and produces measurable evidence for management and auditors.
   • Scope: Tabletop, simulation, parallel and full interruption tests, automated restore verification (SureBackup), measured RTA/RPA vs objectives, test findings remediation and audit evidence.
9. 09Backup security, key management and access control8% of the exam

   • Evaluate and harden backup platforms against insider misuse and credential compromise, including encryption key recoverability.
   • Scope: Encryption in transit and at rest, KMS and key escrow, protecting backup credentials, RBAC and separation of duties, multi-person authorization for destructive actions, hardened backup infrastructure.
10. 10Retention, legal hold and secure disposal7% of the exam

    • Design retention and disposal policies that satisfy legal, regulatory and privacy obligations across backup and archive tiers.
    • Scope: Retention schedules, GDPR storage limitation and erasure in backups, legal hold, tiering to archive, crypto-shredding, NIST SP 800-88 media sanitization, retention cost modelling.
11. 11BC/DR programme governance and crisis management9% of the exam

    • Lead an enterprise BC/DR programme with clear governance, crisis decision-making and regulatory alignment.
    • Scope: ISO 22301:2019 and ISO 22313, DORA ICT continuity and testing, NIS2, crisis management and communications, third-party and concentration risk, programme maturity metrics.

Question types

Single choice 100%

Delivery

Online (remote proctored), Test centre, On-site (corporate)

Retakes

Up to three attempts within any 12-month period. A 14-day waiting period applies after a first unsuccessful attempt and 30 days after a second. Each retake requires a new booking and fee. Retakes draw a different randomised form from the question bank.

Provisional cut score — psychometric validation is required before live delivery. Blueprint v1.0.

1. 1

   Register

   Create a free account and start the programme.

2. 2

   Practice

   Online practice test (coming soon).

3. 3

   Training

   Optional

   Online course or classroom — or skip it.

4. 4

   Certification

   Independent exam and certification decision.

Training is optional and does not by itself confer certification. Find a training partner