In disaster recovery planning, what should be the primary focus for early recovery?

In disaster recovery planning, the primary focus for early recovery should be processing in priority order as defined by business management. This approach recognizes that not all systems and applications are of equal importance to an organization's immediate operational needs. By prioritizing recovery efforts based on business impact, organizations can ensure that critical functions necessary for survival and continuity are restored first. This strategy enables business operations to resume effectively, as restoring high-priority processes allows the organization to serve its customers, meet regulatory requirements, and safeguard revenue.

Prioritization by business management reflects a comprehensive understanding of business goals and the need to manage resources efficiently in times of crisis. It ensures that decision-makers are aligned with recovery efforts that directly impact the organization's overall resilience and capacity to recover from the disaster.

The other options may lead to inefficiencies or misunderstandings regarding what is truly necessary for a timely and effective recovery. Focusing solely on recovering all information systems processes or financial processing applications does not account for the varying levels of criticality across different functions. Recovering only applications designated by the IS manager could overlook the essential prioritization that involves broader business considerations. Thus, emphasizing recovery in accordance with established priorities set by business management is the most effective and logical approach during the early stages of disaster recovery.