Which of the following is a key step in creating a disaster recovery plan for hybrid cloud environments?

Identifying critical assets is essential when creating a disaster recovery plan for hybrid cloud environments. This step involves determining which applications, data, and systems are vital for the organization's operations and need to be prioritized during recovery efforts. By recognizing these critical components, organizations can develop targeted strategies to ensure minimal downtime and data loss, enabling a more effective and efficient recovery process.

Establishing a budget is important but typically follows the identification of critical assets, as the budget will be influenced by what needs to be protected. The choice of public cloud solutions can vary based on business needs and does not necessarily contribute to a comprehensive recovery plan. Additionally, focusing exclusively on data storage overlooks the broader perspectives necessary for disaster recovery, which should also include application recovery, system availability, and business continuity strategies. Therefore, identifying critical assets serves as a foundational element for developing an effective disaster recovery plan.