Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

Disaster recovery planning - management

• What are some examples of organizational resilience?

  Organizational resilience encompasses everything a company needs to run in times of crisis. These examples show how businesses handle tough situations.  Continue Reading

• How can a pandemic business continuity plan cover employees?

  A major element in maintaining business continuity during a pandemic is taking care of employee health. Pandemic-specific planning must be a part of the overall BCDR plan.  Continue Reading

• 12 steps for a successful DRaaS implementation

  Thinking of activating disaster recovery as a service? As you start this important process, consider these best practices that will help protect your organization.  Continue Reading

• Compare and contrast business resilience vs. business continuity

  Business continuity and resilience go hand in hand and play a role in an organization's disaster recovery plan. Essentially, business continuity is needed to achieve resilience.  Continue Reading

• What will disaster recovery strategy look like in 2020?

  Disaster recovery planning is an ever-evolving process, and organizations should be aware of new threats and tools. Ensure that your strategy isn't behind the times in 2020.  Continue Reading

• What is the role of HCI in a disaster recovery architecture?

  Is hyper-convergence a good fit for disaster recovery? More organizations appear to believe so and are increasingly using hyper-converged infrastructure in backup and DR.  Continue Reading

• How do a business impact analysis and risk assessment differ?

  When it comes to disaster recovery strategy, business impact analyses and risk assessments both play key roles. Make sure you include them in your DR planning.  Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of outsourcing risk mitigation and management?

  Rather than handling risk management and mitigation within your organization, outsourcing these important processes to a third party comes with substantial benefits.  Continue Reading

• How can your IT resilience plan incorporate big data analytics?

  Big data analytics can help businesses spot past mistakes, forecast conditions and improve future strategies. So, why should resilience planning be any different?  Continue Reading

• How does a data archiving strategy benefit DR and backup?

  In order to be truly resilient, your organization needs more than just a backup and disaster recovery plan. Integrating archiving into your strategy offers some serious benefits.  Continue Reading

• Is VMware SRM disaster recovery a good fit for your DR plan?

  VMware Site Recovery Manager brings a number of benefits to the disaster recovery process. One of the lesser known roles of SRM is as a planning tool.  Continue Reading

• Can you use blockchain for disaster recovery purposes?

  Disaster recovery may not be the most prominent use case for blockchain technology, but the idea of using it for data protection and recovery is beginning to gain traction.  Continue Reading

• How do slow data transfer speeds affect VM disaster recovery?

  When failing over VMs to the cloud or a remote data center, slow data transfer speeds can spell disaster. Don't let failed replications and partial failovers upset your DR plan.  Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of disaster recovery orchestration?

  A disaster recovery plan that uses orchestration can simplify the process of failing VMs over to the cloud. Unfortunately, there are some caveats to take into account.  Continue Reading

• How has ransomware recovery changed in recent years?

  The threat of ransomware has evolved over the past few years, causing many organizations to re-examine how they plan to recover data in the event of an attack.  Continue Reading

• Can your disaster recovery strategy keep up?

  Disaster recovery requirements are constantly changing, and a DR plan must do the same. Frequent testing and clear communication can go a long way toward keeping a plan up to date.  Continue Reading

• What are the pros and cons of on-premises disaster recovery?

  While cloud DR is gaining popularity, it may not be the right choice for every organization. On-premises DR often comes with more predictable pricing and lower latency.  Continue Reading

• How to create an emergency phone tree and template

  When disaster strikes an organization, employees must be alerted. Using a call tree in emergency situations is a time-tested way to effectively communicate events and next steps.  Continue Reading

• What 5 skills should a disaster recovery team leader have?

  Is the right person in charge of your disaster recovery planning? Look for a DR team leader who has the knowledge to run the show and the accessibility needed from a good manager.  Continue Reading

• What standards for business continuity aid in compliance?

  Business continuity and disaster recovery compliance is a valuable asset and may require a deeper understanding of modern standards and changes your organization needs to make.  Continue Reading

• What does the ISO 22330 business continuity standard cover?

  With ISO/TS 22330, the International Organization for Standardization covers the issues related to the people involved in BCDR incident response.  Continue Reading

• Is your cloud DR strategy agile enough?

  As business requirements evolve, not every DR tool can keep up. In the age of agile IT, there are drawbacks to consider with a cloud-based disaster recovery strategy.  Continue Reading

• Which modern disaster recovery tool is often overlooked?

  When crafting a DR strategy, there are a number of useful tools available. To avoid missing out on some serious benefits, make sure you take a look at all available options.  Continue Reading

• How does the ISO 22316 standard cover resilience?

  Definitions for business continuity and resilience sometimes clash, but both processes help an organization stay on its feet. A new ISO standard tackles the latter.  Continue Reading

• What are vital elements of a workplace emergency response plan?

  Emergency response planning needs to be specific and varied enough that it will enable an organization to recover in the event of many different kinds of incidents.  Continue Reading

• What is a short business continuity history?

  From mainframes to the cloud, the business continuity profession has seen a lot over the decades. How did we get to the business continuity process of today?  Continue Reading

• What are the top disaster recovery trends for 2018?

  Expect disaster recovery market trends to include consolidation and simplification. Vendors should also note that quick failover and recovery time remain top needs for customers.  Continue Reading

• How can I keep my business disaster recovery plans relevant?

  Has your organization created a disaster recovery plan and left it on the shelf? You're not alone. Explore what you can do to improve your plan's effectiveness.  Continue Reading

• How can IT risk assessments best involve employees?

  In conducting an IT risk assessment, are you asking the right questions to your staff? Are you talking to the right people? These elements are important for disaster recovery.  Continue Reading

• How can I ensure recovery time objectives are up to date?

  As the desired recovery time objective continues to decrease, make sure your organization can handle it with the proper technology, employees and testing.  Continue Reading

• What did the British Airways outage teach us about DR?

  Can disaster recover planning save an organization from a costly IT outage? The British Airways IT disaster of 2017 has many wondering how to prevent such outages from occurring.  Continue Reading

• What are some virtual machine disaster recovery challenges?

  For improved virtual disaster recovery, it's important to keep an eye on server provisioning. Production machines that are not enabled for DR can cause big headaches later.  Continue Reading

• What business recovery planning resources are available?

  With software, consultants and standards at the ready, plus the rise of DR as a service, it's easy to get started on a business recovery plan. So just do it.  Continue Reading

• How can standards for business continuity aid compliance?

  Working with the right business continuity and disaster recovery standards should get your organization on the path to compliance. Reviewing and updating plans is also important.  Continue Reading

• How do I design and initiate a call tree procedure?

  A call tree can be an important piece of disaster recovery planning. Follow these steps for call tree design and execution to ensure your company is ready for unplanned events.  Continue Reading

• How can your backup and recovery system be more streamlined?

  Many organizations could stand to simplify their data backup and recovery systems. Consolidation is important, but make sure you have the right tools for optimum data protection.  Continue Reading

• Do you need an emergency communication plan for business?

  Emergency communications is one of the first actions to be taken following an incident. Find out what happens when an organization doesn't have an emergency communications plan.  Continue Reading

• Are business recovery plans useful beyond pure DR reasons?

  Business disaster recovery plans can identify opportunities for process improvement, and can be employed as reference documents for use in other new activities.  Continue Reading

• Is disaster recovery a good data lake use case?

  Before wading into a data lake to help with protection, it's important to analyze what you're doing with your data and its backup and disaster recovery.  Continue Reading

• How has IT continuity planning changed with cloud technology?

  Despite business disaster recovery planning shifting to the cloud, historically crucial elements of legacy DR, such as location and testing, are still important.  Continue Reading

• How has disaster recovery monitoring software evolved?

  Explore details regarding the growth of DR monitoring software from a focus on configuration validation to today's automated and more comprehensive disaster recovery scanning.  Continue Reading

• Should business continuity and disaster recovery plans involve staff?

  Employee involvement in business continuity and disaster recovery planning starts with a business impact analysis. But participation in the rest of the BC/DR process is encouraged.  Continue Reading

• Can you create a BC plan without conducting a risk assessment?

  If time constraints and other factors force you to eliminate risk assessment from your business continuity plan, discover how to focus your development efforts more precisely.  Continue Reading

• Can you prepare a business recovery plan without management approval?

  You should be able to justify the need for a BC/DR plan. But here's what you can do if you fail to get management buy-in and you still want disaster recovery in your organization.  Continue Reading

• Can you conduct a disaster recovery test plan on a budget?

  While it's always safer for businesses to have properly funded DR plan testing, there are ways to assess your plan even when the data storage budget is not there.  Continue Reading

• What BC/DR plan alternatives can I use for disruptive events?

  For those organizations that believe 'It will never happen to me,' options to a formal business continuity/disaster recovery plan do exist if the inevitable occurs.  Continue Reading

• How can I manage hardware redundancy costs in my DR plan?

  Adding redundant hardware to your disaster recovery strategy doesn't have to break the bank. Here are three tips that can help to protect your data at a more reasonable price.  Continue Reading

• Do cloud-based disaster recovery service providers use removable media?

  Some cloud-based DR service providers are using removable media to circumvent any restoration and synchronization issues customers might encounter.  Continue Reading

• What are some cloud storage disaster recovery issues with multiple hypervisors?

  Cloud-based DR providers are improving their support of multiple hypervisors, but your organization still needs to consider these four key elements when choosing a provider.  Continue Reading

• What are some distributed database recovery issues?

  In this expert answer, learn why data integrity and point-in-time recovery are essential to distributed database recovery in your computing environment.  Continue Reading

• Should my risk assessment plan include severe weather events?

  Your organization's risk assessment plan should account for the increase in severe weather events and the damage they can cause.  Continue Reading

• How do I make a case for a business disaster recovery plan?

  Developing a business disaster recovery plan requires buy-in from management as well as the building landlord.  Continue Reading

• What are some Gmail DR considerations?

  While Gmail DR is provided for users, certain precautions are recommended to ensure email safety and security.  Continue Reading

• How expensive are cloud disaster recovery tests and why are they needed?

  Cloud disaster recovery testing and its costs vary depending upon the type of provider you use. Every provider has its own policies, pricing structure and services.  Continue Reading

• Why are data backups and disaster recovery converging?

  Backup and disaster recovery have primarily been treated separately. Learn how server virtualization has allowed these two technologies to converge.  Continue Reading

• How do I choose the right cloud services provider for DRaaS?

  Which is better for DRaaS -- an IaaS host like Amazon or a smaller managed service provider that offers more assistance with operations?  Continue Reading

• What is Unitrends ReliableDR and what is it used for?

  Unitrends ReliableDR is a feature of the company's Certified Recovery Suite. Find out how firms can use it for virtual machine DR.  Continue Reading

• How does three-way bidirectional transactional replication work?

  Bidirectional replication of SQL servers is a business continuity tool for users with multiple remote sites and a central data center.  Continue Reading

• What are the top five ways to train personnel in disaster response?

  What are the five best ways to ensure personnel are trained in disaster response and ready to respond to a disaster event?  Continue Reading

• How frequently should you conduct failover testing?

  Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting says failover testing should be part of data protection, disaster recovery and business continuity processes.  Continue Reading

• What you need to know before deploying VMware SRM

  What are the top five things you need to know before deploying VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager)?  Continue Reading

• What are some common VMware High Availability configuration errors?

  What are the most common mistakes people make when configuring VMware High Availability?  Continue Reading

• What are the five most important things to know about VMware failover?

  Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting discusses the top five things you should consider before deploying VMware failover in your data center.  Continue Reading

• Why the change management process is important for DR

  Paul Kirvan discusses the importance of the change management process for disaster recovery in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Include the VoIP system in your disaster recovery planning process

  Independent disaster recovery planning expert Paul Kirvan discusses why your VoIP system must be part of the disaster recovery planning process.  Continue Reading

• Your disaster recovery planning process must include your phone system

  Independent disaster recovery planning expert Paul Kirvan discusses why your disaster recovery planning process must include your phone system.  Continue Reading

• Conducting a tabletop exercise for disaster recovery testing

  Paul Kirvan discusses whether a tabletop exercise is sufficient for disaster recovery testing and issues that tabletop exercises should address.  Continue Reading

• Call center disaster recovery planning best practices

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan offers some best practices for call center disaster recovery planning in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Addressing common mistakes in network DR strategies

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan offers advice on addressing common mistakes in network DR strategies in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Break mirrors as part of the disaster recovery testing process

  Independent DR expert Jon Toigo discusses the importance of breaking your mirroring scheme as a part of your disaster recovery testing process.  Continue Reading

• The importance of a disaster recovery test

  Jon Toigo discusses the importance of a disaster recovery test for DR planning and change management in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Seven often overlooked colocation costs

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan discusses seven colocation costs that are often overlooked during DR planning.  Continue Reading

• Continuity of operations vs. business continuity

  Paul Kirvan discusses the similarities and differences between continuity of operations planning and business continuity planning.  Continue Reading

• Evaluating emergency power supply options

  Independent disaster recovery consultant Paul Kirvan discusses what you should consider when evaluating emergency power supply options.  Continue Reading

• Business impact analysis tools available to help companies

  Pierre Dorion highlights some of the business impact analysis tools available to help companies in this Expert Response.  Continue Reading

• Debating quantitative impact vs. qualitative impact

  Pierre Dorion explains how to weigh a short-term financial risk against a damaged reputation in this Expert Response.  Continue Reading

• Top five business impact assessment considerations

  Pierre Dorion lists the top five things to consider when conducting a business impact assessment.  Continue Reading

• How the risk analysis process and conducting a BIA differ

  The BIA is related but different from the risk analysis process. Pierre Dorion discusses what each should accomplish in this expert answer.  Continue Reading

• Outsourcing DR to hot and cold site providers

  Learn when it is inappropriate to outsource DR to a hot or cold site provider in this Expert Response by Paul Kirvan.  Continue Reading

• Comparing the costs of hot sites and cold sites

  Learn the differences in cost between hot sites and cold sites in this Expert Response from Paul Kirvan.  Continue Reading

• Essential disaster recovery (DR) program activities

  Find out what must be part of a well-organized disaster recovery (DR) program in this Expert Response from Paul Kirvan.  Continue Reading

• What must happen before activating a DR plan

  Find out what must happen before a DR plan is activated in this Expert Response from Paul Kirvan.  Continue Reading

• Risk assessments identify external and internal risks

  A risk assessment must identify external and internal risks and threats to your organization. Paul Kirvan discusses this important issue in his Expert Response.  Continue Reading

• Securing senior management approval for a business continuity program

  Paul Kirvan discusses how to secure senior management approval and funding for a business continuity program in this Expert Response.  Continue Reading

• Business impact analysis tools and what should be in your BIA

  Learn about the pros and cons of business impact analysis tools and what should be in your BIA.  Continue Reading

• Maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPOD) vs. RTO and RPO

  Learn what maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPOD) means for disaster recovery planners vs. the terms RTO and RPO.  Continue Reading

• Presenting your business impact analysis methodology to your company

  Learn how to present your business impact analysis methodology to your organization in this expert response.  Continue Reading

• Business impact analysis software: the pros and cons

  Learn what you need to consider before choosing a business impact analysis (BIA) software product.  Continue Reading

• How should I implement a disaster recovery process in my SDLC approach?

  Paul Kirvan describes what steps you should take when implementing disaster recovery process in your SDLC approach in this expert response.  Continue Reading

• What is a change control process and how does it relate to disaster recovery?

  Harvey Betan describes the purpose of a change control process and how it relates to disaster recovery in this expert response.  Continue Reading

• What is a business impact analysis questionnaire and what types of questions should be included?

  Harvey Betan explains that a BIA questionnaire is used to gather valuable and important data about a company, the industry and other background information in this expert response.  Continue Reading

• What is an IT risk assessment?

  Harvey Betan explains the steps you need to take in order to perform an accurate risk assessment in your DR environment.  Continue Reading

• How do IT disaster recovery plans for an earthquake disaster differ from preparing for other disaste

  Steven Ross explains how DR planning for earthquakes differs from preparing for other disasters in this expert response.  Continue Reading

• What are some good disaster recovery strategies for email?

  Harvey Betan explains different disaster recovery strategies for email in this ask the expert response.  Continue Reading

• What are the hidden threats, if any, in a disaster recovery (DR)/business continuity (BC) plan?

  Harvey Betan explains the hidden threats organizations may encounter in their DR and BC plans in this ask the expert response.  Continue Reading

• What is a business impact analysis (BIA) and how can it benefit my disaster recovery (DR) plan?

  Harvey Betan explains what a business impact analysis is and how it can benefit disaster recovery plans in this ATE.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between a disaster recovery plan and a business continuity plan?

  Kevin Beaver describes the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity planning in this ask the expert response.  Continue Reading

• How often should I conduct a disaster recovery (DR) test?

  Kevin Beaver discusses how often companies should conduct disaster recover tests in this Ask the Expert response  Continue Reading

• Monitoring and managing recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs)

  Jeff Boles talks about how to monitor and manage recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) in this ask the expert response.  Continue Reading

• Backup and software media storage best practices

  Business continuity expert Pierre Dorion discusses the best practices for backup and software media storage.  Continue Reading