Tips

Tips

• Business continuity managers must expand their training to stay viable

  The role of the business continuity specialist has changed in the last 30 years. How will the next generation of BC managers cope with the constant introduction of new technology?  Continue Reading

• Backup vs. disaster recovery: Is there a clear winner?

  With product and technology improvements, data backup and disaster recovery are converging, but that doesn't necessarily mean your organization should drop one of the disciplines.  Continue Reading

• Windows container portability can affect your DR strategy

  Windows containers can be easily moved, thus providing a solid disaster recovery opportunity, but you should understand details about when and how to use them first.  Continue Reading

• Risk assessment analysis and BIA data in BC plans

  Examine how BIA and RA data are used to formulate business continuity strategies. It's common to bypass these steps, but the data can result in more precise and focused BC plans.  Continue Reading

• Craft a winning risk analysis procedure in five easy steps

  When managing your organization's risk assessment procedure, the right planning and data handling can make all the difference in crafting a business continuity strategy.  Continue Reading

• Risk assessment procedure: How to keep it simple

  A risk assessment process is an important factor in creating a business continuity strategy. Explore how to conduct and evaluate a risk assessment plan in a straightforward manner.  Continue Reading

• Active Directory disaster recovery: Top remote uses

  Active Directory can be an effective medium for remote disaster recovery. These guidelines will help your organization replicate an AD database to a remote location.  Continue Reading

• Mass notification systems: Read these tips, form a plan

  If you plan on implementing a mass notification system, this technology overview, vendor chart and handy planning checklist should answer any outstanding questions.  Continue Reading

• Azure disaster recovery: Best practices for restoring VMs

  With Azure VM backup, virtual machines can run in the cloud while a business gets back on its feet. But there are two key considerations to keep in mind.  Continue Reading

• Cloud recovery service providers: Areas of concern

  Discover why location, networking, failback and SLAs are important in picking a cloud disaster recovery service. Then find out what it takes to implement it.  Continue Reading

• Cloud data recovery: Documentation is the key to success

  In creating a plan for data recovery in the cloud, it's important to keep track of your infrastructure, DR requirements and the potential duration of failover.  Continue Reading

• How a change management plan can help disaster recovery

  Learn to construct a change management system and address business continuity maintenance, and how the two processes complement each other in a BC/DR plan.  Continue Reading

• DRaaS vendors: Nine areas to assess in the vetting process

  From performance and cost to infrastructure and scalability, there is a lot to compare when selecting a DRaaS provider. This checklist will help you make the right choice.  Continue Reading

• Updated FFIEC Business Continuity Planning booklet tips

  The latest FFIEC BC handbook has made vendor resilience and cyber-resilience auditable issues. Even nonfinancial institutions should incorporate the handbook into their BC plans.  Continue Reading

• 15 field-proven disaster recovery test plan best practices

  Disaster recovery tests require a lot of preparation, but they are essential to a proper DR strategy. This checklist will help your organization before, during and after DR testing.  Continue Reading

• Address cloud failover issues with DRaaS

  Failing over to the cloud can be handled by a DRaaS provider, but concerns over data movement and performance need to be addressed before the cloud DR strategy is implemented.  Continue Reading

• The importance of a failover plan for data center disasters

  Failing over to another data center after a disaster can be challenging. Learn the key elements to plan to ensure your operations continue running well.  Continue Reading

• Smooth your DR test plan with available technologies

  A disaster recovery test plan can prevent possible computing disasters and help users recover from unforeseen events. Discover how to make your organization more resilient.  Continue Reading

• Data replication technologies: Benefits and drawbacks

  Data volume plays a large role when implementing host-, array- and network-based data replication technologies. This tip breaks down the pros and cons of each approach.  Continue Reading

• Data loss prevention best practices to improve BC and DR

  Expert Paul Kirvan details data loss prevention best practices that can thwart a potentially devastating disruption to BC and DR operations in any organization.  Continue Reading

• Lower disaster recovery costs in five steps

  Technology is coming to the rescue for organizations looking to lower their disaster recovery costs. Learn how these steps can help decrease your DR expenses.  Continue Reading

• Five disaster recovery test plan mistakes to avoid

  Expert Paul Kirvan details five disaster recovery test plan errors to eliminate from your pre-test buildup, and some considerations for during and after testing.  Continue Reading

• Cloud recovery: Five reasons to fail back

  Cloud recovery and running a VM in the cloud can work for your organization. But the migration should be planned rather than be part of a failover.  Continue Reading

• How to integrate the PDCA process with BC plans

  The PDCA process ensures that a business continuity system, and the activities it supports, can be continually reviewed and improved to be compliant with ISO standards.  Continue Reading

• New global BIA standard worth a look

  ISO 22317, a new global standard for conducting a business impact analysis, is worth a look if you are preparing to perform a BIA or updating a current BIA.  Continue Reading

• Four tips for a successful business continuity audit

  Learn how best to collaborate with internal and external auditors to audit for business continuity and disaster recovery improvements.  Continue Reading

• Improve your disaster recovery project management

  Effective project management in business continuity and disaster recovery requires proper plans, establishing goals and deliverables, and setting a schedule.  Continue Reading

• Continuous improvement process important for BC/DR

  A process for continuous improvement of BC/DR operational and administrative activities is an important aspect of a business continuity management system.  Continue Reading

• How UPS devices can protect a virtualization host

  Uninterruptible power supply devices protect servers against power failures, but protecting virtualization hosts requires unique considerations.  Continue Reading

• Today's most popular business continuity/disaster recovery standards

  BC/DR standards have evolved dramatically over the past 10-15 years. Find out the most widely used standards and practices with this updated list.  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery costs: The cloud vs. in-house DR

  Cloud disaster recovery is frequently lauded as a lower-cost alternative to traditional DR. But like most things in IT, that may not be true for every organization.  Continue Reading

• Use business continuity to boost your corporate governance process

  Business continuity planning can round out a corporate governance plan by identifying potential areas of failure and how to survive them.  Continue Reading

• Speed Hyper-V replication process by seeding replica VM

  Hyper-V replication lets IT create secondary, offline virtual machines that can be used to recover operations following an outage of the primary VM.  Continue Reading

• Your business continuity process can enhance strategic planning

  Here are five ways business continuity activities can identify situations that might prevent your firm from achieving its goals.  Continue Reading

• Top three tips for selecting a disaster recovery as a service provider

  Considering DRaaS to support your mission-critical systems? Expert Paul Kirvan shows you the pitfalls to avoid.  Continue Reading

• Are you getting data movement for disaster recovery wrong?

  George Crump discusses best practices for data movement, including the most effective methods for small companies, SMBs and larger enterprises.  Continue Reading

• The importance of distance in the disaster recovery planning process

  George Crump discusses the role distance plays in the disaster recovery planning process and the tools that make replication over long distances easier than before.  Continue Reading

• Virtualization makes DR in the cloud an attractive option, but caution is advised

  Eric Slack details what you should know about your cloud provider's infrastructure before deploying DR in the cloud.  Continue Reading

• How to use FINRA Rule 4370 for business continuity management

  If you're not familiar with FINRA Rule 4370, Paul Kirvan explains why you should know about this emergency preparedness rule for firms in the financial sector.  Continue Reading

• Prepare an after-action report for disaster recovery

  Paul Kirvan discusses the importance of creating an after-action report following a disaster recovery exercise and offers tips on creating the report.  Continue Reading

• Enhance your DR plan with the national cybersecurity framework

  Paul Kirvan explains how the national cybersecurity framework can help enhance your DR plan.  Continue Reading

• Create an employee succession plan for disaster recovery

  Creating an employee succession plan that addresses disaster recovery is not the same as a typical succession plan, as Paul Kirvan explains in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery simplified through DR management software

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan discusses advancements in cloud disaster recovery and DR management software that are simplifying IT DR today.  Continue Reading

• Four steps to incorporate infrastructure resources into your DR plan

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan discusses four important steps to incorporate critical infrastructure resources such as water, electricity, telecommunications, oil and gas, etc. into your DR plan.  Continue Reading

• Evaluate alternative work space for business continuity

  Paul Kirvan shares checklists that you can use to evaluate prospective office and/or operational alternative work space for short- or long-term use.  Continue Reading

• Integrate cybersecurity practices into a business continuity program

  Paul Kirvan explains why your business continuity program must mesh with your information security and corporate cybersecurity strategies.  Continue Reading

• Preparing for an audit using ISO 22301

  Paul Kirvan recommends using ISO 22301 for a baseline audit of your business continuity program in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Business continuity and disaster recovery policy statement templates

  Paul Kirvan explains why you need a program for developing a business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery policy in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Virtualizing business continuity and disaster recovery activities

  Given the growing popularity of virtualization, it makes sense to consider virtualizing business continuity and disaster recovery activities.  Continue Reading

• Include vendors in your business continuity planning process

  Involving vendors in your business continuity planning process helps ensure that critical resources are available when they are needed most.  Continue Reading

• Prepare for a data center resilience assessment

  Your data center must be resilient to threats like hurricanes and tornadoes. Paul Kirvan offers tips to conduct a data center resilience assessment.  Continue Reading

• Defining BC/DR strategies and responses

  Paul Kirvan shares tips on how to translate business continuity and disaster recovery strategies into specific action steps.  Continue Reading

• Integrating business continuity management system into an organization

  Your business continuity management system must be accepted by your organization, and its policies and procedures embedded into the firm's operations.  Continue Reading

• Optimizing document management systems for business continuity

  Managing business continuity management systems requires separate document management systems.  Continue Reading

• Creating disaster recovery testing scenarios

  This collection of articles from independent DR expert Paul Kirvan offers advice on creating disaster recovery testing scenarios.  Continue Reading

• Developing business scenarios for BC/DR exercise planning

  Begin developing effective business scenarios in your BC/DR exercise planning by first understanding your own business and how it works.  Continue Reading

• Preparing natural-disaster scenarios for BC/DR exercise planning

  Incorporate natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes into your BC/DR exercise planning by focusing on events outside your control.  Continue Reading

• Building staff-related disaster scenarios for BC/DR exercise planning

  Develop effective staff-related disaster scenarios in your BC/DR exercise planning by focusing on the sudden loss of more than one key person.  Continue Reading

• Developing technology scenarios for BC/DR exercise planning

  The most effective BC/DR exercise plans begin with choosing disaster scenarios for technology issues, particularly IT-focused ones.  Continue Reading

• Choosing an operational scenario for BC/DR exercise planning

  Effective BC/DR exercise planning begins with developing disaster scenarios for operational situations by focusing on process-related situations.  Continue Reading

• Financial activities to address in a disaster

  Among the most important post-disaster activities to be addressed in your business continuity and disaster recovery plans are financial preparations.  Continue Reading

• Building a business continuity management system

  The business continuity management system is a framework for building and administering a business continuity program within an organization.  Continue Reading

• Evaluating BC/DR program performance

  Business continuity and disaster recovery are not "set-it-and-forget-it" activities. Paul Kirvan outlines how to evaluate a BC/DR program in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Defining, reviewing and updating your organization's BC/DR policy

  Independent disaster recovery expert Paul Kirvan outlines what you need to know about keeping your BC/DR policy up to date.  Continue Reading

• Tips for effectively using ISO 22313

  ISO 22313 provides detailed guidance on how a BCMS should operate. Paul Kirvan offers tips to maximize its effectiveness.  Continue Reading

• ISO 22301 compliance: Focus on training teams and defining roles

  ISO 22301 underscores the importance of teams, particularly defining roles of team members, training them and ensuring their competence.  Continue Reading

• Tips on setting up a DR/BC maintenance program

  A disaster recovery/business continuity maintenance program ensures that plans and other documentation are accurate and up to date.  Continue Reading

• Tips on selecting BC/DR software

  When launching business continuity and disaster recovery initiatives, consider using specialized BC/DR software to help you achieve those goals.  Continue Reading

• WAN design: Building a resilient WAN

  This tip will help you spot potential WAN design problems before they escalate and show you how to boost resilience without sacrificing performance.  Continue Reading

• Wireless local area network backup and recovery

  Paul Kirvan offers wireless local area network (WLAN) backup and recovery tips to help you protect your investment in WLAN technology.  Continue Reading

• Conducting a damage assessment

  The damage assessment provides an initial view of the situation (what happened, what has been damaged, and potential for it to continue).  Continue Reading

• Tips for recovering from cyber attacks

  Find out how your organization can fully recover from a cyber attack in which your network infrastructure has been attacked and defenses breached.  Continue Reading

• Tips for protecting hard-copy records

  Find out how to protect hard-copy records and what your business continuity/disaster recovery plan for vital documents should include.  Continue Reading

• Legal issues for business disaster recovery plans

  This tip will examine some of the legal issues you should consider in your business disaster recovery plan.  Continue Reading

• How to protect your infrastructure against a computer network attack

  Protecting your organization and its IT infrastructure from an intentional computer network attack requires technology, good practices and vigilance.  Continue Reading

• Replication for Hyper-V high availability

  This tip outlines a number of things to consider when choosing a replication approach for Hyper-V high availability.  Continue Reading

• Removing a bad patch using Microsoft Windows Server Update Service

  This tip offers information about how to remove a bad software patch using Microsoft Microsoft Windows Server Update Service.  Continue Reading

• Business impact analysis (BIA) process basics

  The BIA process and risk assessment are critical steps for disaster recovery planning. This tip can help you get started with conducting a BIA.  Continue Reading

• Developing a disaster recovery and business continuity training program

  Training is an important part of BC/DR planning. Learn how to develop a disaster recovery and business continuity training program in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Tailoring a disaster recovery program to your organization’s needs

  Check out these tips to ensure that your business continuity and disaster recovery programs are synchronized to your business.  Continue Reading

• Top five disaster recovery templates

  The editors of SearchDisasterRecovery.com have compiled this list of our five favorite templates published this year.  Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery 101: Risk assessment process

  This tip offers risk assessment process basics to get your disaster recovery plan off the ground.  Continue Reading

• Tips for building a work area recovery center

  Learn how to determine if your business needs a work area recovery center and check out some options for building short-term and long-term solutions.  Continue Reading

• Emergency response notification systems and BCM software: An overview

  Learn about BCM software & emergency notification systems that can make it easier to use a BC plan.  Continue Reading

• A look at ISO 22301, a new global business continuity management standard

  The new ISO 22301 business continuity standard is important for business continuity planners. Learn about how ISO 22301 can help your organization.  Continue Reading

• Preventing human-made disasters in IT disaster recovery planning

  Learn how IT operations can be affected by human-made disasters and how to prevent them.  Continue Reading

• A look at VMware vSphere Replication for Site Recovery Manager 5

  Learn how to use the features of VMware’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM), which provides an automated solution for failover of virtual server environments to a recovery site.  Continue Reading

• Emergency notification system comparison and purchasing tips

  We’ll show you an emergency notification system comparison and share some tips on purchasing the right program for your organization.  Continue Reading

• How to use business continuity software in BC management operations

  Learn the pros and cons of using business continuity software and how to integrate it into your business continuity management operations.  Continue Reading

• The advantages of server virtualization for disaster recovery

  Learn about the disadvantages and advantages of server virtualization as part of your disaster recovery strategy.  Continue Reading

• How CERT RMM can benefit BC plans, resilience management strategies

  With so many approaches to risk management and resilience management, it’s difficult to decide which approach and/or strategy to take. This tip examines how the use of a Resilience Management Model (RMM)—such as CERT RMM—can help you build a ...  Continue Reading

• Assessing your disaster recovery readiness with specialized tools

  Learn how disaster recovery readiness tools can help you document your IT environment, automate the discovery of hardware and software and, ultimately, improve your DR readiness.  Continue Reading

• A comparison of today's business continuity standards

  More business continuity standards are being added to an already crowded playing field. Learn how to determine which ones are most useful for your organization in this tip.  Continue Reading

• Supply chain risk management best practices and business continuity

  Learn supply chain risk management best practices in this tip from business continuity expert Paul Kirvan.  Continue Reading

• How to choose the best data replication product: A checklist

  Learn how to choose the best data replication product and print out our free, downloadable checklist.  Continue Reading

• Array-based and network-based replication

  In the first part of our series on data replication techniques, you learned about the differences between asynchronous vs. synchronous replication. In part two, you will learn about array-based replication and network-based replication.  Continue Reading

• Data replication solutions: Host-based replication products

  In the previous part of our series on data replication techniques, you learned about the differences between array- and network-based replication. In part two, you will learn about the pros and cons of host-based replication products.  Continue Reading

• Replication technologies: Asynchronous vs. synchronous replication

  In this first part of our series on data replication techniques, learn about the differences between asynchronous vs. synchronous replication, and the pros and cons of each technology.  Continue Reading

• Call center disaster recovery plan checklists

  Learn about call center disaster recovery planning best practices, and read our call center checklists so you know what to include in your call center DR plan.  Continue Reading

• Getting started with outsourcing disaster recovery sites

  Disaster recovery outsourcing can save you money, but follow these tips before you sign on the dotted line.  Continue Reading