Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) projects must be planned carefully if they are to succeed when a disaster occurs. The main goal is recovery, which cannot be attained unless IT has a firm grasp on ownership, known threats to the organization, and an understanding of probabilities.

If IT is unable to deliver on the DRP when it truly counts, the enterprise will fail to recover technical services and IT professionals will lose their jobs. Learn from the shortcomings of others to build an effective and efficient DRP.

Compliance remains a key concern for many IT managers. Frameworks like ITIL and COBIT are very popular, but the NIST 800 guidelines and ISO 17799/27002 may be more beneficial. Regardless of the approach, IT leadership is sacrificed when violations occur.

There are numerous options available to all sizes of organizations for offsite disaster recovery facilities. Understanding the solutions available will help meet the enterprise’s disaster recovery requirements.

When it comes to archiving strategies that meet legislative compliance, fixed content must be managed differently than dynamic content. Although Content Addressed Storage (CAS) promises full-lifecycle archiving to ensure compliance, it is just one part of a larger framework for managing data, and must be evaluated carefully.

Load balancing technologies have evolved from simple IP/port selection to sophisticated deep packet inspection. Use load balancing appliances for enterprise applications to improve application availability and scalability, reduce the number of servers required, and offer additional security and performance enhancements.

Load balancing technology has advanced from simple distribution of traffic between multiple servers to the intelligent inspection of packet data to determine which server should service which user. By creating persistent connections between a user and a server, the load balancers improve the ability of the enterprise to support clients and to ensure successful completion of transactions.

E-mail archiving is a valuable tool to respond to litigation. But it also drives tactical benefits through improved storage utilization and an increased ability to restore lost or accidentally deleted messages. These benefits must not be underestimated.

Disaster recovery objectives are a key driver of storage consolidation in a Storage Area Network (SAN). To enable high availability and recoverability, storage replication is a must. As more enterprises move toward consolidated NAS and SAN storage, this note goes back to basics and looks at the pros and cons of various approaches to replication.

With the introduction of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has improved its built-in failover cluster capabilities. With enhanced setup and management and improved reliability, the Server 2008 Enterprise and Data Center editions support mission-critical and high availability enterprise applications.

SharePoint 2007 has given rise to a new set of issues concerning data backup and recovery. While the latest release of SharePoint has improved its backup functionality, enterprises will have to look at their unique business objectives to decide how much money they want to spend on a point solution for SharePoint.

Data deduplication has become a mainstream component of backup software and disk-to-disk backup appliances, such as Virtual Tape Libraries (VTLs). It has proven to provide a means to streamline backups and save money for the enterprise.

A storage area network (SAN) is a critical requirement for providing virtual servers with high availability and dynamic provisioning. However, the same technology that virtualizes servers can also be used to create a virtual SAN array. Smaller enterprises and branch office virtual machine deployment can reap significant savings from a virtual SAN.

In a crisis situation, the enterprise must be able to deliver coherent, accurate, and rapid communications that tell stakeholders what's happening and how to act. Coordinate emergency notification strategies with the business and its disaster recovery/business continuity plans to ensure the word gets out during a crisis.

Before any significant amount of work can be done developing a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), it is essential to know exactly what the scope of the plan will be and who will be involved in developing it. To assist IT departments with DR planning, this Excel download is an essential tool for documenting the formal DRP process.

Every Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) must be based on solid planning of the enterprise’s security operations, and a realistic assessment of current documentation to ensure its accuracy and completeness. To assist IT departments with the DRP, this tool is essential for recording the documentation review process.

Every Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) must be based on solid planning of the enterprise’s security operations, and a realistic assessment of current documentation to ensure its accuracy and completeness. To assist IT departments with the DRP, this tool is essential for recording the documentation review process.

IT departments hope they never need to test their work beyond scheduled scenario tests of the plan. As such, every Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) must be based upon a solid planning of the enterprise’s staff and a realistic assessment of priorities.

Every Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) must be based on solid planning of the enterprise’s security operations, and a realistic assessment of current documentation to ensure its accuracy and completeness. To assist IT departments with the DRP, this tool is essential for recording and summarizing the DRP operational analysis.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) and backup power supplies are the final guard against electricity blackouts and brownouts that cause server room disruption. Traditional lead-acid batteries are getting a little long in the tooth to provide adequate redundant power to safely shut down equipment in today’s high-performance data centers. New methods and technologies for enhancing UPS...

Risk and Business Impact Analysis (RBIA) is about assigning the right resources to the most critical areas of the business in the event of a disaster. This Excel-based tool is designed to assist IT professionals in performing the RBIA exercise as a fundamental part of the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) process.

Thorough disaster recovery (DR) planning cannot occur unless IT identifies vulnerabilities in its security operations that could permit system downtime. Conduct a thorough operational analysis to uncover physical, procedural, or software weaknesses in security that put the enterprise at risk of disaster.

Risk and Business Impact Analysis (RBIA) is about assigning the right resources to the most critical areas of the business in the event of a disaster. Make the risk analysis and business impact analysis exercise the foremost consideration during the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) process.

More businesses are finding that they require high availability (HA) of key applications. HA means an application is operational when it is needed. This can range from 24/7 Web site access to guaranteed IP phone access during a normal 40-hour work week. Business needs dictate HA applications and IT staff must plan and deploy technologies to deliver on those requirements.

Tiered storage is often thought of as a storage asset management issue with each storage tier composed of different storage hardware. More meaningful to the business, however, is to view tiered storage in terms of service tiers. An efficient storage strategy matches the investment in each storage service tier with the value of the data that it serves.

Whether the investigation is internal or external, computer-based fraud and electronic data theft are extremely serious security issues. Whatever the situation, employ a data breach response plan that preserves evidence, helps catch the criminals, and ensures that the enterprise negates any vulnerabilities.

There are numerous options available to organizations of all sizes for off-site disaster recovery facilities. Choose the right option that balances enterprise needs with IT budget restrictions.

Enterprise IT staff often find themselves looking towards high availability (HA) to ensure key applications are up and running. Before beginning the trek up the HA slope, IT staff must work with business management to evaluate realistic needs and goals. Implementation of HA must be based on what enterprise clients really require.

It is critical to periodically conduct an audit to identify risks that affect the physical security and continuity of the data center. Audit results should then be used to inform changes in policies and procedures. Properly assess risk in order to prioritize those threats and vulnerabilities that pose the greatest danger to the data center.

IT must audit current practices to keep the data center safe. Use this risk probabilities worksheet in conjunction with the Data Center Security Audit tool to identify security strengths and weaknesses to increase reliability for this all-important asset.

In order to protect the data center against all manner of threats, IT must audit current practices. Use this Excel-based data center audit tool to identify security strengths and weaknesses to increase reliability for this all-important asset.

Don’t wait until the DRP is invoked to discover weaknesses in disaster recovery processes. Run a full test of the enterprise’s DRP to uncover flaws before an event knocks out IT systems for good.

Don’t wait until the DRP is invoked to discover weaknesses in disaster recovery processes. Run a full test of the enterprise’s DRP to uncover flaws before an event knocks out IT systems for good.

VMware’s High Availability (HA) feature provides almost instant virtual machine failover from one physical machine to another. However, failing over an entire site from one location to another has not been automatic. VMware’s Site Recovery Manager not only enables this capability, it also provides a means for testing automated site recovery in Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP).

Enterprises need to take every possible measure to ensure efficient and effective recovery in the event of a disaster. Determining recovery objectives is a key step in prioritizing the resumption of IT services.

The current economic landscape dictates that IT must find areas in which to reduce costs. Perform a business impact analysis now in order to identify cost reduction opportunities and to future-proof the enterprise's DRP.

An enterprise-wide push to reduce operating costs may lead to mandated budget reductions for IT. For some enterprises, this means reviewing the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and putting IT security expenses under a cost management lens. Learn how to reduce the Cost-to-Serve of IT risk management services without putting the business in jeopardy.

Recovering from a disaster cannot occur without having key people in place to bring system, equipment, and services back online. Recruit, train, and empower these individuals in order to achieve DRP objectives for mid to large-sized enterprises.

Recovering from a disaster cannot occur without having key people in place to bring system, equipment, and services back online. Use this worksheet to identify team members, record contact information, and delineate responsibilities.