If Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) fails to recover technical services in the event of a catastrophe, enterprise business will suffer and IT professionals will lose their jobs. Use the shortcomings of others to guard against failure by building an effective and efficient DRP.

Small enterprises running Windows applications and needing high availability should consider migration to Windows Server 2008. Improved clustering capabilities in the Enterprise and Data Center editions provide a cost effective failover solution for mission-critical applications.

Virtual servers require high availability and dynamic provisioning, usually provided by a storage area network (SAN). However, for smaller enterprises, SAN implementations can be costly. However, the same technology that virtualizes servers can also be used to create a virtual SAN array. A virtual SAN has significant savings potential for smaller enterprises and branch office VM deployment.

Data deduplication technology has emerged as a proven method for speeding backup and recovery, reducing storage capacity needs, and cutting costs from enterprise IT budgets. Vendors are recognizing the growing popularity of deduplication as a backup tool and are starting to respond with solutions designed specifically for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). Before moving forward, understand...

Many small enterprises struggle to find appropriate and cost effective tools for data storage, backup, and security. Often the latest consumer products match the needs of many small businesses and are the forerunners of enterprise-focused technologies. Review the latest consumer offerings for options that are “good enough.”

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 RBIA exercise the foremost consideration during the Disaster Recovery Planning (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.

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.

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 on solid planning of the enterprise’s security operations, and a realistic assessment of vulnerabilities. To assist IT departments with DR planning, use this tool to conduct an operational analysis of security processes.

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 on solid planning of the enterprise’s security operations, and a realistic assessment of vulnerabilities. To assist IT departments with DR planning, use this tool to record and summarize the DRP operational analysis.

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.

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 downloadable tool is essential for documenting the formal DRP process.

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 DRP process.

Few small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) can afford much in the way of offsite redundancy for disaster recovery purposes, and fewer still have budget room for a proper hot site. While virtualization is a tempting option to provide resiliency and recoverability for critical applications, the storage area network (SAN) requirement will force some companies to resort to collocation.

High availability (HA) for key applications is a requirement for businesses of all sizes. Small enterprises have fewer resources to allocate in creating an HA data center and so must be more adept at selecting the right components. Understand business needs and technologies to create a viable and cost effective strategy for HA.

Branch offices and small businesses must evaluate whether it makes more financial sense to purchase an extended service plan on x86 server hardware, or to pay per incident for hardware service. There’s a point at which the enterprise should pay for expedited service. Calculate what that point is.

Small enterprises face many choices when developing a backup strategy. Compare business demands to key media characteristics to inform backup media selection.

Small enterprises selecting backup media must consider enterprise needs including RTO and RPO, as well as media limitations in capacity, life-span, reliability, availability, off-site suitability, and cost. Use this tool, informed by enterprise expectations for the backup system, to guide backup media choices.

Guide small enterprise backup strategy selection by deciding backup objectives, architecture, and methods for each application. To achieve backup targets, incorporate disk as an intermediate, if not final, destination. Leverage branch office locations for increased resilience and resistance to service interruption.

High availability (HA) application requirements are found in enterprises of all sizes. For the small enterprise, the task of defining what HA means to the enterprise and beginning the implementation can be a difficult task. By carefully evaluating business needs, the IT staff can create a realistic plan for HA applications.

No DRP is complete without a full test of its capabilities and the timely identification of potential shortfalls. This tool helps DRP project managers to capture the elements involved with DRP and uncover flaws before an event knocks out IT systems.

In order to protect the server room against all manner of threats, IT must audit current practices. Use the audit results to strengthen security and increase reliability for this all-important asset.

DRP testing helps IT to better communicate to senior management how robust the plan actually is in terms of how it will address risks in both normal and abnormal circumstances. Run a full test of the enterprise’s DRP to uncover flaws before an event knocks out IT systems.

In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, recovery objectives are crucial in prioritizing the resumption of IT services. Take every possible measure to ensure efficient and effective recovery of applications and hardware should the unthinkable come to pass.

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 smaller 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.