Disaster recovery planning and management
Planning is the number one tool a business has at its disposal to prevent a crisis. Cyber attacks and natural disasters can be unavoidable and unpredictable. If DR teams plan for the worst, they can avoid being caught off guard. Get helpful disaster recovery advice, templates and tests that will prepare your organization for almost anything.
Top Stories
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Tip
02 Jul 2025
Implement a business continuity plan for remote workers
Business continuity efforts don't stop when employees go remote. Learn how to create and manage a reliable business continuity plan for remote workers. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 Jul 2025
Can AI predict natural disasters?
AI technology works with vast amounts of information to provide data-driven planning. Learn how AI can help organizations prepare for upcoming disruptions with this tip. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 Jul 2025
Can AI predict natural disasters?
AI technology works with vast amounts of information to provide data-driven planning. Learn how AI can help organizations prepare for upcoming disruptions with this tip. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Jun 2025
Change management in business continuity
Change management and business continuity share a common goal: Preventing future disruptions. Find out where change management fits into business continuity planning here. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Jun 2025
Best practices for VoIP disaster recovery
VoIP technology can provide communications support in a crisis. Disaster recovery teams must protect VoIP systems just as you would any server holding mission-critical information. Continue Reading
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Definition
20 Jun 2025
What is a pandemic plan?
A pandemic plan is a documented strategy for how an organization plans to provide essential services when there is a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jun 2025
Business continuity failures: 5 real-world examples to study
Business continuity failures are costly and can significantly harm a company's reputation. These five high-profile examples demonstrate what can go wrong when a plan fails. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Jun 2025
6 DRaaS risks to assess and mitigate
Cloud DR is a popular strategy today, but not exactly invulnerable to threats. Assess the risks associated with DRaaS and learn to mitigate them before a crisis strikes. Continue Reading
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Definition
11 Jun 2025
What is change control?
Change control is a systematic approach that includes the various steps needed to process changes made to a product or system. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Jun 2025
Organizational vs. operational resilience
Organizational and operational resilience are two critical components of BCDR. Learn the differences between the two and how to establish them for peak resilience. Continue Reading
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Definition
30 May 2025
What is risk mitigation?
Risk mitigation is a strategy that helps businesses prepare for disasters and other issues and decrease the effects of threats they face. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 May 2025
Data center power outage causes and how to prevent them
Mitigating data center power outages is crucial for business survival. Learn the strategies today's organizations use to safeguard their critical infrastructure from disruptions. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 May 2025
High availability and resiliency are vital to a DR strategy
Together, high availability and resiliency can prepare an organization for potential disruptions. Find out how these metrics work in disaster recovery. Continue Reading
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Definition
14 May 2025
What is business resilience?
Business resilience is an organization's ability to adapt quickly to disruptions while maintaining continuous business operations and safeguarding people, assets and overall brand equity. Continue Reading
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Definition
12 May 2025
What is an emergency notification system?
An emergency notification system is an automated approach to crisis communications that contacts people within an organization and distributes important information during a disruption. Continue Reading
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Definition
05 May 2025
What is data recovery?
Data recovery is the process of restoring data that has been lost, accidentally deleted, corrupted or made inaccessible. Continue Reading
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News
02 May 2025
Veeam CEO discusses data resilience, VMware migrations, IPO
In this Q&A, Veeam CEO Anand Eswaran speaks to the customer pain point of VMware migrations, the potential for acquisitions and whether tariffs have affected Veeam's business. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 May 2025
The clear business case for environmental sustainability
Environmental sustainability isn't just an exercise in 'doing good' -- it has a clear ROI. Here's how to get it. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Apr 2025
10 ways to reduce your MTTR
Mean time to repair is a critical metric for BCDR professionals. Learn how to calculate and reduce MTTR with this tip. Continue Reading
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Tip
28 Apr 2025
7 ways to improve your ransomware backup strategy
It's time to review your strategy for ransomware backup and recovery. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Apr 2025
Use a business impact analysis questionnaire to get critical data
The quality of the business impact analysis questionnaire will determine how well prepared your organization is for a disaster. Get started with some tips and sample questions. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2025
Veeam data resilience strategy evolves beyond tech releases
Veeam's releases at its annual user conference included technology-specific backup products and a process-focused framework for increasing resilience. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Apr 2025
Business continuity roles and responsibilities
Business continuity is a vital part of an organization's recovery strategy. Make sure that these BC roles and responsibilities are accounted for when crisis strikes. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Apr 2025
The 2 types of climate risk and how DR teams can prepare
Understanding the two types of climate risk and how to plan for them can help organizations better prepare for disasters and improve their impact on the environment. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Apr 2025
Use backup and business continuity planning to protect data
The data backup strategies and habits you enact during normal business hours might be the difference between maintaining business continuity and a lengthy, difficult recovery. Continue Reading
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Tip
15 Apr 2025
Strengthen a business continuity plan with testing exercises
Conduct a business continuity exercise to better understand your organization's BC plan. After the exercise, use our free after-action report template to review how it went. Continue Reading
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Definition
10 Apr 2025
What is a business continuity policy?
A business continuity policy is the set of standards and guidelines an organization enforces to ensure resilience and proper risk management. Continue Reading
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Answer
28 Mar 2025
Business impact analysis vs. risk assessment explained
Do you know the difference between a business impact analysis and risk assessment? Find out how they differ and why you need to perform both here. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Mar 2025
Assess and manage the risks of using AI for business
Legal ramifications, public image crises and misleading information are some of the disastrous consequences of incorrectly using AI. If you don't have a policy for managing AI risks, now is the time. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Mar 2025
7 areas where AI can support disaster response
Responding to a disaster requires IT teams to move quickly, with no room for error. Find out how AI-based technology can help before, during and after a crisis. Continue Reading
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Feature
20 Mar 2025
IT risk assessment template (with free download)
Risk assessments are a critical part of a disaster recovery plan. Find out how to prepare a risk assessment, then download our included free template to create one. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Mar 2025
SaaS disaster recovery best practices
Businesses that use SaaS applications hand off some responsibilities of managing that data, but disaster recovery is not one of them. Make sure you have a recovery plan in place. Continue Reading
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Definition
12 Mar 2025
What is a disaster recovery plan (DRP)?
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented, structured approach that describes how an organization can quickly resume operations after an unplanned incident. Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Mar 2025
How to assess pandemic risk in 2025
Businesses learned a lot about disaster recovery and risk from COVID-19. The challenge today is to not forget those lessons or become negligent with future pandemics. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Feb 2025
6 ways to use AI in IT disaster recovery
AI is everywhere these days, and disaster recovery is no different. IT teams can use AI to mitigate, prevent and recover from disruptions faster than traditional methods. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Feb 2025
How to manage and mitigate reputational risk
Believe it or not, there are actually several reasons for a business to care about its reputation. Continue Reading
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Tip
06 Feb 2025
People-centered business continuity is critical in the age of AI
Recent crises such as the CrowdStrike outages and California wildfires show why people-centered business continuity is crucial. Learn how to shift the focus to people here. Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Feb 2025
How to assess and manage geopolitical risk
Geopolitical risks are often linked to international political, social and economic activities. Set policies for global business to better identify risks before they happen. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 Jan 2025
How to prevent data loss: 4 strategies for better data protection
Reliable, redundant and tested backups are critical to preventing data loss. Implement these four best practices to better protect your data and ensure backups are secure. Continue Reading
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Tip
22 Jan 2025
6 top business continuity certifications to consider in 2025
Organizations can bolster and validate the expertise of their IT teams with a variety of certifications. There are several options aimed at business continuity professionals. Continue Reading
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News
10 Jan 2025
Workforce planning lags behind rising climate disasters
Natural disasters are causing more damage and increasing costs, but they aren't playing a major role in how employers approach workforce planning, such as remote work. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
30 Dec 2024
How to use rsync and scp for data protection
The rsync and scp tools are available to Linux, macOS and Windows users. These two simple utilities have several use cases for disaster recovery and data protection. Continue Reading
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Definition
26 Dec 2024
What is network downtime?
Network downtime refers to inaccessibility to part or all of a network due to the failure of hardware, software or some combination of both. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Dec 2024
Business continuity vs. emergency management
There is overlap between business continuity and emergency management, but don't confuse the two. They are separate but equally critical disaster recovery practices. Continue Reading
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Definition
16 Dec 2024
What is a business continuity plan audit and how do you create one?
A business continuity plan audit is a formalized method for evaluating how business continuity processes are being managed. Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Dec 2024
Disaster recovery glossary: 27 terms to know
Creating a disaster recovery plan is challenging, but critical for long-term business success. DR teams and IT can benefit from understanding these 27 terms. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Dec 2024
Free network disaster recovery plan template and guide
Proper network disaster recovery planning can mean the difference between a brief disruption and extensive downtime. Download our free template to get started building a plan. Continue Reading
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Feature
10 Dec 2024
Prepare your business for natural disasters with this checklist
Protect your business and employees from a natural disaster with this preparedness checklist. Plan ahead with safety protocols, emergency supplies, and training to minimize risks. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Oct 2024
When to use a mirrored site disaster recovery
Mirrored disaster recovery sites are a good fit for businesses that require rapid failover and have the right resources to build a duplicate data center. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Oct 2024
CrowdStrike outage explained: What caused it and what’s next
A CrowdStrike update caused a massive IT outage, crashing millions of Windows systems. Critical services and business operations were disrupted, revealing tech reliance risks. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Oct 2024
6 disaster recovery site requirements for businesses
Building a disaster recovery site provides organizations with a high degree of control over the facility. It also makes them responsible for several critical requirements. Continue Reading
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Tip
02 Oct 2024
4 open source emergency management tools for DR teams
Emergency management can be a hectic and expensive process. Open source tools can help keep costs down and pool information from a wide array of resources. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Sep 2024
6 open source data recovery software options to consider
Data loss can plague just about every organization, and costs of recovery can add up. Open source software tools provide a reliable, cost-effective recovery option. Continue Reading
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Definition
24 Sep 2024
What is a business continuity plan (BCP)?
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document that consists of the critical information an organization needs to continue operating during an unplanned event. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Sep 2024
Use network fault monitoring to prevent malfunctions
Network fault monitoring systems are essential tools to optimize network performance and availability. They are also key components of proactive disaster recovery. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Aug 2024
Prepare your small business for ransomware attacks
Ransomware is a threat to all organizations, but small businesses are particularly at risk. Mitigation efforts and recovery planning are key to keep smaller companies in business. Continue Reading
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Definition
20 Aug 2024
What is continuous data protection (CDP)?
Continuous data protection (CDP), also known as 'continuous backup,' is a backup and recovery storage system in which all the data in an enterprise is backed up whenever any change is made. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Aug 2024
Example disaster recovery plan for small businesses
Small businesses make significant investments in IT infrastructure. They must protect those investments from unplanned and potentially destructive events with a DR plan. Continue Reading
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Opinion
14 Aug 2024
Software testing lessons learned from the CrowdStrike outage
After the recent CrowdStrike outage, organizations are keen to prevent and prepare for potential future disruptions. These key security and quality lessons can help. Continue Reading
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Feature
12 Aug 2024
6 business continuity plan software providers to know
Business continuity planning software can help organizations create a plan that automates time-consuming processes and accounts for critical aspects such as regulatory compliance. Continue Reading
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Feature
31 Jul 2024
8 communications basics the CrowdStrike outage highlights
Communications are critical during an emergency. This is especially true for highly unpredictable disruptions, such as the recent CrowdStrike outage. Continue Reading
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Definition
29 Jul 2024
What is high availability (HA)? Definition and guide
High availability (HA) is the ability of a system to operate continuously for a designated period of time even if components within the system fail. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Jul 2024
Should you use open source for enterprise disaster recovery?
With research and planning, businesses can benefit from using open source software for enterprise DR. But IT teams must be mindful of hidden costs and data protection capabilities. Continue Reading
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News
23 Jul 2024
CrowdStrike outage shows business continuity still a must
Disaster recovery has centered on cyberattacks the past few years, but the CrowdStrike outage illustrates why companies can't forget about traditional business continuity. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 Jul 2024
8 reasons businesses have no DR plan (and why they're wrong)
In today's interconnected world, disaster recovery planning is not a luxury but a necessity for safeguarding the future of any business. Don't make the mistake of being unprepared. Continue Reading
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Definition
16 Jul 2024
mirror site
A mirror site is a website or set of files on a computer server that has been copied to another computer server so that the site or files are available from more than one place. Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Jul 2024
13 reasons your disaster recovery plan failed
Preventing failure is an important goal for DR teams, but disasters do not conform to how plans are designed. Familiarity with the causes of failure can help bolster a DR plan. Continue Reading
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Tip
11 Jul 2024
6 benefits that make a disaster recovery plan worth it
Disaster recovery plans help reduce recovery time, ultimately saving time and money. Time spent testing and planning upfront pays dividends when a disaster strikes. Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Jun 2024
Avoid the high costs of downtime for small businesses
Small businesses often lack technical support and resources, but they face many of the same risks as larger companies. Strong BCDR efforts can mitigate the risks of downtime. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Jun 2024
The 4 phases of emergency management
To effectively recover from a disruptive incident, IT and DR teams must have a plan in place. This guide breaks down the four phases of an emergency management plan. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jun 2024
Veeam executives discuss data protection trends, future IPO
Data protection trends include securing backups and planning for ransomware recovery. Veeam executives discuss these keys, plus why the 'data resilience company' can go public. Continue Reading
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Definition
07 Jun 2024
IT incident management
IT incident management is a component of IT service management (ITSM) that aims to rapidly restore services to normal following an incident while minimizing adverse effects on the business. Continue Reading
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News
06 Jun 2024
Users note testing, analysis as disaster recovery best practices
Administrators at VeeamON 2024 emphasize testing, having a business impact analysis and gaining support from management as key disaster recovery guidance. Continue Reading
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Definition
23 May 2024
Regulation SCI (Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity)
Regulation SCI (Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity) is a set of rules adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to monitor the security and capabilities of U.S. securities markets' technology infrastructure. Continue Reading
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Definition
22 May 2024
Windows file share witness (FSW)
A Windows file share witness is a file share that is available to all nodes in a high-availability cluster. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 May 2024
Disaster recovery in healthcare: Free plan template and overview
Healthcare organizations handle critical, sensitive data in their IT infrastructures. They must protect those infrastructures from disruptive events with a disaster recovery plan. Continue Reading
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Definition
14 May 2024
disaster recovery (DR) test
A disaster recovery test is the examination of each step in a disaster recovery plan to ensure that an organization can recover data, restore business critical applications and continue operations after an interruption of services. Continue Reading
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Definition
13 May 2024
ISO/TS 22317 (International Organization for Standardization Technical Standard 22317)
ISO/TS 22317 is the first formal standard to address the business impact analysis process. Continue Reading
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Definition
03 May 2024
Veeam Backup & Replication
Veeam Backup & Replication is a software product developed by Veeam Software to back up, restore and replicate data on virtual machines (VMs). Continue Reading
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Tip
02 May 2024
When is multi-cloud disaster recovery the right choice?
A multi-cloud disaster recovery strategy has numerous benefits, including enhanced resilience. It also brings in several technical and organizational hurdles for IT teams. Continue Reading
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Definition
25 Apr 2024
disaster recovery (DR)
Disaster recovery (DR) is an organization's ability to respond to and recover from an event that negatively affects business operations. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Apr 2024
How to manage storage resiliency
Resilient storage has never been more important to an organization than it is now. Ensure storage systems can respond to issues with a strong game plan. Continue Reading
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Definition
23 Apr 2024
business impact analysis (BIA)
A business impact analysis (BIA) is a systematic process to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a result of a disaster, accident or emergency. Continue Reading
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Definition
16 Apr 2024
business continuity
Business continuity is an organization's ability to maintain critical business functions during and after a disaster has occurred. Continue Reading
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News
26 Mar 2024
New SIOS console enables high availability visualization
IT generalists on Linux systems can avoid the complexity of HA management for mission-critical apps or databases with a new management console in SIOS' LifeKeeper software. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Mar 2024
4 disaster recovery plan best practices for any business
Disaster recovery plans are unique, built around an organization's size, type and industry. However, there are some key best practices that all businesses can implement. Continue Reading
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Definition
19 Mar 2024
off-site backup
Off-site backup is a method of backing up data to a remote server or to media that's transported off-site. Continue Reading
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Definition
11 Mar 2024
tabletop exercise (TTX)
A tabletop exercise (TTX) is a disaster preparedness activity that takes participants through the process of dealing with a simulated disaster scenario. Continue Reading
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Definition
11 Mar 2024
asynchronous replication
Asynchronous replication is a store-and-forward approach to data backup and protection. Continue Reading
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News
06 Mar 2024
Pure1, Evergreen expand self-service and data protection
Pure Storage continues to transition into an as-a-service model by building out more automation and data resiliency in its Pure1 data management service and Evergreen portfolio. Continue Reading
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Definition
05 Mar 2024
ghost imaging (disk imaging)
In computing, ghost imaging, also called disk imaging, is a data backup process that creates an image of a computer's hard disk drive (HDD), solid-state drive (SSD) or one of the drive's partitions. Continue Reading
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Definition
01 Mar 2024
What is BCDR? Business continuity and disaster recovery guide
Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain operational after an adverse event. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Feb 2024
Free business continuity testing template for IT pros
Business continuity testing can be a major challenge for any organization. This free template offers ways to incorporate testing into the business continuity management process. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Feb 2024
4 long-term data backup options
Data backups ensure copies of critical data are available in the event of a crisis or failure. When backing up long-term data, cost and capacity are vital considerations. Continue Reading
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Definition
12 Feb 2024
crisis management plan (CMP)
A crisis management plan (CMP) outlines how an organization should respond to a critical situation that if left unaddressed, could negatively affect its profitability, reputation or ability to operate. Continue Reading
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News
06 Feb 2024
Komprise adds disaster recovery with granular restorations
The Komprise Intelligent Data Management platform gains new DR capabilities that enable granular recovery of file and object resources through the existing user console. Continue Reading
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Definition
02 Feb 2024
disk mirroring (RAID 1)
Disk mirroring, also known as RAID 1, is the replication of data across two or more disks. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Jan 2024
Best practices for a strong disaster recovery testing strategy
Testing is a critical part of the disaster recovery planning process. Without proper testing, IT teams might miss crucial updates or make avoidable missteps in a recovery. Continue Reading
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Tip
23 Jan 2024
What is the link between sustainability and business continuity?
At first glance, business continuity planning and sustainability efforts might seem separate. But at their core, both aim to create a resilient organization. Continue Reading
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Tip
21 Dec 2023
The emerging role of the chief resilience officer in BCDR
Business continuity, disaster recovery and resilience are often managed by a variety of different personnel. Appointing a chief resilience officer can bring BCDR to the forefront. Continue Reading
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Definition
21 Dec 2023
disaster recovery team
A disaster recovery team is a group of individuals focused on planning, implementing, maintaining, auditing and testing an organization's business continuity and disaster recovery procedures. Continue Reading
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Definition
30 Nov 2023
synchronous replication
Synchronous replication is the process of copying data over a network to create multiple current copies of the data. Continue Reading