Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• Business resilience vs. business continuity: Key differences

  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

• How do risk assessment costs vary and why?

  Risk assessments help identify and, more importantly, prioritize activities an organization needs to address its most serious threats and vulnerabilities. However, costs may vary.  Continue Reading

• Why you should be using backup monitoring software

  To protect data, creating backups is not enough anymore. Backup monitoring software can help make sure those backups are ready to use, compliant with regulations and meeting SLAs.  Continue Reading

• How to build a data catalog: 10 key steps

  A data catalog helps business and analytics users explore data assets, find relevant data and understand what it means. Here are 10 important steps for building one.  Continue Reading

• 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

• The ultimate guide to SaaS backup

  Software-as-a-service applications are everywhere these days. But do you know where your SaaS backups are?  Continue Reading

• 3 Best Practices to Protect Backups from Ransomware

  Backing up data is one way to guard against threats such as ransomware, but attacks designed to infect backups can compromise data protection efforts.  Continue Reading

• Data lake governance: Benefits, challenges and getting started

  A data lake that isn't well governed might become more of a swamp. Explore the key benefits and challenges of data governance in a data lake, plus initial steps to take.  Continue Reading

• How often should you back up your data? Answers vary

  Backup strategy and frequency is unique for just about every organization. You must balance backup management abilities with the amount of loss your business can tolerate.  Continue Reading

• What are best practices for backup cloud repatriation?

  To migrate backup data from the cloud back to an on-premises environment, you should follow these steps to ensure your data will be safe and smoothly moved.  Continue Reading

• Comparing DBMS vs. RDBMS: Key differences

  A relational database management system is the most popular type of DBMS for business uses. Find out how RDBMS software differs from other DBMS technologies.  Continue Reading

• What are some SAP HANA backup options available today?

  When backing up SAP HANA databases, having the right tools for the organization is critical. Data snapshots are one option, but not the only one available.  Continue Reading

• Where does security fit into a business continuity plan?

  Cybersecurity breaches are a prominent threat to business continuity today. Make sure your security and BCDR teams are in sync to recover data in a crisis.  Continue Reading

• DBMS keys: 8 types of keys defined

  Here's a guide to primary, super, foreign and candidate keys, what they're used for in relational database management systems and the differences among them.  Continue Reading

• What is the role of qualitative and quantitative impact in DR?

  Disaster recovery planners use several metrics to craft a plan suited to their organizations. Quantitative and qualitative impact are two helpful metrics in a recovery strategy.  Continue Reading

• 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

• What are the common Microsoft 365 backup challenges?

  Microsoft 365 is a widely used service, but its many different applications make backup complicated. Watch out for these common roadblocks.  Continue Reading

• Build a Microsoft 365 backup policy with these 4 components

  Like other major SaaS applications, Microsoft 365 requires proper data backup. Use these four elements to develop a formal Microsoft 365 backup policy.  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

• What does your backup and recovery audit checklist need?

  This backup and recovery audit checklist offers a comprehensive group of controls and evidence examples to get you ready for the important process of IT auditing.  Continue Reading

• Backing up Exchange: Best practices for protection

  Your organization could accomplish Microsoft Exchange backup with native protection or through third-party offerings. It all depends on what you are trying to protect.  Continue Reading

• 2 important edge data storage backup best practices

  Edge data storage backup has become a key component of data protection plans. File sync-and-share software can complement this important backup process.  Continue Reading

• Does your data backup system ensure data protection?

  With so many dangerous threats in the IT landscape, make sure you protect your data backups from the likes of corruption, unauthorized access and leakage.  Continue Reading

• Best practices for intelligent data management use

  The intelligent data management platform helps organizations get more out of their data. Explore why this trend has taken off and three best practices for use.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 backup management best practices?

  The task of managing backups can seem overwhelming. These straightforward guidelines should help, as there are procedures and technologies that can make your job easier.  Continue Reading

• What are the key BI team roles and responsibilities?

  A business intelligence team helps an organization deploy, manage and use BI tools. Here are the primary roles on a BI team and an overview of their responsibilities and duties.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 hyper-converged backup best practices?

  Compatibility, connection and cost are key considerations for hyper-converged data backup. Dive into these best practices to improve your data protection efforts.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 top Microsoft 365 backup considerations?

  SaaS application backup is increasingly prevalent, and for good reason -- it's critical for ensuring data protection. These five guidelines will help you protect Microsoft 365.  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

• How has backup as a service evolved and improved?

  The backup-as-a-service platform is a popular use of cloud-based infrastructure. With new products and features launching, it's important to plan out your BaaS environment.  Continue Reading

• 5 important Docker container backup best practices

  With container storage a major trend, it's important to ensure data protection. These five guidelines will help you properly back up Docker containers.  Continue Reading

• What are the main features of data catalog software?

  Data catalogs are curated data portals for self-service analytics users. Learn about the capabilities of data catalog tools, vendors that sell them and how catalogs work.  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

• When is having a cloud-based disaster recovery plan critical?

  Cloud disaster recovery is accessible, affordable and reliable and has become a strong alternative to on-premises DR. In some situations, it may even be essential.  Continue Reading

• What are some best practices for planning database backups?

  Adhering to service-level agreements, keeping up with performance demands and planning for future workloads are just a few of the goals you should keep in mind when planning database backups.  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

• What are 3 cloud backup security guidelines against cyberattacks?

  Cloud security is a top concern for IT. As a result, keeping cloud backups secure should be a priority. Here are three straightforward guidelines to help.  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

• PowerShell backup scripts: What are 3 essential best practices?

  There are some strong PowerShell scripts that can provide backup capabilities. It's important, though, to be mindful of PowerShell's quirks so you get the best data protection.  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

• What are Google G Suite backup best practices?

  Is your Google data protected? Make sure you are backing up G Suite files, because Google doesn't provide the comprehensive protection you'll need to be safe.  Continue Reading

• What DR requirements belong in a cloud computing SLA?

  Many organizations are making the move to DRaaS. But, before you dive in, be sure the cloud provider's SLA meets the needs of your business and its end users.  Continue Reading

• How can I integrate cybersecurity and backup planning?

  Your organization should integrate its cybersecurity and backup processes. It's easy for a cyberattack to affect backups, unfortunately, so be proactive about it.  Continue Reading

• What are some public cloud backup options for better data protection?

  Organizations that need to protect resources in the public cloud have a number of backup possibilities, some with more hazardous negatives than others.  Continue Reading

• How can AI and data protection work together?

  There may be value in including artificial intelligence in backup software. Find out which vendors are already using AI to improve backup and data protection capabilities.  Continue Reading

• Why do you need backup for Salesforce and other SaaS apps?

  Backup for Salesforce is available from several third-party vendors. Why aren't a lot of organizations doing it? Explore some of the many reasons why you need this backup.  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

• 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 top SMB backup services and platforms?

  Many on-site and cloud-based services are available for small to medium-sized business backup. Pay particular attention to the deciding factors for cloud SMB backups.  Continue Reading

• 3-2-1: Get started with a multi-cloud backup plan

  Multi-cloud data backup is taking off as organizations seek ways to further protect their workloads. With many threats out there, it's important to have data backed up off-site.  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

• What is a good backup test frequency?

  You should align your backup testing with the frequency of backups. This way, IT assets will not only be backed up, but also validated as ready for use in an emergency.  Continue Reading

• What are some server and data migration best practices for backup?

  Are you ready for your next data migration project? Take the Myspace migration failure as motivation to implement data source and backup best practices.  Continue Reading

• What is the difference between a database engineer, architect and administrator?

  Expert Michael Hillenbrand explains the difference between a database engineer, a database architect and a database administrator.  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

• How will CCPA compliance affect your backup storage?

  The new California privacy act creates more rights for consumers and their data. As a result, organizations holding consumer data will need to modify their backup approach.  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

• Cloud disaster recovery options: Public or purpose-built?

  Despite the popularity of public cloud for disaster recovery, it's not the only option out there. Purpose-built clouds can offer greater flexibility and provider assistance.  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

• Which cloud backup type is best: Incremental or differential?

  Backup types vary in size, complexity of restoration, cost and resources consumed. Is incremental or differential the right approach for your cloud backup?  Continue Reading

• How do I decide when to deduplicate data and where?

  On its surface, data deduplication is a positive because it deletes redundant data. Use the technology carefully, but at the right moment for the best results.  Continue Reading

• What are 3 best practices for compressed backups?

  Learn important details about the use of hardware and software data compression, as well as redundancy, that could help your organization improve its backup process.  Continue Reading

• What are 3 top data protection trends expected in 2019?

  Top trends in data protection include more comprehensive backup platforms. With data in many different places, including multiple clouds, products must cover a lot of ground.  Continue Reading

• How does VMware Admission Control work?

  Get to know VMware vSphere's Admission Control tool and use it to reserve the resources necessary for VM failover with cluster resource calculations and slot policy.  Continue Reading

• How does vSphere HA application monitoring work?

  Use heartbeats, VM monitoring and application monitoring to fully examine the causes of VM unresponsiveness. Adjust sensitivity levels to focus on the level of detail you need.  Continue Reading

• Ensure VM high availability with vSphere DRS and HA

  Combine Distributed Resource Scheduler and vSphere High Availability to design balanced failover clusters. Pay attention to affinity rules, which can further support availability.  Continue Reading

• How does vSphere high availability affect VM restart order?

  If you encounter a VM failure, you can use vSphere HA to automatically detect and restart VMs. Before you restart the VMs, you'll also need to meet resource and host criteria.  Continue Reading

• GDPR right to be forgotten and backups: What are potential problems?

  Removing personal data from a database is a simple process, but eliminating that information from full backups could undermine the integrity of your data. Proceed with caution.  Continue Reading

• What data management challenges do analytics programs face?

  Expert Anne Marie Smith shares five reasons why organizations' analytics programs might fail and how a data management framework and other programs can help.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between a hot site and cold site for DR?

  The hot site vs. cold site debate requires users to understand how each DR site works and the resources needed. While one is more budget-friendly, downtime can be a deciding factor.  Continue Reading

• What 3 issues can affect your data backup procedures?

  Do you have challenges with your data backup process, such as a lack of the right security? The three directives here will help with your overall business continuity.  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 is an enterprise data strategy?

  Defining a data strategy can help focus an organization's data management initiatives -- but it isn't the same as data governance. Expert Anne Marie Smith explains why.  Continue Reading

• What is the best structure for data governance programs?

  The optimal approach to a data governance framework includes a program team, a data governance council and stewards. Expert Anne Marie Smith explains what role each group plays.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between secondary and primary storage?

  Having primary storage and secondary storage is a good way to tier your workloads and ensure solid data protection. So, what should you expect from both platforms?  Continue Reading

• 5 to-dos for your GDPR compliance checklist

  It's never too late to fine-tune your GDPR strategy. Expert Anne Marie Smith suggests a current state analysis of your PII protections, drafting a data privacy policy and more.  Continue Reading

• Can an SMB business continuity strategy compete with larger firms?

  When crafting a business continuity plan, an SMB must try and meet customers' enterprise-level expectations, while using its available resources to the fullest.  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

• How do augmented analytics and BI tools differ?

  See how augmented analytics compares to traditional BI and self-service analytics tools and what this new generation of AI-powered data analysis platforms can deliver.  Continue Reading

• What backup security measures protect against data breaches?

  Backup security varies across different storage media. What works for tape-based backup may not work for disk backups, so plan your data protection strategy accordingly.  Continue Reading

• How do I keep my virtualized backup secure?

  A virtual backup is not effective if it's not secure. Encryption, agentless backup and testing can all help. Explore the details of how to secure your backups.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between DDL and DML?

  What's the difference between DDL and DML? Get the answer and see examples of data manipulation language and data definition language commands for SQL databases.  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 should the virtualized backup market evolve?

  GDPR looms large over many data protection processes, and virtual backup is no different. Overall management is important as well, as data volume continues to grow.  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

• Can integrating data protection and management work?

  While you may want to jump on the data management and protection train, consider first how combining the two in one product will affect your systems and users.  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 does the GDPR definition of personal data include?

  The definition of personal data in the EU's GDPR data protection rules is broad enough to include any type of data that can be used to directly or indirectly identify a person.  Continue Reading

• Which data protection trends will take off next?

  Expect data protection technologies to veer toward an expansion of recovery capabilities, as organizations need to be able to recover in multiple locations -- and fast.  Continue Reading

• What personal data backup practices are best?

  Is your personal data secure? Backup best practices for consumers include regularly backing up data and taking advantage of different types of storage media.  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

• Why is a cloud backup strategy necessary?

  When backing up to the cloud, it's important to take precautions against data loss. See how approaches like redundancy can bolster your backup strategy.  Continue Reading

• How can I encrypt backups for better data protection?

  Don't let backup data encryption fall through the cracks. When encrypting backups, key management and compression are just two of the best practices for optimum security.  Continue Reading

• Dimension tables vs. fact tables: What's the difference?

  Fact tables and dimension tables are used together in star schemas to support data analytics applications. But they play different roles and hold different types of data.  Continue Reading

• What are some ghost image creation issues?

  A ghost image can be used to copy the contents of one server to another for backup, but the process of creating ghost images may not be as simple as it seems.  Continue Reading