SUMMER 2010 • VOLUME 23, NUMBER 3
Contents
© Yuri Arcurs - Fotolia.com
COVER — Executive Support
12 – The Three-Minute Drill
The greatest barrier to entering the inner circle is created because most advisors, early on, tend to give
advice in the context of their staff function or personal area of expertise. Typically, staff thinking and decision making are quite different from operational thinking and decision making. To succeed as a trusted
strategic advisor to operating executives, you will need to align your thinking patterns and decision-making
habits with theirs. A better way is to practice a methodology that helps you think and communicate using a
more structured and process-driven format. When you use such a format, executives are able to understand your recommendations and see how they relate to ultimate goals and objectives, without their having
to do a lot of translating. By JAMES E. LUKASZEWSKI
16 – Achieving Continuous Availability with Active/Active Networks
A major UK bank has experienced no major system outages in its ATM network for 15 years. How has it
achieved this remarkable availability? Through the use of an active/active network architecture.
Many enterprises in the financial, telecommunications, health, transportation, gaming, and other industries
have reported similar experiences. Let’s look at how these continuously-available active/active networks
work along with their advantages and pitfalls. Dr. BILL HIGHLEYMAN
24 – Is The Future of Business Continuity Broad or Deep?
Nat Forbes created quite a stir recently with a thought-provoking blog post at calamityprevention.com
called “Is the BCM Profession a Dead-End?” He begins with a dark but somewhat funny characterization of
the business continuity professional as a lonely, underappreciated, underfunded, corporate pariah begging
for scraps at the edge of the organizational hierarchy. Worse yet, the professional faces no discernable
career track, and no light at the end of the tunnel. By JOHN ORLANDO, Ph.D.
28 – Leveraging Cloud Computing for Business Continuity
Despite the hype that leads us to look at cloud computing as the new platform for critical applications, most
enterprises are not buying public cloud computing systems as their primary platform for business-critical
applications. For now, perhaps they are right to wait. That is, until business continuity or disaster recovery
(DR) becomes the next killer app for cloud computing. By DAVID LINTHICUM
Page 24 — Planning Issues
32 – The Death of All Hazards Planning?
The time has come for business continuity to evolve beyond the idea of “all hazards” planning and
deal directly with the core causes of business interruptions. This article details an approach that takes
everything you loved about all hazards planning and enhances it with detailed procedures focused on the
resources that your organization cares about most. By CHRISTOPHER BURTON, AMBCI
38 – How to Survive a BCM Audit
This article describes the approaches used for the various types of business continuity management (BCM)
audits and how audits impact the business continuity planner. It also describes the most common weaknesses found in business continuity plans. And lastly, it presents a road map to prepare for a BCM audit.
By GEOFFREY WOLD, CISA, CGEIT, CPA, CMA, CMC, CDP, CSP, CFSA, CIRM
Page 32 — All Hazards
DISAS TER RECOVER Y JOURNAL (ISSN 1079-736X; USPS 013-076; Publication Agreement No. 40679000) is published quarterly by Systems Support, Inc., 1862 Old Lemay Ferry, Arnold, MO 63010. Subscriptions are free to all qualified personnel in the U. S. and
Canada involved in managing, preparing or supervising contingency planning. Rate for all others in the U.S. is $10, Canada and Mexico $24, all other countries $47. For renewals or change of address, please include current mailing label. Periodical Postage Paid at
Arnold, MO and additional offices at St. Louis, MO. POS TMAS TER: Send address changes to DISASTER RECOVER Y JOURNAL, P.O. Box 510110, St. Louis, MO 63151. Canada Post Publication Agreement No. 40686534. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses
to: DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL, PO Box 456, Niagra Falls, ON L2E 6V2. DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL is copyrighted 1987—2010, by Systems Support, Inc., all rights reserved. DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL is a registered trademark of Systems
Support, Inc. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without expressed written permission. Articles submitted by readers do not represent the views or opinions of DISAS TER RECOVERY JOURNAL, and are published for their informational content only.
