Strategic Session 2
Intermediate/Advanced

Website Availability and Resiliency: A Microsoft.com Case Study

Sunjeev Pandey
Microsoft

Todd Weeks
Microsoft

How would you design and operate one of the largest web sites in the world with the goal of world-class availability and awesome resiliency?  What would you do to ensure that your assets were able to withstand natural disasters, hackers, denial of service attacks, and service a worldwide population consisting of hundreds of millions of users? Dive into the Microsoft.com infrastructure design, learn about the tools and techniques we use to ensure resiliency and availability for these critical applications, hear firsthand about scalability strategies from the team responsible for system availability, infrastructure architecture and security for this large scale and highly visible environment. Gain prescriptive guidance on solutions applicable to anyone looking to design and operate a high availability service.
Sunjeev Pandey has been with Microsoft for a number of years and is a senior director in the Microsoft.com operations organization.
Todd Weeks is currently the Sr. Director of Operations for
Microsoft.com. He is responsible for managing all of the Engineering, Support and Business Operations for all of the online applications that make up Microsoft.com as well as Windows Update and Microsoft Update.

Managerial Session 2
Intermediate/Advanced

Leading People Through Disasters: The People Side of Planning

Kathryn McKee
Human Resources Consortia

When disaster strikes and the disaster response team moves quickly into action, what plans have you made for your employees? First Interstate Bancorp experienced five disasters in five years, and immediately after the second of those, developed and implemented a comprehensive human resources plan and program for it’s employees. Gain an understanding of the approach First Interstate put into place following the disastrous building fire that left 3,000 people office-less. Learn about developing contingent human resources policies as part of your business continuity planning so they are ready in case disaster strikes. You’ll come away with an enhanced understanding of how a high degree of care had a powerful impact on employee morale and productivity.
Kathryn McKee, SPHR, is president of Human Resources Consortia where she offers consulting on human resources strategy, leadership and executive coaching.

Technical Session 2
Intermediate/Advanced

A Complete Data Protection Framework, and the Technology Options Within It

Dan Tanner
ProgresSmart

In order to protect enterprise data for disaster recovery and/or business continuity, you must protect the data in all four quadrants of a two-by-two matrix comprising both logical and physical protection, each both locally and remotely. New technology options in storage itself, the networks used with storage, control and management software tools for data and for storage, and new protection technologies and methodologies, along with familiar tried-and-true hardware, software and techniques all vie for your dollar to populate those four quadrants. This presentation will help you reconcile your protection and continuation goals with the myriad choices, so that you can meet your needs within your budget.
Dan Tanner is founder of ProgresSmart. He is a computer industry veteran and is extensively and widely cited, honored, and published. Tanner was a presenter at Spring World 2006.

Emergency Response Session 2
Novice/Intermediate

Emergency Response Team Excellence: A Holistic Approach

Michael Schroeder, CBCP
CB Richard Ellis

Whether large or small, basic emergency management principles can be applied to every emergency response. At the Sears Tower a program has been developed that applies emergency response from the bottom up, starting with every person. The building houses 100 tenant teams, but in a crisis, they become one. Learn about building effective emergency response teams and their responsibilities. Coverage will include training, motivation, methods and how to “adapt and overcome” on the spot.
Michael Schroeder has 25 years experience in various aspects of law enforcement, security, emergency management, business continuity planning and life safety. He is the life safety and emergency manager for the Sears Tower. He is responsible for all aspects of life safety and emergency management and is a certified fire safety director with advanced training from the city of Chicago.

Advanced Session 2
Advanced

Business Continuity Management in Today’s Changing Business Climate

Randy Till, CBCP
MasterCard

Join us to learn about the future of business continuity. Discussion will include current trends facing our organizations today and how these changes affect our role in planning for the continuity of our organization. This session will examine suggested planning practices for each of the key areas of a business continuity program. It will also take you to the next level of planning – moving from “Recovery” to “Resiliency”.
Randall Till, CBCP has more than 20 years experience in the field of business continuity management. He serves as a senior business leader and is responsible for developing and implementing business continuity plans on a global basis. Till serves on the executive council of Disaster Recovery Journal and has been a teacher for Disaster Recovery Institute International and Business Continuity Media.

Information Session 2
Novice/Intermediate

The Nuts and Bolts of Tabletop Exercises

David Greb, CBCP
MorningStar Consulting

The purpose of this presentation is to give specific, concrete, and step-by-step instructions on how to plan, develop, conduct, and evaluate tabletop exercises for disaster recovery. Coverage will include different types of exercises, the advantages of each, the basic elements and the steps to follow. Developing the documentation and tips for conducting the exercise will also be discussed.
David Greb, CBCP, is a BCP consultant with Morningstar Consulting, Inc., based in Merriam, Kansas. He has worked in business continuity in the banking, data processing, and manufacturing industries. He has been in the business continuity field for more than 10 years.