Strategic Session 3
Intermediate/Advanced

Dealing with the “Gotchas”

Rebecca Levesque
21st Century Software

Nearly every company has implemented a backup and recovery plan. However, few companies have actually determined if they’re able to recover the critical data required by their enterprise applications. Fortunately these “gotchas” are usually exposed during DR testing, but what if one or more of them slip through during a real crisis? Over many years of work assisting clients in enterprise backup and recovery testing, the presenter has accumulated a list of “gotchas” that are often overlooked during planning. In this session, learn some of the more common issues and some practical suggestions to deal with the “gotchas”.
Rebecca Levesque is currently senior vice president of 21st Century Software and has spent her entire career in storage management and disaster recovery. She regularly addresses many DR/BC related user organizations and enjoys sharing the benefits of her experience and exposure to a multitude of DR issues.

Managerial Session 3
Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Email Disaster Recovery Primer: Everything You Wanted to Know About Email But Were Afraid NOT to Ask

Paul D’Arcy
Message One, Inc.

Email has really grown up – so fast, in fact, that it has become the most important business application for DR professionals to contend with. DR professionals must consider a full range of linked services to fully protect and maximize the use of email in today’s fast-changing business environment. The Email Disaster Recovery Primer will discuss the evolving world of email including how to evaluate and plan for email recovery, continuity, security and archiving – as well as preparation to handle compliance issues, legal discovery and storage management. Working in unison, key email services can reinforce and strengthen an organization’s overall email disaster recovery initiative to ensure that email can always be relied upon.
Paul D’Arcy, vice president of marketing, oversees the marketing programs for MessageOne. With more than 12 years of technology marketing experience, he is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

Technical Session 3
Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Implementing a High-Availability Web-based Environment

Cheryl Carmel
SunGard Avail. Services

As more and more organizations build and implement internal web-based applications that drive major business objectives, they are faced with the design and implementation of a solution that will ensure a high level of resiliency and data protection. This is a technical session designed to share experiences and practical application of tools that are available to build resilience into web-based applications in your own environment.
Cheryl Carmel, director of customer support center for SunGard Availability Services Software Products Group. Her responsibilities include design, implementation and management of SunGard’s hosting environment for the commercial software products.

Emergency Response Session 3
Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Communication is Key During Mass Casualty Events

Paul Dimitruk
PortBlue Corp.

Hospitals must collaborate during major disasters – but no regional standards exist to ensure that that happens. Are we ready for the next mass casualty event? When they’re responding to mass casualty events, individual hospitals need immediate access to the resources in their region. Everyone is calling for interoperability, including oversight agencies like JAHCO. So why – after five years of promises and good intentions – are there no regional standards for hospitals to ensure effective crisis communication? What’s needed, now, are guidelines that will ensure efficient regional collaboration between hospitals and other emergency responders – a framework that can link a region’s emergency responders seamlessly.
Paul Dimitruk is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of PortBlue Corp. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and has been a member of the World Economic Forum and the Young Presidents Organization. He holds a BA with High Honors from Denison University, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees, and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University. He is an Associate Member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.

Advanced Session 3
Advanced

Network Implications of Disaster Recovery

Michael Mullaley
Ciena Corp. 

Organizations have always backed up their systems and data – the difference is where they are doing it. In the past, it was sufficient for back-up systems to reside nearby primary equipment.  Now, a myriad of trends – business, social, regulatory, and renewed concerns about natural disasters have changed this “all back-ups are local” thinking. Organizations are now implementing business continuity and disaster recovery plans to locations hundreds to thousands of kilometers away from their primary sites. Connecting primary and backup data centers across significant geographic distances can stress wide area networks (WANs).  Organizations need to include WAN requirements in their disaster recovery
For more than 25 years, Michael Mullaley has conceived and launched networking, server and biometric products. Prior to joining Ciena as director of enterprise networking, he introduced the world’s first fault-tolerant Wintel server for Stratus Computer and a line of multi-protocol routers for Motorola.

Information Session 3
Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Professionalism in BCP

This session features an overview of the certification and education programs available from DRI International. DRII has been providing instruction in business continuity planning (BCP) methodology since 1988. Staff and leaders will be on hand to describe course objectives, the process for attaining certification in BCP and other services.
DRII is a recognized leader in providing education, standards, and professional certification. DRII’s goals are to create a base of common BCP knowledge through education, assistance, and the development of a resource base; to certify qualified individuals; and to promote the credibility and professionalism of certified professionals.

Special Monday Session (5:30 pm - 6:30 pm)
Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Selecting an Emergency Notification and Escalation System

Chris Gay, Blue Cross, Blue Shield

Selecting an emergency notification and escalation system is one of the most important decisions you may make for your organization. This session will help in the decision making process. Learn the benefits of implementing a notification system and the steps for vendor evaluation. Recommendations and possible options for securing funding for the tool will be discussed. Details about product features and capabilities including what they are and how you would use them will be discussed. Attendees will leave with an understanding of the general functionality and capabilities of this emerging communication technology. Guidelines will be presented for the selection process as well as insights into the emerging technology of communication tools.

As manager of the disaster recovery / systems continuity management team at BCBSF, Chris Gay is responsible for the maintenance and preservation of the company’s disaster recovery program to ensure mission critical business functions are available and protected in an adverse event. In addition, his responsibilities include systems continuity management, I/T business continuity, and continued program enhancement and maturity.