It’s the final quarter of the calendar year and the onerous planning task creeps its way up the priority list, accelerrated by increasing demands from business users who need anywhere, almost any device access.  A survey of global IT managers sponsored by Cisco* revealed that 48% of the firms surveyed would not authorize employees to bring their own devices.  Perhaps not surprising though is that 57% of IT managers in these same firms agreed that employees are using their own devices regardless.  Savvy IT leaders recognize the significance of business users and employees who now have powerful technologies at their fingertips and in their pockets.  These leaders are ready to build this in to their 2013 strategy. 

The First Step – Changing the Focus

The first step in formulating a Virtualization Plan for your organization is to look at the business’ overall needs, objectives and mission. 

IT teams who can help users get their work done faster, smarter and easier, so corporate goals can be collectively reached, become invaluable to an organization.  Corporate goals or “missions” no matter how loftily stated, or how “unique” the business, can usually be grouped around four key areas;  agility, responsiveness, profitability and security.  Formulating achievable virtualization initiatives around each of these for the next year, and several years out, can be pretty straightforward.

The Second Step - Targeting Organization-wide Goals

Let’s look at each category:

                Agility – we’re operating in increasingly disruptive and volatile markets. Businesses have to be ready to incorporate and in the best case, promote change so they can then take advantage of resulting gaps. Agility requires mobility and desktop virtualization delivers signficant capability here.

                Responsiveness– organizations must focus on what matters to the customer as well as other organization stakeholders, like partners or shareholders, and have to serve and interact with them effectively and consistently. Responsiveness requires anywhere, anytime access, and the interfaces, dashboards and functions with which business users are familiar  from their onsite systems. Virtualization technologies give you the ability to centralize, manage and maintain applications within your datacenter, and then deliver them on demand whenever users need them (and securely, too, but that's the last point!)

                Profitability – firms are in business to generate return on all the resources owned or used by the organization.  We hear a lot about enjoying the work you do, having fun, etc. and that’s important,  but there’s a reason it’s called the bottom line. Instead of spending cash on new laptops every couple of years to keep up with software upgrades, being saddled with hours of IT support time re-imaging systems and dealing with degraded images, an effective virtualization plan can leverage your existing investments and build on existing server virtualization implementations. 

                Security – our information, and our clients’ information, has tremendous value and responsible stewardship of it brings inherent risks.  We have to protect it, and know where it is, how to get it, and who can get it, all the time.  Desktop virtualization ensures IT administrators maintain complete control over their corporate data.

The Third Step - Determining  Short and Longer Term Virtualization Objectives

Now that we’ve tied organization-wide goals to virtualization capabilities, the next step in preparing your plan is to determine specific virtualization objectives that support each of these in the short term, and reinforce or advance them in the longer term.  A good way to do this is to look at where you need to be (start with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey would say) and work back to current status.  Let’s illustrate using responsiveness as an example. 

An Example: The Responsiveness Objective

If one of the business’ goals is to have products delivered or service teams on client site within 48 hours of receiving a contract, there are several considerations that only IT can make happen. For example, agreements, purchase orders and contracts have to be available on multiple devices, and more than one user or business team must be able to work on the same documents, while client support teams have to be able to access their e-mail and use their unified communications systems 24/7. 

You can now see numerous ways IT can support this strategic initiative through and effective virtualization strategy:

1)      Initiate Bring-Your-Own-Devices (BYOD) capability

2)      Ensure secure, delivered to device, full-time system access

3)      Deliver consistent, familiar interfaces to users

4)      Reduce desktop equipment expenditures X% in 2013

Voila!  Meaningful, actionable virtualization strategies, clearly stated, presented with the foresight of an IT Leader, and the potential of positioning your IT department as a key contributor to your firm's goals.

Stay Tuned:  Tactical Planning and Timing

Under each of these virtualization objectives, we’ll need to add tactical, or short term action plans, do some prioritization and take a close look at overlapping technology solutions from your list in order to come up with a timeline for the plan that makes sense.  You’re probably already seeing tactics emerge based on these strategies; enhancing security, eliminating VPN dependency, reinforcing business continuity and improving disaster recovery for the organization, among others. We’ll talk about how to approach tactical planning and timing for success in our next blog.  In the meantime, I’d love to get your feedback!

For a Personalized Virtualization Planning Session,  Contact Elegrity - We'll Help you Get It Done!

*Source:  January 26, 2012 survey by Redshift Research sponsored by Cisco Systems

Are you exploring how to convince your company to convert to XenDesktop?  Be aware that, at some point, someone is going to want to see it in action.  This means a demonstration (aka demo). 

Is this a big deal?  Well, in a word, YES.  Other blogs on this page discuss the many benefits of XenDesktop and the many great reasons to convert to it.  However, even with a great presentation given by a great presenter, a failed demo can kill the deal.  If it doesn't work in the demo, your audience will think it doesn't work, period!  Executives and senior management will especially be swayed by this - they generally don't know or care about technical details, and they will be on the hook for a failed deployment.  At the same time, a successful demo can make a great impression on your audience.  No matter how good your slides are, a good demo will stick in their minds ("Did you see how it did THIS OR THAT???  Awesome!"). 

So... what can you do to ensure a great XenDesktop demo?

1.  Don't Shortchange Yourself on Equipment

There is a temptation to treat demo equipment as an afterthought.  But keep in mind that you will probably be showing your demo to people with decision-making authority - people you need to impress.  So - run your demo on a good laptop, and make sure the back end infrastructure is solid too.  If you are going to demo tablet capability, make sure the tablet you use is working well too.  You never want to be in a position of having to explain why the demo did not work.  Executives don't like excuses, and they don't like their time wasted. But solid equipment is not enough...

2.  Test Everything!

It may sound obvious, but you really do need to test everything you are going to demo.  The more testing, the better.  In fact, if possible you should try to "live in" your XenDesktop test environment for a few days before the demo.  This will allow you to "smoke out" annoying interruptions that take time to show up, like:

• Microsoft (and other) license validation requests
• Patch requests (or even forced installs) for:
• Microsoft
• Adobe
• Java
• ... and who knows what others?
• Outlook email alerts (this will remind you to turn these OFF)

Use the system for a while, because you never know just when some of these might show up... except that you can be almost positive that they WILL show up in the middle of your demo if you don't want them to! Sound familiar?

If you are going to demo an iPad (for example), then at a minimum connect to it once or twice a day.  The iPad uses additional infrastructure, and if this infrastructure is not in production yet, you need to be sure that no one turned it off without telling you.

3.  Practice, Practice, Practice

Any demo is a lot like a performance - and successful performers practice A LOT.  So practice your demo - even if it seems simple and you know the material backwards and forwards.  Here are some tips to keep in mind as you prepare for your presentation and/or demo:

• 10-20-30 Rule - Write your presentation from your audience's perspective. Highlight less than 10 critical points that are important to them; make your demo less than 20 minutes long to prevent information overload and boredom. If you have a slide show, make the font size no less than 30 point to emphasize and make legible your points. In fact, it's good to mix up both a slide show and then transition into a live hands-on demo.  Make eye contact with all onsite attendees (i.e., not just the decision maker) in an effort to engage everyone and avoid alienation. Memorize as much as possible.  Watching someone reading from notes is boring.  If you memorize your content, you can interact with your audience and move from straight presentation towards conversation.
• Time your demonstration - especially if you have a fixed time window! Consciously slow down your speech and pause at critical parts for emphasis. Nervous and inexperienced speakers tend to talk way too fast. You should be able to summarize your subject in 15 minutes IF it is concise. If not, rewrite it until you can. Make sure you can finish a little before your time limit so you can take questions.
• Run through every step of the demo when you practice.  Don't assume that a step is trivial and will work every time - that is the very step that may trip you up in the demo.
• Practice your demo on the same equipment you will use for the actual demo (to the extent possible).  This is not possible for every piece of equipment - for example, you may not have access to the executive conference room to practice in.
• Have fun - Sound impossible? With a little practice you can inject your passion for a subject. Naturally, your voice tonation will vary which helps to keep your audience engaged.  Enthusiasm is contagious! 

If you know you will need additional infrastructure requirements, check with the person responsible for the meeting facility ahead of time to ensure that they will be available.  Don't assume that a projector and screen will be there - be sure to ask for them if you need them.  If you need wireless network connectivity, arrange for that as well.  

5.  Arrive Early!

If at all possible, arrange to arrive early for the demo to make sure that things are working as you need them to.  Things to check:

• Can your laptop interface with the presentation projector?
• How is the image quality?
• Will people be able to see what you are doing on the screen?
• Will there be remote attendees viewing your presentation?
• Is the network performance good enough?

Ideally, you should run through your demo (or at least part of it) in the room before the meeting.  This can minimize the chance of something like an unexpected Windows Update firing off in the middle of the actual demo.

Problems?  Fish or Cut Bait

If, at any point during your preparation, you run into issues that will either:

• Cause the demo to fail outright, or
• Prevent the demo from working well and looking good

... you may have to consider cancelling the demo.  In some cases, no demo is better than a bad one.  Communicate with your team frankly about these problems as soon as you see them, so that you can make the call together.

Seize the Demo Opportunity

A demo is a great opportunity to show what XenDesktop can do.  Take full advantage of the opportunity, so that your demo will shine - and your company can ultimately reap the many advantages of XenDesktop.

The Top 3 Benefits of VDI

I’ve spent a good amount of time over the past couple of years explaining (to just about anyone who would listen) the benefits of moving to a virtual desktop infrastructure.  After hearing myself ramble on like a broken record, I’ve distilled the 3 benefits of VDI to be as follows – in no particular order:

 1.    No new hardware!

A common objection from both business and IT management is that a move to VDI would be too expensive.  But what most people overlook is that VDI can turn your old, beat-up Windows XP desktops into perfectly acceptable thin clients which can be run until the wheels fall off.  Virtualize onto flawless Windows 7 VMs with all the latest software and connect via 7 year-old Dell Optiplexes – performance will still be great and your ROI on all those old desktops extends for another 3 years.

2.    Elasticity

One of the most touted benefits of VDI is the ability to create hundreds of identical Windows desktops in minutes.  On the flipside, these same VMs can also be destroyed in the same amount of time.  This elasticity provides new avenues for desktop provisioning that simply weren’t available before.  For example, you have a new ERP module going in and need to train your users.  You don’t want to roll it out to production – so simply install it into a copy of your master image and then provision as many desktops as you need for use as a training lab.  All users need to access the lab?  Any web browser.  When you’re done with training – point, click, delete.   Lab finished.

3.   BYOD

Bring Your Own Device.  Go ahead – take off on a 4-day trip to Vancouver with only your iPad in tow.  The Citrix Receiver for iOS has gotten faster and more stable allowing iPad owners to count on efficient and productive hours spent working on the road with nothing more than a tablet.  But its not just Apple users who get a break:  Citrix Receiver supports Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile too.  Love your mouse?  Tablet users can take advantage of a surprising feature that most people haven’t found:  The latest version of the Receiver lets you use your iPhone as a remote Bluetooth mouse.  Very cool indeed.

There are so many benefits to moving to VDI and away from traditional desktops.  However, it can be a bit daunting since it’s such a paradigm shift in the way applications and the desktop OS are delivered.  It requires a new way of thinking about the end user experience.  Fortunately, as the head of Elegrity’s Infrastructure Services team, I can rely on our collective knowledge and experience to develop and execute custom tailored project plans for each of our clients.  Inevitably, the end-users are delighted and management gets the spotlight for a job well done – just the way we planned it all along.

One cannot overstate that the IT and Customer Partnership is key to the success of any deployment. Deploying XenDesktop in a production environment will improve your customer's experience in concrete ways. Some of the biggest improvements customers will notice are as follows:

• Access to the same desktop from any device;
• Desktop stability; and 
• Consistent user experience

There are also benefits of deploying XenDesktop for your IT staff, like ease of applying updates, information security (all desktops are in the data center), built in remote support, and centralized control with Citrix policies. So, your IT staff will embrace XenDesktop from the get-go.

But ... will your Customers be happy of the change? Customer acceptance is a big factor in the success of your rollout because they have a voice in successful organizations. Having Happy Customers is well worth it in the long run. XenDesktop represents a BIG change for them - even bigger if it is included with other changes like OS, application upgrades, or replacements.

What Do Customers Want?

At the risk of oversimplifying the question, Customers generally want to get their work done well in a stable environment.  But Customers may have different ideas and different priorities from IT in terms of what "well and stable" means.  Typically, Customers know their individual jobs better than IT folks.  This is not meant to be a knock on IT but it does mean that your Customers can help you.

Partnering With Your Customers

One great way to get help from your Customers is to involve them in Pilot testing - the earlier the better. Assume you get your XenDesktop environment working in terms of the basics - what do you focus on next? Your users probably know better than you.  Suppose your Customers need to open a specific web site multiple times in multiple tabs to do their jobs. If there is a problem with this use pattern, you as the IT pro may never find it but they will likely find it in minutes. Problems like these may not actually have anything to do with XenDesktop but you still want to find out and address them prior to the global rollout. If not, your Customers may associate the issue with XenDesktop erroneously.

Adding the "Personal Touch"

Another way to get help from your Customers is to help them first by adding the personal touch.  In other words, when Customers move to a new system, there are certain personalizations that they will always want to go with them, such as browser favorites and saved email addresses.  Add the "personal touch" to your deployment by making sure these personalizations come across.  In some cases, they may come across automatically - make sure they do!  If not, automate the migration of these if you can and even if you find you have to move some of them manually, you should still consider it.  Your Customers will thank you if their personalizations are there, and you will avoid the complaints and irritation you would have gotten if they were missing.

Digging in the Dirt

Yet another way to get help from your Customers is asking questions during and after rollout that IT pros don't always like to ask. For example:

• What problems are you having with the new system?
• What do you like least about the new system?
• If you could change one thing about the new system, what would it be?

Most environments have "vocal" users, who will volunteer this information to you. By all means, address their concerns but don't stop there! The quiet, polite users may know of critical issues but they won't tell anyone until their boss asks them why they missed that deadline (ouch!).  So, ask the polite users how they are doing and then ask again!

Involving your users in your XenDesktop deployment may seem like a lot of work but it is well worth it in the long run. Their ability to do their job easily with XenDesktop is the best judge of your success.

Elegrity is ready to partner with you on your XenDesktop deployment and to make the deployment a win for everyone involved. 

I’ve been through my share of Microsoft Exchange migrations over the years.  In fact, I’d like to forget migrating from versions 5.5 and older. Since Microsoft Exchange 2000 through 2010, it’s been a fairly low-risk procedure providing one follows best practices.  However, one item can easily get buried in the details:  Log volume sizing.

Log volumes and the importance of their respective sizing are nothing new to seasoned Microsoft Exchange gurus.  But it’s almost a rite of passage for newer Microsoft Exchange techs to create and execute a seamless migration plan – then forget to stagger the mailbox moves resulting in crashed information stores and the dreaded 9559 error

For every byte of data added or changed in Exchange, the subsequent transaction is written to a log file at a 1:1 ratio.  Since moving mailboxes generates a ton of logs it’s a requirement to keep the mailbox data moved below the size of your log volumes in GB.  With a nightly full backup to record the transactions into the database files and flush them from the log volume, migration can continue the next day.  But what if you (or your trusted co-worker) forgets and moves too much data at once?  Your Microsoft Exchange server will go down hard – that’s a fact.  The good thing is that simply creating space on the log volume will allow the affected database to mount.  But creating space on a full volume is tough when you don’t want to delete anything.  So…create something to delete!  Just make a dummy file of between 3-5% of what’s available as an escape valve.  If the log volume gets full simply delete it and restart the Information Store service.  In fact, I call my dummy file “DELETEME.txt”

From any Windows OS running XP or later just run the following command and name the file using the full path of the log volume:

fsutil createnew <driveletter>:\<logvolumepath>\deleteme.txt 5000000000 (creates a 5GB file)

Clearly this should only be used as a method of last resort and it will only buy a small amount of time during which you will need to run a full backup immediately.  But if you find yourself staring down a 9559 error with users clamoring to get their mail – this can be a real lifesaver! 

If you are looking to enter the world of desktop virtualization, Citrix XenDesktop is a great vehicle to take you there.  It plays well with the back end technologies you need to support desktop virtualization, and it integrates smoothly with the entire Citrix suite of virtualization technologies.  However, when you plan out your XenDesktop deployment, you will need to use these technologies to your greatest advantage.  Here are some of the questions you will need to ask for your organization as you plan:

1. Do most of your users use the same apps day in and day out, or is there more variation?
2. Which apps are needed by all your users, and which are only needed by a few?
3. Do any of your users need to be able to do “whatever they want” with their desktop?

A Standard Desktop

If most of your users use the same apps day in and day out, you can take advantage of XenDesktop’s pooled desktops.  In this model, each user gets the same desktop every time.  The only things you need to save are data files and user settings.  Once these are saved off, basically any user can work on any virtual desktop.  You can manage your desktops centrally from a standard image.  The desktop “resets” to the standard image each time it is started up, so many desktop problems can be resolved with a simple reboot.  Also, these desktops use the same base disk image, so you will use far less shared storage than you would by virtualizing desktops individually.

More Complexity – Different Apps for Different Users

OK, but what if your environment has more variation?  Maybe some apps are only needed by a subset of users.  You do not want to give these to everyone – most users do not need them, and maybe the licenses are expensive too.  No problem – you can augment pooled desktops with application virtualization.  You still have your standard desktop, but you use application virtualization to deliver these “special” apps only to the users who need them.  The rest of your users won’t even see them.  And you still maintain central control.

Even More Complexity – Users Who Need “Full Control”

For many IT managers, the “nightmare” users are those who need to do whatever they want to their desktop whenever they want to.  A standard desktop will not meet their needs, and virtualizing every possible app would tax even the most superhuman IT staff.  If you virtualize their desktops individually, you lose central management and disk space savings.  What can you do? 

Fortunately, XenDesktop has a solution – the personal vDisk.  In addition to saving data files and user settings, personal vDisks save local application installations in a separate disk for each virtual desktop.  They still use a shared base image, and personal vDisks use far less storage than dedicated virtual desktops.  You maintain at least some central management, and still realize storage savings.

Putting the Pieces Together

Citrix XenDesktop has solutions for your desktop virtualization challenges.  Elegrity can help you put the pieces together to make desktop virtualization work in your environment for your users, whatever their needs.  We match your needs to the latest and greatest technologies, and customize the solutions so they work seamlessly in your environment.  Contact us to find out more!

Microsoft values you.  Microsoft cares for you as an IT professional.  Microsoft is offering unlimited archive email storage in the cloud for $3 a month.  The third statement is true and actually makes the first two sound slightly less crazy. It’s still somewhat of a secret for now but Microsoft’s cloud based archive for Exchange is a steal.

Whether we like it or not, email remains the lifeblood of corporate communication.  Efforts to manage the sprawling growth of mailbox data are often high on an IT Manager’s list and there are a myriad of products on the market designed to safely move your Exchange data into separate indexed and searchable archives.  Unfortunately, just about every vendor’s solution available for archiving said data requires a key piece of software to support it:  SQL Server.

I never really understood why people would want to take perfectly good email messages, convert them to blobs with a long guid string and add them to a database.  Sure you’ve removed it from Exchange and made it searchable, but now you’re managing and maintaining an entirely new database server which becomes irreversibly attached to your once standalone Exchange solution.  What if you need to get your mail data out of archive?  That’s the first question to ask an email archive vendor. They all give you a six lane highway into the archive but it’s often a dead end or a goat path to get out.

In comes Microsoft with its own solution with the introduction of Exchange 2010 personal archives.  It’s a key feature and has given IT Managers a way to control the sprawl by moving data to cheaper storage and implementing retention policies without having to manage an entirely separate database. 

But the best part is still somewhat of a secret:  You can put as much data as you want in the cloud and managed by Microsoft for $3 a month per user.  $3 a month.  Unlimited archive storage off of your network and seamlessly managed from your existing on-premises Exchange 2010 server.  This is an amazing deal.

What was once called Exchange Hosted Archive and required laborious manual seeding of mail data has been transformed in to Exchange Online Archiving under the Office365 hosted application suite.  It requires federation of Active Directory for single sign-on and federation of Exchange for transferring mail which can be challenging to implement.  But the benefits are enormous – just set your retention polices and mail is sent securely to the cloud yet still fully accessible from Outlook and OWA.  With unlimited cloud based storage you can implement strict on premise quotas and still let your users continue to (ab)use Outlook as their personal filing cabinet.  Go ahead, its in the cloud!

Interested?  Contact us – we can take the hassle out of implementation, finish on time and on budget with a clear plan of action.

A “Quick and Dirty” Request

If you work in IT, at some point you have probably been asked by your boss to build a “quick and dirty” proof of concept (POC) for them. You think to yourself, this will be done in a day or so. You build it as quickly and simply as you can. You run virtualization, so the server build is quick and easy. (It's a lot harder if your infrastructure is not virtualized - then you have to scrounge up whatever hardware you can find.) You tell your boss you can have it ready by the end of the day.

You probably can’t get licenses in that time, but no big deal – you can just use evals for now. Sure, Adobe asks you to update Flash every three minutes, Windows isn’t activated yet, and you have 150 Windows Updates ready to apply at the next reboot. But you can finish the POC way before these issues become a problem. 

The Cost of Victory

So what happens now?  First, let’s assume your POC worked (it probably will if you have survived in IT this long).  Your boss is thrilled, you get kudos, and you think life is beautiful.  BE WARNED!!!  You may be about to enter “The Night of the Living Proof of Concept!”

Your boss liked it SO much that he has to show it to the CIO.  Suddenly it has to be perfect!  It has to boot in seconds, and run faster than you can click your mouse.  You can’t have any more annoying software update or activation messages displaying.  By the way, that key meeting is tomorrow morning. Your boss says, spruce it up this afternoon and everything will be fine.

So you work all night, clean up the interface, and speed things up by throwing all your remaining virtual hardware at the solution.  Your virtual infrastructure is on the brink of collapse, but the POC is running like a top.

You wait with bated breath for the CIO demo to finish so you can turn off the POC and get your environment back.  But your boss has GREAT news!  The CEO and CFO were at the CIO demo, and they LOVED it!  In fact, they plan to use it every day – and some nights and weekends too! 

THE NIGHTMARE HAS BEGUN!!!

 An Ounce of Prevention

Not every POC will blossom into a core business critical application overnight.  But you should tell your boss the limitations of your POC environment at the beginning, to cut down on the “surprise” factor.  Most bosses don’t like surprises.  And, if/when the CIO meeting comes up, tell your boss the limitations again – in an email!  That way, your boss can decide whether to postpone the meeting to give you time to prepare the POC appropriately.

Finally, at your next budgeting cycle ask for excess capacity in your virtualization environment. Show your boss the email you sent about the CIO meeting. It may be one of the easiest budgeting cycles you will ever have!

Planning for business continuity can be a massive undertaking for the IT department as there are so many factors to consider – but there is one piece of low hanging fruit which can give even the most trench-weary IT managers some peace of mind:  Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Server virtualization has made the planning process for business continuity much easier.  Whole racks of standby hardware have now been consolidated to one or less.  Storage and Backup software vendors offer a mind numbing array of options for replicating your server infrastructure to a remote office, a colocation site, or even the cloud.

Often overlooked however is how people will access this infrastructure remotely when it comes online.  Users will expect to have access to all of the same applications they use in the office on a daily basis –and this is where virtual desktops can be a lifesaver.   With a few tweaks, the same master image that might be used to image individual workstations can be used to provision hundreds of virtual desktops – in minutes.  Virtual desktops use the same hypervisor as your virtual servers so simply adding capacity to your existing servers and storage will allow all users to have the benefit of the identical experience they get in the office.  Citrix XenDesktop allows for connections from just about any internet enabled device including iOS and Android devices giving users maximum flexibility when disaster strikes.

Mention business continuity aka disaster recovery to an IT manager and you’ll get a wide variety of reactions but the underlying sentiment common to all is:  “Man I hope it works if we really need it.”  With a healthy master image and some extra capacity in your datacenter, your users will be amazed at just how well it does work.

Does this sound familiar? You are responsible for IT in your organization, your systems appear to be humming along well and occassionally you get that nagging worry – what happens if we have a disaster?  Yes, you are backing up your critical systems and you are storing your backups offsite.  But sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because you realize that if your data center suddenly disappears, you are not sure how you will get from those backups to a fully functional IT infrastructure. 

Do you want to get a good night’s sleep for a change?  Here are two pieces of advice for getting started:

     1. Start with the Crown Jewels; and 

     2. Look for a Quick Win!

Crown Jewels

Crown Jewels are the most critical, valuable, business-defining systems and data that reside in your data center.  You may already have a pretty good idea of what your Crown Jewels are.  However, just to be sure, check with your CEO and/or Chief Technologist, and ask them for two or three IT items that the business simply cannot afford to lose. Basically, ask them to fill in the blank in the following sentence:  “If we lose _______, our business cannot survive.”

Once you have this answer, think about what it would take to get the Crown Jewels back – and then think about how you can prove that you can get them back.  Just like that, you are now doing Disaster Recovery planning!

Quick Win

Pick one of your Crown Jewels, retrieve your most recent backup, and try to get it running on a completely isolated system with no network connectivity.  Note – resist the temptation to “just plug it into the network for a quick second,” to download a patch or a little piece of software.  A name conflict could disrupt your production system, which could leave you with some explaining to do. Virtualization, and some software that can burn files to ISO images, can help a lot here.

The Quick Win has big benefits.  First, in the process of trying to get your Crown Jewel running on an isolated server, you will “smoke out” the Crown Jewel’s dependencies.  You find yourself saying, “Hey, I didn’t realize this thing had a web server component too!” or “What do you mean, you can’t contact a domain controller???”  Although you may be taken aback by the dependencies that show up, wouldn’t you prefer to find out about them now… before the disaster occurs? 

The true benefit comes if you manage to get the Crown Jewel running on its fully isolated server. Be sure to document and share your successful findings with your boss! Specifically, show him/her how you recovered a business critical system in an isolated environment, and how you can use the same process to recover the system in case of a disaster. Walk through a few screens demonstrating how the system really works. Now you can all sleep soundly for many nights to come!