business continuity

Designing a Resilient Microsoft Unified Communications Environment

As organizations move to unified communications it becomes imperative that disaster recovery and business continuity be incorporated into the design and implementation. In the event that a natural disaster or other catastrophe strike the primary data center, there needs to be a fall-back plan in place to ensure that the business can continue to communicate and work productively.

The ability to provide some sort of failover redundancy or site resiliency has been seen as an Achilles heel of Microsoft Office Communications Server. Microsoft has made some enhancements though in R2 and produced a white paper describing how to accomplish site resiliency with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2.

Here is the description Microsoft provides for the white paper:

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

Business Continuity and Cost-Cutting with UC

Over the past few years I have been a guest on the IMI-TechTalk radio show, hosted by Tom D’Auria, a number of times. TechTalk is broadcast on KFNX AM 1100 out of Phoenix, AZ, but you can also listen to a live stream of the show via the Web as well. Tune in at 6pm Eastern / 5pm Central on Sundays to listen to the show live. If you miss the live show, you can check back on the IMI-TechTalk blog and find a link to the recorded MP3’s to download after the fact.

That brings me to my most recent guest appearance. It was impromptu on about 30 seconds notice. There was some time zone confusion with the scheduled guest of the IMI-TechTalk radio show. I received a phone call in the middle of the show while Tom was live on the air asking me to step in and do the live show impromptu. So, I jumped on the air and host Tom D’Auria and I proceeded to discuss unified communications. Specifically, we talked about how unified communications pays for itself and can help companies save money, as well as how it fits into business continuity plans and preventing or responding to a pandemic outbreak or any other disaster. 

You can play the downloaded MP3 of the show from the link on this blog post: IMI-TechTalk: Business Continuity and Cost-Cutting With Unified Communications.

Five DRBC Tips For Coping with a Pandemic

I know I am beating a dead horse. I have two points though in my defense..no wait- three points.

1. H1N1 / swine flu did not go away. It is not daily headline news anymore, but it is still out there and still spreading. As of this week there are almost 9,000 cases and 15 deaths just in the United States.
2. Even if H1N1 / swine flu is not *the* virus that will truly become the next pandemic, history and probability suggest that one will eventually come along.
3. The last- and arguably best- point is that these tips just make sense. Whether it is due to an epedemic or pandemic, or a natural disaster, or any other reason, these tips will help your organization be prepared to continue business as usual…or at least close enough to usual that business will still get done.

Check out Five DR Tips to Cope with a Pandemic for some tips you can put to use and put in place now so that you are prepared when a disaster strikes.

Preventing a Swine Flu Pandemic with Unified Communications

The swine flu is now suspected to have hit Italy, Spain, Denmark, the United States, Mexico, France, Canada, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. It has claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico, and there are more than 40 confirmed cases scattered throughout the United States from Texas to Michigan and from California to New York.

With Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano declaring a health emergency in the United States and the World Health Organization (WHO) raising the pandemic alert level to Phase 4, people around the world are concerned.

Unified communications already presents a solid business case for cutting costs and streamlining business processes, but a situation like the current swine flu outbreak makes that case even stronger. When the world is healthy organizations can enjoy the cost savings of conducting voice and video conferences and collaborating online rather than spending money traveling around the world. With a swine flu epidemic threatening to grow into an official pandemic conducting voice and video conferences remotely rather than traveling and meeting face to face becomes a business imperative and a piece of a solid business continuity gameplan.

Minimizing travel and face to face exposure allows organizations to continue to meet with partners and customers, collaborate with coworkers, and conduct business while minimizing or eliminating the risk of exposure to infectious disease like the swine flu.

Save the planet and yourself. Use unified communications.