When you developed your data center disaster recovery (DR) plan, you designed it to protect your organization’s investment in information technology, communications and its staff. Depending on the nature of the disruption, your data center’s overall integrity may be untouched or it could be totally destroyed.

Continue reading Recovering from a disaster: A data center checklist

Tags: data center, Disaster Recovery, IT

Business continuity’s origins can be found in IT departments, typically with IT disaster recovery. However, in recent decades, IT has become an increasingly siloed activity within organizations, separated from the business operations of the organizations which it serves. As the current economic environment pushes more and more companies toward outsourcing their IT capabilities, have we now lost visibility of the risks inherent in our existing IT processes and are we blind to the risks posed by new technologies?

Continue reading IT: the hidden risk in your business

Tags: Business Continuity, Business Continuity Institute, Disaster Recovery, IBM, IT, outsourcing, Risk Management

The most important aspects of an effective disaster recovery is planning and training, which both need to be done far ahead of the event.

Continue reading Disaster Recovery: It’s More Than a Plan – It’s a Process

Tags: Disaster Recovery, Training

The importance of business continuity planning is a no-brainer–if you’re a security leader who already thinks in terms of security and risk, that is. But convincing business executives, who typically think in dollars and cents, of such a plan’s criticality may be a tougher sell.

Continue reading 5 Ways to Build a Business Case for Business Continuity

Tags: business case, Business Continuity, management buy-in

The recent natural disaster in Japan brought to light the fragile nature of the global supply chain. Professor Willy Shih discusses how companies should be thinking about their supply-chain strategy now.

Continue reading Japan Disaster Shakes Up Supply-Chain Strategies

Tags: earthquake, Japan, SCM, supply chain, supply chain management, tsunami

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

Continue reading CDC outlines zombie apocalypse plan

Tags: CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, zombies

The 2011 19th edition of the Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook is the most comprehensive resource for emergency planning, business continuity, disaster recovery and restoration available. The Sourcebook contains more than 16,000 listings of professional organizations and companies with locations throughout North America. These companies and organizations are broken out into about 500 individual product, service and organization categories on over 1,000 pages!

The Edwards Information Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook is the most comprehensive and impartial publication of its kind. With that as our objective, we can include as much relevant information as possible, without requiring that a payment or promotional fee be paid. While advertising is accepted from select companies and organizations, our mission is to ensure that the user of the Sourcebook has all the information he or she needs to do their job, be better prepared, or recover quickly from an event. As a result, the Sourcebook is unique amongst the publications and websites in the disaster recovery and business continuity industry.

The information contained in the Sourcebook includes data provided by listed companies as well as other reference information which the editorial staff deemed important for our end users. Each year Edwards undertakes a thorough review of both the relevance of the categories included, and the accuracy and currency of the resources and company information provided. 2011 was no exception in this regard and as a result of our review, more than 50% of the listings were updated and thousands were added. We also streamlined our category structure to make it easier to identify companies or organizations of interest, including new categories for government agency and information resources.

The Sourcebook is available in either hardcopy format or CD Rom format, or can be purchased as a print/CD combo. Also available is an Onsite/Offsite Combo – two copies each of the print and CD version!

The Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook CD-ROM version contains a complete PDF copy of the print version of the directory, as well as an indexed HTML version with quick-access to over 15,000 vendors in more than 500 categories.

The HTML version also provides hot-links to each vendor’s website for fast access to the resources you need.

The portable form-factor makes the CD version of the directory a useful component of an “onsite/offsite” strategy so you can have copies of this critical resource at-hand whenever and wherever you need it most!

To order (click through the title of this email to access our secure ordering system from your web browser):

======================================================

2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Print Edition $225.00

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2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

CDROM Edition $225.00

======================================================

2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Print/CD Combo $275.00

======================================================

2011 Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery Sourcebook

Onsite/Offsite Combo $395.00

(TWO PRINT COPIES PLUS TWO CDs!)

Tags: directory, Disaster Recovery Directory, Disaster Recovery Sourcebook, disaster recovery yellow pages, Edwards Disaster Recovery Directory, Edwards Information, sourcebook, sources, vendor selection, vendors

NEW BOOK!

Emergency Management Exercises:

From Response to Recovery

Everything you need to know to design a great exercise!

by Regina Phelps, RN BSN MPA CEM

Get your copy of this brand new book today – and see below for a special offer!

Exercises are a mainstay in the field of emergency management and business continuity planning. Although many companies conduct exercises, and the organizers may be emergency response subject matter experts, they do not excel in the discipline of designing and conducting the actual exercise – which means they simply don’t get the best results out of their effort.

This thoughtful, new book starts with a “silly little question:” Why are we doing this? What seems like a simple query is actually one of the keys to get the most out of every exercise you design.

This text peels back the design process with the goal of creating the best exercise experience possible. Whether you are developing a simple tabletop exercises or working on a full-scale extravaganza that resembles a Hollywood movie, this book will provide you with gems of wisdom that will make your next exercise sizzle. An internationally recognized expert in exercise design, Regina Phelps shares many of her secrets to ensure your exercise success.

2011, 233 pages. $79.95.

To order (click through the title of this email to access our secure ordering system from your web browser):

======================================================

CONTENTS

1. Why conduct emergency management exercises?
2. The six types of exercises
3. The design team: your secret weapon in exercise design
4. Your roadmap – the exercise plan
5. The real story: the development of the exercise narrative
6. The drivers – exercise injects
7. Where the magic is created – the design team
8. Make your exercise sizzle – audio-visual tools
9. Supporting documents to make it all work – additional background exercise documents
10. Bringing it all together – the exercise team
11. Finally – the big day arrives: managing the exercise day
12. How to conduct an orientation exercise
13. How to conduct a tabletop exercise
14. Creating reality: how to conduct a functional exercise
15. Preparing the after-action report and exercise follow-up
16. Developing an annual or multi-year exercise and training calendar
17. Exercise design resource list
18. Glossary

Regina Phelps RN BSN MPA CEM is an internationally recognized expert in the field of emergency management and continuity planning. Since 1982, she has provided consultation and speaking services to clients on four continents. She is founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, a consulting company specializing in emergency management, continuity planning and safety. Ms. Phelps has extensive exercise design experience. She designs between 100 and 150 exercises per year.

SPECIAL OFFER!

Receive a copy of the classic book, DISASTER RECOVERY TESTING: EXERCISING YOUR CONTINGENCY PLAN for Half Price – only $24.98 – with prepaid purchase of Emergency Management Exercises!

Tags: crisis management, emergency management, Emergency Management Exercises, exercise, Regina Phelps, Risk Management, Testing

NEW BOOK!

Emergency Management Exercises:

From Response to Recovery

Everything you need to know to design a great exercise!

by Regina Phelps, RN BSN MPA CEM

Get your copy of this brand new book today – and see below for a special offer!

Exercises are a mainstay in the field of emergency management and business continuity planning. Although many companies conduct exercises, and the organizers may be emergency response subject matter experts, they do not excel in the discipline of designing and conducting the actual exercise – which means they simply don’t get the best results out of their effort.

This thoughtful, new book starts with a “silly little question:” Why are we doing this? What seems like a simple query is actually one of the keys to get the most out of every exercise you design.

This text peels back the design process with the goal of creating the best exercise experience possible. Whether you are developing a simple tabletop exercises or working on a full-scale extravaganza that resembles a Hollywood movie, this book will provide you with gems of wisdom that will make your next exercise sizzle. An internationally recognized expert in exercise design, Regina Phelps shares many of her secrets to ensure your exercise success.

2011, 233 pages. $79.95.

To order (click through the title of this email to access our secure ordering system from your web browser):

======================================================

CONTENTS

1. Why conduct emergency management exercises?
2. The six types of exercises
3. The design team: your secret weapon in exercise design
4. Your roadmap – the exercise plan
5. The real story: the development of the exercise narrative
6. The drivers – exercise injects
7. Where the magic is created – the design team
8. Make your exercise sizzle – audio-visual tools
9. Supporting documents to make it all work – additional background exercise documents
10. Bringing it all together – the exercise team
11. Finally – the big day arrives: managing the exercise day
12. How to conduct an orientation exercise
13. How to conduct a tabletop exercise
14. Creating reality: how to conduct a functional exercise
15. Preparing the after-action report and exercise follow-up
16. Developing an annual or multi-year exercise and training calendar
17. Exercise design resource list
18. Glossary

Regina Phelps RN BSN MPA CEM is an internationally recognized expert in the field of emergency management and continuity planning. Since 1982, she has provided consultation and speaking services to clients on four continents. She is founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, a consulting company specializing in emergency management, continuity planning and safety. Ms. Phelps has extensive exercise design experience. She designs between 100 and 150 exercises per year.

SPECIAL OFFER!

Receive a copy of the classic book, DISASTER RECOVERY TESTING: EXERCISING YOUR CONTINGENCY PLAN for Half Price – only $24.98 – with prepaid purchase of Emergency Management Exercises!

Tags: crisis management, emergency management, Emergency Management Exercises, exercise, Regina Phelps, Risk Management, Testing