Downtime can translate into substantial losses for enterprises – making disaster recovery plans critical for business continuity. The topic was the focus of this month’s JSA Virtual Round Table featuring a panel of experts as they discussed how to respond in times of crisis, and how to be sure organizations are prepared for any eventuality.

Moderated by João Marques Lima, speakers included Gil Santaliz, CEO, NJFX, Paul Scott, CEO, Confluence Networks, Ishaq Mian, VP, Sales & Support Engineering, Redline Communications, Warren Reyburn, SVP Sales & Marketing, Comstar Technologies, and Sean Farney, Director of Data Center Marketing, Kohler.

As Santaliz highlighted, the internet is our go to place for news and information. During the past year, it also enabled an entirely homebound society. Our internet infrastructure must be able to withstand any eventuality.

“If you think about disasters, and we are still in a disaster, we have employees that aren’t in office buildings today, we are asking traders to trade from home. There was never a game plan for this. We have to have data centers repurpose their data and access the internet. The internet became mission critical. We would not even be having this conversion if it wasn’t for the quality of the internet today,” commented Santaliz.

Consider the issues that have affected connectivity this year alone: below-freezing temperatures, ice storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, the bombing of a major metro area and a global pandemic.

Paul Scott of Confluence Networks pointed out that what might appear to be resilient, multipath environments is not necessarily the case. “It’s one thing to have 4-5 multiple paths to your data center, but to move on-premise and spin up virtual servers, you have to feel good about your core network architecture. When it fails you need your disaster recovery plans and they need to be vetted and tested. That includes cycling generators and working with the teams to test and tighten up action plans,” he added.

Santaliz concluded by stating, “The internet is how we are going to be communicating for the foreseeable future. We have to make sure as leaders in the industry, this works. It’s a collaborative effort – integrating your customers, vendors and partners with checks and balances in place.”

Watch the panel in its entirety here. To learn more about JSA Virtual Round Tables, click here. And learn more about NJFX here.