Most businesses treat backup and recovery as interconnected but separate initiatives with different technologies, processes and vendors for each. This can get them into trouble.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Michi Schniebel, Principal Product Manager at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS), explains why it’s time to update your backup and recovery plan and shares steps businesses can take to ensure they have a unified recovery. Listen to the full episode to learn:

●        Why traditional backup and recovery models are outdated 

●        How organizations should approach backup and recovery, and what metrics to use to develop a more cohesive strategy

●        How backup and recovery strategies shift in hybrid environments

●        How to mitigate security risks through backup and recovery 

●        How Sungard AS – and its partners – can help you achieve more confident data recovery.

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

 Michi Schniebel is Principal Product Manager at Sungard AS. With over 25 years of enterprise software, hosting, MSP, SBM, and cloud expertise, he is keenly attuned to customer needs, engineering management, and product vision. By leveraging his experience as a software engineer, pre-sales, and IT manager, Michi can successfully work with a global customer base and field personnel, translating their needs into product requirements that drive engineering more efficiently.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

The full transcript of this episode is available below.

BRIAN FAWCETT (BF): Backups protect sensitive business data from natural and manmade threats, making them one of your company's most valuable assets. However, those backups are essentially useless without a viable recovery plan. 

I'm your host Brian Fawcett and this is IT Availability Now, the show that tells stories of business resilience from the people who keep the digital world available. 

 Most businesses treat backup and recovery as interrelated but independent silos with different technologies, processes and vendors for each. This ideology needs to change.

 On this episode of IT Availability Now, Michi Schniebel, Principal Product Manager at Sungard AS will discuss why traditional backup and recovery plans a

It’s possible to be both cloud native and cloud agnostic, but getting there isn’t easy. 

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Erik Krogstad, Principal Cloud Architect at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) discusses why businesses are interested in cloud-native and cloud-agnostic workloads and actions they can take to find the right balance between the two. Listen to the full episode to learn:

●        The challenges behind developing workloads that are both cloud native and cloud agnostic, and how to overcome them

●        Steps to avoid vendor lock-in while still getting the most out of cloud services

●        How to move workloads from one cloud to another 

●        How non-platform specific tools and unified governance and process enable you to achieve a cloud-native and cloud-agnostic approach

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Erik Krogstad is the Principal Cloud Architect at Sungard AS and serves as lead for the company’s Cloud Center of Excellence. With more than 20 years in the IT industry, Erik has extensive experience in designing and transforming IT infrastructures and architectures to meet the business and IT needs of fortune 1000 companies.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

The full transcript of this episode is available below.

BRIAN FAWCETT (BF): Cloud-native and cloud-agnostic are not mutually exclusive, but achieving both takes work. I'm your host Brian Fawcett, and this is IT Availability Now, the show that tells stories of business resilience, from the people who keep the digital world available. 

On this episode of IT Availability Now, Erik Krogstad, Principal Cloud Architect at Sungard AS, joins us to discuss how to use modular workloads and service-oriented architectures, to achieve cloud-native and cloud-agnostic workloads. Erik, welcome to the show. 

ERIK KROGSTAD (EK): Thanks for having me. 

BF: So I want to start with why companies are interested in cloud-native and cloud-agnostic workloads. What's the business case here?

EK: So it's all about flexibility and being able to move workloads as needed, between on-prem and cloud, in order to save money and take advantage of different services or meet specific customer needs. Some examples I can think of, were a couple of years ago Walmart had told all their vendors to stop using AWS, and it was due to Amazon buying a big competitor, Whole Foods. Now, a lot of people had spent a lot of money getting into AWS at that point, and it put some organizations in a really tight spot because they had already embraced that cloud-native option within AWS. An

More and more enterprises are turning to hybrid IT, but many aren’t taking full advantage of their investment.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Leon Godwin, Principal Cloud Evangelist at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) outlines what so many of them are missing out on and offers concrete steps on how organizations can harness all the advantages of hybrid IT. Listen to the full episode to learn:

●        What makes hybrid IT so attractive

●        Strategies for reducing costs and adding more flexible connectivity

●        How to determine if your workloads belong in public cloud, private cloud or on-premises

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Leon Godwin is the Principal Cloud Evangelist at Sungard AS. As a cloud evangelist, Leon balances the duties of a product marketer with being one of Sungard AS’s direct links to customers. Building a critical mass of support for cloud technologies through thought leadership, enthusiasm and many years of experience, Leon aids customers with complex challenges and helps them adopt creative, robust and efficient cloud solutions 

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

BRIAN FAWCETT (BF): Gartner predicted that by 2020, 90% of organizations would adopt hybrid infrastructure services. And they were right. Today hybrid IT is the go-to solution for enterprise IT, but how many companies are truly maximizing their investment? 

I'm your host Brian Fawcett, and this is IT Availability Now, the show that tells stories of business resilience for the people who keep the digital world available.

Hybrid IT success is about more than just deciding which workloads to run in the cloud and which to deploy on your own infrastructure. 

On this episode of IT Availability Now, Leon Godwin, Principal Cloud Evangelist at Sungard AS, joins us to discuss the benefits of the hybrid strategy and what steps businesses must take to get the most out of their hybrid IT.  

Hi Leon, welcome back to the show.  

LEON GODWIN (LG): Hi Brian, thanks. I'm excited to be here.  

BF: So let's start with the million dollar question here. What makes hybrid IT so appealing?

LG: Good question. Businesses need a cloud solution that's agile, scalable and cost effective, but they also need that dependability of performance and the control of their security and compliance

The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack caused spiking gas prices, panic buying at the pumps and several states to declare a state of emergency. Worse yet, it was totally avoidable.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Asher de Metz, Security Consulting Senior Manager at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) walks us through what we know about the Colonial Pipeline incident and actions organizations should take to avoid becoming the next victim.  Learn more about:

●        Who’s responsible for the attack, what was stolen and how Colonial Pipeline responded

●        How ransomware got on Colonial Pipeline’s systems in the first place

●        Steps you can take to protect your business from these kinds of attacks

●        What companies can do RIGHT NOW to make themselves more secure 

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

As Security Consulting, Senior Manager at Sungard AS, Asher de Metz helps companies identify risks and secure their systems by conducting security audits and tests to avoid cybersecurity attacks. With almost 20 years of experience in information technology and security, Asher has been involved in hundreds of IT-security projects and has provided security counsel to some of the largest companies throughout the U.K., Europe, Middle East and North America within the financial, government, retail, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing industries. 

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Finding out your disaster recovery plan is worthless in the middle of disaster is a nightmare for any business. Unfortunately, due to inadequate testing practices, far too many companies learn this lesson the hard way. 

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Girish Dadge, Senior Director of Recovery Product Management at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) outlines common problems businesses encounter during a disaster to emphasize why DR testing is so important. Learn more about:

·       How often businesses should test their DR plans

·       Factors that influence testing strategies

·       Helpful tips to ensure you have a smooth testing experience – especially as you reevaluate your DR plan in the aftermath of COVID-19 

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Girish Dadge has over 15 years of experience unravelling data backup, restore and recovery challenges, as well as architecting and implementing IT infrastructure and advanced recovery solutions across several industries. He currently serves as senior director of recovery product management at Sungard AS.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

While 92% of organizations utilize some form of disaster recovery (DR) plan, 41% of companies don’t consistently test these plans. Luckily, they can right the ship with automation.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, we’re joined by Michi Schniebel, Principal Product Manager at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS), to discuss how to test your DR plan more regularly without exerting additional time, energy, or resources. Learn more about: 

·       The importance of regular DR testing

·       Why many businesses let DR testing fall by the wayside 

·       How automation can help businesses regulate their DR testing

·       Sungard AS’ new offering, DRverify Automated Testing – how it works and how it can improve DR testing 

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Michi Schniebel is Principal Product Manager at Sungard AS. With over 25 years of enterprise software, hosting, MSP, SBM,  and cloud expertise, he is keenly attuned to customer needs, engineering management, and product vision. By leveraging his experience as a software engineer, pre-sales, and IT manager, Michi can successfully work with a global customer base and field personnel, translating their needs into product requirements that drive engineering more efficiently.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

The cloud isn’t right for all workloads and data, but that doesn’t mean you should be stuck running your own data center. Colocation can lift that burden, freeing you to focus on your core business while ensuring you have the best technology and expertise in your corner. 

In this episode, we take a closer look at the benefits of colocation with Sungard Availability Services’ (Sungard AS) Director of Colocation Services, Stuart Welsby. We talk about: 

·       The cost of colocation vs running your own data center

·       The impact of colocation on your resiliency and business continuity

·       How colocation makes it easier to scale your business

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Stuart Welsby is Director of Colocation Services, Product Management for Sungard AS, where he is responsible for the company’s colocation product offerings globally. Having worked the past 23 years in the IT industry, Stuart has been heavily involved in several different aspects of the industry ranging from traditional hardware services & infrastructure support to designing, implementing and bringing to market highly resilient and functional solutions for both internal and external customers.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more. 

While organizations use a variety of clouds – public, private or hybrid – all too often they fall victim to many of the same snafus.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Leon Godwin, Principal Cloud Evangelist  at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) examines some common cloud mistakes organizations make and how to avoid them. Listen to the full episode to learn:

·        What businesses must consider before migrating to the cloud 

·        How to make an informed decision about cloud hosting

·        Costly areas companies overlook when they move to the cloud 

·        Biggest cloud security errors 

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

 Leon Godwin is the Principal Cloud Evangelist at Sungard AS. As a cloud evangelist, Leon balances the duties of a product marketer with being one of Sungard AS’s direct links to customers. Building a critical mass of support for cloud technologies through thought leadership, enthusiasm and many years of experience, Leon aids customers with complex challenges and helps them adopt creative, robust and efficient cloud solutions.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Asher de Metz has slipped past physical security and hacked into endless companies as part of the penetration testing he performs as a Security Consulting Senior Manager at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS). And he’s here to tell us about it.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Asher regales us with one of his most fascinating pen testing feats and provides critical real-world advice on how to strengthen your physical and digital security to improve overall business resilience. Listen to the full episode to learn:

·        Asher’s tale of hacking into a company – how he did it, where the company was most vulnerable and how this attack could’ve been prevented 

·        Common weak links in your physical security and how to shore them up

·        Cybersecurity missteps companies continuously make and what you can do to prevent your business from suffering the same fate

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

As Security Consulting, Senior Manager at Sungard AS, Asher de Metz helps companies identify risks and secure their systems by conducting security audits and tests to avoid cybersecurity attacks. With almost 20 years of experience in information technology and security, Asher has been involved in hundreds of IT-security projects and has provided security counsel to some the largest companies throughout the U.K., Europe, Middle East and North America within the financial, government, retail, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing industries. Asher de Metz

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Hurricane season is still months away, but there’s no time to wait. If you reside in a hurricane-prone area, you must start preparing now.

In this episode of IT Availability Now, Girish Dadge, Director of Product Management at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) walks us through precautions organizations should take to make sure they’re ready to respond before, during and after a hurricane. Listen to the full episode to learn:

·        What to include in your disaster recovery (DR) plans, how to test them and how to keep them up to date 

·        Steps to secure to your most critical data

·        How to prepare your employees so they’re aware of their roles and ready to respond immediately

·        Actions to take once the hurricane hits, and what you need to do to get back to work after the storm passes

Brian Fawcett is a Senior Manager of Global Sales Engagement at Sungard AS. With over 15 years of experience in a range of industries, he specializes in forming enterprise-wide global talent and learning development programs. Brian has enriched corporate learning culture by matching organizational vision and core values to curricula, leading to application and impact.

Girish Dadge has over 15 years of experience unravelling data backup, restore and recovery challenges, as well as architecting and implementing IT infrastructure and advanced recovery solutions across several industries. He currently serves as director of product management at Sungard AS.

Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.