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A better approach is therefore to experiment with disaster scenarios and recovery measures in a lab setting that accurately replicates real-world conditions. In particular, such a lab must be able to:

1) Emulate all end-to-end conditions on the enterprise network--including latency, bandwidth constraints, and jitter

2) Use actual production servers running the actual critical applications needed to support business continuity in the event of a disaster

3) Simulate use of the network and its applications by specified numbers of end-users at each remote location

Using this kind of lab environment, CIOs can enable their disaster recovery planning teams to experiment with a full range of disaster scenarios and proposed recovery solutions. The performance of critical applications can then be accurately assessed under these various conditions to determine if they adequately meet the needs of the business.

Lab environments that empower IT staff to flexibly “play” with a full range of what-if scenarios can yield substantial benefits for CIOs. These benefits include:

• Greater assurance that disaster recovery scenarios will actually work as planned

• Discovery of flaws in disaster recovery planning

• The ability to regularly re-validate recovery plans in light of new applications, more users, additional remote locations, etc.

• Avoidance of over-spending on recovery provisioning

• Compliance with regulations that mandate reasonable diligence in disaster recovery planning

An investment in emulation technology can pay off in other ways too, of course. This kind of technology is extremely useful for validating the networkability of new applications, for capacity planning, and for independently evaluating the claims of competing vendors. However, given the high stakes associated with disaster recovery--where the interruption of IT services for an inordinate period of time can potentially result in huge financial losses--CIOs can fully recoup their investments in this technology from this use alone. Or, if for some reason, such an investment is not possible, every IT organization should at the very least contract with a vendor who can provide such capabilities as a turnkey service. Otherwise, they will not be able to truly ensure that their businesses are fully prepared to survive a real disaster.

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Amichai Lesser is the director of product marketing at Shunra, a provider of network simulation and emulation solutions. Lesser is responsible for product marketing, market analysis, and field marketing programs and regularly presents at industry conferences, seminars and events. Amichai can be contacted at amichai.lesser@shunra.com.