In our last post, we covered how to create a business continuity strategy. For the next installment in our series, we asked our resident business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) expert, Mike Cybyske, about some specific examples of when BC/DR plans were put into action and what key learnings came out of those experiences. Mike is a crisis manager at Qwest and is responsible for overseeing our corporate Crisis Management Team.

Can you tell us about a time when the BC/DR plan was put into action and what the result was?

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike caused an estimated $38 billion in damages and a power outage that affected more than 2 million people in three states. Read more...

One of the things our customers ask us about most often is how to build a business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan. While most customers think of hurricanes and tornados, it's important to note that natural disasters aren't the only thing you need to plan for. There are far more common events like bad software, misconfigured networks and hardware failures that can cause real problems.

To discuss BC/DR, we turned to our resident expert, Mike Cybyske. Mike is a crisis manager at Qwest and is responsible for overseeing our corporate Crisis Management Team. This is the first installment in a series where we'll discuss BC/DR. Today, we cover the strategic elements of a BC/DR strategy. In future pieces, we'll discuss the technology considerations and how to evaluate a solution. Read more...

With so much hype surrounding cloud, we love to see some real data. According to a recent online poll of business and IT leaders conducted by IDG Research Services, almost all enterprises have adopted or are planning to adopt a hybrid cloud model for at least a portion of their computer applications. Makes sense, right? It certainly seems like a good deal to get the best-of-both-worlds, but it brings us to a critical question: how do you deal with separate internal and public infrastructures?

Security is obviously a top concern when it comes to cloud adoption plans. Read more...

The enterprise buying process is broken. And I suggest both customers and providers need to work at fixing it.

Let me back up and explain. The all-too-common traditional process that is no longer working typically looks like this: Customer has a need, finds providers that sell a product to fulfill that need, and then selects a solution based on price or a mixture of price and feature/functionality.

What I am proposing is that we take a more transparent and collaborative approach to the buying process. Something that would look like this: Customer talks to provider about what they are looking to do with their business (change in technology, new apps, outsourcing, etc.) and also shares critical things like business challenges, their forecasted growth and their current infrastructure environment. The provider then proposes possible solutions based on a holistic view and customer selects the one that works best for them. Read more...

During our cloud computing roundtable series we've covered a variety of topics from the technical benefits of cloud to the business risks. This range of topics brings us to an important point: the cloud discussion is very different for the business professional than it is for the IT professional.

In our final expert roundtable, we explore this dynamic. For the business person, cloud represents an opportunity to drive profitability, growth and product development. For the IT professional, the cloud represents a way to drive greater efficiencies, offload resources and ultimately provide another tool in the IT toolkit to support the business.

As we continue our exploration of cloud computing, we've hit a critical topic: connections. By that we mean the connections that will be required to make cloud computing a reality - whether that be connections between partners to provide a full end-to-end solution, industry standards connecting different vendors' products or the connections between the network and the apps. Understanding how these connections work is essential in reaching a successful cloud computing model. It's also a complex and little-discussed topic. Read more...

We all know that security is the No. 1 concern for enterprises considering cloud computing. Technology decision makers must balance risk management strategies with the high availability and performance of cloud-based resources.

In the second of four roundtables between Qwest cloud experts and Nemertes Senior Analyst Ted Ritter, we focus on public, private and hybrid clouds and the security considerations enterprises must keep in mind, including:

• What risk management strategies to consider
• How to evaluate which resources and processes should move to the cloud. Read more...

Continuing with our focus on cloud computing, we brought together our cloud experts with Nemertes Senior Analyst Ted Ritter for a tough question and answer session. This is the first in a series of roundtables focused on cloud computing. In this video, our execs answer the following questions:

- What is cloud computing?

- How does cloud affect the enterprise?. Read more...

We've been talking a lot about cloud computing here at Think Gig and we'd like to share an example of how we are moving to the cloud with our Salesforce.com implementation.

It begins with the classic story. The Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation replaces a homegrown funnel management system whose performance had been steadily degrading. Managers lacked visibility into the sales cycle and tools for coaching. Users wanted the ability to manage customers from a Smartphone without losing performance. The tool wasn't able to scale up quickly as the user base grew and changes to the application took longer than we'd like.

What are the benefits we found by moving to the cloud?

Shorter implementation cycle. The Salesforce automation (SFA) project got underway in May 2010. Read more...

In our last blog post, we talked about cloud computing's potential to foster the kind of innovation that we saw on the Internet in the 1990s. We suggested that enterprises ask, 'How can we use cloud technology to do something different?'

Now we want to dig into one of cloud computing's core components - Platform as a Service or PaaS - and look at how this flavor of cloud computing is enabling innovation.

First, let's define PaaS. It's a technology that combines hosted infrastructure with a development platform such as Java or APEX, purposely separating the development environment from specific operating systems or hardware. Read more...

In a challenging business environment, it's tempting to focus solely on how technology innovation can help companies reduce expenses and work more efficiently. I think it's also time for additional focus, to consider how new technology can foster growth, innovation and a new energy in the business landscape.

At Qwest, we believe that cloud computing offers as many opportunities to shake things up as the birth of the commercial Internet did 15 years ago.

In the mid-nineties, the emergence of the Internet launched a whole new level of innovation and was one of the elements that helped bring the United States out of a deep recession. Not only did scores of new companies spring up but existing companies discovered new lines of business and other ways to reinvent themselves and stay relevant. Ideas, information, resources and capital could move from anywhere to anywhere. Read more...

Everything is going 'social.' First we had social media and social networking, then the social customer and now social CRM. I've always believed in using the right technology to enable a customer-centric approach. When I started to see 'Social CRM' appear as the latest buzzword in social media, I realized it was a great way to describe being customer-centric in today's online world.

Paul Greenberg, founder of the 56 Group, describes the social customer perfectly when he notes that customers are now communicating outside traditional channels, and that who and how they trust is different than it used to be. Read more...

Is your IT staff prepared to deal with the unthinkable? Imagine for a moment what would happen if your network, and all the systems and applications that rely on it, were suddenly unavailable. Have you considered the impact of this scenario - not only when a disaster strikes, but also when outages are caused by a spike in business activity or a problem with your provider's network?

Here at Qwest, we've developed a framework that enables multiple groups to work together to support business continuity and incident response. We have cross-functional teams tasked with this endeavor and have made disaster recovery and business continuity priorities for our business.

In addition to our own efforts, to Read more...

When we heard that Microsoft used its B2B Worldwide Partner Conference to show off phones, an iPad-like slate, and motion sensors for the Xbox video game system, it confirmed one of our latest theories and one of our customers' biggest challenges: Consumerization has hit the corporate mainstream.

Jason Hiner, editor of TechRepublic, calls the consumerization of IT one of the industry's key trends. When the topic first arose, 'It was primarily an annoyance involving a few power users who were bringing their own Palm Treos into the enterprise and using some unauthorized Web tools to get their work done. Read more...

If you're thinking about deploying or upgrading a VoIP solution, you've heard about SIP trunking as a way to reduce both hard and soft costs, while tapping nearly unlimited bandwidth and enabling access to rich communications.

One of a SIP network's biggest virtues is the ability to share resources cost-effectively. For example, a business with 10 locations nationwide can streamline down to one central call center in a way that's invisible to customers. Or a company whose inbound calls come in bursts can dedicate bandwidth to voice when needed, instead of paying for more bandwidth to handle a few heavy traffic days a year.

SIP talk seems to be everywhere this summer, but the standard continues to evolve. Read more...

So you've moved from being 'interested' in Unified Communications (UC) to actively considering UC. Here are a few UC best practices to think about before you implement. Together, they may save you hours of headaches, not to mention significant amounts of time and money.

• Define UC - Define terms and requirements. Vendors use 'unified communications' to describe strategies that vary widely: on-premise, in the cloud or both; centered on email, telephony or a media server; single vendor or partnership. The benefit: Being clear on specific business and technology needs will save a lot of time during the proposal stage.
• Stay grounded - Validate key business drivers. Listen to your internal customers to make sure requirements for UC map back to business needs. Read more...

A question we see more businesses asking as they assess their workload coming out of the recession:

'What is the business of my business?'

While seemingly self-evident, this question gets down to important considerations. Is this process or function our core business or should we consider outsourcing to a partner? What is really the best use of our people and resources right now?

We've been hearing this more often lately, and it's a bit like the movie 'Groundhog Day' - in a good way.

Over the years, we've seen the outsource/in-house pendulum swing back and forth when it comes to IT. The last big swing, about 10 years ago, put many enterprises squarely in the camp of 'I'm going to roll my own. Read more...

Employees can be demanding. They want to be able to access all their favorite applications from any device, anywhere, and it's hard to deny this request when it's actually making someone more productive. But what is the norm? All too often, only email is approved for use on nontraditional corporate devices, which puts significant limits on true mobility.

Take sales reps as an example. Imagine what they could do if they could access their CRM and ordering systems while at a customer visit - faster quotes, faster order placement and faster service or product delivery. Seems like the way to become a well-oiled, customer-centric machine.

But put this scenario in front of IT managers and notice the fear in their eyes. Far from utopia, it represents pure chaos and risk. Read more...

During the downturn, you streamlined operations to make them truly lean. Now, with economic conditions brightening, you don't want to take your eye off the ball. But, during all this belt-tightening, did you let things go that exposed you to risk?

Network security often lands on the back burner when the going gets tough. We hear about security risks every day and understand what could happen...but dismiss the likelihood it will happen to us.

The truth is, the risk is just too high and now is a good time to evaluate your security strategy. But how do you know what's right for you?

Let's break down the options:

Do it yourself: Hire or train staff to secure your business through tools such as firewalls and web filters. Read more...

When it comes to being customer-centric, are you plugged in to customer needs or tuned out? Your network could be to blame.

What tools does your company use to be more 'customer-centric?' No doubt, most enterprises would mention their CRM system, their call center, sales force automation...

True, these tools are important, but just as the world's top chef can't be successful without flour and salt, these sophisticated apps provide limited value without the right foundation - a converged voice and data network.

So often overlooked when it comes to customer experience, your network is the keystone to a truly customer-centric organization. Read more...

Welcome to Think Gig, a blog dedicated to helping you run your business more efficiently. At Think Gig, you'll find discussions on the topics that matter to you most - such as tips and best practices on securing your business, improving customer service, driving revenue and cutting costs - as well as unique perspectives on industry trends that impact your business.

You can rely on Think Gig to keep you informed on the issues you face every day and inspire you to think big when it comes to your business.

Thanks for coming along for the ride and please contact us with any suggestions or post a comment.