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In the fourth podcast in my SMB series I chatted with John White. I first came across John via the Spiceworks website which is very popular discussion board/forum amongst the SMB/SME community. He was on of my first commenter’s on an Spiceworks Article of mine where I spoke about the role of disaster recovery technologies and the SMB. John White is a long term SMB customer of VMware’s and in this podcast we talk about the options for “doing virtual DR” – and who VMware is doing its bit for SMB-democracy by “waterfalling” and innovating new features that previously were the preserve of the Enterprise. John works for distributor in South-West of the US who’s main product is petfood and are based in Orange County, California. His first exposure to VMware was (like many) VMware Workstation, but he’s since moved on to embrace vSphere and its complimentary technologies.

Of course right now the affect of catastrophic events on physical and virtual infrastructures is on everyone’s mind – what with Hurricane Sandy causing untold damage to the US. Our conversation was recorded some weeks ago before the events of recent hours took place. But it’s a timely reminder of how in relatively small space of time events can over take our actions, unless of course some preparedness has been made already. That to me is very important even if your a SMB/SME. The challenges that DR planning generate for small-business are no less significant. Think of it this way. If you own that business it’s your livelihood, then you have probably sweated a lot of blood and tears to make it the success it is today – sure there’s a financial investment there, but also an emotional one too. That’s why I’ve always regarded DR planning much like an insurance policy. The premiums you pay to protect your house, your home or your business are waste of money – until of course, something awful happens and you have claim on them. So for a relatively small amount of money spent, more treasure can be saved.

Anyway, I would like to send my personal best wishes to all those who have been effected especially my many friends in the great city of New York. Like London you’ve had your dark hours before – and you shall rise again. In the meantime lets spare a thought to those countries who how lack the neccessary resources to defend themselves from the elements or fund the clear up the mess afterwards which is usually the case. For my fellow collegues I would recommend the corporate donation systems we have in place by the VMware Foundation. For everyone else there is always the

http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

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