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I caught a great documentary on TV the other day – Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. It was a very well put together overview on the history of what some (I) would call the greatest Canadian rock group ever. From humble beginnings playing high school dances, through their many musical phases, to today’s stadium touring legends, the documentary was fascinating and entertaining.

Yes I am biased because I am a fan, and yes, I am a huge nerd. Nevertheless there was one segment that I found particularly interesting and a great lesson for all of us.

During a period in the mid 90s Rush drummer Neil Peart befriended jazz percussionist Freddie Gruber. What started as a friendship eventually became an apprenticeship of sorts. Keep in mind in the world of rock music you’d be hard pressed to find anyone disagree with the statement “Neil Peart is the greatest rock drummer of all time”. Even with that reputation, one of the most well regarded drummers of his generation was thoughtful enough to realize that he still had something to learn. Thus began Neil Peart’s style reinvention. The master was able to go beyond simply technical precision to a more thoughtful elegant style that still sounds every bit like Neil Peart, only better.

I’m sure everyone has at one point or another heard the metaphor of having to sharpen your saw, which implies the importance of continually updating your skills. It’s amazing to me when I hear stories like this of someone who is already a master still see the need to go out and sharpen his saw.

In the enterprise datacenter, the pace of change in technology sometimes makes sharpening your saw a pre-requisite for many roles. One area however that does sometime gets neglected is the realm of disaster recovery or business continuity. The core technologies of the datacenter have gone through some big changes recently with the emergence of virtualization and the promise of cloud computing around the corner.

Take a look at this FREE eBook – 5 Things you need to know about disaster recovery planning

It won’t help you become rock’s greatest drummer, but it is a handy guide to help understand the new face of disaster recovery today.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.