-- Review and update backup/recovery policies for application environments as appropriate.

-- Perform detailed capacity-planning and resource-utilization analysis.

-- Apply resource utilization metrics to budget request and forecasting.

Specifics will vary within an given environment, but the key is to reserve some time to focus to on the less urgent, but still very important, aspects of the backup operation.

Jim Damoulakis is chief technology officer of GlassHouse Technologies Inc., a leading provider of independent storage services. He can be reached at jimd@glasshouse.com