Testing the storage portion of your disaster recovery (DR) plan requires tools to ascertain if data was backed up properly. Proper testing may also require an application to constantly monitor the DR site's storage infrastructure--from the number of disks to the configuration of RAID arrays--to ensure it works and matches the storage configuration at your primary site.

The first place to look for confirmation that critical backups and data replications to the DR site took place is the backup and replication software you're using and the reports it generates. In addition, the same tools storage administrators use for day-to-day storage efficiency and management can help assess the health of their backup infrastructures, says John Sing, a senior consultant on business continuity strategy and planning at IBM Corp.