About Paul O'Brien, CBCI
Paul O'Brien is a Corporate Resilience Manager who helps organisations build operational resilience, manage enterprise risk, and prepare for critical disruptions. He holds the CBCI credential (Certificate of the Business Continuity Institute), grounding his practical execution in globally recognised standards (BCI GPG 7.0).
Underneath the governance frameworks, risk matrices, and Business Impact Analyses, his technical roots run deep.
For over 25 years, Paul has maintained a persistent fascination with email, DNS, and the quiet digital infrastructure that underpins modern work. He has analysed digital infrastructure from every angle: engineering it into products as a developer, untangling authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), managing deliverability, and evaluating provider resilience.
The Intersection of Two Worlds
Business Continuity and core internet protocols are simply two sides of the same coin: Operational Resilience.
- The Strategic Focus: Business Continuity keeps operations moving when disruption strikes—identifying prioritised activities, mapping dependencies, establishing recovery strategies, and embedding a culture of preparedness.
- The Technical Reality: Core digital protocols are critical single points of failure. If your domain authentication breaks, your DNS fails, or your cloud provider suffers an outage, your continuity plan is tested in real time.
Email and core protocols are rarely considered exciting—until they fail. When they work, they are invisible; when they fail, they fail quietly, globally, and usually at the worst possible moment.
What You Will Find Here
Insights is an independent publication where Paul documents practical research, technical tests, and strategic guides across three core areas:
- ⚙️ Core Internet Technology: Independent assessments of email infrastructure, privacy-first tools, DNS architectures, and authentication mechanics.
- 🛡️ Corporate Resilience & BC: Deep dives into the BCI Good Practice Guidelines (GPG 7.0), CBCI preparation, BIA methodologies, and actionable crisis response.
- ⚡ The Technical Intersection: Practical analysis where formal continuity planning meets the realities of modern digital architecture.
The goal is simple: bring clarity to digital systems and management frameworks so you understand how things really work before an outage forces the issue.
Get in Touch
Have a question about a write-up, feedback, or a topic suggestion?
Feel free to drop a line via the Contact Page
Disclaimer: All views expressed on this site are Paul's own and do not represent the official policy or position of his employer.