Paul O'Brien - Insights

About this site

Hi, I’m Paul O’Brien.

By day, I work as a Corporate Resilience Manager, helping build resilience, manage operational risk, and prepare for disruptions. I’m currently documenting my journey as I build towards formal certifications like the CBCI and beyond.

Underneath the risk matrices and Business Impact Analyses, my technical roots run deep.

For over 25 years, I’ve had a persistent fascination with email, DNS, and the quiet digital infrastructure that underpins modern work. I’ve looked at email from nearly every angle: building it into products as a developer, untangling authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), navigating deliverability, and managing provider trade-offs.

How It All Connects

At first glance, Business Continuity and email deliverability might look like two different worlds. In practice, they are two sides of the same coin: Operational Resilience.

  • The Professional Focus: BC is about keeping operations moving when things go wrong—identifying dependencies, establishing recovery strategies, and embedding a culture of preparedness.
  • The Technical Reality: Email and core internet protocols are the ultimate single points of failure. If your domain authentication breaks, your DNS goes down, or your primary inbox provider suffers an outage, your Business Continuity plan is tested instantly.

I don’t believe email is boring; I think it’s underrated infrastructure. When it works, it’s invisible. When it fails, it fails quietly—and usually at the worst possible moment.

What You’ll Find Here

This blog is my personal space to document what I’m learning and testing across both subjects:

  1. Corporate Resilience & BC: Notes on the BCI Good Practice Guidelines (GPG 7.0), CBCI exam preparation, BIA methodologies, and practical crisis response.
  2. Core Internet Technology: Independent reviews of email providers, privacy-first tools, DNS setups, and deliverability mechanics.
  3. The Intersection: Exploring where formal continuity planning meets the realities of modern digital systems.

I’m independent, not affiliated with any provider, and I pay for the tools I test. My goal isn’t to push a specific app or service, but to make digital systems legible—so you can understand the real trade-offs before an outage forces the issue.

Get in Touch

Have a question, feedback, or a topic suggestion? Feel free to drop me a line:

Disclaimer: All views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the official policy or position of my employer.