Disaster Recovery Takes Center Stage

In the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in the U.S., disaster recovery companies providing storage backup and other information technology services are helping get businesses back online as quickly as possible.

Comdisco Inc. (NYSE: CDO), a provider of backup facilities and one of the largest resellers of storage networking gear from EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), is currently assisting 47 corporate customers who were affected by the attacks and their aftermath.

The firms have relocated 3,000 of their employees to 13 of Comdiscos 23 recovery centers in the U.S. Additionally, three financial institutions are renting mobile data centers -- customized trailers with diesel generators -- from Comdisco.

Most of these affected customers are banks, insurance companies, and brokerage houses. Many were in New York and at least six were in the World Trade Center. But other customers' operations were disturbed due to building evacuations in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta, Comdisco reports.

All of these customers all hold contracts with Comdisco that specify the type and amount of assistance they'll receive from the service provider following a disaster. Unfortunately, few expected their contracts to be put to the test so soon.Fortunately, Comdisco's been prepared. In July, the company opened a 302,000-square-foot service center in northern New Jersey. The building is equipped with 1 million feet of Category 5 cable. Eight miles from that facility is another 160,000-square-foot center for mainframes.

"We have a circuit capacity equal to 250,000 56-kbit/s modems," says Bob Bryar, Comdisco’s chief technology architect for storage services. Comdisco, with 45 centers worldwide, is currently using about one-third of its overall recovery capacity.

SunGard Planning Solutions, another provider of disaster recovery services, has had 30 customers impacted by the disaster, including seven in the World Trade Center and many in adjacent buildings. "Another ninety have alerted us that they may also need assistance," says vice president of marketing Dave Palermo.

SunGard offers its customers three different types of service agreement. At the cheapest level, SunGard promises to begin data recovery within 48 hours. The midrange level uses EMC’s SRDS software for synchronizing data after a disaster. The top-of-the-line service mirrors all data at remote locations so customers can immediately be back in business. Most of the financial institutions had the highest level of service. And SunGard says that's why many were still operating immediately after the disaster.

Storage equipment vendors are also directly involved in getting businesses back on track. EMC, for example, says it's got its own disaster recovery services deployed and is helping customers to set up their data there. The company is also assisting customers like Comdisco with their efforts.Immediately following the attacks, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) loaded up 10 large trucks in California with servers, storage equipment and various components meant to shore up supplies in Boston and New Jersey warehouses.

Sun also set up two command centers - including one in Somerset, N.J. -- to assist with recovery efforts. Two days after the disaster, Sun also set up a toll-free hot line (800-USA-4796) and a special Web site (accessible from its homepage). Over 1,500 Sun employees have been dedicated to recovery assistance.

Sun also assisted a stock brokerage that was crippled by the blast by taking Unix workstations from Sun education and training centers in New York and Massachusetts and using them to replicate a trading floor for the brokerage.

"Sun delivered the equipment within twenty-four hours of the blast," says Kevin Coyne, director of Sun’s business office for enterprise services. The brokerage operation was up and running in two days.

Sun isn't alone in taking the initiative. Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT; Paris: PHA) has shipped products to backup sites for several securities firms, an airline, and the government. And spokespeople says Hitachi's prepared to ship as much product to as many customers as the situation requires. “We’re doing what anyone would do,” says U.S. general manager Jim Davidson.As important as disaster recovery is, the issue pales in comparison to the loss of life. SunGard still hasn’t heard from some of its clients that were in the World Trade Center. And in a horrid irony, one Comdisco customer lost its entire disaster recovery staff in the disaster.

— Tom Davey, special to Byte and Switch, http://www.byteandswitch.com