VARs Develop Disaster Recovery Plans For Their Businesses, Too

Gravity Data Systems follows to the letter the recommendations it gives to clients, said David Klauser, president and CEO of the Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., solution provider.

Gravity Data is rebuilding its core infrastructure based on IP-based SCSI replication appliances from Compellent Technologies, Eden Prairie, Minn., with data from file, database and e-mail systems being replicated to GramTel, a South Bend, Ind.-based hosted data center, Klauser said. He expects to complete the process within the next couple of months.

Bredy Network Management, a Woburn, Mass.-based solution provider and small business, follows the advice it gives its small-business customers and has a written disaster-recovery plan that specifies how the company will operate in the event of a disaster, said Eryck Bredy, president of the company. The VAR also does continuous replication of its data to a remote data center seven miles away, he said.

Gordon McKemie, owner of Ohio Valley Storage Consultants, a small Anchorage, Ky.-based consulting firm with two actual employees and multiple virtual employees, said his company still has a ways to grow before it needs to implement the kind of plans he suggests for his clients.

"I'm the cobbler's child," he said, referring to a child whose shoes are made by his father. "A two-man shop. We use DVD and CD backups. I'm still running the company on my own PC."

Several solution providers have implemented data replication to be prepared for a disaster at the office, but with the data only going as far as the boss' home.

Chi replicates its data to the home of Vice President John Thome, said Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at the Cleveland-based company. While Thome's home is less than 15 miles away from the company headquarters, Knieriemen said that it is good enough for an area with practically no danger of a widespread disaster. "It's relative to the risk profile here," he said. "We don't get hurricanes. Our only risk is a fire or a building collapse or a flood."

Forsythe Solutions Group, Skokie, Ill., just became an employee-owned company, and as a result had to show its bankers it has a solid disaster-recovery plan in place, said Michael Croy, director of business-continuity solutions at the VAR. "We have servers replicated in other locations," he said. "With our new VoIP system, I can answer my office phone from my laptop at home, where I have access to all the information I need from remote servers."

Rich Baldwin, president and CEO of Nth Generation Computing, San Diego, said his company replicates internally to disk. It also replicates that data remotely to his home. "I'm in the process of setting it up," he said. "We're adding data snapshots and clone copies of the data. I've got the technology, with dual T1 lines to the house in addition to our cable modem."

Glasshouse Technologies, Framingham, Mass., is a consulting company and so has a limited number of critical applications, said CTO Jim Damoulakis. But it does use multiple data centers and a combination of backups and replication to protect its applications.

"We're playing by the same rules as our customers," Damoulakis said. "Our goal is not necessarily to recover ASAP, which may not be cost-effective. But we make sure our recovery times and capabilities are reasonable. Setting a goal of recovering as quickly as possible is not always the best solution."

Ncell Systems, Minnetonka, Minn., mirrors all its data and backs it up to tape, which is taken off-site, said Kip Lindberg, vice president of enterprise sales.

He knows it is a simple plan, but said that it all comes down to a cost analysis. "A disaster wouldn't impede our business," he said. "If our building collapsed in a tornado, we would need a new location, systems and phone system, but we could be back up in 24 hours."

That confidence comes from the knowledge that, except for blizzards, there is not much that could cause a widespread disaster in Ncell's neighborhood. It also comes from living in the land of IT brokers, Lindberg said. "If I need to, I can drive down the block, talk to someone I've known for years, and get everything I need in a couple of hours," he said. "The thing that would take the longest would be getting Qwest [Communications] hooked up."

The key is to know what kind of disaster to plan for. "Do you know how much I worry about a tornado? Never. There's nothing I can to about it," Lindberg said. "But do I have home insurance? Yes. Can I move to my parent's house? Yes."