Dodging Disaster

Tony weres, like most people, has the events of 9/11 indelibly etched into his mind. He remembers the smoke, ash, and human suffering. Yet he also recalls the pain and helplessness that many New York-area companies felt. “I saw how panicky it could become when a company has its systems down and its data unavailable,” Weres recalls. “People were scrambling to keep their businesses up and running—even while the city was in lockdown mode.”

He recognizes that a fine line exists between business continuity and breakdown. “Too many SMBs have inadequate solutions in place. They wind up being reactive rather than proactive,” says Weres, the director of managed services for Total Tec Systems Inc., an Edison, N.J., VAR and systems integrator that services the eastern United States. As a result, he explains, “Important disaster recovery issues get pushed onto the back burner and companies expose themselves to danger. If a disaster occurs, they’re in trouble.”

Disaster recovery is an issue that no company can ignore. A flood, fire, earthquake, hurricane, or other natural disaster can cripple or destroy an organization if data is lost or systems can’t operate. Power failures, hack attacks, and terrorism can wreak havoc as well. While it’s tempting to dismiss disaster recovery as an issue primarily affecting large enterprises, SMBs are also at risk. “One unexpected event can take a company down,” warns Greg Schulz, a senior analyst at The StorageIO Group.

The upshot? For VARs and integrators, disaster recovery and business continuity represent an opportunity … and a challenge. Many SMBs simply aren’t equipped to make decisions about buying and IT management. What’s more, a spate of companies offering a tangle of products and services—including EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Imation, QLogic, Quantum, Overland, Symantec, and Sun- Gard—can make decision making more complicated.

Worse, many SMBs are hampered by tight budgets and a sense of complacency. In the daily crush to get products out the door and ratchet up revenues, the next tornado or terrorist attack may seem like a remote possibility, and planning for either is a costly option. As John Merryman, services director at Framingham, Mass.-based consulting firm GlassHouse Technologies Inc., puts it: “For many SMBs, disaster recovery and business continuity fall near the bottom of the food chain.”

BEYOND TECHNOLOGY
The instantaneous and global nature of business and communications has transformed disaster recovery and business continuity into a headline issue. A decade ago, a service disruption might prove inconvenient, but it probably wouldn’t take down a business. Telephones, faxes, and conventional mail would fill the void. That’s no longer the case. According to an IDG Research survey, three-quarters of all companies now face a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 24 hours, and the window is shrinking rapidly. In fact, a few SMBs in financial services or e-commerce rely on real-time data availability.