When Disaster Strikes
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many business owners and IT managers are looking at DR (disaster recovery) and determining the best plan to put in place in situations of emergency. In the case of Hurricane Sandy, some businesses might not be able to reopen doors for weeks or even months after the storm. Determining how to best backup data and allow employees to work off-site is key for construction companies today.
Kevin Hicks, vice president of IT, M.J. Harris, www.mjharris.com, Birmingham, Ala., says, “At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself the following question: How important is the technology and data to my company’s business continuity?”
Hosting technology and data on premise poses a bigger risk, according to Hicks, simply because getting an office back up and running after a hurricane can take quite a bit of time. For many construction companies, virtualization is a top priority today.
M.J. Harris has taken the necessary steps throughout the past year to upgrade its technology infrastructure, but still has bigger plans for the future. With virtual servers, M.J. Harris is able to free up costly hardware infrastructure, and add flexibility to how it approaches backup and recovery. Hick has an even bigger vision for the future though, saying, “Having an off-site disaster recovery location is on our master plan, but in light of recent events, I am inclined to move that up on the timeline, if possible.”
M.J. Harris isn’t the only construction company looking at its disaster-recovery strategy. Many construction companies are considering how virtualization and cloud-based storage can help following Hurricane Sandy.
While Hill Intl., www.hillintl.com, Marlton, N.J., wasn’t directly impacted by Hurricane Sandy like other areas on the East Coast, Shawn Pressley, senior vice president and chief information officer, Hill Intl., says the event has caused the industry to examine a big trend as a result. This involves not only identifying how to recover from a natural disaster, but also determining how technology can help a company adapt and cope.
“In general, I think you are going to see a bigger push on disaster recovery,” says Pressley. “For us, most of our stuff is on virtual servers. We can move a server and data relatively quickly to keep our office and everything moving.”
Virtual servers and cloud-based storage systems can help construction companies not only protect data in cases of emergency, but also allow businesses to get up and running faster following a hurricane or natural disaster. Now is a good time to put a DR plan in place and consider how technology might enable backup and recovery of data.
As Hicks says, “I think the lesson to learn here is you don’t want to have all your proverbial eggs in one basket. Now is a great time to reconsider how you manage your technology infrastructure.”