SoCal Earthquake: Big Jolt, Little Impact, No DR

Despite the intensity of the quake, there appears to have been little or no damage, and so far there are no reports of injuries. But there are solution providers dialing customers to discuss disaster recovery.

So far the biggest impact seems to be on the nerves.

In the Irvine, Calif.-based 12-story office building where this reporter was shaked, rattled, and rolled for about 30 seconds starting about 11:42 a.m., PST. There was a rush towards the door and elevator by several colleagues who saw the quake as a sign from God that it's time to head out for lunch.

And at this reporter's home, the only damage was a stack of papers in his daughter's room that collapsed as a result of the quake. At least, that is what she said. Given the state of that room, the stack of papers would have collapsed if the fan was pointed in its direction.

A quick check with solution providers from as far north as Valencia all the way through to San Diego found that customers are not implementing disaster recovery plans. In fact, other than some T1 outages that temporarily cut some phone service, there appears to have been no disruptions.

My colleague Kevin McLaughlin forwarded an email from Kevin McDonald, executive vice president of Alvaka Networks, an Irvine, Calif.-based managed service provider, who said the earthquake was just big enough to be fun.

"I actually enjoy the adrenalin and so long as there is no major life or property loss, they can be exciting," McDonald wrote. "This one did last for quite some time so it made me a little queasy. As a Californian born and raised, it wasn't the biggest I have experienced by any stretch, but was certainly enough to get me out of my chair and knock a few things off the walls.

"Actually, it has been really good for us as a company, in that we are calling all of our clients in the area to be sure that they are good to go and it will no doubt cause them to be a little more open to discussing disaster recovery," McDonald wrote. "Cell phones are still only working intermittently on several networks that our employees use, however, we had no interruption in power, Internet or other vital services as a company. . . . Anyway, I hope life is well for you, we are taking it in stride. I will take a shaker over a flood, tornado or hurricane any day of the week."

Mitch Kleinman, president of Ryjac Computer Solutions, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider which offers a multi-tier disaster recovery service to customers, said things were pleasantly quiet after the quake.

"If customers would have had any issues, my cell phone would have been ringing constantly," Kleinman said.

Ryjac offers customers a disaster recovery service with one of four tiers, depending on customer size. For those with no disaster recovery plan, Ryjac offers QuickShip, which, for about $10 per day, guarantees next-day shipment of equipment. The solution provider also offers customers the option of using its data center with their own or Ryjac's equipment, a real-time data replication solution, and a high-availability solution that customers manage on their own.

Bert Shure of the San Diego office of Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based storage solution provider, said he was in his car during the quake, and didn't know about it until his wife called. She had been talking to a friend in Long Beach, about 80 miles or so north of Carlsbad, where she was calling from, when the friend started screaming about an earthquake. A couple seconds later, she felt it, he said.

So for now, at least, Southern California has once again dodged the bullet that is the "Big One" which everyone expects one day to send this part of the country into the ocean, or at least cause massive damage.

But for clever solution providers, the impact will be more long-term, as they should all be on the phone now calling customers to remind them that a disaster recovery could happen any time.