Illinois MSPs On Alert During Tornado Disaster

MSPs based in Illinois braced themselves for a tremendous tornado that touched down Thursday night in DeKalb County.

Executives of managed services providers said their clients were in good hands, thanks to RMM solutions, backup systems and cloud applications that are consistently used.

"We were on alert all night monitoring the situation," said Mike Broski, president of Entre Computer Solutions, an MSP based in Machesney Park, Ill. "We had a few incidences of issues, but were able to remote in to make sure our clients were up and running. We had some wind damage, obviously, so Internet connection was up and down. But in regards to the business community that we cater to, there were no major issues."

[Related: MSP Alliance Study: 2014 North American MSPs Generated $154B In Revenue]

The tornado touched down about 7 p.m. Thursday, destroying 15 to 20 homes, and damaging about 20 others. One woman was killed and 11 other people were hospitalized. Because the tornado hit in a rural area of Fairdale, Ill., as opposed to a metropolitan area, MSPs were thankful that the devastating disaster had a minimal impact on their clients.

"This was a tremendous tornado but it was in a remote area, so it didn't affect us like it did before," Broski said. "We started our alert situation at about 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, so we were able to help out if there were issues, but based on where the tornado hit, our clients were fairly lucky. We’ve had some tremendous storms go through here. ... The big thing is redundancy. We have backup systems, generators and redundant connections to the Internet. If AT&T goes down, it bails over to Comcast. Typically, they don’t both go down at the same time. In the event that this does happen, we’re ready."

MSPs said they have personnel in place to monitor networks 24 hours a day to help clients in any situation.

Cohen Barnes, president and CEO of SundogIT, an MSP based in DeKalb, Ill., said that the storm did not impact his clients, but his staff was ready in the event of disaster.

"It’s all the old Boy Scout adage, 'Be prepared. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst,' " said Barnes. "Our monitoring tools obviously monitor individual locations and servers themselves. We have our technicians on alert. We definitely prepared for it. ... In this day and age, any IT firm provides business continuity to their clients. Even if the tornado hit our clients, we could have had our clients up and running today with backups if they needed it, but no one was impacted in terms of clients. Thank goodness."

Barnes said many of his friends live in the areas affected by the tornado, and many were hiding under shelter as they watched it go by.

"Having been in business for 25 years, I've seen the IT industry evolve," he said. "Programs like Microsoft Office 365 really helps, [and] Microsoft Lync, which helps people work remotely. Even our phone system is a remote solution so everyone could take calls during an emergency. People can access their data and make calls from the comfort of their homes. The right RMM tool. When you have the right tool ... to maximize your ability, it can be a very powerful platform."

Tim Ancona, CEO of Ticomix, an MSP based in Loves Park, Ill., said his business is constantly monitoring the systems of clients regardless of an impending disaster. He said that if his business needs to do something different when a tornado is in the forecast, his company is doing something wrong.

"We have pretty comprehensive backup recovery processes in place," said Ancona. "When it’s coming, the last thing we want is people working on their systems. We want people to know systems are secure and the backups are off-site, so they didn't have a lot to worry about from a continuity basis. What’s interesting is we really don’t do anything different. Our normal course of business prepares us. We have that plan built into our DNA."

PUBLISHED APRIL 10, 2015