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The companies responsible for helping build the infrastructures and the clouds that keep customers' IT operations running are battening down the hatches and preparing for the challenges posed as Superstorm Sandy leaves havoc across the northeastern U.S. in its wake.
Vendors are preparing extra equipment and service capabilities and getting ready to provide free or discounted services to help customers keep their operations running or recover downed operations after tropical storm Sandy combined with another Winter storm and local monthly high tides to form what has become known as "Frankenstorm" or "Superstorm Sandy."
Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath could have a huge impact on customers, both in terms of immediate disaster recovery plans and on longer-term recovery of operations, said Larry Velez, CTO and founder of Sinu, a New York-based solution provider.
[Related: Data Centers Go Into Disaster Recovery Mode For Superstorm Sandy]
Sinu last Thursday started working with customers on what was then called Hurricane Sandy to help them prepare for the storm, Velez said.
"We wanted to protect clients against power turning on and off," he said. "And against 'dirty power' when the power came back on. Some customers took advantage of this and shut down equipment on Friday and Saturday. We have remote control ability to shut down their equipment if needed."
Customers in the major East Coast cities impacted by Superstorm Sandy are not worried so much about losing a building, Velez said. "It's damage to the equipment that could be caused by the power switching on and off that is the big problem," he said.
Velez is a big believer in the cloud. "Most of our customers have their email systems hosted on a cloud, so they continue to get their emails," he said.
Sinu works with EMC's Mozy cloud-based data protection service to help provide customers with remote backup and restore capabilities. "Remote backups are important for protection," he said. "Not only do customers have their backups outside their main office, they don't have to worry about local backups running out of capacity."
Vendors of storage and other infrastructure equipment have also been preparing equipment and services in advance of Superstorm Sandy to help solution providers and customers recover operations as quickly as possible.
NEXT: Vendors Roll Out Disaster Recovery Support
