Selling Preparedness

HARD LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE GULF COAST

Solution providers along the Gulf Coast developed new strategies after Katrina, and earlier this fall, Hurricane Gustav was the first big test to see whether the changes would prove successful. Several VARs said all their hard work paid off.

One of the big lessons from Katrina, said Bill Long, president of Integrated Network Systems, a Metairie, La.-based solution provider, was that customers who backed up their data locally couldn't get to it or lost it after that 2005 storm. Customers kept tape drives in bank vaults or on local off-site servers, thinking that even if the power went out, they could get to the office to retrieve them. Of course, in many cases that couldn't happen as parts of the city were shut down for weeks, and even months.

This time, small-business customers took their servers or tapes with them or, even better, made sure their data was backed up in another part of the country, Long said.

"We went around to a half dozen or so customers and unplugged their servers after we did images of their OS and tape backup," Long said. "Every single [customer] is better prepared now."

Global Data Systems, a Lafayette, La.-based solution provider, took that a step further. After Katrina, the company purchased 10 mobile, 5-foot-by-8-foot trailers that have satellite capability and can run on generators. The trailers provide customers with their rerouted voice traffic, Internet and e-mail, just as they would in a regular office, said Chris Vincent, senior vice president of Global Data Systems.

"It's got a 1.2-meter dish on it. We pull it up anywhere, run a cable inside. It's been great. We also have some 26-foot mobile offices with generators," he said. Global Data Systems marketed the units as insurance policies for "a couple hundred dollars a month" in case of a disaster, Vincent said. After Gustav, he had more demand than trailers, and the solution provider also rented them to customers who need voice and data access in hard-to-reach places, such as off-shore oil rigs or in the Bayou, Vincent said. Prior toGustav, solution providers like Global Data Systems also had their own business-continuity plans in place.

"We're just more prepared now, in general, from communications with employees, to figuring out how to pull these guys together. We have different levels of evacuation," Vincent said.

Meanwhile, Universal Data Inc. helped clients by securing space in two Baton Rouge data centers for a month before Gustav arrived. Prior to the storm, the New Orleans-based solution provider helped back up several clients' mission-critical information and applications to the data center, said Jim Perrier, president of UDI.

While Baton Rouge got hit harder than New Orleans this time, and the data centers were running on generators, UDI's customers didn't miss a beat.

--Scott Campbell