Solution Providers Feel Isabel's Impact

"Every day this month has been crazy with phones ringing and business booming, and it has come to a complete dead stop," said Bruce Tucker, president of Patriot Technologies, a security solution provider in Frederick, Md. "It's definitely going to set us back from a business perspective. We're definitely losing revenue," he said.

Weather predictions for the area, about 45 miles outside of Washington, call for at least 10 inches of rain amid 60-mile-per-hour winds later tonight, Tucker said.

Many of Patriot's government customers have closed down their offices today and business appointments have been canceled, but the impact shouldn't be long term, he said. "The federal government is not going to close for weeks, and that's our biggest customer," Tucker said.

At Myriad Solutions, a solution provider based in Silver Springs, Md., some calls are still coming in, but the company will likely be open for only half of today, said Javed Matin, CEO of the company. Myriad's offices are located about 10 miles outside of Washington.

"Most of the offices in Virginia are closing at noon," Matin said. "Government offices have taken a lot of precautions to board the offices up and make sure their properties are secure."

Matin said he expects business to slow down until Monday. "I would hope it won't throw off our quarterly numbers, but it might," he said.

The hurricane is predicted to forge a path across several East Coast states, including North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, bringing heavy wind and rain that could lead to flooding and power outages in many areas.

In regions such as New York City, which just one month ago suffered a blackout that left millions of people without electricity, the impending storm might be enough to spur customers to finally pull the trigger on disaster-recovery and stackable UPS purchases, said Barry Malter, president and CEO of Advantage Technologies, a solution provider in Armonk, N.Y. "If you get hit and then hit again, the left-right combo, then you start thinking maybe you need to take some action," Malter said.