Backing up your company's data: good idea.
Lugging a hard drive back and forth between two offices to back up your company's data: bad idea.
It's a lesson Orlando Diaz learned the hard way when he carried an external hard drive between his REDi Mortgage offices in Kendall and Miami Beach, using it as his primary backup and storage system once every two weeks.
His hard drive wasn't designed to be trucked around town, so when it corroded and broke during his travels, he lost about 20 percent of his client data.
"I thought I was going above and beyond to back up my data, " Diaz said. "But I learned the way I was doing it was archaic."
Backing up data to prepare for disasters is something every business should consider year-round -- whether that disaster is caused by a human or a hurricane. And a recent study shows that many small businesses like Diaz's are not prepared.
The study, conducted by market researcher TNS NFO and commissioned by Delray Beach-based Office Depot, shows 71 percent of small business employees work at companies that do not have disaster preparedness plans; 64 percent without a plan say they don't need one; and one in five businesses do not back up company data at all.
The same study reports that 57 percent of small business executives are not worried about the effect a disaster might have on their businesses. But with predictions of an active storm season this year, Florida companies need to be ready to recover.
Many businesses have the common misconceptions that backing up data is expensive and that it's pointless to prepare for a large natural disaster, said Jon Toigo, disaster recovery consultant and chief executive of Toigo Partners International.
Even companies in the business of data storage learned a few lessons from Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Fort Lauderdale-based DataCore Software was down 21 days after Wilma destroyed its office. The company sells software for virtual data storage, and even it learned "very hard lessons, " said George Teixeria, its president and chief executive.
One of those lessons was that preparing for a storm requires more than just backing up data. It involves looking at how to restore telephone and Internet systems and data-center operations. In DataCore's case, the company had the information but couldn't get online right away or get power to access it.
Being prepared also should include a plan on how to get computers working to pay employees. AlphaStaff, a Fort Lauderdale human resource outsourcing firm, was hit hard during Wilma, but its servers in Atlanta were still able to give clients paychecks.
Weston-based Fairway Consulting Group works with DataCore clients in helping them set up disaster preparedness plans, and President James Price III said a majority of businesses don't know how to restore their files if they ever would need to.
"If you have a disaster recovery plan that you never have tested, then you might as well not have a plan, " Price said.
Virtual data storage involves backing up files at a remote location, but the files are not tied to a particular machine. The information can be accessed anywhere, giving businesses the ability to operate from other locations if necessary.
Virtualization is the newest and fastest-growing form of data backup, but it's not the only option. Removable media devices, such as external hard drives, DVDs and tapes are widely used by small businesses. The Office Depot survey reports that 52 percent of their respondents use removeable media as their backup systems.
Hundreds of South Florida companies go a different route and house their servers in Terremark's NAP of the Americas in Miami, which the company boasts can withstand Category 5-force winds and has several sources of backup power.
"Right after Hurricane Wilma, we had multiple people show up at the building with their equipment . . . practically with credit cards in hand, saying, 'Let me in. Let me in, ' " said Marvin Wheeler, chief operations officer for Terremark.
MANY UNPREPARED
Wheeler said although Terremark is an advocate for businesses preparing ahead of time, dozens of companies still fail to establish disaster plans until they come face to face with a crisis.
In May, Terremark boosted its standing in the data-storage industry by acquiring virtualization technology company Data Return. Virtualization and utility computing is a fast-growing market, and one that Wheeler said will revolutionize the way businesses store data. But it isn't always the cheapest option.
So how does an IT manager choose which method is best for his or her company?
"The most important key is they need a good understanding about what is it that they need to protect, " said Alvaro J. Prieto, vice president of managed services and infrastructure solutions with Auxis, a technology consulting firm in Coral Gables. "That's one thing a lot of companies really fail to figure out."
TIME FACTOR
A business shouldn't base a decision solely on the cost of a data backup system, but rather also on how long it can afford to go without that information. For example, media storage devices like tapes are usually sent off site. It takes time to retrieve that information, ship it back to the office and install it.
"I haven't seen one single company that has a disaster recovery plan that is documented that showed how they are going to recover in terms of different types of disasters and the time frames and tested it, " Prieto said.
And there is no excuse not to have a plan with backup technology getting significantly cheaper, said Mariano Lora-Ospina, a business technology consultant with Best Buy in Miami.
"People were worried about cost versus benefit, " Lora-Ospina said, but added that he noticed the cost of backup systems had dropped a couple hundred dollars since January.
Even with prices declining, Diaz -- the former hard-drive traveler -- is using Lora-Ospina as his consultant.
Diaz said he definitely learned his lesson.
"I'm ready to allocate any funds necessary to protect my files, " Diaz said.
