Not everyone is graced with the foresight to know when disaster is waiting to strike. But recently, one Louisiana wholesale supplier of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration products had the wisdom to know that although predicting disaster is nearly impossible, being prepared for its inevitable appearance pays off in a big way.
With their corporate office in Baton Rouge and eighteen branches serving Louisiana and Mississippi, the company made the decision this past July to contract with TECA Data Safe for hosting, backup to the cloud, and disaster recovery plan solutions. Once issues with antiquated image software and internet provider redundancy were resolved, their systems were in place and secure by August 9th.
On August 13th, disaster struck in the form of widespread flooding. Even though their corporate office wasn’t damaged, the rising flood waters were right at their door. However, three of their locations weren’t as fortunate. To compound matters, Beth, the company’s IT manager, was dealing with flood damage at her personal residence at the same time.
Says Beth, “Being able to pick up the phone and get help from TECA right away was a godsend!”
For one company, disaster was averted
Described by the American Red Cross as the “largest natural disaster to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy,” the storm damaged approximately 60,000 homes. Livingston and East Baton Rouge appeared to have suffered the most damage. In Beth’s community of Central (east of Baton Rouge with a population 27,000) over 25,000 were affected by the flood, including 91 percent of the homes and 85 percent of the businesses.
According to Beth, had the refrigeration company not been proactive about their backup and disaster recovery, the result could have been “a nightmare” for their business.
“If our servers hadn’t been backed up to the cloud, our branches would have lost connectivity to our corporate office, access to image software, and access to pricing. The cost of downtime would have been substantial,” she adds. “It would have had a huge financial impact on our company.”
Instead, their unaffected locations were able to conduct business as usual. As for the three branches impacted by the flood, TECA quickly jumped in, put a solution in place, and systems recovered within 48 hours.
Fully recovered
While it’s only a little over a month since the catastrophic floods, the refrigeration company is operating at full capacity.
“I highly recommend TECA Data Safe,” says Beth. “Their knowledge and expertise is top notch, while the technical support has been above and beyond the service level I’ve experienced in my 30 years of IT. TECA spent hours of discovery time to ensure the hosting solution and backup plan were exactly what our company needed. Now, incremental backups are completed hourly and we have a solid disaster recovery plan in place. We know firsthand how valuable that is to the future of our company.”
Surviving an IT Disaster
A disaster recovery plan, sometimes called a business continuity plan, is a critical tool for organizations in this digital age. Yet too many businesses rely on antiquated backup systems, discovering too late that untested processes are often unreliable and inadequate for complete data recovery. In fact, 93 percent of all companies that experience “significant data loss” are out of business within five years.
Now, in an insightful and beneficial white paper, “Ten Key Steps to Surviving & Succeeding After an IT Disaster: Taking action with disaster preparedness and disaster recovery,” organizations no longer have to plan to fail because they failed to plan. Best of all, it’s free.
Request your free white paper now and learn what every organization should do when it comes to IT back up and disaster recovery.
(P.S. Be sure to watch for our December e-news in which we reveal useful information about x86 hosting.)
Disaster Area
A disaster recovery plan makes your organization less vulnerable and better equipped to continue business as usual. How much do you know about DR planning?
True or False?
All DR plans should include details on how employees will communicate, where they go, and how they will do their jobs in the wake of a disaster.
True. Details will vary by industry and business, but these components are essential for a successful DR plan.
Forty-three percent (43%) of companies without a DR plan that experience a major data loss never reopen.
True. A sobering statistic. In fact, only 6 percent of companies without a DR plan survive long-term.
On average, the cost of one hour of downtime for a mid-size business is $74,000.
True. Small companies average a $8K/hour loss while large enterprises can lose as much as $700k per hour!
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