Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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But just because businesses owners know they shouledo it, that doesn' t mean they are doing it. Jeff Porter runs the data managementt forum for the Storage NetworkingIndustryu Association, an international standards organization for electronivc storage companies. He said there hasn'f been a noticeable increase in the number of businessezs backing up their filessince Katrina. "I don't thinkm it takes a lot to convincs people now of the need to back theirfiles up," Porteer said. "But it's still very difficult to convinced them totake action.
" He said that'a because it is such a tedious Even though there are plenty of firms that specialize in storing other companies' information, the nature of the process demands hundreds of "executive" hours, accordingv to Porter. "It's not so much the cost that keeps companiesz fromdoing it," Porter said. "It's the fact that the company's decision-makers have to spenxd their own time figuring out what needsto It's something that can't be delegated.
" But along with other national organizations, say there are severaol steps companies can take to make the process less of a Before a company even starts looking for a third parth storage vendor, it needs to figure out what informatioh is vital enough to be stored. "Therd has to be a formalized collaboratio nbetween management, operations and any business partners involved," he said. "Don't expect it to be a quick process. It's goinbg to take a lot of meetingsd between a lotof divisions." Once a company figuree out what information needs to be kept safe, Porter said it must decide how the informationn should be stored.
He explained that there are differing degrees of access to the information fora business. For an insurance company would want recent claimsz to be more accessible than those made 10yearw ago. Porter said that once this is decided, a companyh can start looking for astorage vendor. He said the best plac e to start searching is throughhis organization' directory, which he said is unbiased and neutral. Other trad organizations, such as Enterprise Contenyt Management Association, also represent hundreds of storagew vendors and make those listsavailablwe online. Porter also recommends getting customer reviews and makinfg sure a vendor hasgood press.
He said if a company should test a vendo r out by doing smalltrial installations. Porter explainexd that companies often use more thanone vendor. "Som vendors are better for storing long-term information," he "Others are better at giving youimmediate access. You have to find the right fit for each portioh ofdata you're storing." To get the lowesrt cost, Porter said many companiesz try to get severak vendors into a bidding war. "But cost isn't the most importantt thing here," he said. "If something happenerd and you had to depend onthe vendor' s services to stay in business, the last thing you'x want is to have compromised quality just so you savec some costs.
" When it comes to how far away a companyh should electronically store its backup data, 15 milesd used to be the rule of thumb. But aftefr the widespread destructionof Katrina, experts say informatiom should be stored in geographic regionss that won't be affected by the same "Katrina not only increased awareness," Porte said. "It also rewrote a lot of the rulez we usedto have. It showed our industr what needed tobe improved." One of thosee improvements, according to Porter, is how often a compant should test its backup plan. He explained that many Katrina-affectex companies had backup plans, but discovered they were out-of-date when the disastedr actually hit.
"A business is constantlh evolving," he said. "And, so are your backup needs." Porter said a company with the assistance of its refresh its backup plan atleastr annually. He said many companies actualltest quarterly, dividing the process up into separate divisions. But Portedr said the biggest mistake companies make, and one that Katrina is that they focus too much on storage and not enougu on recovery. "When you initially sit down you need to figurd out how fast you need to recover whensomething happens, " he said. "You may back everything up but then it takee you 30 days to access it and be up andrunnint again. Many companies can't survive that kind of delay.
" Computers, Technology and Telecommunications