Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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But just because businesses owners know they shouledo it, that doesn't mean they are doinyg it. Jeff Porter runs the data management forum for the Storage NetworkingIndustry Association, an international standardz organization for electronic storage companies. He said there hasn't been a noticeable increase in the numbere of businesses backing up their file ssince Katrina. "I don'tr think it takes a lot to convinc e people now of the need to back theirefiles up," Porter said. "But it's still very difficult to convincd them totake action." He said that's because it is such a tedioux task.
Even though there are plenty of firms that specialize in storing othercompanies information, the nature of the process demandws hundreds of "executive" hours, according to Porter. "It's not so much the cost that keepsz companies fromdoing it," Porter said. "It's the fact that the company'sw decision-makers have to spend their own time figuring out what needszto happen. It's something that can'ft be delegated." But Porter, along with other national organizations, say there are several steps companies can take to make the process less of a Before a company even startes looking for a third party storage vendor, it needs to figure out what information is vitapl enough to be stored.
"There has to be a formalizedx collaborationbetween management, operations and any business partnersa involved," he said. "Don't expect it to be a quici process. It's going to take a lot of meetings betwee a lotof divisions." Once a compant figures out what information needs to be kept Porter said it must decide how the information should be He explained that there are differin g degrees of access to the information for a For example, an insurance compan would want recent claims to be more accessiblse than those made 10 years ago. Porter said that once this is a company can start looking for astoragse vendor.
He said the best plac to start searching is throughhis organization's directory, which he said is unbiase d and neutral. Other trade such as Enterprise ContentManagement Association, also represent hundreds of storage vendors and make thosr lists available online. Porter also recommendws getting customer reviews and making sure a vendorf hasgood press. He said if a company should test a vendod out by doing smalltrial installations. Portee explained that companies often use more thanone "Some vendors are better for storing long-termm information," he said. "Otherss are better at giving you immediate You have to find the righgt fit for each portion ofdata you're storing.
"" To get the lowest Porter said many companies try to get several vendors into a biddingf war. "But cost isn't the most important thing here," he said. "If somethinb happened and you had to depend onthe vendor'x services to stay in business, the last thing you'd want is to have compromised quality just so you savexd some costs." When it comess to how far away a companhy should electronically store its backup data, 15 milezs used to be the rule of thumb. But afterd the widespread destructionof Katrina, experts say informationn should be stored in geographic regions that won't be affecteed by the same disaster. "Katrina not only increased awareness," Porter said.
"It also rewrote a lot of the rulese we usedto have. It showed our industry what needed tobe improved." One of thos improvements, according to is how often a company should test its backup He explained that many Katrina-affected companies had backup but discovered they were out-of-date when the disaster actuallyu hit. "A business is constantly evolving," he said. "And, consequently, so are your backup needs." Portetr said a company should, with the assistance of its refresh its backup plan atleast annually.
He said many companiees actuallytest quarterly, dividing the process up into separate But Porter said the biggest mistake companies make, and one that Katrinaz highlighted, is that they focuzs too much on storage and not enougyh on recovery. "When you initially sit down you need to figur out how fast you need to recover whensomething happens, he said. "You may back everything up but then it takesx you 30 days to access it and be up andrunninv again. Many companies can't survive that kind of delay.
Computers, Technology and Telecommunications