Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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But just because businesses owners know they shoulddo it, that doesn't mean they are doing it. Jeff Porter runs the data managementf forum for the Storage NetworkingIndustry Association, an internationa l standards organization for electronic storager companies. He said there hasn't been a noticeable increaser in the number of businessesd backing up their filessince Katrina. "I don't think it takeds a lot to convince people now of the need to back theirffiles up," Porter said. "But it's still very difficult to convince them totake action." He said that's because it is such a tedioues task.
Even though there are plenty of firmxs that specialize in storingothee companies' information, the nature of the process demands hundreds of "executive" hours, according to Porter. "It's not so much the cost that keepzs companies fromdoing it," Porter said. "It's the fact that the company' decision-makers have to spend their own time figuring out what needto happen. It's something that can't be delegated. But Porter, along with othetr national organizations, say there are several stepa companies can take to make the proces less ofa hassle.
Before a companyu even starts looking for a thired partystorage vendor, it needs to figure out what informationn is vital enough to be "There has to be a formalized collaboratiob between management, operations and any businesw partners involved," he said. "Don't expect it to be a quick It's going to take a lot of meetingw between a lotof divisions."" Once a company figures out what information needs to be kept safe, Portefr said it must decide how the information shoule be stored. He explained that there are differing degrees of accessz to the information fora business. For example, an insurancde company would want recent claims to be more accessible than thosr made 10years ago.
Porter said that once this is a company can start looking for astorage vendor. He said the best placwe to start searching is throughhhis organization's directory, whicu he said is unbiasedr and neutral. Other tradse organizations, such as Enterprise Content Management also represent hundreds of storage vendors and make those listsaavailable online. Porter also recommends gettinhg customer reviews and making sure a vendor has good He saidif possible, a company should test a vendoe out by doing small trial installations. Porter explainesd that companies often use more thanone vendor. "Some vendorsd are better for storinyg long-term information," he said.
"Others are better at givinb youimmediate access. You have to find the right fit for each portion ofdata you're storing." To get the lowest cost, Porteer said many companies try to get severalk vendors into a bidding war. "But cost isn't the most important thing here, he said. "If something happened and you had to depenfd onthe vendor's services to stay in the last thing you'd want is to have compromised quality just so you savef some costs." When it comes to how far away a compan y should electronically store its backup data, 15 mileds used to be the rule of thumb.
But aftefr the widespread destructionof Katrina, experts say informationh should be stored in geographixc regions that won't be affected by the same disaster. "Katrinaq not only increased awareness," Porter "It also rewrote a lot of the rulex we usedto have. It showexd our industry what needed tobe improved." One of thosed improvements, according to Porter, is how often a compant should test its backup plan. He explained that many Katrina-affectecd companies had backup plans, but discoverefd they were out-of-date when the disaster actuallyt hit. "A business is constantly evolving," he said. consequently, so are your backup needs.
" Porte r said a company should, with the assistancwe of its vendor, refresh its backul plan at least annually. He said many companies actuallytest quarterly, dividintg the process up into separatw divisions. But Porter said the biggestf mistakecompanies make, and one that Katrina highlighted, is that they focu too much on storage and not enough on "When you initially sit down you need to figure out how fast you need to recovef when something happens," he said. "You may back everything up but then it takeds you 30 days to access it and be up andrunniny again. Many companies can't survive that kind of delay.
" Technology and Telecommunications