Long Disaster-Recovery Mode

The intensity of Katrina is likely to keep companies at their backup facilities much longer than most emergencies. Some companies are talking about staying for two or three weeks, more than double the average time that businesses generally operate remotely during an emergency, says Bob DiLossi, manager of SunGard Availability Services' crisis management center in Philadelphia.

Since Aug. 25, when Katrina approached Florida, more than 120 SunGard Availability Services customers put the company on notice that they might have to use SunGard facilities. As of Sept. 1, 26 companies had invoked the services, with 19 relocating to SunGard locations in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Others have called for SunGard to send mobile data-center trucks or to ship equipment to their own backup locations. Ten SunGard clients began sending key IT people to Pennsylvania and Texas locations last week, DiLossi says. Beyond servers and other data-center infrastructure, a few SunGard clients rented workspace for employees--mostly call-center staff--who need Web connectivity and phone lines. (For more on mobile recovery units, see Recovery On Wheels.)

Despite Katrina's damage, past disasters drove more companies to tap SunGard's services. Hurricane Ivan last year prompted 22 SunGard clients to use its services, and the 2003 power outage brought 66 companies. After Sept. 11, 2001, SunGard received emergency declarations from 121 clients.

--Larry Greenemeier