WCF developing East Troy facility to address disaster recovery plans
If you recall all too well the summer floods of 1997 and 1998, you know firsthand that living in southeastern Wisconsin means natural disasters can and do happen.
And the cost of natural disaster damages often go beyond that of structure and contents. Many times such concerns as rebuilding costs, credit lines strain and unemployment compensation can all add strong pressure to the health and future of your business.
And the loss of your data systems due to a vulnerable IS network can be downright deadly.
"Even smaller companies have incrementally become more and more dependent upon their systems being there," according to Bill Farmer, president of WCF and Associates, Big Bend. "And a lot of them have gotten to the point where, if their systems go down for a couple of days, they’re really in a lot of trouble – big trouble. And a lot of them don’t have formal disaster plans in place."
Farmer, president of the 20-year-old enterprise systems integration and consulting company, will be opening a new facility in June banking on that very need. WCF and Associates (www.wcfa.com) has recently purchased four acres containing a 10,000-square-foot former schoolhouse in East Troy that will feature not only the company’s new expanded offices, but four commercial disaster recovery (DR) suites as well.
Located at 8921 Stone School Rd., East Troy, the idea for the new site has been 10 years in the making. "It’s a rather complex and capital-intensive undertaking," says Farmer. "So it’s not something that you just decide to do; you need a lot of things, like back-up generators and a secure facility, reliable communications."
During the 10 years WCF has been building toward the idea, the company informally dabbled in the arena through managing and facilitating a few companies’ DR plans, all the while searching for the right space to house a dedicated DR location. "We’ve been doing it informally for customers for about 10 years, but this is the first dedicated commercial site," he says. "To my knowledge there is not a formal disaster recovery center operating as a business [in Wisconsin]. Certainly not one specializing in the Compaq product line."
Prompted by customer requests, the dedicated site offers a place for clients to test their DR systems on compatible equipment and/or officially "declare an event." That means customers will be able to take their existing backup tapes to the DR site, load them onto an equivalent machine to get their systems up and running (also known as a "cold" backup). Or, customers can opt for a "warm" backup – continuous protection through the transmission of information backed up directly to the DR site each night. "And in that case, we already have your data spinning on our drives," says Farmer. "So in that case, you can come back up literally in a couple of hours. We’re also going to offer replicated data services where a copy of your data is kept at our site."
The importance of this technology is becoming increasingly realized, according to Farmer, who has been in the technology industry for more than 35 years. "One of the things that having a relationship with us will do is it will push your company to consider the ramifications of, say, a water pipe break above your computer room," he says. "And that’s not something that’s up high on the list that people think about."
Vaguely similar to an insurance policy, Farmer notes that an insurance policy only prevents companies from financial harm. "There are a lot of companies now that have become so dependent on their computer systems that no insurance policy in the world can cover them for being out of business," he notes. "And if they’re down for several days they’re simply out of business – they won’t recover from it."
Farmer defines disaster recovery planning, or business continuity as it is sometimes called, as a way to recover from a catastrophic outage. "And it covers a lot of things; it’s not just the data center," he says. "Companies make the mistake of thinking that it’s the only thing they have to protect and plan for. You have to have a place for your people to work. You have to take into account (like in the case of a fire): ‘What am I going to do with my people? Where do my phone calls go? How do I actually stay in business?’"
Which is why each of the four, independently accessible suites are 17×23 square feet – enough space to temporarily keep the business going. "The reason they’re arranged in suites is for security for the clients," he says. "If I have more than one customer in the facility at the same time I don’t want them co-mingling, because company ‘A’ may be a competitor of company ‘B’. And so we have to provide physical separation. … It’s designed so that there’s always a suite available."
Equally as important is testing the disaster recovery or business continuity plan, according to Farmer, so that when or if something catastrophic does happen, there are no surprises and the investment is properly utilized.
The suites are available for "cold" or "warm" recoveries and the availability of services will be market-driven, according to Farmer. "[Clients] contract for a specific set of equipment for a specific recovery time, normally measured in hours," he says. "So I provide that equipment; it’s sitting at the DR site ready for them to declare an event."
The new location consists of three sections built during three different time periods. Farmer is leasing the oldest portion, built in 1858, to some WCF employees who recently opened their craft school and gift shop called the Stone Church Craft Guild.
