When the worst-case scenario became a reality with last week's
terrorist attacks in the US, organisations of all kinds were forced
to re-evaluate how they run their IT shops, providing a possible
boon for several sectors of the IT industry.
The majority of the financial services companies affected most
directly by the collapse of the World Trade Centre had impressive
data recovery and data management systems already in place.
But other companies around the world have not prepared themselves
for a disaster of this scale, and are now turning to data
management providers and video-conferencing vendors to solve
internal issues raised by the crisis.
Carrie Lewis, an analyst at Yankee Group, said: "Now that companies
know what the worst-case scenario is, they are asking themselves,
'could we survive this?' Almost every company out there is
rethinking what they are doing."
Customers are flocking to vendors that provide data-hosting and
data security services, such as Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
Several of the company's clients had offices in the World Trade
Centre, but none lost any of their key information stored in data
centres, said Rebecca Whitener, director of privacy services at
EDS.
But while customers' data was secure, they did require massive
relocation help from EDS, with the company bringing in fleets of
PCs, servers, storage and technicians to help them resume at least
limited operations.
Since the attack, EDS has seen inquiries for its services increase
by about 150%, and it is not just companies in the US seeking help.
Potential customers in South America, Asia and Europe all have
expressed a new interest in outside help to survive a disaster,
Whitener said.
Financial services companies have been reluctant to outsource many
IT functions in the past and will probably continue along that path
because of the kinds of information they manage, said Yankee
Group's Lewis. But companies in other industries - such as energy,
manufacturing and health care - probably will look to strengthen
their data protection abilities.
Penn State University manages information for tens of thousands of
users and had not designed a full-scale data protection plan for
this type of crisis, but may now turn to outsourcing.
When the terrorist strikes occurred on 11 September, school leaders
were in the middle of a meeting to discuss what would happen if
students, for example, were to take over a computer science
building.
"The conversation went from talk about what was possible or
hypothetical to a very serious discussion about what would happen
if someone bombed the building," said Steve Kellogg, director of
the Advanced Information Technologies Centre at Penn State. "It was
a sobering thing. The meeting was a heck of a lot more
serious."
University administrators are now setting priorities concerning
which systems need most protection, and how schools should go about
making sure those systems stay up and running.
Like EDS, several storage companies proved themselves during the
crisis, according to analysts, and those vendors expect to see an
increase in their business over the next few months. Hitachi said
companies would increasingly turn to remote management and
automated back-up features in high-end storage units as a form of
insurance against disasters.
"I think we will really start to see demand pick up in about 60
days from now, when the dust settles and everyone focuses on how we
can do things better," said Scott Genereux, vice-president of US
sales and services for Hitachi.
Hitachi and EMC helped keep data loss to a minimum by providing
storage products that, for example, automatically begin backing up
data to remote centres when they sense temperature changes or power
loss in parts of a building. Even following the World Trade Centre
attacks, these systems were able to back up data to a remote
facility before the buildings collapsed, the vendors said.
Hitachi looks for security companies, airlines, government agencies
and financial institutions to upgrade their storage systems in the
coming months. Some companies may not have assessed their storage
environments in some time, but now will be taking a new look to
find better and more cost-effective options for data
protection.
"Storage has gotten to the point where it financially makes sense
to copy and mirror data," Genereux said. "I think we will see
companies taking their infrastructure to the next level in the next
month or so."
The terrorist attacks have also raised new concerns about business
travel. The new complications of air travel include the
inconvenience of tighter security procedures, reduced flight
schedules and some employees' fear of flying. Companies offering
video-conferencing tools have seen huge increases in their product
sales as employers try to avoid these disruptions.
Video-conferencing service provider V-Span saw an increase in
demand of between 30% and 50% immediately following the attacks, an
upturn that has continued, said Mark Evans, director of marketing
for V-Span.
"In 1991, the industry in general experienced a similar spike
during the Gulf War, when there was a fear of flying overseas," he
said. "At that time there was a real boost in hardware sales."
V-Span, which provides conference connectivity services, has
experienced "a boost across the board," this time, Evans said.