1Vault Networks: A Safe Harbor in a Storm

More South Florida Businesses Seek Continuity Safeguards Following Hurricane Wilma

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 26 /PRNewswire/ — Hurricane Wilma was a moderate yet feisty storm when it crossed the southern Florida peninsula in October of 2005. Rated a small Category 2 storm, Wilma, with winds of 110 mph, was not perceived as dangerous as Hurricane Andrew, a killer, Category 5 storm that ravaged the region a decade before.

Wilma’s aftermath, however, belied its lower category strength leaving behind an estimated $20 billion in damages, clearly exposing heavily populated South Florida’s hurricane vulnerability, where many buildings failed to resist sustained winds barely exceeding 100-plus mph.

Wilma also caused widespread destruction on critical infrastructure, including power and water and sewer systems. Florida Power & Light, the largest utility in the state, reported more than 3.2 million customers had lost power, many waiting 8 to 15 days for restoration. Residents were stranded for days and many businesses were at a standstill, some never re-opening.

“It was a wakeup call,” said Jim Thomas, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. telecommunications industry, who in 2005 was launching off a new business enterprise called 1Vault Networks (www.1Vault.net), a hardened Category 5 hurricane-rated data colocation facility in Fort Lauderdale. “Many of our first customers were local businesses that had learned a hard lesson at the hands of Wilma that businesses are just as vulnerable as homeowners if not more so.”

For Dennis Giordano, President of Fort Lauderdale-based Calvin, Giordano & Associates (CGA), Wilma not only cost his consulting firm $850,000 in damages, but another $1 million in lost business.

“Frankly, we were scrambling to keep our business operating,” recalled Giordano, whose IT team, with the help of rented generator power, managed to create a temporary, jerry-rigged LAN computer system. Company personnel were quickly dispatched to other parts of the state, some sent directly to clients’ offices to continue operations. It was close to a month before CGA’s offices were fully restored.

CGA, which offers a comprehensive approach to engineering, land planning, government regulatory compliance and data technologies and development, ensured its 24/7 capability and data colocation safeguards by moving three servers to 1Vault Networks, where dozens of secured cabinets and custom built cages provide 24/7 365 data backup and internet hosting. The high-tech, 66,000-square-foot 1Vault provides a fully redundant infrastructure with utility power feeds backed by maximum-load generator support, A/C chillers for environmental control and a raised floor data center with full 9′ ceiling height.

“This partnership with 1Vault is especially critical for our many government service programs, including INKForce(R),” said Giordano.

INKForce(TM), software solutions created by CGA for government agencies that need to increase productivity, efficiency and collaboration in the areas of Code Enforcement, Building and Permitting and Fire Inspection reporting, is currently in use by several cities and county governments around the U.S.

For Zimmerman Advertising, an Omnicom Group(TM) company and the 14th largest advertising agency in the United States, Wilma’s wrath also provided the stimulus to seek out a safe haven for the next storm.

Like many other South Florida businesses, Zimmerman’s South Florida facilities in Fort Lauderdale suffered roof damage and interior flooding, along with the inconveniences of no power and having to temporarily relocate portions of its workforce.

“Wilma definitely was the catalyst for us to implement a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, which included migrating business critical data to 1Vault,” said David Kissell, Executive Vice President – Managing Director for Zimmerman Advertising.

Two years after Wilma, Zimmerman, with more than 1,100 full-time associates located throughout the country, installed a large capacity emergency generator capable of powering the main office location in Fort Lauderdale. The firm’s main data location will remain at 1Vault with the company’s heavy CPU creative users located there.

In 2007, Zimmerman relocated portions of its staff using 1Vault’s emergency seats and suites in a non-disaster, yet critically important four-month transition period. Zimmerman, which had significantly increased staff due to the acquisition of a new account, needed a temporary space for media and accounting while new space was being readied. 1Vault’s dedicated emergency seats and suites filled the void accommodating the staff during the interim.

“It was a good, sustained test showing the business, though relocated from its base of operations, can continue serving customers without missing a beat,” said Thomas.

A colocation center or carrier hotel is a secure physical site or building where data communications media converge and are interconnected. A colocation data center services multiple customers, allowing each to locate network, server and storage equipment and interconnect to a variety of telecommunications and other network service providers. These carrier hotels can provide colocation on a massive scale, offering various services to customers ranging from modest-sized racks to dedicated rooms or groups of rooms. Some sites, such as 1Vault Networks, offer hardware and software installation, maintenance, managed and unmanaged servers and suites and seats where businesses can relocate temporarily to ensure continuity to customers in spite of outside conditions.

About 1Vault Networks

The state-of-the-art 1Vault Networks (www.1Vault.net) Data Center, located in Fort Lauderdale, can withstand disruption caused by natural disaster, system failure or human intervention. The company’s comprehensive plan covers business continuity, disaster recovery suites and seats, high-speed IP connectivity, self-contained power supply, support services, Iron Mountain SAN backup and recovery and SAS 70 Type II, Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA audit compliance certifications.

SOURCE 1Vault Networks