Nor'easter Complicates Superstorm Sandy Disaster Recovery

More than a week after Hurricane Sandy (aka Superstorm Sandy), my house in New York regained power on Tuesday. Contributing Managing Editor Jessica Davis and blogger CJ Arlotta also regained power. But now a Nor'easter storm (called Athena) is making life miserable again in the New York tri-state area. For MSPs, it's the latest reminder you need off-premises backup and disaster recovery because customers' on-premises systems continue to be hammered.

Certain areas in New York and New Jersey have been evacuated. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie warned residents that some homes and businesses that regained power will lose it again, and New York Mayor Bloomberg ordered police to use their patrol car loudspeakers to warn residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate, according to NBC New York.

This latest storm complicates a week-long disaster recovery process for MSPs that support customers in the region. All Covered, the national MSP, had more than 100 customers lose power in the region during Hurricane Sandy last week but I believe the situation is under control. And local storage companies like FalconStor have been allowing employees to leave the office at 3:00 p.m. daily. CEO Jim McNiel wants to ensure employees don't have accidents involving downed trees or downed power lines during nighttime commutes. Some roads on Long Island remain blocked by Sandy's destruction.

Now along comes Athena, a Nor'easter storm that has 60MPH winds and could dump six inches of snow in the area. Electricity could go out in some areas, providing yet another reminder for MSPs to investigate off-premise data recovery services that allow customers to restore their networks in the cloud. If the office network is dark or washed away, employees can still work from home or from remote locations while accessing the cloud network.

That's the theory, at least. I wonder how many MSPs in the region will make that a reality.