When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, few actions could protect the region's cities and residents, or their homes and businesses from the storm's force. Boarding up windows made little difference. Locking up properties hardly had an effect. In the end, the use of technology allowed for the most speedy and seamless recoveries.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"I feel the key to any disaster business continuity plan is technology since the circumstances of the disaster most assuredly will strain or disable conventional resources and systems," said Joe Pappalardo, president of Latter & Blum Property Management Inc., in New Orleans.

Being able to protect data, access data and keep communication lines open is vital to the operations of any business when disaster strikes. Business continuity plans focused on technology can help real estate managers prevent incapacitating losses and help their businesses recover faster.

"By utilizing the highest technology available, we can minimize or mitigate the loss and maintain a 'pulse' for a reasonable shot at recovery from the devastation," Pappalardo said.

UP AND RUNNING

Having a reasonable shot at recovery requires considerable thought and careful planning. The first step in developing a technology-savvy plan is identifying and prioritizing key technology-driven operations a business simply cannot do without--like asset tracking or accounting applications, said Alan Sawchak, a senior business continuity consultant with Pennsylvania-based Strohl Systems.

While Sawchak doesn't work exclusively with real estate management companies' business continuity plans, he said it is important for any business to grasp how those processes are interconnected, how they are applied and what personnel and computer hardware are required to operate them.

By identifying the number of critical processes running on a particular technology system and estimating the financial consequences of losing that system, Sawchak said companies can uncover their greatest dependencies.

If a company has 30 different processes and 15 of those are run from the same system, he said that system should probably be recovered first. He also said if a company cannot meet minimum service levels and is going to lose half its revenue from a particular system being down, that system should be recovered quickly.

"What you want to be able to do is identify the most critical processes and try to ensure safeguards are in place so the impact of a disaster is minimal," Sawchak said.

A business impact analysis will help company leaders determine the level of technology necessary to achieve a minimum level of service and have a company up and running in a certain time frame. The analysis should study all of a company's business units, documenting all the technology and recovery a company might need to stay alive.

The Disaster Recovery Institute International in Washington, D.C., offers seminars and forms relating to tackling such an analysis, and software companies like Sawchak's Strohl Systems offer business impact analysis software. Sawchak said completing an impact analysis or turning to a consultant is necessary to create a tailored and appropriate business continuity plan for those uncertain of their technology needs.

Some plans can be quite complicated, going as far as setting up a corporate emergency operations center where key executives can gather to review information on the impact of the disaster and then use that data to make decisions on how to recover. Other plans might simply include having appropriate communications technology to reach key employees.

One thing is certain, Sawchak said: Recovery hinges on the use of technology and backing up a company's key processes.

"We've changed so much as a society and as businesses," Sawchak said. "We rely upon technology to such an extent that we have to have backup plans to recover."

SIMPLICITY SPEAKS

Recovery requires communication. Communications technology like wireless communication devices, walkie-talkies, satellite phones and text messaging are all means of keeping communication intact and keeping a company operating.

Latter & Blum employees in New Orleans communicated with one another in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with wireless communication devices equipped with mobile e-mail and Internet access, Pappalardo said. They also used their cell phones' direct-connect feature, which enabled their phones to operate like walkie-talkies. The system works from coast to coast, and lines don't get jammed like cell phone lines because there aren't as many users.

Pappalardo said his managers were instructed to keep a list of preferred vendors, like those who replace glass, board up windows or pump out water, in each market area. In some cases, the company distributed its direct-connect phones to vendors so staff could contact them with the hope they would respond to the company's properties first, he said.

"We were able to speak with all of our managers and all of our maintenance people no matter where they were to discuss the problems, the properties and so forth," he said.

Satellite telephones and text-messaging systems can also be useful during and directly after disasters. Satellite phones are battery powered and aren't affected by the widespread infrastructure failure often impacting standard telephone and Internet communications associated with a large disaster, said Terry Bruns, CEO of WPS Disaster Management Solutions, Langley, B.C.

He said some phones are equipped with modems to transmit data as well as voice communications. Because the phones run on batteries that can be recharged from portable electrical sources like portable generators or even car batteries, they can function in a power failure.

The text-messaging function on regular cell phones is similar to e-mail--only the text is transmitted from one phone to another. Bruns said text-messaging systems are more robust than voice communication because they aren't as easily overloaded from heavy use. They use very little bandwidth, or data capacity, and many more messages can be transmitted at once.

After Hurricane Katrina, SRSA Gulf South Management in Metairie, La., established an 800 phone number for employees to call and record their emergency contact information--like name, evacuation location, landline telephone number and second cell phone number, said Michael Hilferty, CPM, RPM, director of property management for SRSA. The company's office manager then collected the information and distributed it to employees via e-mail.

"Basically, any additional way we can improve communication among ourselves is helpful," Hilferty said.

Web-based systems also help employees communicate with one another during a crisis. Users log on to a central location so everyone can view the same information--like damage reports, available resources, maps, live video feeds, links to FEMA and internal messages--in real time. The Web-based system may also be linked to local authorities' systems, which might provide information on the status of a building or recovery efforts. The real-time communication fosters decision making.

"Using this virtual system, local and remote personnel can participate in the identification of available resources, decide where to best deploy those resources and ensure that those resources get to where they are needed the most," Bruns said.

DATA DRIVEN

Web-based systems not only facilitate communication but also protect data and make it available from any location--allowing company leaders and employees access to pertinent information without needing to set foot in an office that might not be accessible.

Because SRSA could not access its offices for nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina, obtaining leasing data, which had been stored on paper files, was impossible Hilferty said.

"A lot of lease questions started coming up after Katrina--who was responsible for repairs and things like that. That was a real limiting factor, not having a lot of files available," he said. "What we realized was [that] we needed to make a lot of the information we have electronic so it could be transported. We had to become less reliant on the actual [paper] files."

Latter & Blum, on the other hand, had a Web-based system implemented at the time of the hurricane; the system is still in place. Additionally, the firm's Web-based data is backed up on two computer servers located in different parts of the country.

"That gave me a comfort level, obviously, knowing our data was not sitting in a computer under three feet of water in New Orleans," Pappalardo said.

Employees relocated to the firm's undamaged Baton Rouge offices, where they were able to access contact information for other employees, property owners and vendors--essentially anyone with whom Latter & Blum conducted business.

They were also able to access financial data and insurance files from any computer using a username and password. The firm's risk reduction administrator was able to submit insurance claims on the properties believed to have sustained damage because all insurance certificates were scanned into the database beforehand and were available to staff through Web-based software.

Another option for protecting data involves backing up the data on a separate off-site server in real time, Sawchak of Strohl Systems said. As the data is stored on the on-site server, it is simultaneously stored on an off-site server.

"If your main location has a disaster, somebody can step into the other location and not miss a beat. There would not be any downtime," he said.

Hilferty said although SRSA owners considered using a Web-based system to store and protect data, they opted to store data on their on-site computer server to maintain direct control of the information. The data is backed up to computer tapes nightly, and the controller takes the tapes home every week. The controller can then download the tapes to another computer so employees can access them if the firm's on-site server is unusable.

"This way, with us keeping the back-up [tapes], we feel like we have better control of the information," Hilferty said.

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

Regardless of the route companies take to establish a technology-focused business continuity plan, they must ensure employees learn, understand and embrace the system--which can be difficult, Sawchak said.

"The biggest hurdle from my perspective is ... getting people who are already overloaded with what they do day-to-day to do something that they may not know a lot about," he said.

Tying incentives to continuity planning is one way to get that buy-in, Sawchak said. Raises or bonuses influenced by how well a manager has thought out his or her part of the plan or how much he or she has gotten involved with the plan might be effective, he said.

While any kind of new technology can be intimidating for employees, many communication and data protection systems don't always require extra training.

Latter & Blum employees use the Web-based software in their everyday work, so they understand how to use the system, no matter where the computer is located, Pappalardo said. Employees initially learned how to use the software from a computer trainer. Likewise, he said using the direct connect feature on the cell phone required no extra training.

"Everyone knows how to use a cell phone," Pappalardo said. "It's really no different."

Pappalardo said having the appropriate technology enables his staff to focus on performing their primary service after a disaster, rather than simply trying to find ways to communicate with one another or to reconstruct the necessary data to operate the business.

"We can hit the ground running as a unit and focus on what we've been hired to do, and that is to get the properties up and running," he said.

Karen Wagner is a contributing writer for JPM. Questions regarding this article can be sent to kgunderson@irem.org.

RELATED ARTICLE: Beneath the Surface

Kentucky data center housed in former limestone mine offers security, savings

Companies looking to protect their most critical IT resources should look no further than 30 feet below ground.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

StrataSpace, a Louisville, Ky., company, has developed a 500,000-square-foot data center in a former limestone mine, just outside Louisville city limits. Data centers are facilities where companies lease space to store and manage their servers, networks and computer equipment.

StrataSpace will house servers to back up companies' data in a secure location--geographically unique to the companies' everyday business operations and less susceptible to environmental hazards or disasters.

"We're safe against all types of threats--both natural and manmade," said Don Esterle, vice president of sales and marketing for StrataSpace. "Anything short of a direct nuclear bomb could happen and we would be safe under here."

StrataSpace completed site preparation construction in January. While the space has maintained the appearance of a mine with exposed limestone from floor to ceiling, the lighting, fiber-optic cable, ventilation and backup power systems, along with a few offices, create its modern, high-tech atmosphere.

The floor plan is still essentially an empty slate as StrataSpace has yet to finalize any leases with tenants. StrataSpace is, however, nearing final negotiations with its first tenant, Esterle said.

He would not name the anchor tenant but said it will likely take up 30,000 square feet. He expects the lease to be finalized within weeks.

Once any tenant signs a lease, build out on its individual space will begin. Build out for tenants' spaces in data centers is highly personalized and typically consists of building smaller rooms or compartments within the facility to store the tenants' equipment. Esterle said banks, insurance companies, the federal government, healthcare companies and large public companies are the industries that have expressed the most interest in leasing space.

"These industries are highly regulated," Esterle said. "They are required by various governing bodies to have a high degree of redundancy in order to meet industry guidelines set forth by the various agencies that monitor them."

Esterle said he expects to have national tenants, not just local tenants from the region where the data center is located. He said StrataSpace offers exclusive benefits peaking interest from companies looking to lease data center space.

Security aside, StrataSpace can also offer lower operating costs. Because the data center is housed well beneath ground, the air is naturally cooler--an important element to a space housing so much electrical equipment that heats up fast. Also, Kentucky has among the lowest utility rates in the country, which is appealing to tenants who will be running their operating systems 24 hours a day.

Esterle said the growing need for data storage solutions will ultimately drive companies to turn to data centers-regardless of whether they turn to StrataSpace.

"If you look at the amount of data our economy requires, it is doubling virtually every year because of e-mail, Internet and a host of other reasons," Esterle said. "The reason I'm high on this is because there is a huge need. There is a shortage of data center space, and the world is becoming less secure--not more secure."