FOR MANY SMALL Asian businesses, being prepared for data loss or system failure goes no further than occasionally backing up some critical data to tapes or disks, taking these home for safekeeping and dusting them off to bring back to the office when a problem occurs. Never mind whether the backup media has been stored correctly and safe from household pets, or the business owner is on holiday when disaster hits. A Gartner survey last year found that many businesses did not even bother to take backup media off-site, but kept it on the premises where it could be vulnerable to calamity. Gartner senior research analyst Adam Couture said: 'Nearly 60 per cent of low-end respondents and 80 per cent of high-end respondents back up their servers to a local device. 'As a consequence, any catastrophic event destroying their primary server would likely destroy the backup media as well. 'These practices should provide plenty of ammunition for remote recovery and backup services, and most managed backup service providers target medium-sized businesses with a value proposition of securing their backup data off-site.' One company that does just that is Recall, a global group which has its headquarters in the United States. At its Yuen Long Information Centre, magnetic media is stored in secure, fireproof air-conditioned vaults equipped with inert gas fire-control systems. Fast retrieval for clients is routine. Films and videotapes are other products stored by Recall under strictly controlled and secure conditions. Off-site storing, retrieving and the secure destruction of paper documents is another important part of the firm's business continuity services. The mainstay clients of Recall's US$800 million global business are lawyers, with scores of filing cabinets and thousands of documents in grade-A office space; banks, with valuable title deeds to thousands of properties; online traders, with paper share certificates; and insurers, with thousands of customer contracts that must be retained. There is more paper around than ever before, and companies that create the documents are not necessarily equipped to store them. Recall has the professional know-how and the facilities to protect clients' documents and enable access to them over their life cycle, from creation through to their secure destruction. For clients, off-site storage is more secure and more economic than the in-house alternative. Recall's clients pack their own files into cartons that are then taken to the company's secure Information Centre for bar coding, then the contents are recorded in a Web-based system that is shared with the client. The documents are secure because the warehouse may hold a million cartons that can be identified only by reference to a secure computer program. Cartons are couriered back to clients the day after a retrieval request, but it can be done in three hours for a small extra fee. Another service is document scanning, which reduces the large storage volume to easily retrieved digitised data. One reason document storage services are flourishing is because of new laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, which require enterprises to retain access to information sources. There have also been media reports showing how data theft can threaten the public. 'By gaining access to personal information, such as birth dates, account numbers and social security numbers, identity thieves can open up credit accounts and transfer funds by assuming the identities of their victims,' Mr Couture said. Compliance could be costly, said Andrew Smith, Recall's general manager, North Asia. 'Years ago, when I worked in the United States, the Department of Energy required that certain documents associated with their work be stored in fireproof vaults. It cost my company tens of thousands of dollars to build these facilities. Had we known about it, we would have jumped at Recall's service.' Many documents, such as tax records, can be destroyed after seven years, and this can be executed securely and completely by Recall employing bulk shredding operations. Another growth area for Recall is holding clients' intellectual property in escrow, to be released only against predetermined conditions. For example, software source code is often the subject of collaborative agreements between owner and licensee, with access allowed only by agreement. Recall holds the IP on computer tapes or storage disks, and releases it against the appropriate documentation. 'Lawyers often offer an escrow service, but they are not well equipped to store, process and handle the various forms of storage used for IP. They can benefit from Recall's expert services,' Mr Smith said. Recall can also help prepare a business continuity program and a disaster recovery plan, using Recall's OnPlanSM solution that operates round the clock all year. The plan includes the provision of secure, off-site protection, rotation of backup data and fast, accurate retrieval. Recall itself has a 37-page business continuity plan for its worldwide facilities. It is a model of comprehensive preparation in case of adverse circumstances.
