Data Firms See Dollars in Disasters

The sky looks clear. The sun shines brightly, the light twinkling across the top of the gentle waves lapping at the shoreline.

But at computer data recovery centers in California, all anyone can think about is El Nino.

“It sounds so ghoulish, but disasters always mean good business for us,” said Phil Langford, vice president of worldwide marketing for Vision Solutions Inc. in Irvine. “It’s the kind of thing that few people think about protecting their computer data until it’s too late.”

Experts insist that only preparation for the much-feared winter storm phenomenon--expected to rip the Southland apart in the next few months--can leave a company’s computer system untouched.

Enter Vision Solutions, which makes software that copies and protects data that companies need to access frequently and reliably, such as personnel records, payroll or sales orders.

“It’s amazing what a natural disaster can do to a company that relies on computers,” Langford said. “An earthquake can crush the equipment. A flood can soak it. A fire can melt it. Even a tree branch can send everything crashing.”

That happened last year, when power lines in Oregon, sagging from record heat, dipped into overgrown trees and triggered a massive power outage. Some of the casinos in Las Vegas didn’t have backup systems, and almost everything--from the lights to the slot machines--went dark.

The gaming centers that were prepared, like Rio Suites Casinos, flipped over to their duplicate systems that were stored off-site.

“ ‘Prepare, prepare, prepare’ should be the mantra businesses are chanting right now,” said Scott Gaidano, president of DriveSavers Inc. The Novato-based firm retrieves information from damaged computer systems. “You can’t really trust your computer, and you can’t trust the weather. With winter coming, you have to have a disaster plan.”

If El Nino does soak your high-tech hardware, don’t panic. Gaidano suggests people wrap water-logged hard drives in soft cloth, then a plastic bag.

Don’t try to dry the equipment, as heat and dried water residue can aggravate the damage. Instead, Gaidano said, people should turn to a professional data recovery team and let them salvage the data.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com