Irene issues disaster recovery reminder

Waking up to damage from Irene after this weekend, residents of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states are probably feeling a range of emotions--relief that it wasn't any worse; sadness at loss of personal property or perhaps even a loved one; shock at the immensity of the re-building task ahead of them. Worrying about how their businesses are affected probably is and should be a little further down the list of considerations.

Still, every time this kind of disaster occurs--whether it's an earthquake, hurricane or tornado--businesses get a not-so-subtle reminder of how important it is to have a disaster recovery plan, particularly one that ensures redundancy of IT services. It's a lesson a lot of companies have learned and that some have learned the hard way, but when the next disaster strikes, you can be certain at least one business will be learning it for the very first time.

Cloud services can be part of the disaster recovery solution, and at this point, most businesses probably know at least a little about cloud services and how they can help in disaster recovery. However, as these businesses look to invest in cloud services, they face a new challenge--figuring out a very crowded and confusing market that contains both public Internet and private network cloud solution service providers, which range from Internet retailers to well-known technology vendors to telephone companies.

What's needed most at this point is clarity, so businesses can make the right decisions. Virtualization company VMware this week is taking a step to help businesses find some clarity in the cloud by launching a Web site to help them find and test offerings from VMware cloud partners. It's one step in the right direction, but if cloud service providers want to truly help their potential customers recover from the next disaster, they need to be honest and detailed about what their services can and can't do. Being clear amid the confusion gives you one less think to worry about with the next hurricane that blows through.--Dan