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The Evolution of Planning for Disaster Since 9/11

The tragic losses that resulted from the events of 9/11/2001 will be revisited countless times over the next few days as the 10^th anniversary of that day approaches. As with all disasters, intelligence has been gleaned from those dark events, and the vast technological advances that have been achieved over the past ten years can largely be directly attributed to the events of that day.

In all of the wreckage and disoriented calamity that followed the disasters of 9/11, a story about one surviving company has been reported on countless times. Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment services firm that housed its headquarters in One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees in the events of that day. Prior to that day Cantor handled about 25% of the daily transactions in the multi-trillion dollar treasury security market according to Wikipedia. The company also had its primary data center destroyed. The outlook for the then almost 50-year-old firm was grim; however, its migration to electronic bond trading allowed it to not only survive, but also flourish. The determination of the remaining employees of Cantor Fitzgerald was a critical element in their ability to survive, and the technology that they began developing before that day has allowed them to regain a strong foothold similar to the one that they had prior to the attack.

Since that September day almost ten years ago, Cantor Fitzgerald has developed a Disaster Recovery (DR) program that incorporates parallel technology systems that will remain operational in the event that their primary data center is taken out of commission. The concept has spread to many corporations and has proliferated down through the business landscape as technology elements (software/hardware/connectivity/etc.) have become more affordable.

From a business perspective, the events of 9/11 have made companies more aware of the importance of both recovering data and communicating during disasters; regardless of the cause of the disaster. The concept is designed around a methodology known as Business Continuity (BC). A simplified definition of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is a planning exercise that identifies a company’s exposure to threats and puts forth preventative and recovery procedures that provide the company with policies for continuing their normal business operations.

DR plans are an element of BCP that are primarily focused on the IT segment of an organization and the policies, processes, and procedures that are set in place to allow a company to recover from a disaster. Cantor Fitzgerald’s approach to their trading operations is similar to many enterprise organizations today. By leveraging multiple data centers (likely in different regions of the United States), the setup allows an organization the ability to operate multiple “live” data centers with active failover. In the event of a data center disaster, there is little, if any, noticeable disruption in business services as the affected company sources data from a data center with redundant capabilities.

Hurricane Irene, though not nearly as detrimental to the eastern seaboard as initially predicted to have been, was a reminder to many organizations of the importance of disaster preparedness. Organizations have begun to realize that keeping their employees informed during times of crisis is as important as keeping them productive. Not all elements of a BCP have to be expensive. The acceptance of Facebook and Twitter into the business mainstream now allows organizations the ability to connect and inform their employees at granular levels that they have no precedent before now, without absorbing the cost of software.

Small and midsized businesses are also benefitting from advances in technology. 10 years ago, the cost for a small company to leverage offsite data storage was cost prohibitive for most companies. Today, by leveraging virtualization and cloud technologies, these businesses can achieve a high level of recoverable data, relatively quickly, at a cost that is very acceptable. Additionally, advances in technology now allow companies to completely outsource all of their IT needs to a third party that may not be located within their city, state, region, or country.

Remote remediation, colocation, cloud services, tablets, smart phones, and a multitude of other inventions and advancements are allowing employees of traditional organizations freedom from their offices and desks. Unrealized by most end users however, is that these freedoms are, in part, a direct result of preparing for a disaster of the magnitude of 9/11/2001.