When Seeds of Peace's building was destroyed, it looked like the end for the nonprofit organization. Fortunately, its managed service provider had a disaster recovery plan in place and the organization was not only back in business after a few hours, but also didn't lose any of its precious data.
When an underground steam pipe exploded right near Grand Central Station in New York City on July 18, 2007, it looked like the end for Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit organization that helps teens from conflict-ridden regions learn the skills of making peace.
Fayth Centeno, the office and HR manager of the organization, was still at home but her sister called to tell her. "I saw my building on TV and there was steam all over. But I thought we'd go back the next day," she says.
But fate can be cruel, even to a nonprofit organization.
Utility provider Con Edison next shut off the power to the building, and then removed Seeds of Peace's servers. "Fifteen years and there was nothing left," says Centeno. The situation was exacerbated when asbestos was discovered, further delaying employees from returning to the building.
But all was not lost, thanks to a back-up plan that Seeds of Peace initiated when the organization decided to outsource its IT.
Data Was Backed Up -- Off-Site
In a panic, Centeno called Mindshift Technologies, the organization's managed services provider, and discovered that because all the data Seeds of Peace had was backed up off-site, it was all safe. Mindshift also transitioned Seeds of Peace's 47 employees to a hosted server to get the organization up and running again, and then set them up with new servers.
"We didn't lose anything," says Centeno. "It was priceless."
Managed services providers aren't free, but many smaller companies can't afford in-house IT. Centeno says that Seeds of Peace spends $6,300 monthly on IT expenses for its 33 employees plus 14 consultants. Paul Chisholm, CEO of Mindshift, says that typically businesses spend between $70,000 to $100,000 annually on their services, about the salary of one IT employee, but they receive the expertise of an IT staff.
IT Expertise, Remotely
Companies like Mindshift provide the IT expertise through remote access -- a convenience that is often worth its monthly costs to smaller companies. According to Howard Marks, founder and CEO of Networks Are Our Lives, an IT consulting firm, with managed service providers smaller businesses get the advantages of IT tools that the big corporations use without the IT investment. The set fees of managed services also mean predictable expenses for smaller businesses -- and a service that employees will actually use. "The service contract model works for smaller businesses," he says. "Users don't have to get approval to call IT, so they will call more often."
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Smaller businesses often don't have in-house IT staff, so by the time there's an IT issue that requires a consultant it's usually expensive because there was no preventive maintenance. "When you sign up with a managed service provider they get alerts if there's a problem," says Marks. "There are minor things that go wrong that you don't see. Your managed service provider gets an e-mail if, say, your mirrored hard drive is down."
And in the event of a disaster, the recovery process is indeed invaluable.
As is typical of most smaller businesses, Centeno says that when Seeds of Peace was looking to ramp up its IT infrastructure four years ago, the organization wasn't thinking as much about disaster recovery as the need to network the disparate parts of its growing organization. With offices in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and New York City, as well as consultants all over the world -- in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and India, to name a few places -- quick and productive communication was essential to the company's smooth operations.
Next Page: A New IT Infrastructure Leads to Outsourcing
