University Flees Fire with Network in a Box
When fire again threatened to char Santa Barbara, Calif., last month, the IT staff at Fielding Graduate University literally raced flames out of town with its network stashed in a cardboard box safely resting on the back seat of the getaway car.
The return happened at noon on Monday the 11th, five days after they had fled their office. DeWeese and her staff reversed the move process and had the network up and running by Tuesday morning.
Having literally been through a fire drill, DeWeese says she is thankful that the school decided to virtualize its data center, to go to a blade system that she could direct someone to dismantle, to construct a detailed disaster-recovery plan and to choose "really good vendors."
"We deconstructed the disaster-recovery plan afterward and we found we did an exceptional job. Without it we would have been out of business for a week," she said. "When we were building the virtualized network and people were losing sleep, I had no idea it would be so satisfying to get this outcome."
There also were other lessons to stash away if there is a next time.
"And I learned I can get a cheap hotel room in Santa Barbara," said DeWeese.
Follow John on Twitter.
Hardware Systems
Receive the latest security news as it breaks.
