Disaster and Recovery

Let's face it: 2001 was a disastrous year for the data center industry. In 2002, as the industry seeks to recover from that disastrous year, many providers are embracing disaster recovery as the key.

With the colocation market dead in the water and the IBMs and Sprints of the world capturing much of the managed hosting business, what else is left? In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist atrocities, disaster recovery figures to be one of the few active growth markets left for data center providers.

This week Inflow and Cervalis ramped up new marketing efforts targeting the disaster recovery market. In its press release, Inflow noted a recent Gartner study asserting that less than 25 percent of enterprise businesses have implemented a disaster recovery plan, and that the remainder "intended to establish such plans in the next three years."

Seventy five percent is a big number. But three years is a long time.

There's no arguing that Sept. 11 prompted a flurry of activity among companies seeking business continuity solutions. But now, four months later, have those knee-jerk reactions evolved into finite commitments for services? Or is the initial excitment easing as companies continue their financial belt-tightening to weather the recession? It may take a while to quantify the real opportunity in disaster recovery (beyond analyst speculations, anyway).