Bay Area businesses preparing continuity plans in event of earthquake

How appropriate. Just as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake is remembered, Bay Area companies are putting together business continuity plans for the next major earthquake, forecasted to hit the area anytime within the next twenty-five years. San Francisco has rebuilt itself since the1906 quake into an economic powerhouse, and is the seat of IT technology in the United States. The possible devastation that could result from a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault has left some business leaders worried, but also moved to action.

Barry Cordoza, head of business continuity contingency planning and disaster recovery at Union Bank of California in downtown San Francisco says that business continuity is only one element in a complex web of worst-case scenario planning. Cordoza, who is member of the Bay Area Recovery Coalition which includes other business leaders from other major banks says, that the problem with an earthquake, unlike a hurricane which can be predicted with some specificity, is that it is an unpredictable natural disaster and the damage that will amount from it is undeterminable until it actually hits. Banks and other financial institutions in San Francisco are also taking notice of the need for planning, because if the brokers and bankers do not have access to the markets and banks, billions could be lost in the event of a disaster.

One part of the plan is to introduce more data centers in different locations, mirrored sites which are able to conduct business as normal with very little notice, “hot sites”—where staff can walk in and start working exactly as they would if they were in their normal location, and plenty of redundancy are essential to continue operations as normal during a disaster, says Cordoza. “If we can’t go one route then we can go another. We have redundant carriers and redundant phones.” Union Bank of California is also looking into using satellites, blackberries, and SMS systems as alternatives, and sharing these initiatives with its head bank Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

“It was only once I was speaking to Citrix I realized this is one of the greatest opportunities for resilience,” said Cardoza. Citrix is an IT company whose products allow employees to work from home, and Cordoza says that bringing the company in was one of the most important decisions in recovery planning.