CSCI recently experienced a real-world test of its disaster readiness plan that no one saw coming. The headquarters of the 32-year-old provider of managed IT services and security is located in the Mission Valley area of San Diego, near the meandering and normally tranquil San Diego River. However, San Diego County was hit by a massive rain storm in February of 2017 that set a new record for the most rainfall in a single day during the last 100 years. This storm began as a typical wet winter storm for San Diego, but it soon turned into a major weather event as the storm strengthened and punished San Diego County with over 2.5 inches of rain in one day.
Flooding
The San Diego River overflowed its banks and soon began flooding the parking structure under the building where CSCI’s headquarters are located. CSCI’s offices are located on one of the top floors, so they weren’t directly affected by the water. However, workers weren’t able to access the building due to flooding of the downstairs stairwells and elevator. Furthermore, the rising waters flooded an electrical transformer, resulting in the total loss of power to the building.
Infrastructure
CSCI would have been completely shut down without any way of reaching its clients for four business days had this disaster occurred during previous years. Fortunately, CSCI had migrated to a cloud-based infrastructure, which included VoIP for digital phones, a cloud-based dashboard, helpdesk ticketing system and other cloud-based solutions for monitoring clients. CSCI had also adopted Office 365, which is a cloud-based email and productivity solution. This infrastructure ensured that 95 percent of CSCI’s critical elements of operation remained fully functional during the flood.
Results
CSCI implemented a virtual office environment since it had no power or internet access from its own building. This operational model meant that employees worked from home by using cloud-based dashboards to remotely manage and monitor clients. CSCI used VoIP to forward phone calls to the appropriate support personnel, resulting in no negative impact to email and other communication methods. Separate cloud solutions were also used to implement infrastructure and security for our clients.
No one at CSCI knew they were about to encounter a real disaster recovery scenario when the first drops of rain fell from this monster storm. However, our office became truly virtual without any downtime or other disruption to client support. This disaster recovery drill was unplanned but executed to perfection.
Summary
CSCI has been providing small businesses in the San Diego area with on-site and remote services for 32 years. We also offer commercial-grade IT solutions through our partnerships with companies like HP, Microsoft, Fortinet and Cisco. We provide both monthly managed services and on-site engagements to support our client’s IT needs. Our disaster recovery services include cloud-based solutions such as backups, a daily helpdesk and remote infrastructure management. Contact us today to find out how we can help you with your disaster recovery plan.
