When hundreds of homes burned in Montecito, the flames neared a cluster of financial advisers and other businesses that depend on data for their livelihood. Though none of those firms burned, the fire spurred companies to re-evaluate their IT disaster preparation plans.
 

John Hunt, head of Santa Barbara-based IT firm CompuVision, said he’s spoken to four clients in the last two weeks, and heard interest from more, about how to guard their networks against the worst case scenario.

“Disaster preparation has been on everyone’s mind since the Tea Fire,” Hunt said, adding that although none of his clients’ businesses burned, rolling power outages and spikes caused “tens of thousands of dollars” in damages to drives, switches and back-up batteries.

With storm season still ahead and the ever-present danger of earthquakes, the Business Times asked IT experts from throughout the Tri-Counties what small and mid-sized businesses need to know to ensure their valuable data survives and their operations can get back on track after a disruption.

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