IT managers in New Orleans said that many of their supply chain partners outside the Gulf Coast region now are asking them about their disaster recovery plans, since Katrina has raised awareness about that issue.

Sam Canatella, operations manager at Louisiana Steam Equipment Inc., an 80-year-old maker of industrial equipment that is based a short walk away from the Mississippi River in New Orleans, said the large energy firms that make up his company's customer base want more information from him about how to communicate and reach people in the event of another major storm.

Prior to Katrina, Canatella had installed a remote data backup system for accounting information at a facility in Houston, which is connected to the company's main data center via a virtual private network. But he plans to put in a new system over the next year that will allow data replication between three sites: company headquarters, the facility in Houston and another one in Mississippi.

Disaster recovery was always "a side item," prior to Katrina, Canatella said. But the hurricane made him realize that his company's data may be its most important asset. If Louisiana Steam Equipment loses products stored in a warehouse, "I can just call the factory in Michigan and order more if I need to," he said. "But I can't replace the information in the computer."

When it's suggested to IT managers that New Orleans may have unique disaster recovery needs because of its low elevation and location, the response is typically a weary smile. A variety of events can replicate what they experienced -- tornadoes, earthquakes, acts of terrorism -- and they said Katrina's most important lesson is to have a plan that takes into account the utter failure of everything.