Most companies are going through ever-greater lengths to ensure that they can recover their primary data centers. They are creating recovery plans, building disaster recovery sites and, in some cases, actually testing them to make sure they work. It can be economical to go with a collocation facility that not only acts as a disaster recovery site, but also houses some of our business applications.

Without a collocation facility, in almost every case, you'll still need people to carry out the recovery. So when I was recently told by an individual familiar with the situation in New Orleans that some corporate managers had not considered what would happen if no one came in to carry out their company's disaster recovery, it makes me wonder what they are thinking.

Granted, major disasters like Hurricane Katrina don't happen every day, but they do happen, and most enterprise shops now need round-the-clock availability. And like it or not, relying on people to show up at a specific data center by a certain time to execute a recovery plan in the middle of a crisis reveals a certain lack of foresight.

In these situations, the first thoughts on the minds of people affected by a disaster are the survival and welfare of family and friends. While conscientious employees generally do not forsake going to work when tragedy strikes, showing up for work may not be their top priority.