Earthquake fears, along with a move by IT manager Sean Anderson to work remotely in Washington state, triggered Irvine, Calif.-based Comarco Inc. to build a disaster recovery center in Spokane late last year.

The decision came about two years after Anderson moved there when his Southern California home was destroyed by wildfires. "Since I'm up here and electricity is cheap in Spokane and rental space is cheap, it made sense," Anderson said.

Once it's completed, the Comarco disaster recovery system will replicate its mission-critical software, which includes MK Enterprise ERP software from SSA Global Technologies Inc., data stored on its SQL Server database, engineering source code and Exchange e-mail data.

Comarco, a provider of wireless products and services, in November installed a disaster recovery system from DoubleTake Software and is gradually replicating more and more data.

San Rafael, Calif.-based Costello & Sons Insurance Brokers Inc., which provides liability insurance for technology firms, has a four-part disaster recovery method that should provide adequate security to the company's data in the event of a minor disaster, but not necessarily a major one, said IT director Steven Perry.