The great earthquake that destroyed the turn-of-the-century Gold Rush boom town on April 18, 1906 was not a one-shot disaster; The U.S. Geological Survey predicts a 62 percent chance of another earthquake in the Bay Area with a magnitude of at least 6.7 during the next 30 years. And lest Southern Californians get too sanguine, the probability is the same for a similarly strong quake there in the same time span.

With that, and last year's devastating hurricanes, in mind, many organizations in the state, even small and midsized firms, are looking to replication systems to keep hot sites ready to go in other locations.

HOB Entertainment Inc.'s corporate offices in Hollywood manage 25 remote locations, House of Blues clubs and amphitheaters, said Adrian Black, manager of network operations for the department of information systems and technology. The main offices, which span four floors, run all the important systems for the company, including financial, accounting, legal and marketing, he said.

After setting up a storage area network in 2005, the company is considering using it to improve its disaster recovery options during the next year, planning for which starts in July. "We're on the 18th floor," Black said. "Who knows how durable this building is?"

The company owns an amphitheater complex -- the Gorge, in a remote location in the middle of Washington State -- which is about to get a 100Mbit/sec Internet connection in addition to the T1 line already in place. Consequently, Black and his manager are thinking about setting up a failover system there and having the company's data constantly replicated. "It's a great location for collocation," he said. "That is such a remote location, and we own the buildings."