Disaster Recovery Lessons from 9/11 and Beyond

The Backup Wrap-Up

In this eye-opening episode of The Backup Wrap-up, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi unpack crucial disaster recovery lessons from major events like 9/11. They discuss how companies lost both primary and backup data centers when both World Trade Center towers fell, highlighting why geographic separation is non-negotiable. The hosts break down the technical aspects of disaster recovery, comparing hot sites versus cold sites, and the realities of synchronous versus asynchronous replication across distances.

Beyond the technical, Curtis and Prasanna share often-overlooked disaster recovery lessons about human factors—where recovery teams will sleep, eat, and work during extended outages when infrastructure is destroyed. They examine a real case from a hurricane-stricken island where teams converted conference rooms to sleeping quarters and relied on satellite communications. Whether you're planning for natural disasters, power outages, or ransomware attacks, these disaster recovery lessons will help ensure your organization can recover when—not if—disaster strikes.