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Their data backup plan's a winner for smaller companies
(South Florida Sun-Sentinel (KRT)) Dec. 12--This hurricane season, Ed Zukerman didn't worry about what might happen to reams of data on his company's server at work.
His computer consultants, Network Solutions Inc., had devised a system where data is backed up regularly to a separate copy stored right at the office. So, as Hurricane Wilma neared, Zukerman simply took the backup in a small box to his house.
When his office weathered the storm, Zukerman returned to work and reattached the box -- the copied data safe and files backing up as usual.
But had the office been closed for days, he could easily have plugged the box into his laptop and worked with his regular office setup from home or anywhere.
"They gave me peace of mind," said Zukerman, chief financial officer at Kennesaw Fruit & Juice in Pompano Beach, of the consultants he's worked with for many years. "And I felt more comfortable that I was in control of the data."
The fury of hurricanes this year taught executives in South Florida to consider options for backup systems for computers, phones, electricity and other basics. That's giving a boost to computer service providers like Network Solutions, owned by three principals: Bill and Dan White and Bruce Gaster.
Network Solutions projects its revenues may double next year to $1.5 million, as more small and midsized firms embrace computer data backup systems.
"In the olden days, only companies with big information technology budgets could copy all the information from their server every day," said company president Gaster. "But now, with new technologies, it doesn't matter if you're a $50 million company or 10-employee lawn service, you can do it."
Network Solutions offers clients at least two choices for data backup. The conventional option is copying info periodically to a server in a remote location, often a protected bunker.
The company also strings together new technologies to provide a more novel option: to copy data into a "virtual" server at its office that can become what it calls a mobile "Server2Go."
Gaster estimates costs for the "virtualization" option as low as a "couple thousand dollars" beyond the price of equipment. Fees for backing up data to a remote bunker may run from $200 to $800 a month, depending on the number of servers and rental charges, he said.
Since Wilma, clients are investing in both -- from law offices to doctors' offices and even a construction company, Gaster said.
"We've been going seven days a week," Gaster said.
Bill and Dan White started the computer services business about eight years ago, when the father-and-son team moved from New Jersey and bought a Fort Lauderdale-area company specializing in accounting software. They later partnered with another computer services firm, then briefly went public and now are private again, with Gaster as a partner.
Formerly known as Net Worth Systems in Fort Lauderdale, their company now employs seven at offices on Hypoluxo Road, with plans to hire more as posthurricane business continues to grow.
NETWORK SOLUTIONS INC.
--Business: Information technology, including helping companies with day-to-day computer system operations and business continuity plans.
--Where: 125A Hypoluxo Blvd., Lantana
--Owners: Bruce Gaster, Bill White, Dan White
--Established: 2001, as Net Worth Solutions
--Revenue: Likely $750,000 this year.
--Employees: Seven
--Advice: "Take advantage of new technologies."
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