in time for the 10th year commemoration of the 9/11 attack of the World Trade Center, here’s a very nice write-up of an person who lived to tell his story and how as both an IT professional and as a family man recovered from the great ordeal.
Bob Eisenhardt was part of an IT team for Aon Group (a global insurance company) located on the 99th-105th floors of the South Tower on 9/11.
“Since this is an IT site (referring to TechRepublic), I will talk about the loss of and recovery of data in the immediate aftermath of the crashes. But I have to stress that, as it is with any disaster scenario, people are the most precious commodity,” Bob emphasized.
“It’s important that your staff know that in evacuations they should not worry about computers, data, retrieving their personal effects from their desks, or going back to get their car. I learned this in the worst possible way: Steve Poulos, the system administrator for Aon Risk Services, returned to the 103rd floor to retrieve the Risk Service data tapes. By doing so, he ran out of time and did not survive.”
technology played a big part during and after 9/11
- on 9/8-9, Aon Consulting underwent maintenance and hence their data tapes were taken offsite and hence had their back-ups
- their company created web bulletins for survivors to post comments, reconnect family members, and for mourners to express their condolences
- with their backups safe and their data tapes setup on a different data center, although still traumatic and mourning, within hours work has resumed
see the rest of Bob’s story via [techrepublic.com]
*image nabbed from mobilebayremembers.com