they need masks , because the fire produced so many chemicals in the air that they can ’ t breathe . And we just delivered those .
So , it ’ s a matter of trying to figure out exactly what they need and then giving it to the people who can actually deliver it .
John Motazedi , SNC Squared , Joplin , MO
By Dominick Del Vecchio
We ’ ve also been focusing on our customers and on helping others . We reached out to our JV partners such as Cytracom , Dell , HP , and T-Mobile and arranged for special rapid deployment , provisioning , and replenishment programs . We also let our competitors know that we ’ d offer our services to them at cost for tools , VoIP , etc ., and let them mark up as they saw fit so they had the opportunity to generate some revenue . We didn ’ t even charge for labor .
This allowed our competitors to continue to service their customers so they could then focus on their lost homes , businesses , and other stuff that comes with the aftermath .
I ’ ve been doing fundraisers and helping check out different charities that friends , family , and customers have asked me about . They know that , being a geek , I can usually vet out whether it ’ s a valid charity or not — and that matters because there are now over 50-some phony charities .
Anne-Marie Lerch , HI Tech Hui , Honolulu , HI
Because it was a different island , with access so limited , there wasn ’ t a lot of hands-on that we could do .
Right away , we called our clients to make sure everybody was okay and asked what they needed .
One of our clients is a nonprofit that is directly helping Maui , so we promoted donating to that nonprofit . However , the problem was that the funds weren ’ t getting to the people who needed it fast enough , and the organization wasn ’ t able to help get help to them .
The area ’ s still blocked off , they won ’ t let anybody in that area , so it ’ s hard to get supplies to their homes . But average people are just getting together and doing what ’ s needed . We have friends taking their own boats from Honolulu all the way to Maui with supplies that are needed . That way , it ’ s going into the right hands and to what they need right now .
Initially , everyone was donating clothes and stuff . But they actually said “ Stop doing that ” because it ’ s a logistical nightmare . They didn ’ t need that , because their houses had burned down , and they had nowhere to put anything . Right now ,
We did some text messaging to make sure all my employees were fine . Our initial goal was just to help people ; it was no longer about computers .
The following morning , we got together with the goal of getting back up and running . Obviously , with the office gone , everything ’ s gone , including all the servers and the racks and so on . But we did have a disaster plan . We got our servers back up and running in the cloud , so we could tell which of our clients were functioning and which were not . We realized we had lost about half of our client base in that tornado , about 400 workstations out of the 1,000 we were managing .
We started calling our clients on cell phones and telling them , “ Hey , I know you ’ re down , but we can get you up and running .”
A good portion of our client base is physicians , so we wanted to make sure we were meeting all the HIPAA requirements and compliances and protecting patient information on those machines that might be damaged or [ inoperable ].
We also wanted to make sure their data was protected and they had all the backups with no issues . We got them back up in the cloud and functional . ( I think the last client backup got to the cloud around seven or eight minutes before the actual tornado .)
We wanted to make sure patient records and information were safe and not on servers that had been crushed or damaged . We found one server that was continuing to run because it was on a battery backup even though there was no building around it . When we took the lid off the server , it had been sucking in all its surrounding insulation , so it was a mess — all mixed up with wires and cables and all that stuff .
A lot of people came in and helped us . Robin Robins got the message out to the TMT community , and I think we got well over 30 or 40 different people at different times helping us . It was definitely a team effort , but for that first six weeks , it was literally long , long days and lots of hours .
Lessons Learned
Mikol Westling , Maui Tech Solutions , Kahului , HI
Prepare , prepare , prepare !! Just like you would prepare for a hurricane , tornado , or some other natural disaster for your home . Make sure you have clothing , water , a generator , fuel , etc .
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