r service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk

A sudden, emergency situation can disrupt normal business transactions like nothing else - and that's especially true if much of ones business is conducted online and the emergency requires leaving computers and stored data behind. With an online data storage system that's one less thing to worry about as the situation unfolds, because the data is stored online and is always available to the business owner.

A month or so ago, on one day there were over 200 wildfires raging simultaneously in the state of Florida. Many of them were in uninhabited, remote areas - but at least a few were creeping close enough to a business associate's offices over on the western side of the peninsula that government officials issued an area evacuation advisory.

My first concern, of course, was for the physical safety of my friend and others in the area. But once that was ascertained, knowing that a good 85 to 90% of his sales are conducted online, I voiced concern about his business, should the proximity of the fires prevent him from entering his offices for any length of time.

To my surprise, he almost chuckled at my concern!

"I've got a million serious 'what ifs' to worry about right now," he said, "but thankfully, daily sales transactions and customer service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk

on unfolds, because the data is stored online and is always available to the business owner.

A month or so ago, on one day there were over 200 wildfires raging simultaneously in the state of Florida. Many of them were in uninhabited, remote areas - but at least a few were creeping close enough to a business associate's offices over on the western side of the peninsula that government officials issued an area evacuation advisory.

My first concern, of course, was for the physical safety of my friend and others in the area. But once that was ascertained, knowing that a good 85 to 90% of his sales are conducted online, I voiced concern about his business, should the proximity of the fires prevent him from entering his offices for any length of time.

To my surprise, he almost chuckled at my concern!

"I've got a million serious 'what ifs' to worry about right now," he said, "but thankfully, daily sales transactions and customer service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk

ciate's offices over on the western side of the peninsula that government officials issued an area evacuation advisory.

My first concern, of course, was for the physical safety of my friend and others in the area. But once that was ascertained, knowing that a good 85 to 90% of his sales are conducted online, I voiced concern about his business, should the proximity of the fires prevent him from entering his offices for any length of time.

To my surprise, he almost chuckled at my concern!

"I've got a million serious 'what ifs' to worry about right now," he said, "but thankfully, daily sales transactions and customer service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk

oiced concern about his business, should the proximity of the fires prevent him from entering his offices for any length of time.

To my surprise, he almost chuckled at my concern!

"I've got a million serious 'what ifs' to worry about right now," he said, "but thankfully, daily sales transactions and customer service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk

r service aren't on the list."

The reason why, he explained, is that several months ago he had stopped using on-site, tape backups of customer and other business data and had switched to an online date storage and retrieval service.

In practical terms, what this meant for my associate was that a huge chunk of his small business was now fully protected from fires ... floods ... earthquakes ... from any kind of natural disaster that might threaten his extensive and valuable database and online sales. No matter what might happen to his physical plant, the business of accurately and reliably receiving, acknowledging and fulfilling customer orders would continue without a glitch.

Similarly, his extensive records of client history and information, along with all his other company data, are likewise protected by the same online data storage system.

That's because instead of sending backups to a tape attached to an on-site server, data is sent to another computer safely off-site and are always accessible via a key code known only to the business owner. No one has to remember to do the backup, either; it's automatically done, each and every day.

No human errors. No dropped or corrupted data. Nothing physical to lose or have damaged. No "all eggs in one basket" panic should something unexpected and uncontrollable occur.

It's hard to imagine anything safer and more secure than that -- come what may in the arena of natural disasters with the potential to dismantle or destroy a business.