The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/230349
case studies Up and Running After Hurricane Sandy by Rob Yates of Morrison Mahoney LLP Morrison Mahoney LLP is a nine-office law firm with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and eight additional staffed offices around the Northeast. Our data center is located in the Boston office and, although Boston did not take a direct hit from Hurricane Sandy, multiple power outages occurred, and city and state infrastructures were damaged. Our New York City and Parsippany, New Jersey offices did not fare as well. Damage Is Done The firm's headquarters in Boston did not lose power, and our network/system infrastructure stayed online. However, our headquarters closed for half the day due to a declaration of a state-wide state of emergency and the shutdown of the public transportation system. Both our New York City (NYC) and Parsippany, New Jersey offices lost power. While the Parsippany office was back open within 10 days with restored power, voice and data connectivity, the NYC office took over three months to be restored fully. Our New York City office is located in a prominent high-rise building overlooking Battery Park in lower Manhattan. The lobby and basement of the building were flooded. The building's Verizon and Con Edison (NYC's electric utility) equipment were damaged significantly. Verizon would not start the repair process of the building's infrastructure until it was reconnected to the Con Edison electrical grid. Solutions Come with Challenges A majority of our New Jersey and New York City office users were able to work from home in the initial days after the storm. Firm management acquired a short-term rental of very modest office space in Midtown Manhattan for the New York Citybased secretaries. For their short-term use, we leased computers and a multifunction printer connecting via the Internet to the firm's Citrix farm. 32 Peer to Peer This disaster recovery setup created challenges for printing and scanning due to new processes which were not user-friendly. It was also difficult for the helpdesk to support these remote users because they were forced to work outside our network. We used remote tools such as GoToAssist, but this required the remote user to assist in the process of connecting to their computer. Due to additional challenges of mail delivery, overnight mail delivery, access to paper files (trapped in the high-rise where access was limited and elevator service unavailable) and coordinating work among attorneys and staff, firm management decided the most feasible plan would be to focus our efforts on reoccupying our space in lower Manhattan rather than to attempt to secure alternate space and install a temporary build-out to be used for an indefinite period. This decision was made despite the unknown (but estimated as substantial) cost of a new Internet circuit, equipment purchases, outside consultant assistance and internal IT time. The goal was to reopen our space in the high-rise building in early December with only a two-week lead time to activate the Internet circuit, set up the office to operate as best we could, and get it ready for users. At that point, the building was running on emergency generator power without elevators and with a nonfunctional heating system. This was a calculated risk as it was thought the two weeks would be sufficient time for the electricity and heating issues to be resolved. The list of data circuit providers able to provide service was very limited due to Verizon's state of disrepair in lower Manhattan. It was decided we would sign a one-year contract for a 10Mb fiber Internet circuit from a small niche provider that had strategically repaired their equipment in our building. The one-year contract was the shortest time frame we were able to negotiate with the carrier. The vendor providing our network consulting loaned us a router and configured it to function with the new Internet circuit. Prior to the storm, the majority of our users in the NYC office used thin clients to connect to the Citrix XenApp farm at headquarters. These thin clients would not provide the required functionality and