Digital conversion business burns to the ground!

I came across a thread on this on another forum and don't recall seeing any

discussions here. This looks like a heartbreaker.

 

http://www.digmypics.com/

This is a perfect example of why commercial photo businesses should have a good offsite storage facility for backups and critical operating files. Everybody thinks "this will never happen to me and my business". Well, Murphy hits again. Even such a simple plan as making an extra copy of your regular backups, and driving to another city, and putting them in a bank vault or safe deposit box, that would be preferable to this situation.

One can avoid driving and just FTP data to another server in a different location; folks did this when NT4 was the in thing and ISDN.

<I>...FTP data to another server</I><P>Film and slides?

I can understand that they had materials in the midst of conversion on site, but their scenario sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Right down to having their web site hosted on their own premises. Nobody does that anymore. That is what hosting companies are for.

 

The story doesn't explain anything about what if any off site digital backup storage they had. However, their indication that their "entire customer database" was lost is ridiculous in addition to negligent. It is their fault for not having off site backups of their core business information. That business is likely going to be sued out of existence for its negligence. Condolences to their customers, but tisk tisk on that company.

 

Their disaster story should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone in any form of photography business. Have you made your off site backups tonight? If so, are they in an adequately secure, fire resistance rated location?

<p><i>Film and slides?</p></i>

<p>Sure, because it's impossible to destroy film.</p>

The reason the "film and slides" were not on servers yet is they were not scanned yet. They are scanned with a device called a scanner. Here We got our first scanners in the 1980's. IF they paper, film or slides are scanned they can be placed on two servers in different locations. In the printing business here where we have many tons of paper; its common to have work in progress; things being scanned. Most all fires are due to negligence. If that 15 dollar coffee pot fails; is the thermal cuttoff in place; jumpered; or left out as a cost reduction? did you leave one of the laminators on at night? do you have employees smoking inside? If a fire starts due you have the more important stuff in a room thats fireproof; or halts the spread say 3 hours?

Saying its "Murphy" is a copout; one needs to be aware of the risks of what you are doing and be prepared; ie the basic Boy Scout stuff. Things happen. Even a small fire can cause a major business stoppage. the bloody cheapie fire extingishers most folks have after usage cause a dust that creeps into servers and any other electrical item and causes issues. The water from the fire dept causes more issues; sometimes more than the actual fire. They need to stop the fire from spreading to another area or another building. If one does alot of protections; costs rise.

I sent 5 rolls of Elite Chrome to them in 2006. They did good, prompt work at competetive prices. Hope they're back up and running eventually. It took about two weeks plus shipping so I assume thats how much work would have been on the premises at any one time.

I should have said I sent slides from 5 rolls and they came back in the same mounts. The carousel in the picture must be used in the scanning. I got back the slides and CD's at 3000 dpi, 4000dpi, and a thumbnail CD.I don't know how soon the CD's were produced after scanning but there must not be many orders in the servers at any one time plus maybe one day's worth of packaged product waiting to be taken to the post office/fedex.

In my business its common to get a Kodak type carousel of 80 or 140 slides. Some old lady often wants more room for shoes in the master bedroom closet and brings in her husbands many carousels. HER GOAL is to scan the stuff "to computer disc" and then have us chuck/dispose of the slides and carousels. Often we box up the slides in case the mad husband arrives. Its a mess; the women dont want the slides back; "since they take up room".

I wouldn't assume the building wasn't equipped with the usual fire protection equipment, sprinklers, alarms systems, etc. If nothing else, building codes would have required installation of fire protection.

 

Instead of making rash judgements on their preparations, it might be cautionary to note that some things survived better than others, that offsite is important, and that with "film," there is no "off-site." You or your customer has perhaps one slide or negative or reel. Fire resistant construction in cabinetry or buildings can be overcome as an event grows. Look at the recent Universal Studios fire.

 

Kelly's points are important. Even protection processes can have damaging effects either during or after a "problem." Firefighting agents (Materials, not people. People are a different sort of problem.) can damage things in their own right.

 

It wouldn't surprise me in many scenarios that water will do more damage than fire. I'm aware of flooding in buildings where a fire main ruptured and besides flowing along the floor, water drained down through various holes in the floor/ceiling along ducting, cable runs, conduits, piping, etc. One large company computer center incident I'm aware of from years ago, the building's roof collapsed after dirt and other materials clogged the drains and in a major storm the roof load of water increased and everything fell in.

Water may damage, but a fire unchecked will destroy with no chance of retrieval. Not

all codes require fire sprinklers in all buildings. Fire sprinklers, if the building is properly

protected, will extinguish or control the fire to the point of origin. Water does not come

out of all the sprinklers as TV would like you to believe, only where the fire is. Computer

equipt and sensitive items are protected with halon, or its substitute, so there is no

water damage.