That sinking feeling... Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River

Every year, millions of people lose data and frequently lose their job or business as a result. However, few people lose information in such a spectacular fashion as Bill Wiley of Computer Associates Inc in the USA. Here is his unfortunate story; may we all learn from it.

Seated near the front of US Airways flight 1549 on Thursday, January 15th, Bill was looking forward to arriving in Charlotte, North Carolina later that day. However, soon after takeoff from New York, the aircraft struck a flock of geese, causing the pilot to ditch the aircraft in famous style on the Hudson River. Thankfully, all 155 passengers and crew disembarked relatively unscathed, just a little wet. Once his elation at surviving had subsided, Bill realised that his problems had only just begun.

Bill Wiley carried a company laptop with him everywhere he went. It contained 250 gigabytes of important company information as well as a number of personal and family files. He diligently backed up the laptop every day to two removable hard drives to protect him against failure of the laptop. As is common practice for many people, he kept the hard drives handily in his laptop bag in case he needed them. Unable to remove the laptop bag from the plane, he lost both the laptop and backups. The sinking of the plane matched the sinking feeling of realising that he had just lost everything he had worked on for the past two years.

Contrast Bill Wiley's story with that of Paul Jorgensen, coincidentally seated just one row in front of him. Paul worked for a medical software provider called Epocrates Inc and his company subscribed to an Online Backup service. His data was automatically backed up every day via the internet and stored safely in a secure Information Centre. When his laptop was lost, a phone call to the backup provider prompted his data to be dispatched on 6 DVD's by courier. The next day, he was issued a new laptop by his employer, and he restored his backed-up files to the new laptop. "The accident was on a Thursday, by Monday I was back up and running." says Paul.

Nobody would want to understate Paul's and Bill's ordeal. It was undoubtedly a harrowing experience, causing many sleepless nights, "I'm not talking about half an hour of sleep here or there," says Paul, "I literally didn't sleep for four or five days." However, at least in Paul's case, his computer data was one less thing he needed to worry about. "With all the negative things going on, it was satisfying to be a small part of such a great story," said Paul. "I've used it as fuel to be better with my second chance, to be better at everything – be a better father, a better husband, better son, better brother, better employee. I've turned it into a positive."

Peter Thomas, Chief Executive, Nexus Data Limited
SECURE, AUTOMATIC, OFFSITE COMPUTER BACKUP