Effective disaster recovery can be a vital lifeline for Bermuda’s e-commerce, says information technology (IT) expert Rob Salmon.

At the Hamilton Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon on Tuesday, Mr. Salmon gave a presentation on why outsourcing IT solutions can be cost-effective, especially for small- to medium-sized businesses.

Mr. Salmon is president and CEO of Information Consulting Solutions (ICS), as well as eVolution, a Bermuda-based application service provider (ASP), and has more than 21 years in the industry.

According to IT global researcher IDC, spending on IT services is expected to reach $587 billion in the year 2010 and spending on software will reach $327 billion. The recovery of data from a computer hard drive or storage tape can be critical after a fire, flood or hurricane — the value of data can be immense and can cause major disruptions if lost, said Mr. Salmon. He put an emphasis on solutions available for disaster recovery, citing hurricane Fabian and the Belco blackout as examples.

He said: “It allows you to focus on your core business instead of spending all of your time playing with computers, when you can be working on insurance for example.

“The other aspect of disaster recovery in Bermuda lately, is hurricanes. The number of severe hurricanes hitting the Island has increased dramatically over the last two years.

“Forecasters are predicting even more severe storms and if you are a large company, you’re going have to spend a lot of money and resources on a meaningful disaster recovery plan.

“So, it’s important for a all companies to have one, and if you don’t, then God help you.” Mr. Salmon moved to Bermuda in 1995 to work as a support technician for ICS before becoming its chief executive five years later.

He graduated with an electronics engineering diploma from DeVry Institute of Technology in Toronto Canada, where he was born and raised.