The Dilemma

As a trusted source of business-critical functions for clients in healthcare, logistics, and other fast-moving fields, Peak 10 understands the importance of 24/7/365 uptime, even in the face of a crisis.

Ensuring disaster recovery and effective emergency preparedness is no easy feat: Peak 10 has dozens of data centers scattered across the country. Hundreds of employees, including engineers and other mission-critical staff, work to ensure 24/7 service to their clients.

Previously, Peak 10 maintained a emergency management and business continuity documents on the company Intranet with printed copies for offline reference. However, the sheer amount of information was a challenge for each employee to learn. In an emergency, remembering exactly what to do was nearly impossible, and referencing the lengthy documents wasted precious time. The approach simply wasn’t working for a company that requires 24/7 uptime and a quick, decisive response to any incidents.

The Solution

David Kidd, Vice President of Governance, Risk, and Compliance at Peak 10, is in charge of making sure the company is ready to handle emergencies and keep its data centers running for clients at all times—even under adverse conditions.

“Service continuity and emergency management are really critical and an inherent part of the services we deliver,” he said. “We need to make sure that our employees know what to do under adverse conditions and that they have very clear, actionable plans that are easily accessible, as well as all the resources for communications.”

Kidd stumbled across RockDove Solution’s In Case of Crisis app on Apple’s App Store. During a demo with the RockDove Solutions team, he started to see the app’s potential at Peak 10. The company decided to incorporate In Case of Crisis to digitize its emergency preparedness plans, improve communication, and put vital information into the hands of its employees.

“We found that it does a lot of what we needed to do in terms of taking what can sometimes be dry, inaccessible formal documentation and turning it into something that is interactive, is readily accessible, and can be responsive under those circumstances,” Kidd said. “Over half of our staff are in some way involved in critical system operations. So we’ve got a few hundred people who need to access those plans, no matter what.”

Peak 10 used the In Case of Crisis Web interface to digitize and implement its existing emergency preparedness plans and then rolled them out to its engineering and operations staff. The app includes quick and easy access to vital information, such as what to do in a medical emergency, during severe weather, or in case of a utility outage.

The Peak 10 team also added brand-new capabilities, such as field reports that mission-critical employees can complete on the app and then instantly send back to the emergency operations team. Employees also enjoy one-button access to important features such as the company’s emergency call bridge and an employee check-in feature that is used during emergencies. Additionally, they can quickly access an HR ethics hotline, contact information for the emergency preparedness team, data center run-book plans, and more.

The app also enables employees to instantaneously issue an emergency notice across the company in a wide range of scenarios.

“We have standard emergency communications statements that are pre-drafted, so they have one-button access if they need to report an emergency situation,” Kidd explained. “We’ve got responses for a lot of different situations, from fire to facility evacuation, active shooter, bomb threat, hazardous material incidents, and weather events.”

How We Helped

  • Digitized crisis management plans for business-critical employees
  • Field reports are now submitted through the app to the emergency operations team
  • One-button access to key features, including emergency communications statements, Peak 10’s emergency call bridge, and employee check-in
  • Instantaneous access to vital information, such as contact lists, IT run books, and emergency checklists

About

Founded in March 2000, Peak 10 is an IT infrastructure provider headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The company offers enterprise-class data center space, reliable network services, cloud solutions, and managed services to customers across the country. Its leading products include data protection and security, application management, disaster recovery solutions, and encryption as a service.

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