An Appia Case Study

MNJ Technologies Direct is a leading provider of hardware and software for business and
government. MNJ’s electronic systems enable its customers easily to evaluate and purchase a
wide variety of technology products.

Business Challenge

Early one morning in August, 2006, an electrical storm wreaked havoc throughout the Chicago
area. One local meteorologist reported over 20,000 lightning strikes in one three-hour period
alone.

During the storm, MNJ’s headquarters suffered two direct lightning strikes that destroyed
virtually all of its network hardware, phones, and workstations. The first strike destroyed the
controls for the sprinkler system and building security system. The second hit an antenna on
top of the building, traveled through the electrical system, blew up a hard drive tray, melted the
firewall, and destroyed 13 phones. The pulse from the strike then traveled through the network
and destroyed one of MNJ’s two Cisco CallManager units, various LAN switches, 12 desktop
computers, and several servers.

The second strike rendered MNJ’s network infrastructure and phone system virtually useless.
“People say that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice,” said Adam Farb, MNJ’s
Director of IT. “I have proof that it does.”

The Appia Solution

After the weather had passed and the damage had been assessed, Farb and his staff were
immediately concerned with how to get their voice and data network up and running so that the
company could resume business. While researching vendors, Farb was referred to Appia
Communications. Though Appia’s engineering staff had no prior knowledge of MNJ’s network
or hardware configuration, Appia agreed to accept the time-critical challenge of restoring
service.

Appia engineers began work immediately to reconfigure server stacks, reroute damaged
phones, and restore data settings to previous levels. Within seven hours of the strike, MNJ’s
voice and data systems were back up and running with enough capacity to perform daily
operations.

“Appia jumped right in that day and came to the rescue to restore our backup configurations for
our Cisco VoIP and switch hardware,” said Farb.

MNJ ordered new servers and had them shipped overnight directly to Appia. Upon receiving
them, Appia engineers configured them so they could be deployed as quickly as possible upon
installation at MNJ. The engineers then drove to MNJ’s headquarters to deploy the
CallManagers and Unity servers. The system was up and running within 24 hours of the first
conversation between MNJ and Appia.

The Results

Soon after MNJ’s voice and data networks were restored, Appia worked with MNJ to create a
comprehensive disaster recovery plan. MNJ’s Call Manager system is now being
professionally managed by Appia. The company’s CallManager and Unity severs are backed
up to an Appia POP each week and operating systems and applications are updated as
needed. The service will allow for a complete restoration of the Call Manager environment
should another disaster strike.

“Appia Communications has been instrumental in creating an effective disaster recovery plan.
Their execution and timeliness in assisting our IT staff in upgrading and maintaining our
hardware for VoIP at MNJ have been flawless since the strike.“