The Salt Lake County Recorder is responsible for the land record -- nearly ten million documents that tell the history and establish ownership of more than 300,000 parcels of land inSalt Lake County. If a natural or man-made disaster were to strike Utah, and even if a portion of these records were lost, the results to Salt Lake County property owners could be catastrophic.
To implement his disaster recovery program, Gary Ott, Salt Lake Recorder partnered with AlphaCorp, a Utah-based document management company that has been handling the county's document management needs for nearly a decade. Using AlphaCorp's SIRE, electronic copies of every document in the Recorder's office are automatically backed up nightly to a redundant system stored in a "co-locate" facility located elsewhere.
"Our disaster recovery plans were on paper even before hurricane Katrina," Ott said. "However, this year's hurricane season punctuated the need to implement our plan expeditiously. Too much is at stake to risk being caught unprepared."
"The result of a flood, earthquake, fire or even a terrorist attack can be devastating to a state, county or city record system if it is not properly supported," said Kris Painter at AlphaCorp, Inc. "The Salt Lake County Recorder has demonstrated leadership in taking the steps necessary to protect their records. Our SIRE system not only protects the volumes of records stored in government offices such as deeds, trusts, business and marriage licenses, parcel information and council meeting minutes, but it also helps government continue business operations by utilizing a co-locate facility. Through this facility, we duplicate the entire Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) that copies the documents and even the workflow, allowing the County Recorder's office to access the entire system securely from a Web browser--enabling them to resume almost all business functions immediately following a disaster."
The redundant computer servers are protected against everything from bio-hazards, power outages, and extreme temperatures to floods and hackers. Yet, secure and authenticated access to the redundant system is accessed by the Recorder's office via an Internet connection.
