Rescue Workers

Rescue Workers

Companies by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

David Mohyla became a regular guest on Digital Gumbo, a New Orleans television news show, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.

His specialty? Salvaging data from hard drives, especially those damaged by floodwater.

Mohyla, 39, and the engineers at his Tampa-based company, Dtidata Inc., come to the rescue when information stored on computers seems to have gone into the black hole - forever. They say their clients include NASA, Bank of America, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, American Express and Air Jamaica.

Last year, Dtidata hit $3 million in annual revenue. The firm, founded in 1998, employs eight full time at its headquarters in a strip center on South Pasadena Avenue in southern Pinellas County. It also has small offices in New Zealand and London.

Dtidata has developed what Mohyla says is a proprietary three-step method for repairing drives damaged by floodwater, which also usually contains mud, debris and oily residue that eats away at metal platters.

Not that hurricanes and floods are all that cause problems for hard drives.

Scorching heat and humidity also drive business to Dtidata, Mohyla says, adding: "Heat is the No. 1 threat to hard drives." And when a computer hits its maximum hours of use, well, that's usually the end of its life.

The firm is one of about 20 established data recovery firms in the United States, Mohyla says. He readily concedes most people haven't heard of the company, even though the firm has helped thousands of customers, some from as far away as Egypt and Japan.

"There are not a lot of people in Florida that know we've got a real data recovery company here," he says.

An estimated 50% of the firm's business is repeat business and referrals. Dtidata receives between 10 and 20 hard drives daily. Customers don't pay unless the data is recovered.

Larger competitors include Ontrack Data Recovery of Minnesota and DriveSavers Inc. of California. Both are industry leaders, Mohyla says.

"There is a lot of responsibility that comes with doing data recovery," Mohyla says. "People's jobs, livelihoods depend on it. I've opened hard drives where you can see through the platters, they're scored so bad."

And not all drives can be repaired. He estimates that about 75% can be salvaged. Some competitors claim a rescue rate of 95%.

"It's just impossible," he says. "If the drive comes in and the platters that actually have the data are damaged, there's nothing you can do."

Double the money

Dtidata also sells data recovery software for when the problem doesn't involve physical damage to a unit. Richard Correa, the company's lead software engineer, wrote one of the first VAT recovery file programs to be sold commercially, Mohyla says.

The two have worked together since the early 1990s.

"This is not taught," Mohyla says. "You cannot go to college to learn how to do physical data recovery. This is something that is trade secrets, very well protected. Places like Ontrack and DriveSavers will let you take a tour of their lab. However, you will never really get behind the scenes to see what's really going on."

Mohyla plans to improve the firm's marketing, making it more visible through advertisements in the Yellow Pages. He's also considering a location on the West Coast and somewhere inland, away from the Gulf of Mexico and oncoming hurricanes. The firm's evacuation plan calls for the removal of all hard drives to a place much farther from the water.

"We are also developing ways to take snapshots of hard drives, a software product we're putting out," he says. "Users will store it on a Web server they can access later."

That program should be available within six months.

Within three years, he expects annual revenue to hit $7 million. The profit margin target is 30%, he says, adding, "Of course we don't always hit it."

Seizing opportunity

Some of the growth is expected to come from a new networking division started in January.

"When you have this type of business, people constantly ask you, 'How can I avoid this?' " Mohyla says. "I just felt it was time to act on that. You don't have to lose your data. Mission critical should be treated as mission critical."

The new division, with three employees, helps companies set up networks, improve networks and retrieve lost e-mails.

"As more customers come, more people ask what can I do to avoid this," he says. "Sooner or later you address that opportunity.

Some clients, such as Affinity Healthcare, have a capable technology staff, he says. Still, Dtidata is helping Affinity switch from an outdated exchange server to a new one.

The firm is also establishing a crisis team to visit locations where computers aren't allowed to leave the premises, such as financial institutions and governmental agencies.

"They are protecting proprietary information," he says.

The new division has been profitable since it started. "There's a large need," he says. "There are a lot of computers out there not working well."

And lately there have been plenty of hurricanes.