The ground-level conference room in Building 25 doesn't look much different than many others in buildings across Microsoft's sprawling campus.
It has a window, though most of the view is obscured by a large bush. It has the usual array of outlets and Ethernet jacks, screens, and projectors. During earthquakes and floods, hurricanes and tsunamis, though, this room is ground zero for Microsoft's emergency response effort.
Even then though, it can be hard to tell that somewhere halfway around the world, disaster has struck. That's because Microsoft's disaster team is a virtual one, with much of the action taking place online. Even those working together in Redmond are often glued to their laptops, rather than communicating with nearby colleagues.
"It will look like a bunch of people just sending e-mail," said Claire Bonilla, the senior director of disaster response for Microsoft.
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