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Some executives who spent years in the disaster recovery business operated by Rosemont-based Comdisco Inc. have ventured out on their own, hoping to meet a new demand in the field.

Comdisco, which hit rough waters when the dot-com bubble burst, sold its disaster recovery business to SunGard Data Systems Inc. last year as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Timothy de Lisle and several other Comdisco veterans went along with the unit to SunGard, but subsequently left to start their own consulting firm, Corigelan LLC, now based in Chicago. The reason, de Lisle said, is that SunGard, IBM Corp. and others that offer disaster recovery haven't kept up with customer demand.

"A lot of things have changed since the days when Comdisco started its disaster recovery business," said de Lisle, managing principal at Corigelan. "Software is smarter, bandwidth is cheaper, and a lot of customers want to handle disaster recovery for themselves. They're not comfortable with the shared-risk hot-site model any more."

Comdisco and other disaster recovery services set up centers around the country equipped with computers, phones and other equipment so clients could move in and use those facilities if fires, floods or other disasters put their regular offices out of commission. The coverage typically includes backing up the firm's business records and other services needed to assure a smooth transition.

One problem is that there are no guarantees that the needed facilities will be fully available. If a major disaster covering a large area brings a lot of customers looking to use the facilities, some may be disappointed, de Lisle said.

"It's presented as a first-come, first-served, or best-effort service," he said. "At the prices charged, some businesses aren't comfortable with that. They'd rather rely on their own arrangements that they know will be available."

But virtually all the companies offering disaster recovery assistance sell their own products, and no one expects them to offer independent advice that might include buying someone else's software, de Lisle said.

Hence the birth of Corigelan last year.

"We bring experience, independence and delivery," he said. "We teach them how to do what they need to do, and then we move on."

The consultancy is still quite young, but de Lisle said that companies seem eager to find a knowledgeable source of help that isn't selling anything beyond advice.

"This is a $4 billion market that's growing," he said. "We think we'll do well."

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