Townsville Entrepreneur Lena Torres Builds Resilient Tech Hub for Local Firms

Lena Torres launched Torres Backup Solutions from a ground-floor office on Flinders Street in May 2026, offering cloud-based data storage and failover services tailored to Townsville retailers and trades.

The service addresses immediate needs for continuity after the Telstra outage that struck on July 10 and left many regional operators without access to payment systems or customer records for several hours. Torres identified the gap while running her own prior venture on Stanley Street and shifted focus to prevention tools that keep transactions moving even when major carriers drop out.

Her operation sits two blocks from the Townsville Chamber of Commerce headquarters and supplies training sessions at the nearby Townsville Civic Centre. These sessions cover basic server mirroring and offline point-of-sale setups that local cafes and construction firms have already adopted.

Early uptake among city businesses

By early July the company had signed 87 Townsville clients, each paying a flat $180 monthly retainer that includes 24-hour monitoring and quarterly audits. Torres reports average setup costs of $1,200 per site, with most installations completed within five business days. Chamber membership data from June shows a 22 percent rise in queries about business continuity plans compared with the same month last year.

The firm also partners with the Riverway Business Park incubator to test low-cost hardware kits for operators who cannot afford enterprise-grade servers. One kit, priced at $450, combines a local NAS drive with automatic daily uploads to a secondary server in Brisbane.

Next steps for Townsville operators

Businesses can book a free 30-minute assessment through the Torres website or by visiting the Flinders Street office before the end of August. The company plans to release a basic version of its failover app for Android devices in September, aimed at sole traders who operate from the Strand waterfront precinct.

Owners are advised to audit their current internet provider contracts and confirm they include at least one independent backup connection before the next wet season begins in November.