AST safe-guarding business continuity

Advanced Software Technologies (AST) and the UK-based Guardian IT group have entered into a strategic partnership that has created a world-class disaster recovery and business continuity operation.

"SafeGuard IT, now owned by AST and Guardian IT on a 50/50 basis, will be a leader in the local market," says Joop Groeneveld, Group Business Development director at AST. Clients ranging from Government and healthcare to those in the financial and manufacturing industries will be serviced.

"Business continuity is vital in today`s global market," explains Bernard Vertenten, GM of SafeGuard IT. "We are delighted to have further reinforced our position in Southern Africa. This joint venture is very complementary to Guardian`s existing and established facilities throughout Europe and will assist Guardian in providing pan-African services to its customers. I believe that together we are well positioned to lead the expansion of business continuity and disaster recovery services into the African sector.

Combining the complimentary experience, specialised knowledge, local facilities and client base of AST and Guardian IT will provide the joint venture with a strong competitive position in the large and sophisticated market sectors."

The combined operation has recovery centres in Pretoria, Midrand, Randburg and Vanderbijlpark. "This extensive IT infrastructure, boasting some 1400 S/390 MIPS in processing power and 3.5 Terabytes of disk, will be used to provide services such as remote archiving, electronic vaulting, workplace recovery, dealer room recovery and call centre recovery," says Flip Pretoruis, MD of AST Outsourcing. Other recovery platforms include IBM AS/400, IBM RS/600, SUN, HP, ICL, Tandem, Stratus and Intel-based servers.

"The partnership is a further realisation of AST`s ongoing strategy of achieving critical mass in selected vertical market segments and of bringing international best practices to South Africa," concludes Groeneveld.