Business continuity and availability solutions a priority

More than 80 percent of IT decision-makers at both large and medium-size enterprises view business continuity and availability as an increased priority for 2007 and key to sharpening their competitive business edge worldwide, according to recent survey results, reports Virtual-Strategy Magazine.

Approximately four out of five managers and executives responsible for business continuity and availability, including chief information officers, IT directors and IT managers, indicate that the area will see an increase in spending this year as compared to 2006.

The survey, commissioned by HP and conducted by GCR Custom Research, further revealed that investments in disaster-tolerant solutions, backup and recovery efforts, security and improved IT service management offerings will also increase in 2007, with nine out of 10 decision-makers reporting higher planned spending.

When it comes to data storage - think tape, says Sun Microsystems' Boey Yoke Khew. Long consigned to archival duties, while disk storage held the spotlight, tape storage is finally coming into its own, reports The Star Online.

In response to issues like costs, compliance with regulations and the need to keep some extremely large data sets on hand for online applications, tape is seeing a resurgence, said Boey.

Tape storage is growing in significance in such areas as archiving of healthcare related imaging, broadcast video and security surveillance video. "Tape is at a new frontier, namely as part and parcel of online applications, as well as a cost-effective approach to nearline storage," said Sun's country director for its storage practice in Malaysia and the Philippines.

University of Tampa has implemented LifeKeeper for Exchange from SteelEye Technology, to achieve high availability and disaster recovery assurance for the university's email systems following an exhaustive evaluation of available products.

The University of Tampa currently enrols approximately 5 000 students, 2 500 of which live on campus. Its Department of Information Technology supports the University's server and network infrastructure, including email services for faculty, staff, students and a group of contractual services people.