Contingency plan for BlackBerry UAE

Telecom operators in the United Arab Emirates rushed to assure users of BlackBerry services in the country that they would provide alternative smartphone solutions ahead of a planned ban in October, states Total Telecom.

Emirates Telecommunications, the UAE's top telco, said at an Abu Dhabi press conference it would ensure "seamless business continuity through robust packages" once the ban on BlackBerry messenger, e-mail and Web-browsing services announced by the UAE regulator, comes into effect on 11 October.

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications or Du, the country's number two operator, in full-page ads in local newspapers said it was "doing its utmost to ensure the continuity of services with minimal disruptions" for consumers and business customers in light of the looming BlackBerry services suspension.

Disaster recovery and business continuity specialist Core Consultancy has consolidated its data storage operations by moving to iomart Hosting data centres, according to WebWire.

Sharad Saggar, account director at Core Consultancy, said: ”Iomart Hosting offers the first class data centre infrastructure that will allow us to offer the best service possible to our customers.

“It is also a partner we can work with strategically in the future to help grow our business.”

The Sudan Field Office successfully completed a two-day workshop on Integration of Field Offices to the Bank's business continuity programme in Khartoum, Sudan, reports allAfrica.com.

The training was designed to prepare field offices on how to minimise business disruptions, implement effective disaster recovery efforts, such as planning ahead particularly, for systems protection and restoration - and effective handling of natural hazards - for resumption of normal operations and business continuity as quickly as possible.

The training covered issues such as situational analyses, crises strategy implementation, ensuring security and safety of staff, survival techniques in cases of natural hazards or terrorist incidents, as well as effective planning for unforeseen contingencies.