Terrorism, hurricanes cloud continuity

Despite their country`s close association with the "war on terror", just 1% of US businesses have documented terrorism as source of IT downtime, research shows.

In comparison, 12% of UK businesses have attributed downtime to terrorism. The 2006 SteelEye Technology Business Continuity Index also shows US companies fear power outage above everything except loss of network, according to a release.

Forty two percent of respondents rank power outage as likely to have a maximum impact on their business, while this figure falls to 29% in Europe.

Verizon Business wants to play a systems integrator role for enterprises, addressing business continuity and disaster recovery needs, reports Xchange Mag.

The company has partnered with Strohl Systems, a consulting firm that specialises in this area. It also plans to launch a series of hurricane preparedness seminars in the Southeast of the US starting next week.

The company also mentioned it is focusing on secure remote work solutions that could be used in the event of an avian flu outbreak, for example.

Information availability and business continuity service provider SunGard Availability Services has released the SunGard National Network (SNN), offering the US real-time data management, backup, recovery and restoration, according to The WHIR.

SNN is a nationwide Ethernet network that connects SunGard`s recovery facilities together and links the facilities to SunGard`s flagship data centre, the London Technology Centre.

Using Ethernet as a networking standard, SNN allows disaster recovery to multiple recovery sites, as SunGard customers can recover to any location anywhere in the country, the company says.