VERITAS extends DR seminar into Africa

Due to overwhelming attendance levels and interest, attracting more than 16 000 attendees in only five months, VERITAS Software has extended its global Disaster Recovery (DR) Series of Seminars further afield to take in more than 100 cities worldwide, including additional locations in Africa.

According to Mike Rees, Business Development Manager, Africa at VERITAS Software, the seminars were so well received that VERITAS took the decision to extend the series to cities not yet visited. From an African perspective, this means that events have been scheduled for April and May 2002 in Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Nigeria.

VERITAS believes that events of 11 September and research by the renowned Gartner Group were key factors behind the high attendance levels. "Gartner estimates that two out of five enterprises that experience a disaster go out of business within five years," notes Rees.

"The VERITAS Software Disaster Recovery seminars highlight the importance of proactive DR planning and offer useful and relevant information that people can take back to their own organisations for immediate implementation," he adds.

Self-assessment surveys conducted on the South African leg of the seminars clearly illustrates the need for increased education about disaster recovery. "We had a number of companies attending the two sessions, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Almost 60% said they had no DR plan, it has never been tested or it failed when tested," says Rees.

"Results from the same survey found that over 90% of respondents could afford to lose only an hour or less of data transactions before their business operation would be negatively impacted, reinforcing the value of a solid disaster recovery plan," he adds.

In order to help African companies come to terms with these issues and develop strategies to protect their livelihood, VERITAS has teamed up with StorageTek, a supplier of data storage and disaster recovery solutions, and CDP, a channel development partner with a significant footprint in key African regions.

"StorageTek offers a range of cost-effective tape drives, disk storage and SAN solutions while CDP has fairly large operations in Casablanca, Lagos, Nairobi and Port Louis, and is also well represented on the rest of the African continent and on the Indian Ocean Islands," says Rees.

Scheduled for Gaborone in Botswana (4 April); Lagos in Nigeria (the week of 16 April), Nairobi in Kenya (24 April) and both Mauritius and Morocco (early May), the seminars will expose African IT professionals and business people to industry gurus covering topics that include:

• .         Evaluating the cost, and extent, of a disaster and planning for [business] survival;

• .         Building a solid cost-effective strategy to ensure business continuance;

• .         Creating a data safety net;

• .         Reducing the time it takes, and cost, to recover from disaster; and

• .         Surviving a data centre-wide business disaster.

For its part in the seminar, StorageTek representatives will discuss: how different tape media types are used in DR, the benefits of automating the backup process, offsite media vaulting and replication, among other related topics. The company will also give an overview of its various disk and tape products.

The seminars also draw on VERITAS Software`s experience in helping customers design, implement and use disaster recovery solutions, including its support of customers at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the days immediately following 11 September 2001.

Through a combination of its technologies and global support services, VERITAS Software recovered 100% of the data lost at 112 customer sites. The seminars educate attendees on how to assess disaster recovery requirements, implement fast recovery solutions, protect against data loss and significantly reduce the costs associated with downtime.