In the News
Disaster Recovery News Briefs: SunGard Survey Says Virtualization has a Role in Disaster RecoverySearchdisasterrecovery
By - StaffA new survey "The 2009 State of Disaster Recovery" commissioned by SunGard Availability Services and conducted by Harris Interactive said virtualization can play a major role in disaster recovery. Seventy-four percent of IT respondents said virtualization has a role in DR, but it's not a total solution for disaster recovery plans. One-quarter of IT respondents said they would never include virtualization technologies in their disaster recovery plans. Virtualization and Disaster Recovery: Survey ResultsContinuity Central
By - StaffIn the survey, commissioned by SunGard Availability Services, 74 percent of IT respondents indicate that virtualization can play a major role but is not a total solution for disaster recovery plans. One-quarter of IT respondents say they would never include virtualization technologies in their disaster recovery plans. Survey of IT Execs: Virtualization No Panacea for Data RecoveryeWeek
By - Chris Preimesberger"The Achilles heel of many virtualized IT environments is they depend on a single data center to execute system failover should an outage occur," said Don Norbeck, technology officer at SunGard Availability Services. "A recovery strategy with no off-site data center can result in no recovery." Business Executives Don't Tie Disaster Recovery Efforts to Business Success, Study RevealsEnterprise Systems Journal
By - James PowellCommissioned by SunGard Availability Services and performed by Harris Interactive, the survey found that although 83 percent IT decision-makers (of 220 qualified respondents) and 78 percent of business decision-makers (of 277 respondents) acknowledge the importance of information availability to business success, only 74 percent of IT executives and 49 percent of business executives say disaster recovery and business continuity are similarly important. SunGard customer win: managed hosting for a managed data centerTier1Research
By - Antonio PirainoManaged hoster and colocation provider SunGard Availability Services has landed a large managed hosting deal in the form of BDP International, a global logistics and transportation management organization. SunGard will provide BDP with what it calls AdvancedHosting, or what others might term a hybrid hosting approach, for BDP's Global Data Center. Projects: Disaster Recovery Slideshow: Business and IT Disagree on Disaster RecoveryBaseline
By - StaffIn a poll of IT executives and line-of-business leaders, a recent "State of Disaster Recovery" survey found that each group still has its own ideas about business continuity. Conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of SunGard Availability Services, results show what IT workers are up against when it comes to advocating disaster recovery activities. IT Management Slideshow: Business and IT Disagree on Disaster RecoveryCIO Insight
By - StaffIn a poll of IT executives and line-of-business leaders, a recent "State of Disaster Recovery" survey found that each group still has its own ideas about business continuity. Conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of SunGard Availability Services, results show what IT workers are up against when it comes to advocating disaster recovery activities. Survey Highlights Disconnect Between IT and Business Executives When it Comes to Business Continuity and DRContinuity Central
By - Staff“The survey shows IT and business decision-makers really want the same things – to avoid lost productivity and negative impact on customer satisfaction that can result from unplanned outages,” said Patrick Doherty, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at SunGard Availability Services. “But there is a meaningful gap between these groups on how to achieve that goal. It is largely because the business is not connecting the requirement to keep core IT systems and applications available with overall company success. IT systems are still viewed as a ‘black box’ to many business executives, especially when it comes to the dependency between systems that impact overall availability.” Focusing On Budget CutsSecurities Industry News
By - Katherine HeiresDonald Hopkins of SunGard Availability Services said that his presentation would "take a deeper dive into how to reduce costs with a little twist," combining thrifty strategies for disaster recovery efforts with overall cost reduction efforts and advised that attendees at Sifma also need to identify "breakthrough strategies" for better technology management. "Cost reductions can become very addictive," he says, "where you end up always thinking about the next 15 percent to cut." His June 24 presentation will offer breakthrough solutions, such as the use of de-duplication technology as part of one's disaster recovery plan--a technique that removes any duplicate data prior to compression and thus, Hopkins argues, can result in significant savings. SunGard Provides Hosting to BDP InternationalWeb Host Industry Review
By - David HamiltonAccording to SunGard's Thursday announcement, BDP will be using SunGard's AdvancedHosting, delivered at its newly opened managed services facility in Philadelphia, which combines a redundant backbone network with secure, always available hosting facilities and equipment. Recent Announcements From:InfoStor
By - StaffSunGard Availability Services is now offering a disk-based, online backup and recovery service dubbed SunGard Secure2Disk. Secure2Disk backs data up to an onsite SunGard appliance, which be used as an online and off-site vault to protect information. Before the data is transmitted to SunGard, Secure2Disk deduplicates the data to reduce network bandwidth and storage consumption, and encrypts the information before it leaves the customer's datacenter. SunGard Launches Secure2DiskContinuity Central
By - StaffSecure2Disk from SunGard Availability Services delivers a new disk-based, online backup and recovery solution for organizations looking to improve the reliability of both operational backup and off-site recovery of their IT systems. Before the data is transmitted to SunGard’s secure storage facility, Secure2Disk de-duplicates the data to reduce network bandwidth and storage consumption, and encrypts the information before it leaves the customer’s data center to help ensure security. Only the customer has access to its information. Customers can monitor the status of the Secure2Disk environment and restore any files on a 24/7 basis. SunGard Launches Secure2Disk Online Backup SolutionIT Jungle
By - Alex WoodieWhat separates SunGard's new Secure2Disk offerings from these VTLs and D2D systems is SunGard's expertise in disaster recovery services, and its considerable investment in data centers, servers, and personnel. Instead of requiring a customer to move its data offsite and have a second data center that can support the customer in the event of a disaster--or to provision new servers and office space on short notice--the use of SunGard's facilities and personnel is part and parcel of the Secure2Disk offering. In that respect, Secure2Disk is very different from your basic VTL offering. Firm Moves From Tape Backup to Managed Backup and Recovery ServiceSearchCIO
By - Linda TucciHaving an appliance at the local site -- a feature not offered by all providers -- gives the ability to back up and restore data at land speed, instead of over the Internet, Couture said. A second copy is stored far away. Vendors like IBM have realized that they can turn their off-site storage services into disaster recovery services by adding a recovery option. And just yesterday, the SunGard Availability Services unit of SunGard Data Systems Inc. announced Secure2Disk, a new disk-based, online backup and recovery service that also offers an on-premise appliance. SunGard Secure2Disk Provides Online Backup and Recovery ServicesByte and Switch
By - Paul TravisProtecting business information from routine incidents, such as hardware and power outages, viruses, accidental deletions and application failures, as well as ensuring that information is available despite natural disasters is a continuous challenge for IT organizations. Secure2Disk from SunGard Availability Services delivers a new disk-based, online backup and recovery solution for organizations looking to improve the reliability of both operational backup and off-site recovery of their IT systems. Vendor NotebookHealthcareITNews
By - Eric WicklundSunGard Availability Services of Wayne, Pa., has announced a partnership with Phoenix Health Systems, a national provider of healthcare IT outsourcing, consulting and revenue cycle management solutions, to deliver complete software applications and infrastructure management for community hospitals. Improving Business Continuity with SunGardVirtual Strategy Magazine
By - Carryl Roy and Richard EngstromIn this podcast VSM speaks with Richard Engstrom, product manager at SunGard Availability Services, about maintaining information availability and improving business continuity. SunGard Builds SaaS ConnectionsMSPmentor
By - John MooreSunGard Availability Services is cultivating business among software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. This week, the company reported HarrisData as a new customer for its managed services, and more deals seem to be pending. Here’s a quick look at the SaaS strategy. HarrisData Taps SunGard for Hosting ServicesSearchDataCenter
By - Bridget BotelhoHarrisData now uses SunGard Availability Services for managed hosting of its enterprise software applications for HarrisData customers, the companies reported Monday. HarrisData Teams Up with SunGard for HostingIT Jungle
By - Alex WoodieSunGard officials are also in Brookfield this week for the conference. Biff Myre, director of availability solutions for SunGard Availability Services, was scheduled to present a session on iSeries high availability strategies yesterday. "SunGard has extensive experience in addressing the information availability and recovery needs of iSeries customers," Myre says in a press release. Ten Ways to Save on Data Storage CostsEnterprise Storage Forum
By - Drew RobbStorage vendors are willing to deal like never before, so shop around for surprise deals and you might get lucky. For instance, until June 30, SunGard Availability Services is holding a special offer of up to $15,000 for its AdvancedHosting enterprise managed services and colocation solutions. This offer is available at SunGard's facilities in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto and New York. What this means is that if you sign up, they either waive setup fees up to $15,000 or get one month's complimentary service up to that value. Variations of this apply to new or existing customers. The Case for Continuity Management SoftwareBusinessWeek
By - Tracey Forbes, vice-president, product development, SunGard Availability ServicesNo one can control whether or not an organization will be affected by a natural disaster, hardware failure, power outage, or other unplanned incident. But companies can prepare to respond to and recover from such events with minimal impact by creating and keeping business continuity plans. Business continuity management (BCM) software can help with this. Consider how you might use it. Jive's Temporary Cloud OfferingInformationWeek
By - Andrew Conry-Murray"We have a script that lets you grab the entire instance and deploy it wherever you want: it sets up the database and application to your on-premises server or to our hosted infrastructure, which is hosted by SunGard," says Cameron Deatsch, product director at Jive. 6 Steps for Weathering Outbreaks and Food ScaresSmartMoney
By - Diana RansomAirlines, hotels and other tourism-focused businesses are already seeing a falloff in sales as swine flu cases continue to pop up in Mexico and parts of the U.S., says Jim Grogan, vice president of consulting product development at SunGard Availability Services, a disaster recovery firm in Wayne, Pa. The World Health Organization raised its pandemic threat level to 4 from 3 Monday, just two levels shy of a full-blown pandemic. Meanwhile, health officials at the U.S. State Department and Centers for Disease Control in the U.S warned against nonessential travel to Mexico. And the European Union urged its citizens to postpone nonessential travel to the U.S. and Mexico. SunGard Upgrades Scottsdale Data CenterPhoenix Business Journal
By - Patrick O'GradySunGard Availability Services has upgraded its Scottsdale data center to handle more recovery solutions. The Wayne, Pa.-based managed services company upgraded its 102,000-square-foot facility to provide for better services to specific industry customers, such as health care, said Frank Szalontay, senior director of operations for the company’s Western U.S. region. Is IT ready for a pandemic after mergers, layoffs?ComputerWorld
By - Patrick ThibodeauWhile the CDC figures out just what it is dealing with, Jim Grogan, a vice president at SunGard Availability Services LP, is recommending that managers review their call lists and decision-making chains.
"There could be a weakness in plans because of organizational restructuring that people need to very quickly take a look at," he said.
Grogan also said that if someone does not have a specific pandemic plan, any plan that considers a "significant absence" of employees may work as an alternative plan. Writing Winning IT Plans in a RecessionCIO Update
By - Robert McGarveyThe last, crucial step in building a winning IT plan, said Mark Stoecklein, senior director in the Technology Solutions Practice at SunGard Availability Services, is to tie every new expenditure back to provable returns. “ROI is the big driver today. You can spend money if it will save you money or make you money and CFOs will double-check your claims." Is Your Firm Disaster Proof?Printing News
By - StaffJim Olson, vice president of inside sales and solutions engineering at SunGard Availability Services, said his company offers many tips to effective business continuity planning in the event of a disaster. “Companies need to plan for a wide range of scenarios, including fire, flood, hurricane, etc.; owners need to understand their data requirements; employees need to know where to go after the disaster; and you need to test your plan with a mock disaster.” Vendor NotebookHealthcareITNews
By - Eric WicklundOrchestrate Healthcare, based in Greenwood Village, Colo., is partnering with SunGard Availability Services of Wayne, Pa., to help hospitals develop and execute cost-effective business continuity plans that address the requirement to access EMR data in the event of an IT systems outage to safeguard quality of care. Top Five Reasons to Utilize Managed IT Services by SunGardMyHostNews
By - StaffIn today's difficult economic environment, organizations are turning to managed IT services to help them achieve lower and more predictable IT support costs, while also improving IT resiliency and operational efficiencies. Organizations are realizing the advantages of leveraging the investments of managed IT services providers rather than building and managing their own IT infrastructures. SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider of information availability, has outlined the top five reasons to use a managed IT services provider in today's down economy. Security Clouds: What will security look like in the cloud, and how will it be put together?WhiteHatWorld
By - Deb RadcliffIn this fragmented landscape, Richard Rees, security director at SunGard Availability Services asks: How do you put all these clouds together, particularly in a way that’s SAS 70 compliant, so that security data is accessible upon demand? SunGard, based in Wayne, Penn., is a $5 billion IT infrastructure, application services and processing provider for financial, educational and public sector applications that includes security applications in its offerings. SunGard Developing 'LDRPS for HospitalsContinuity Central
By - StaffIn today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, real-time access to medical information and treatment protocols is required to deliver the highest quality of care. LDRPS (Living Disaster Recovery Planning System) for Hospitals, a new version of the well known LDRPS business continuity management software is being developed by SunGard Availability Services to address the healthcare industry’s unique, 24/7 demands for information availability. Tabletop Exercises Sharpen Security and Business ContinuityInformation Security
By - Michael MimosoLisa Wragg, disaster recovery coordinator for the Delaware DTI, was the project manager for last year's incident response exercise. She lays out seven lessons learned. # 7. Get an outside agency to assess how you do; SunGard's Incident Management Exercise Service did DTI's assessment. SunGard Availability Services Intros New Planning SoftwareTMCnet
By - Anuradha ShuklaSunGard Availability Services will be offering versions of LDRPS for Hospitals with a variety of delivery and functional options. These versions can be scaled to meet the needs of healthcare organizations of all sizes. The company can also host LDRPS for Hospitals at one of its secure data centers located throughout the country. Health Care IT: 25 Solutions To Check Out At HIMSSChannelWeb
By - StaffSunGard is best known for disaster recovery, but to the HIMSS audience it is opening up a full portfolio of services including business continuity management software, disaster recovery, managed services and consulting. At the forefront is the Living Disaster Recovery Planning System (LDRPS), a solution which combines all of those facets. Marketing Tool all aTwitterPhiladelphia Business Journal
By - Peter KeyFor example, SunGard Availability Services, a Wayne-based provider of computer back-up and recovery services, will use the site to tweet about goings-on at its user conference, which starts April 5 in San Diego. That will enable Twitter users at the conference to connect with other Twitter users with whom they share common interests, and enable Twitter users who can’t attend the conference to get information from it, said Valeria Maltoni, the company’s director of marketing communications. SunGard, Orchestrate Unite to Improve EMR AvailabilityHealthcare Informatics
By - StaffSunGard Availability Services (Wayne, Pa.) is partnering with Orchestrate Healthcare (Greenwood Village, Colo.), a technical consulting service, to help healthcare organizations improve information availability for EMRs. SunGard Looks for Growth with New Reseller ProgramIT Jungle
By - Alex WoodieAll of SunGard's availability services will be eligible for the reseller program. But Sorice and his team will be rolling out a series of bundled solutions that specifically target resellers. "We will be working with them on a more targeted set of services that are more channel-ready, if you will, such as Virtual Server Replication Service (VSR)," where VMware environments are replicated to other VMware systems at SunGard facilities. "We're offering end-to-end services. We're helping them with failover and failback. Partners are finding that to be an attractive solution for their clients." SunGard Availability Services Launches New Partner ProgramContinuity Central
By - StaffSunGard Availability Services has unveiled a Business Partner Program designed to help companies generate new revenue sources by offering customers comprehensive availability solutions. Business Partners can expand beyond traditional hardware and software offerings by adding SunGard services to existing portfolios to create an information availability solution practice for their customers. ‘The Future is Now’: SunGard software Business Continuity User Group ConferenceContinuity Central
By - StaffIn a continuing effort to provide educational opportunities to business continuity professionals, the 2009 SunGard Availability Services Software International User Group Conference features sessions on building plans, incident management and cyber security. The conference, organized by SunGard Availability Services, will be held in San Diego, Calif. on April 5 – 8, 2009 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego. The State of the Data Storage Job MarketEnterprise Storage Forum
By - Drew RobbOn the end user side, there is more of a mixed bag. SunGard Availability Services of Wayne, Pa., which provides data protection and collocation facilities to thousands of companies, reports that its customer base is experiencing a headcount loss of as much as 20 percent over the course of 2009. SunGard Offers Managed Services, Hosting PromotionsSearchDataCenter
By - Bridget BotelhoSunGard Availability Services is trying to attract new customers with a promotional deal for AdvancedHosting enterprise managed services and colocation solutions. The offer is available at SunGard's managed services facilities in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto and the New York metro area through June 30. New or existing customers that sign a contract for enterprise managed services solutions via SunGard's AdvancedHosting can either waive setup fees for adding or renewing new services -- up to a maximum of $15,000 -- or get one month of complimentary service (also up to $15,000). Hosting by SunGard, Selected by Jive SoftwareWeb Hosting News
By - StaffSocial business software provider, Jive Software, has selected SunGard Availability Services AdvancedHosting managed IT services, to support its enterprise software suite. SunGard Managed Services Launches Financial IncentivesMSP Mentor
By - Joe PanettieriSunGard’s managed services effort extends beyond the east coast. True believers include Jive Software, a Portland, Oregon-based provider of so-called Social Business Software. Jive, which specializes in software as a service (SaaS) on March 3 disclosed plans to leverage SunGard’s managed services. Storage Admins Cope with Budget CutbacksEnterprise Storage Forum
By - Drew Robb"Customers are asking the hard questions around how they are using their infrastructure and if there is an ability to optimize and re-prioritize," said Stith. "Specifically, organizations want to know if they can rebuild a management strategy for value from an existing infrastructure. They want to know if it is possible to put off buying more storage for a year or more by optimizing what they already have."
-Senior Director of Storage Solutions at SunGard Availability Services, Bill Stith
VMware Outshines Hyper-V, et al. in Hypervisor ComparisonSearchServerVirtualization
By - Bridget BotelhoThe fact that Microsoft has yet to release a full-bodied hypervisor comes by no surprise to enterprise users, said Frank Lacomba, the director of product management at SunGard Availability Services, which supports customer virtualization deployments. "Enterprises typically wait until the first service pack, when they get their act together," before adopting Microsoft software, Lacomba said.
VMWare's Confederation of CloudsForbes.com
By - Taylor BuleyOn Tuesday, VMware CEO Paul Maritz plans to discuss plans to enable "federated clouds" aimed at unifying the pooled resources of both internal IT infrastructure, so-called "virtual private clouds," and external, third-party cloud computing providers including Amazon.com, SunGard and Verizon. SunGard Opens 3rd Data Center in PhiladelphiaData Center Journal
By - StaffSunGard Availability Services has opened a third data center in Philadelphia that will provide its customers with IT infrastructure and managed services to help ensure their business systems are always up and running. SunGard has invested $25 million in the new 120,000 square foot facility. SunGard Availability Services opens $25M data center in PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia Business Journal
By - Peter KeyInformation-technology company SunGard Availability Services said Wednesday it has opened a $25 million, 120,000-square-foot data center in Philadelphia. The unit of SunGard Data Systems Inc., which shares a Wayne, Pa., headquarters with its parent, has three data centers with 350,000 square feet among them in Philadelphia. How to Improve Virtualization SecurityeWeek
By - Richard ReesIn the rush to implement virtualization technologies, organizations are re-creating the same security mistakes that were made in physical environments over the past two decades. This is happening largely because they have failed to recognize that new technologies create the same risks, albeit from a different perspective. Knowledge Center contributor Richard Rees explains the five steps you need to take to improve virtualization security in your data center. SunGard Opens Third Center City Data CenterPhiladelphia Inquirer
By - Joe DiStefanoSunGard Availability Services, Wayne, has spent $25 million to turn a 123,000-square-foot floor of the old Smith Kline labs and pill factory on Spring Garden St. into its 34th U.S. data and disaster-recovery center, complete with its own redundant diesel power (two 2000-kilowatt diesel generators with city-required catalytic converters and 4,000-gallon tanks), battery rooms, raised floors, security, electronic monitoring and climate control systems. Six Ways to Save Your IT Project from the Scrap HeapInfoWorld
By - Dan TynanThen, out of the blue, he got a call from SunGard, which offered a free 90-day beta test of its Virtual Server Replication Services. Zwartz jumped at the offer. He says the service worked so well in his tests that he retired the physical servers at the high-availability site and moved his entire disaster-recovery plan to SunGard last October.
Now, with a successful high-availability virtualization project under his belt, Zwartz was able to convince the insurance firm to go virtual at the production site. -- Interview with Mark Zwartz, Manager of Information Technology, JMB Insurance Resolving Disaster Recovery ProblemsProcessor Magazine
By - Carmi LevyToo many organizations view the DRP as a drag on the bottom line. In doing so, they fail to understand the DRP’s critical contributions to ongoing operations. Jim Grogan, vice president of consulting product development at SunGard Availability Services, says IT is instrumental in helping the rest of the business understand the connection between the DRP and business continuity management. SunGard Upgrades its North American Workforce Continuity Services CentersTMCnet
By - Shamila JanakiramanThe configuration for the desktop PC architecture is consistent throughout the workforce continuity services facilities. This provided customers a common platform which is useful in case of an outage or while supporting business users located remotely from multiple SunGard locations. SunGard also provided an imaging service for simplifying and reducing desktop PC recovery times. This enables customers to restore many desktop PCs easily. How to Ensure IT Resiliency During an Economic Downturn: The Top 10 Questions Your Company Needs to Ask ItselfDisaster Resource Guide
By - William DiMartini, VP of Consulting Operations at SunGard Availability ServicesDuring this period of economic uncertainty, many organizations are looking at ways to reduce costs, while continuing stability and growth. Information technology expenditures are not exempt from this and are typically the first area to be scrutinized. Consequently, costs to maintain critical information availability programs, including business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR), are being identified for possible cuts. 21st Century Power and Cooling PandemicDisaster Recovery Journal
By - Dr. Mickey Zandi, managing principal for SunGard Availability Services Consulting GroupThere is a perfect storm brewing in IT – fuel costs are rising exponentially, business managers are looking for ways to cut costs to address current economic conditions, and IT departments are being asked to provide higher levels of availability than ever before with flat or even shrinking IT budgets. Disaster Recovery Site OptionsStorage Magazine
By - Jacob Gsoedl"We have tried to put together a TCO tool, but data centers are too different and our DR options are so customized that it's very difficult to come up with a cost calculator," says David Palermo, vice president of marketing at SunGard Availability Services. BC/DR Advice for SMBsInfoStor
By - Dave SimpsonMany small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) still have ineffective (or non-existent) business continuity plans. However, it is imperative that SMBs recognize and plan for potential risks. Here are five steps to consider when you are developing a BC plan. CIO Values: Donald H. Hopkins, SunGard Availability ServicesInformationWeek
By - Interview with Don Hopkins, VIP and CIO at SunGard Availability ServicesTop three initiatives:
Implementing an enterprise data warehouse from Teradata (NYSE: TDC).
Migrating the current Oracle ERP platform to release 12, and simplifying processes to let us be much quicker in responding to customer needs.
Migrating our disaster recovery to more advanced disk-based technology to ensure we're a good business model for our recovery services business. IT Security: Risk Management in the Digital Age - Securing the VaultWall Street Journal
By - Russ BanhamAccording to SunGard Availability Services, technology risks can be broken down into three categories: natural threats like a hurricane that shut down systems or prevent access to data to continue business; accidental threats, in which an employee unintentionally obtains improper access to verboten data; and intentional threats, the wide array of illegal scans, probes and attempted accesses via malicious code. The latter is the most threatening. “We live in a digital world via the Internet, and its access channels have also evolved to where the Web is a platform for services like social networking and sophisticated information sharing. This drives a higher degree of interaction,” explains Deepak Batheja, chief technology officer and SVP-Products. The Vagaries of Disaster Recovery, cont’dSearchStorage
By - Beth PariseauOf course, without a fully staffed and replicated secondary environment, Zwartz acknowledged, it’s impossible to be disaster-proof. But the incident also had a silver lining when it came to convincing management to participate in the new SunGard program. “It would’ve cost $1,500 to get a new backup device,” he said. “It wound up taking six weeks to get one contact back and cost between $15,000 and $20,000. It was a selling point when it came to virtual servers with SunGard.” From Business Continuity to IT Cost-Cutting in a Fortune 1000 CompanyEnterprise Leadership (Podcast)
By - Host: Tom ParishIn this podcast, Hopkins talks about how he has translated his IT experiences at NCR and applied them as CIO at SunGard Availability Services. He also talks about NCR's strategy to cut its IT infrastructure costs and increase the company's profitability, its process for making investment decisions in technology, and its methodology for measuring the value of those investments. Think Before Pink: Cut IT Now ... and Pay LaterManufacturing Business Technology
By - Mark Roberts"Focused on short-term pressures to make budget cuts, it often escapes companies that disaster preparedness needs may actually be greater during times of economic duress," says William DiMartini, senior vice president of consulting services at U.S.-based SunGard Availability Services. Steps to Effective Business Continuity PlanningBusinessWeek
By - Jim OlsonLook to keep your people, systems, and information connected. Your business continuity strategy must encompass information, systems, people, and processes, as well as the complex interdependencies among them. If your workforce cannot connect to systems and data, there is no business. As part of the planning process, also consider what the best strategy is for your company in managing critical systems and components—either internally, with a managed hosting provider, or a combination of both. – Article by Jim Olson. Defending Your Internet PresenceBusinessWeek
By - Jim Olson and Darren CarrollYour Web site is your company’s online fingerprint and the most valuable information-sharing tool that you have. But just as it enables you to reach millions of online users, it also makes it possible for hackers and vandals to break in to manipulate and destroy your data. Here are five tips that can help protect both your Web site and Web-based applications from malicious attacks. –Article by Jim Olson. Organizations Need to Make Virtualization Security a Higher Priority, says SunGardContinuity Central
By - StaffWith virtualization technologies becoming pervasive in the data center, SunGard Availability Services has outlined five essential steps for addressing virtualization security challenges. The steps reflect the strategic belief that information security must be integral to the assessment, design and implementation phases of virtualized environments to protect data assets and meet compliance requirements. With many organizations focusing on virtualization benefits, they must also examine core risks before it is too late – meaning security needs to be built in from the start. Virtual Machine Security Threat Levels; Don’t Believe the HypeSearchServerVirtualization
By - Bridget BotelhoAnd as SunGard said in its email, “With many organizations focusing on virtualization benefits, they must also examine core risks before it is too late - meaning security needs to be built in from the start.” It is why we buy life insurance and car insurance and fire insurance for our homes. (Those damn what ifs and their expensive safeguards).
So, for the paranoid among us, check out SunGard’s suggestions for securing your virtual infrastructure here. As they say, better safe than sorry, right? Business Continuity Briefs: SunGard Announces Third Quarter 2008 ResultsContinuity Central
By - StaffSunGard has reported that revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2008 was $1.39 billion, an increase of 14 percent compared to the same period in 2007. Organic revenue grew 11 percent. Adjusted income from operations was $290 million, compared to $291 million in the same period in 2007.
SunGard Availability Services revenue increased 8% to $398 million for the quarter. Organic revenue grew 3%. License fees associated with the Company's acquisition of Strohl Systems were $4 million. How to Get Started with VirtualizationProcessor Magazine
By - Robyn WeismanBecause virtualization is a portable technology, it lets you move your IT workload across any of your servers, says Don Norbeck, director of product development at SunGard (www.sungard.com). To take advantage of virtualization’s strengths, you need to figure out what your objectives are, Norbeck says.
“Is it about cost savings? Cost avoidance? Meeting an immediate problem within the data center? Or is it something around availability or flexibility within the IT resources that you have?” Norbeck asks. “All three of them are going to be very intensified over the next year with a lot of organizations struggling with flat or maybe even significantly decreasing IT budgets,” he says. Bank Refreshes Data Center with PDUs, New CRAC UnitsSearch Data Center
By - StaffTo tackle these problems, AgFirst called on SunGard Availability Services to assess and redesign its data center. SunGard also offers disaster recovery (DR) services with which AgFirst already had experience. "We use them for our DR location," he said. "We figured that since they're good at building their own data centers, who better to ask?" Five Steps for Effective Business Continuity PlanningSmallbiztechnology.com
By - StaffPlanning for disaster is one of those things that you just can't put off, because if you do it will truly be too late. Jim Olson, vice president of inside sales and solutions engineering at SunGard Availability Services, reminds us, "When the unexpected occurs - from unplanned downtime to a major disaster - the details and unplanned variables are what always impede a fast recovery. It is important to test the way you recover, and recover the way you test. Practice and experience pays off in a time of crisis." Business Continuity Planning Special Report - Clients to BCP Vendors: 'Can You Do It All?'Securities Industry News
By - Staff"The two most frequent causes of application failures or slowdowns in anybody's financial system is a coding error that has gone untested or undiscovered, or a capacity issue," says Jim Grogan, VP of consulting and product development at SunGard Availability Services, a division of Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard Data Systems. "Systems are generally not architecture to run at more than 70 percent of their capacity before unusual things start to happen." Putting Plans to the TestSystems Management News - Not Available Online
By - Michelle Savage"Recent disasters have turned DR planning from theory into reality for many companies. The solution may be complex, but the essence is simple," said Tony Maggio, engagement manager at SunGard Availability Services. "Learn from the experience, implement new strategies for the future, and don't forget to test." SunGard Handles 25+ Concurrent LocationsContinuity Central
By - Staff SunGard Availability Services has reported a 100 percent success rate supporting customers impacted by Hurricane Ike.
More than 25 SunGard customers in Texas had business and data center operations disrupted by the recent hurricane. They included small to large-sized organizations ranging from financial, manufacturing, government, technology and insurance industries, facing issues ranging from severe water damage, long-term power outages and evacuations. Funds in Hurricane Ike's Path Get Back to WorkIgnites (subscription required)
By - Beagan WilcoxSunGard Availability Services, which provides disaster preparation and information services to financial firms and others, has had 27 firms in the Houston area use its services as a result of Hurricane Ike, says Bob DiLossi, director of crisis management at the company.
In most cases, those clients have either had a mobile truck equipped with makeshift work stations dispatched to them or they’ve gone to alternate work areas that SunGard maintains in Austin and Grand Prairie, Texas.
“A lot of people didn’t skip a beat, which was much better than when Katrina happened,” says DiLossi. VMware Assembles Tech Heavyweights For Cloud ComputingCRN
By - Joseph KovarOver 100 service providers, including BT, Rackspace, SAVVIS, Sungard, T-Systems, and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) Business, are partnering with VMware to bring customers to cloud computing with VMware's new vCloud initiative. Traditional Recovery Services Are DeadThe Forrester Blog for Security & Risk Professionals
By - Stephanie BalaourasThere are new services on the horizon that will make advanced IT recovery affordable for the masses. This month SunGard announced the availability of its new Virtual Server Replication Service. As I discussed in my most recent Forrester Wave™ of DR Service Providers and other reports, server virtualization is transforming IT recovery. With replication to a virtualized server infrastructure and shared storage infrastructure, customers can enjoy improved recovery-time and recovery-point objectives without the cost of dedicated and custom IT recovery solutions from the DR services provider. SunGard is the first DR service provider to productize these virtual services. I expect other DR service providers to follow suit. SunGard cloud service brings disaster recovery reliefSearchStorage.com
By - Beth PariseauThe new hosted disaster recovery infrastructure is targeted at organizations that can't afford an entire second set of storage gear and secondary data center space. According to Mark Zwartz, manager of IT for the privately held JMB companies, the real savings for his staff will be in time and stress. "It was the highlight of our testing" for the new SunGard service when SharePoint failed over and failed back again "just beautifully," Zwartz said. SunGard estimates switching from physical to virtual replication targets will save its customers $2,000 to $5,000 per month in hardware maintenance and floor space rental costs. SunGard Dives Into Virtual DRByte and Switch
By - Don ReisingerDisaster recovery specialist teams with VMware to launch virtual replication service
“We turned to virtualization because our data center faces a constant need to add more servers while also being limited by the physical space available without expensive expansion,” says Mark Zwartz, IT manager at Chicago-based real estate firm JMB Companies, in a statement released yesterday. “While it took us one year to get our high availability site up and running, SunGard came in and had our virtual recovery site ready to go in three weeks.” Read more about SunGard’s new virtualization service in this article. Stepping It Up: Advancing Your Recovery Strategy by Integrating Virtualization and ReplicationDisaster Recovery Journal
By - Matt CareyVirtualization holds great promise for helping companies achieve sound disaster preparedness, especially when combined with a replication strategy to ensure access to fresh and updated enterprise information in the time of a crisis. Read more in this article by Matt Carey, product development manager for SunGard Availability Services. Shifting SunGard’s Focus from Recovery to PlanningPhiladelphia Inquirer
By - Joseph N. DiStefano In this Q&A interview, Eric Berg, CEO of SunGard Availability Services, discusses how disaster recovery and business continuity methods are rapidly evolving to meet the changing IT and business requirements of today. He explains how SunGard helps organizations better navigate this changing landscape and provides expertise to develop forward-thinking information availability strategies companies need to successfully recover from every potential disruption. This interview also explores the history of SunGard Availability Services and its local ties to the Philadelphia community. Hurricane Warning: Put People FirstTotalCIO (A SearchCIO Blog)
By - Linda TucciHarriett Kummer, senior director at SunGard Availability Services Consulting in Alpahretta, Ga talks about what CIOs need to be thinking about as they fine-tune their disaster recovery plans. Read the post and listen to Harriett's podcast as well as the story of how Shane Loper, COO of Hancock Bank, oversaw the Gulfport, Miss., bank’s recovery and construction of a new $16 million data center. Justifying Disaster Recovery CostseWEEK
By - Michael VizardWith a recession looming organizations are now looking at what cuts make sense and which ones are penny-wise but pound-foolish. In economic downturns, business needs for high availability and regulatory compliance do not slow. Companies must continue to ensure disaster preparedness remains a key part of their IT priorities. In this podcast interview, SunGard’s Bill DiMartini looks at the most common mistakes IT professionals make and offers tips on how to use technology (such as virtualization and AdvancedRecovery) to keep your business running smoothly no matter the disruption. High-tech 'Energy Hogs' Tasked with Going GreenDenver Business Journal
By - Greg Avery Data centers live at the heart of the speedy storage and retrieval of information that has made industries more efficient and the Internet possible. But they're also the energy hogs of high technology, consuming electricity all day, every day, so that archived medical files or Web pages are there when someone needs them. SunGard Back on M&A HuntPhiladelphia Inquirer
By - Joseph DiStefano SunGard's agreement to purchase Strohl Systems Group Inc. of King of Prussia marks the Wayne-based financial-software and recovery systems giant's first trip back to the acquisitions market since 2006, according to Bloomberg data. SunGard release here. Virtualization For Disaster Recovery - SunGard Gets ItInformationWeek
By - Howard MarksVirtualization is changing the DR landscape and SunGard is at the forefront of this shift with its recent partnership with VMware. Read here to find out Howard Marks’ take on this pairing and what it could mean for your organization. Virtualization Report PodcastInfoWorld
By - David MarshallBack in the day, getting back up and running after a disaster within 36-48 hours was considered a success—now IT staff facing recovery windows of 5 hours or less, even minutes. Listen to this podcast as David Marshall describes how SunGard’s virtualization strategy can help organizations meet aggressive RTO and RPO goals. SunGard plans cloud-based disaster recovery for VMwareSearchStorage
By - Beth PariseauLearn more about SunGard’s strategic partnership with VMware in this SearchStorage article. Senior analyst Stephanie Balaouras at Forrester Research notes "the ability to replicate data and virtual machine configuration files really simplifies application restart at the alternate site, and for companies that don't have an alternate site and need the services of someone like SunGard, it means they can achieve a much better recovery time objective." Disaster planning: Bank builds data center for the long haulSearchCIO.com
By - Linda TucciOn Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped the roof off Hancock Bank's 15-story headquarters in Gulfport, Miss. When disaster hits, "a lot of things change," Shane Loper, chief operations officer at Hancock Bank said. Pleased with SunGard's performance in the wake of the storm --"They were the net beneath us, like their motto says, and more," Loper said -- Hancock hired the Wayne, Pa.-based provider to execute the move. In January 2007, Mickey Zandi, managing partner of SunGard's data center consolidation and migration practice, was surveying the poured concrete floor and "imagining a data center." "They had an architect and builder. They really wanted a trusted adviser throughout the construction phase," Zandi said. Ziff Davis Enterprise Virtual Tradeshow on Managing VirtualizationZiff Davis
By - PodcastLooking for some expert advice on how best to implement virtualization to save big on hardware, software, cooling & power costs? Listen to the Ziff Davis Enterprise virtual panel on "Planning a Virtualized Environment from the Ground Up." SunGard’s expert panelist says, "We all have to stop playing IT whack-a-mole. We’re very good if an issue comes up, we take care of that issue, and we go onto the next issue, [but] a virtualization program forces us to step back and gain perspective." 5 Ways to Build a Business Case for Business ContinuityCSOonline.com
By - Katherine WalshThe importance of business continuity planning is a no-brainer--if you're a security leader who already thinks in terms of security and risk, that is. But convincing business executives, who typically think in dollars and cents, of such a plan's criticality may be a tougher sell. While the fundamental importance of business continuity is fairly obvious, the reason to spend lots of money on it may not be. SunGard on Virtualization? 'Been Doing it for Years'InformationWeek Virtualization Blog
By - Joe HernickI spoke with Don Norbeck out of Wayne, Pa., this morning. He's director of product development for SunGard Availability Services, though a more appropriate title might be SunGard Virtualization Guru. Or Evangelist. Disaster Recovery: Doing the Basics BetterContinuity Insights
By - Mark Hughes and Robert DiLossi As many are all too painfully aware, a disaster is an unplanned event, something which cannot be predicted. However, this does not mean that organizations are at the mercy of chance. Organizations need a strong focus on three core elements — people, processes and planning — coupled with decisive leadership, in addition to technology. This is a “back to basics” approach to disaster recovery. |
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“One of the strong points is that everything we expected from SunGard, they delivered. They walk the walk.”
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-- Bruce Parkey
VP and CIO, Rapid Solutions Group
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For additional information or media inquiries, please contact:
Valeria Maltoni
Director, Marketing Communications
SunGard Availability Services
866.667.8108
610.225.1132 (fax)
as.communications@sungard.com |
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