SUNGARD NATIONAL NETWORK OFFERS 99.9% INFORMATION AVAILABILITY

London, UK:  31 May, 2006: SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider of Information Availability and business continuity services, today announced the launch of the SunGard National Network (SNN), offering nationwide real-time data management, backup, recovery and restoration.   SunGard has been an acknowledged front-runner in recovery centre networking, but SNN enables the company to take another step forward in this area. Developed in response to customer requirements, SNN is a nationwide Ethernet network which connects SunGard’s recovery facilities together and links the facilities to SunGard’s flagship London Technology Centre (LTC), a fully-resilient data centre.

The innovative nature of the SunGard National Network has been recognised in the eighth annual UK Business Continuity Awards where it won the ‘Most Innovative Product’ category.  Collecting the Award, Keith Tilley, UK managing director and SVP Europe, said: “The award acknowledges SunGard as a leading light in recovery centre networking.  Our aim is to provide our customers with the flexibility and resilience to tackle any interruption.  The reliability of the SunGard network has been proven on numerous occasions, from the London bombings to the Buncefield oil depot explosion.  In all of the invocations (disaster declarations) it has received, SunGard has never exceeded 35% of the available network bandwidth”

Since it uses Ethernet as a networking standard, SNN makes SunGard’s Information Availability infrastructure an extension of customers’ own local and wide-area networks, enabling seamless, proactive, data protection services and virtually instantaneous response to invocations.  SNN also helps make disaster recovery to multiple recovery sites easier, as SunGard customers are able to recover to any location anywhere in the country. 

Mike Smith, senior product development manager – communications at SunGard Availability Services, said, “The SunGard National Network uses the latest networking solutions to provide our customers with greater flexibility and therefore a better range of options for business continuity and data protection, to help them have better control over their operations and costs, as well as helping them to make better use of precious resources. 

“It also takes geography out of the disaster recovery equation, helps to reduce concentration risks and helps better syndication management by making SunGard locations nodes on a nationwide infrastructure that helps keep our customers connected to their key people and information where, when and how they need it.  Added to this, SNN links to SunGard’s wider strategy of supporting multiple invocations by kitting out each recovery centre with a consistent look and feel; identical layouts; and standardised equipment and technologies. This consistency is highly valued by our customers,” Smith concluded. 

Realistic Testing

Another benefit that the SunGard National Network brings to SunGard’s customers is the enhanced business continuity testing regime, since it provides a Remote Testing service at local area network speeds. Realistic tests can therefore be conducted without the need to relocate large numbers of the customers’ personnel to the data centre, with performance being similar to that which would be achieved during an invocation.  SNN also helps make it easier for SunGard to provide testing slots, giving customers more scheduling options. Multiple concurrent tests can also be conducted, enabling diverse customer sites to take part in the same test, or allowing tests to be carried out at various SunGard recovery centres at the same time; for example, to test the ability to rollback from the main allocated recovery centre to a secondary or even tertiary location.

Improved Data Backup

Data backup and replication by SunGard customers steps up a gear through the use of SNN. There are no distance constraints; therefore the London Technology Centre becomes a resource which can be used by all companies. LTC’s Tier IV[1] resilience means that there is no better storage repository in the country and networking with the facility via SNN means that backup and replication can take place at local area network speeds. In a disaster, data is immediately available, as are server, PBX and desktop images. Server building or data restoration can, therefore, take place quickly and painlessly.

Ease Of Use

SunGard customers need no special equipment to use the SunGard National Network and there is no need for additional customer routers or firewalls as SNN provides a point-to-point closed network.  It also utilises Layer 2 connectivity to support whatever addressing scheme the customer is using. The use of standard Ethernet technologies means that it is truly ‘plug and play’. Customers can start using the service quickly and simply, with IT staff finding it easy to understand and support the connection at the customer’s end. The plug and play nature also means that no configuration is necessary during an invocation or test.

About SunGard Availability Services

SunGard Availability Services is the pioneer and leading provider of Information Availability services, helping to ensure that more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe have access to their business-critical information systems. With over three million square feet of hardened facilities, SunGard offers a complete range of Information Availability services for more than 30 technology platforms, from 48 hour disaster recovery hot sites to always-on, high-availability infrastructure, co-location and electronic vaulting services. SunGard also provides technology and systems management services for application and data centre outsourcing, as well as business continuity consulting services and planning software.  Visit SunGard Availability Services UK at www.sungard.co.uk.