Many companies affected by todays terrorist attacks are now relying on back-up services provided by disaster recovery companies who offer services designed precisely for this eventuality.
Out of 5,500 customers service by SunGard, 68 were affected and eight requested their status to be classified as “disasters.” That means all of their operations have been moved over to SunGard facilities. Six of these clients are based in lower Manhattan, and two others are in Chicago. Chicago companies have suffered from evacuations.
“Even though your systems might be up and running perfectly if you cant get into them they dont do you any good,” said Jim Simmons, president of SunGard.
“Everything in business needs to stay in business, its not just the network redundancy and switching capability, it is not just large computers, its not just the data storage devices – it is also desks, chairs, phones, fax machines, copiers, automated call distribution – basically anything that a client needs to keep up and running,” Simmons said.
Another recovery company, Comdisco, was also in action.
“We are in full mobilization, we have 32 customers that have declared disasters,” said a Comdisco spokesman. “We are mobilizing to serve them, providing a range of recovery services – from the desktop to the mainframe.”
Comdisco recently went into bankruptcy reorganization and sold the bulk of its assets to Hewlett-Packard. The company sells disaster recovery service to large companies, specifically Wall Street firms. It has 13 facilities around the country that are all working to serve customers affected by the attack. Companies affected are not only the ones in New York, but also companies in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles that were affected by building evacuation.
Comdisco executives have been locked in companys situation room all day today.