When natural calamities such as the Japan earthquake or manmade disasters such as the Mumbai terror attacks strike a region or place, organisations located there and elsewhere, find it difficult to ensure service continuity and recoverability of data.

“It is during such hours of crisis that we realise that information technology (IT) is no longer a function, but a key driver in running the business. This total dependence on IT has made organisations consider the need to look for alternatives to mitigate risk, protect mission-critical projects and data by creating data-backup on virtualisation and cloud models,” says Mr Aditya Singhal, Vice-President, Solution Design, Integrated Technology Services, IBM.

Counselling service

“And most of them do not know where to begin. So, at IBM, we have started providing counselling services/ guidance to our clients to build a road map; help them decide whether they should go for managed services or consider doing it themselves, outsource such services etc. Disaster recovery solution is another area,” Mr Singhal added.

IBM also helps those in the trading business with its unique‘work area recovery centre' in Mumbai, Mr Singhal said, adding that it is offered to both dedicated and syndicated clients.

He explained the work area recovery centre concept by citing an example – “Say there is flooding around your office area and you are unable to reach your work place. Yet, you need a place to do your work and this is where the work area recovery centre comes to your aid by creating a physical space.”

Additional capacity

He said there was good response to the concept and the company was looking to build additional capacity in the work area recovery centre where there are 500 seats at present.

IBM has 154 resiliency centres across 55 countries that facilitate disaster recovery offering services to over 12,000 clients

“Such services/offering are available to smaller companies that do not have the wherewithal to invest huge sums,” he said, emphasising the need for disaster recovery services at all times.

On pricing, he said “it is driven by factors such as the utilisation levels of our services and hardware. However, with more clients coming in, we are able to offer value for money and optimise our usage.”