Disaster Recovery Journal

Up by 176% Compared to the Same Quarter in 2012

STUART, Fla. — Information Systems Associates, Inc. (OTCBB:IOSA), a leading provider of datacenter asset management solutions, services and consulting, announced today that it exceeded $200,000 in revenues in the quarter ended March 31, 2013, a more than 176% increase over the same quarter in 2012. Revenue was also 86% greater than Q4 of 2012. The increase in business was broad based across the Company's three lines of business, namely, Data Collection Services, the On Site Physical Inventory (OSPI®) Mobile Asset Management System, and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Consulting.

 Commenting on the increase in business, Adrian Goldfarb, ISA's President said," While I am extremely pleased with a good start to 2013, many challenges remain as we continue to execute our business plan.  There is a tremendous opportunity for the Company to substantially grow as we provide high quality solutions for the largest data centers globally to better understand and manage their IT assets."  Mr. Goldfarb went on to say that he is pleased with the early results of the reorganization that was undertaken late last year which in part contributed to the fast start in 2013. "Our focus on delivering quality across all aspects of our business including how we report our financial results with the new financial team will give shareholders a much clearer view on our progress."

Since 1994, the Company has specialized in providing professional and consultancy services to the largest data centers. More recently, it has begun to expand its services by offering an integrated solution that capitalizes on its patented process for mobile data collection. This combination of products and services is designed to cooperate fully with most major DCIM systems used by its clients and partners. 

About Information Systems Associates

Information Systems Associates, Inc. (OTCBB:IOSA) based in Stuart, FL, is a leading provider of Mobile Data Center Management systems and turnkey data center management solutions. The suite of products and services include data center asset/inventory management, data center management software and data center data collection. Utilizing a proprietary and patented technology, OSPI (On Site Physical Inventory), customers manage data centers on a mobile basis, bringing data center management out of the office and into the data center. Information Systems Associates holds the trademarks for On Site Physical Inventory, OSPI and Mobile Data Center Management.

For more information visit our website http://www.isa-inc.net

FLEMINGTON, N.J. — Real-Time Technology Group (RTTG), a leading provider of trusted identity solutions, announces advanced personal identity and training verification for First Responders. RTTG's Emergency Personnel Information Center (EPIC) is a trusted community that provides operational tools for more efficient training record management, and more effective access control at natural disasters and other critical incident scenes. EPIC delivers a secure, easy-to-use Web-based program that allows law enforcement, fire/rescue, emergency medical teams, and associated support contractors to improve identity and certification tracking within their organizations, and allow real-time verification of critical data for improved incident management. Using any Internet-enabled device, officers can efficiently and effectively limit entry to incident scenes to the essential, trusted personnel who maintain the professional certifications required for safe access.

EPIC enables local departments to:

• Easily maintain member training records and professional certifications
• Automatically alert members and training officers of expiring certifications
• Conveniently print, issue, and manage department ID cards

EPIC enables scene commanders to:

• Optimally deploy responders based on verifiable skills
• Authenticate mutual-aid responders and their qualifications prior to granting access to hazardous or secure environments
• Better control and audit access to incident scenes

EPIC provides emergency response personnel with a cooperative solution that meets their specific certification tracking and identity verification challenges. EPIC provides an operational tool to help coordinate the efforts of Emergency Response Organizations (Police, Fire-Rescue and EMS), Local and County Dispatch, Emergency Management Officials, Incident Scene Commanders (such as Fire Chiefs, EMS Captains and OEM Coordinators) and all the private organizations that support response (such as Utilities and Contractors). Automated system notices, and point-and-click administrative functions deliver an immediate return on investment for each participating department.

Members of the trusted EPIC Responders community are working together to enhance response effectiveness, mitigate risk, and improve the overall safety and security of critical incident scenes. Partnerships forged with EPIC are markedly improving situational awareness and response and delivering proven results.

For more information, please visit http://www.realtimetg.com.

ABOUT REAL-TIME TECHNOLOGY GROUP (RTTG)

Real-Time Technology Group (RTTG) delivers secure, fully-hosted and managed technology solutions for mission-critical information challenges: personal identity verification, professional certification and credential management, and other custom-developed security solutions. 

Since 1999, RTTG has been helping public agencies and private enterprises implement advanced technologies that improve the performance of safety and security programs. It is most recognized for developing and operating personal identity and credential management technologies that drive real-time personnel assurance at some of the country’s largest construction projects and highest-value terrorist targets, including the World Trade Center and NY-metro area transportation infrastructure.   

Proven effectiveness, reliability, and 100% U.S.-based operations have earned RTTG its reputation as a dependable, trusted IT partner. 

WASHINGTON – With just one month until the official start of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season on June 1, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urges Americans to ensure their families, homes and businesses are prepared for the risks associated with hurricanes and tropical storms.  Individuals and families are encouraged to have a family communications plan and make a kit with essential items like non-perishable food, bottled water, spare batteries, a can opener and specialty items like medical prescriptions and spare eyeglasses and don’t forget your pet’s food. Property owners should also review their insurance coverage with their agent – including flood insurance – to ensure they’ll be adequately protected in the event of a storm.

As hurricane season approaches, FEMA is coordinating with state, local, tribal and territorial officials to ensure that all communities along the coast and hurricane-prone areas are prepared to respond. Even as long-term recovery efforts continue from Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy in 2012, now is the time to prepare for this year’s approaching hurricane season. As hurricanes and tropical storms move inland, the high winds and storm surge are often accompanied by torrential rains that increase the likelihood of flooding.

Flood insurance policyholders who live in areas far from traditional hurricane country saw the impacts of Hurricane Sandy last year. Floods are the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States and everyone is at risk. Typically, there’s a 30-day waiting period—from date of purchase—before your policy goes into effect. That means now is the best time to buy flood insurance. Flood insurance is available through approximately 85 insurance companies in more than 22,000 participating communities nationwide and is available to homeowners, renters, condo owners/renters, and commercial owners/renters. Costs vary depending on how much insurance is purchased, what it covers, and the property’s flood risk. Individuals can learn more about their flood risk and flood insurance options by visiting www.floodsmart.gov or calling 1-800-427-2419.

To learn what you can do to prepare for hurricane season and pledge to prepare, visit www.Ready.gov/hurricanes.  You can also get the mobile version of the Web site at m.fema.gov, making it easier to access critical information regarding emergency preparedness and what to do before and after a disaster from your smartphone and tablet.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Bestselling author's Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family includes checklist of 14 needs that should be considered as part of an effective plan 

LOS ANGELES -- While many people are infatuated with the threat of a zombie apocalypse, it's safe to say that no such doom is in mankind's future. The question then becomes what should people really be worrying about? Dr. Arthur Bradley, author of several bestselling books on disaster preparedness, including The Prepper's Manual, says that people should start by preparing for likely threats first. These include what he coined as the Five Horsemen of Death—tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and floods. "Prepare for those, and you've gone a long way to surviving our world's natural disasters."

Okay, good advice, but what about the rare, high-impact events that might result in the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI)? In his book, Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms, Dr. Bradley provides a list of events most likely to destroy modern civilization:

• Pandemic, natural or man-made
• Electromagnetic pulse (EMP), caused by the Sun or a high-altitude nuclear explosion
• Attack with nuclear weapons
• Asteroid strike
• Supervolcano eruption
• Widespread agricultural crisis
• Global financial collapse

That's a frightening list of threats, any one of which could set the world back a few centuries. So, how does someone prepare for events that could lead to the loss of all modern conveniences and infrastructures? Dr. Bradley answers this by saying, "If you're preparing for TEOTWAWKI, it's important to carefully consider all of your needs. People have a tendency to focus either on food (the preppers) or bullets (the survivalists) but forget about many other needs, such as water, heating, electricity, medicine, and transportation." In his book, the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family, he discusses a complete list of 14 needs that should be addressed as part of any effective disaster preparedness plan.

With the release of his novel, The Survivalist (Frontier Justice), Dr. Bradley uses fiction to describe the horrific effects of a global pandemic. The story follows a lone U.S. Marshal as he travels across the wasteland that was once the nation. Not only must the lawman forage for supplies, he must also confront feral animals, disfigured survivors, and violent convicts who were released from penal institutions. Dr. Bradley says, "I've always loved a good end-of-the-world adventure story, and I used this book not only to entertain but also to teach. A pandemic is probably the single biggest threat to mankind. Most people don't realize that smallpox killed over 300 million people in the 20th Century alone. A global pandemic, perhaps caused by avian flu, SARS, Ebola, or some yet undiscovered virus, could wipe out a huge percentage of our population and destroy our world's infrastructures. Imagine a world without the distribution of electricity, food, water, and medicine; without functional police forces or hospitals; without television or the Internet. The unfortunate reality is that, without these services, the majority of people would die within a few short weeks. Those who remained would be driven by basic needs and likely forced to live under a more brutal rule of law."

That's a sobering statement from an expert well known for his no-nonsense approach to disaster preparedness. Everyone would be better served by following Dr. Bradley's advice to worry less about undead walking the streets, and more about the new strain of avian flu spreading across parts of China. He warns, "If this virus ends up being passed through airborne transmission, the entire planet could be affected. Given its extremely high mortality rate, the death rate could surpass that of any disease ever seen in human history."

http://disasterpreparer.com

BURLINGTON, VT — QuorumSoft, a leader in backup and disaster recovery solutions for virtual environments, has changed its name to Quadric Software, Inc., to coincide with a strategic move to support Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments. The name change is effective today.

Quadric Software also announced the general availability of Alike Version 3.0, a powerful new backup and disaster recovery solution for protecting multiple hypervisors. Alike v3.0 will be publicly available on May 15th. The Alike name and product branding will remain the same.

“With Quadric Software, we’ve chosen a stronger company name we can use to build a more distinctive and clearly defined brand," said Phil Baskette, co-founder and CEO of Quadric Software, Inc. "This will better serve the company as we grow our product line, partner network, and customer base.”

As part of the name change, Quadric Software is launching a new website at http://www.quadricsoftware.com.

The new version of Alike v3.0 has been designed to give organizations the most technically advanced backup and DR solution for the XenServer and Hyper-V platforms. An installation of Alike v3.0 offers seamless interoperability between Hyper-V and XenServer so companies can backup, replicate, and restore to and from either hypervisor.

With Alike v3.0, organizations get industry-leading global, block level, source-side deduplication that delivers dramatic savings in storage, memory, and bandwidth costs while boosting backup and replication speeds. Alike also features single pass backup and VM replication and Alike Offsite Vaulting, a streamlined process for saving globally deduplicated data to an offsite location.

Quadric Software offers customers simple, affordable licensing per physical host. Users will have unrestricted access to change licensed hosts between hypervisors themselves within the software as business needs dictate.

About Quadric Software (formerly Quorumsoft)

Quadric Software, Inc., formerly Quorum Software, Inc. was founded in 2008 to offer organizations of all size the high-performance and cost-effective solutions they need to meet their backup and business continuity requirements.

More information:

You can get more information on Alike v3.0 at: http://quadricsoftware.com/alike-v3.0

You can get general information about Quadric Software at: http://quadricsoftware.com/

Follow Quadric Software on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Quadricsoftware

Some organizations are underprepared for operational resilience, but will turn to hybrid IT to increase preparedness

WAYNE, Pa.  – SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider of information availability and business continuity services, released survey results published in an IDC White Paper, sponsored by SunGard Availability Services, Lack of Operational Resilience Will Undermine Enterprise Competitiveness: A Strategy for Availability (April 2013) today that identify the competitive advantages of establishing sophisticated systems for maintaining uninterrupted business operations. Nearly 40 percent of line of business (LOB) and IT executives surveyed indicated “operational resilience” systems signify business and IT services that are always on and available.

While the survey results published in the white paper found expectations high for such systems, it also recorded fundamental challenges that hinder organizations achieving desired levels of continuous business operations.  These potential vulnerabilities, it indicates, could lead to significant underperformance by an enterprise.

Currently the IT environments of most organizations involve a complex mixture of hybrid legacy infrastructure, middleware and application technologies that also include new capabilities involving virtualized servers as well as public and private cloud resources. For many enterprises, overcoming existing organizational and technology vulnerabilities that are impeding their ability to achieve operational resilience, which are only further challenged by the adoption of cloud, social, and mobile, will likely require utilizing a combination of internal and external IT services.

“With today’s changing and complex IT environment and so much discussion around topics such as big data and security, enterprises face challenging expectations from customers, employees and partners,” said Jack Dziak, executive vice president and general manager of Managed Services at SunGard Availability Services. “To ensure they maintain an expected level of continuous business operations, whether for daily operations or when unexpected events occur, organizations must employ a new paradigm of operational resilience. For many, that will require a ‘hybrid IT’ approach.”

In addition, the white paper identifies three key building blocks for achieving operational resiliency and combatting vulnerabilities. These are:

·         Information security and data governance;

·         Business continuity and disaster recovery; and

·         IT service management.

Collectively, these three disciplines support the level of agility and resilience needed for an enterprise to maintain always-on operations. Additionally, the survey indicates the need for enterprises to develop an operational resilience strategy that uses the three key building blocks.

“The level of operational resilience required to ensure competitiveness will require setting priorities, synchronizing and orchestrating a vast set of factors and resources across an enterprise,” said David Tapper, vice president, Outsourcing and Offshore Services, IDC. “These must include the three building blocks of an operational resilience business model.”

To learn more about how to achieve operational resiliency taking a hybrid IT approach, join the May 16^th webcast, “You Can Have It All!  How to Leverage a Hybrid IT Strategy,” hosted by SunGard Availability Services and IDC at 1 p.m. ET.

Methodology

IDC interviewed more than 900 LOB and IT executives in the U.S. and the United Kingdom across a series of industries to determine the enterprise view of operational resilience and how prepared enterprises are in providing such capabilities.

About SunGard Availability Services

SunGard Availability Services provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.  With approximately five million square feet of datacenter and operations space, SunGard Availability Services helps customers improve the resilience of their mission critical systems by designing, implementing and managing cost-effective solutions using people, process and technology to address enterprise IT availability needs.  Through direct sales and channel partners, we help organizations ensure their people and customers have uninterrupted access to the information systems they need in order to do business.  To learn more, visit www.sungardas.com or call 1-800-468-7483.  Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Software increases efficiency, improves productivity and reduces fuel costs

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. -- Map publisher SpatialTEQ, the leader in affordable and easy-to-use business map software, today announced the release of Map Business Online 3.0. with dramatically enhanced territory mapping and routing work flows for marketing professionals, health care field forces and business analysts.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130501/PH04970-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130501/PH04970-b )

These extensive upgrades in SpatialTEQ's cloud-based mapping software are in direct response to MBO customers seeking more efficient ways to conduct sales mapping, and to improve visualization of their business map data.

Enhanced Territory Design Features

Map Business Online (MBO) 3.0 builds upon its existing sales territory mapping tools with multiple new time-saving capabilities. Users can now:

• Import business sales territory assignments using the New Create Territories import tool
• Update or create a territory by selecting Zip Codes, counties or states on the map
• Visualize and query market areas using conventional radius search or polygon search tools, and immediately create or update sales territory maps directly from the search results

Also new with Map Business Online 3.0, territories may now combine the use of Zip Code, county and state geographic segments, which is critical to efficient territory creation, whether managing simple rural or complex urban assignments. Map legends associated with territory maps are now editable and can be turned off.

In addition, Zip Code geographic objects now appear at the country zoom level, providing visualizations across all map zoom levels.

Zip Code Mapping

Data Queries and radius mapping may now be applied to geographic segments (Zip Code, county or state) and the search results can be exported in standard formats for use in third party applications like Microsoft Excel and ACT! Users may now conduct Zip Code data searches by territory assignment and export results to third party applications.

NEW! Multi-stop and Optimized Routing

With Map Business Online 3.0, product delivery businesses, sales travelers and mobile service providers will now be able to create efficient, multi-stop, optimized vehicle routes -- thereby driving down fuel costs and improving work force productivity.

Map Business Online users can import address databases in Excel or CSV formats, and route to multiple map locations or address stops within the data. These capabilities will save time, reduce fuel consumption and increase productivity for:

• Home Health Care Agencies - import a clinician patient list and create a multi-stop, optimized route to the patient addresses
• Sales Forces - import a customer list, or generate a marketing list from a radius search within Map Business Online, and create a multi-stop, optimized route covering a day's or week's travel requirements for a targeted area
• Delivery Services - create a customer delivery list, or generate a marketing list from a radius search within MBO, and crate a multi-stop, optimized route to a complete list of delivery points

Data Filtering Enhancements

Map Business Online 3.0 offers a wide array of data filters within the Data Window. Users can now filter state, county or Zip Code map layers by Census population or income data. Filtering results can be highlighted on the map for immediate geographic visualization. Users can also use filtering to create maps displaying only one state at a time or selected groups of states.

About Map Business Online

www.MapBusinessOnline.com has been providing sales & marketing professionals with affordable and intuitive solutions to geographic challenges since 2009. Create, edit, manage and share maps that reflect your business. No other map software solves so much for so little. Brought to you buy the creators of BusinessMAP.

LONDON – The insurance industry must be prepared for future market challenges, the quickening pace of customer-driven commerce and the continuing spread of the digital economy, says Ovum. According to the independent global analysts, insurers can improve their competitive position by implementing predictive analytics and using the wealth of rich data available from social media channels and conceptual sources such as the ‘Internet of Things’.

A new report* from Ovum suggests that in order to be better prepared, insurers should focus on creative initiatives that analyse data from a number of sources, including social media, third parties and machine-to-machine communications. By concentrating predictive analytics on key areas of the business – namely business operations, marketing and customer relations – insurers will be able to determine which markets to enter or leave, shape target market initiatives and estimate potential losses for the book of business as each customer is added.

Insurers are already well aware of the impending threats/challenges including tightening regulation, demanding customers, an ageing population and weakened economies,” says Barry Rabkin. “The critical differentiator for insurers will be minimising future risk thorough predictive analytics by tapping into the vast amounts of rich data.”

Finally, Rabkin reveals that a new role is emerging – the data scientist role – and this will be as important as the well-known data miner role in the insurance industry. Ovum is already seeing a growing number of insurance companies creating new departments of these types of quantitatively skilled professionals. This role will take a deeper approach to research (i.e. collect more data and explore more hypotheses) and generate recommendations that are scalable down to individual lines of insurance business. Ovum believes that data scientists and data miners will work closely together to discuss "what if" questions regarding their predictive analytics initiatives.

Atlantic Metro’s customized solutions are now available at 85 10^th Avenue

NEW YORK – TELEHOUSE America (www.telehouse.com), the United States' leading provider of dedicated data centers , international Internet exchanges, and managed IT services, announces that Atlantic Metro has expanded its services to TELEHOUSE America’s Chelsea data center, located at 85 10^th Avenue.

Atlantic Metro is a provider of Managed Infrastructure Services delivering innovative IT solutions to businesses nationwide. Atlantic Metro's suite of customized and reliable services enables customers to secure mission-critical data and operations, as well as complement their current IT infrastructure.

“We are thrilled for Atlantic Metro’s expansion into TELEHOUSE New York Chelsea,” says Fred Cannone, Director of Sales and Marketing at TELEHOUSE America. “TELEHOUSE and Atlantic Metro have a long standing relationship, dating back to 2007. The expansion highlights our continued focus on providing TELEHOUSE customers with cost-effective access to cloud services and network connectivity.”

“Atlantic Metro is excited to expand our managed network services to TELEHOUSE’s New York Chelsea facility.  Colocating at TELEHOUSE’s newest data center strategically aligns with our clients’ demand for additional network capacity and diversity,” states Stephen Klenert, Chief Strategy Officer of Atlantic Metro Communications. “With this expansion TELEHOUSE customers will be able to leverage Atlantic Metro’s IP Bandwidth, Ethernet transport, Cloud Direct for Amazon Web Services, and passive optical wavelength solutions. Our partnership with TELEHOUSE further enables us to provide exceptional, cost-competitive services, allowing customers to connect to every major carrier hotel in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area, as well as network points of presence in Chicago and Los Angeles.”

Located at 85 10^th Avenue in the center of Silicon Alley, Chelsea Center is a prime location for firms of all sizes and across varied industries, including finance, legal, media, and healthcare. Chelsea Center has over 60,000 sq. ft. of secure colocation space built with N+1 power configurations including diesel-powered generators and redundant cooling systems.

To learn more about TELEHOUSE and its 46 global data centers, visit www.telehouse.com. For more information on Atlantic Metro, visit www.atlanticmetro.net.  

As it does twice per year, Aon released its Global Risk Management Survey, which, among other things, pinpoints a significant decline in risk readiness among many of the more than 1,400 survey respondents. In fact, risk readiness for the top 10 risks dropped 7% from the 2011 survey.

“One possible explanation of the decline in risk readiness could be that the prolonged economic recovery has strained organizations’ resources, thus hampering the abilities to mitigate many of these risks,” said Stephen Cross, chairman of Aon Global Risk Consulting. “Our survey revealed that, despite diverse geographies, companies across the globe shared surprisingly similar views on the risks we are facing today – whether or not they feel prepared.”

...

http://www.riskmanagementmonitor.com/the-top-50-global-risks/