| DISASTER
RECOVERY
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Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
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Jon Seals
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Janette Ballman
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Ed Pearce, CBCP
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Pamela Clifton
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Richard Sandhofer
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Robert Arnold
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_____________
Corporate
President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com
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President
Robert Arnold
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Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
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Merce Knese
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DRI International Position Statement: NFPA 1600
Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity
WASHINGTON, DC, OCOTOBER 17, 2007: The Disaster Recovery Institute International was created in 1988 to serve the disaster recovery/business continuity industry by administering a professional certification program. Many years ago, DRI International elected to support inclusion of business continuity standards and methodology in the ground-breaking effort undertaken by the National Fire Protection Association, known as NFPA 1600 "Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Program."
DRI International strongly supports efforts currently underway to create a clear, logical and unambiguous hierarchy of the concepts and practices included in the umbrella term "enterprise risk management.” We also support the importance of ensuring that business continuity "standards" avoid conflict with regulations that are already in place in specific industries.
We do not, however, support the continuing creation of additional standards in these areas that do little more than generate confusion in fields that are already beset with multiple standards and definitions. We believe that such efforts serve only to increase the "noise" in an industry that is already far too difficult for even experienced practitioners to explain. Consequently, DRI International does not support adoption of the "Management Systems for All-Hazards Risk - Standard of Best Practices" created recently by the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS). We believe that this particular "standard," while well intentioned, will only serve to generate additional confusion and controversy. We strongly urge our friends at ASIS to join the diverse community of professionals working to make the excellent NFPA 1600 standard even better.
DRI International highly values the skills and expertise of business continuity professionals. DRI International will continue to support the NFPA 1600 platform as the means to reach our preparedness goals, and we urge our professional colleagues in all related disciplines to do the same.
For DRI International: John Copenhaver, CBCP – President/CEO
www.drii.org for more information
Eric Berg Appointed Group Chief Executive Officer of SunGard Availability Services
Wayne, Pa., October 22, 2007 – SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that Eric Berg has been appointed group chief executive officer of SunGard Availability Services. Mr. Berg joins SunGard from NCR Corporation where he was chief administrative officer, responsible for the company’s strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, information technology, procurement and real estate functions. Previously, Mr. Berg was chief information officer at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and a regional vice president of PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division. Mr. Berg started his career at IBM Corporation and then held management positions with McKinsey & Company. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world’s 50 largest financial services companies. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
MessageOne Releases Updated Emergency Notification Toolkit
AUSTIN, Texas – MessageOne has assembled a new version of its highly popular Online Emergency Notification Resource Kit with advanced best practices and advice to help you better manage your crisis communication needs. While the basics of emergency notification remain the same - you need to communicate immediately with employees and constituents during a crisis or disaster, regardless of what happens to the prevailing infrastructure - technologies now enable far advanced means of managing and rapidly overcoming any crisis.
Some of the contents include: Updated Emergency Notification System RFP Template; DRJ Webinar recording and eBook: 101 Uses for Emergency Notification; and eGuide: Top 10 Actions a CIO can Take to Prepare for a Hurricane.
You will also learn about why more than 1,200 organizations depend on MessageOne’s AlertFind for a direct two-way communication channel to large numbers of employees, customers, and constituents during emergencies and disasters. To download, visit http://www.messageone.com/s491/
COOP Systems Shows Five New BCM Capabilities at DRJ Fall World
HERNDON, Va. — COOP Systems has announced five new features of its groundbreaking myCOOP BCM software package that were shown at the DRJ Fall World in San Diego from September 16-18.
These new capabilities of the myCOOP offering will continue to add to COOP Systems’ reputation as the most dynamic BCM software company in the world. All new features are delivered from one integrated instance via a browser anywhere in the world, with an ease-of-use for all participants that leads the industry.
First, all control, navigation, and administration features of myCOOP are available now in all world languages, currencies, time zones and date conventions.Second, as a standard offer to new customers, all existing BCM content will be imported into a configured system before training starts at no charge.Third, a myCOOP appliance is now available for placement inside a customer’s firewall, managed by COOP Systems, for clients needing a premise-based solution. The result continues to support our low total cost of ownership model, as we take responsibility for all software maintenance and upgrade of the unit.Fourth, a premium Software as a Service hosting option is now available, with 99.9% SLAs, IP-filtering, forms-based authentication, and a dedicated SQL instance. This is in addition to our 99.5% standard SLA offer.Fifth, the seamless integration in one software instance of BIA/Risk, Planning, Incident Command, and Notification (with MIR3 as partner) will be shown live. For more information, visit www.coop-systems.com.
SunGard Availability Services Adds Support Of VMware Esx Server
WAYNE, Pa. — SunGard Availability Services has announced it is now offering support of VMware ESX Server 3.x and the distributed services that are part of VMware Infrastructure through its Operating System (OS) Management Service. With this enhancement, SunGard now provides full management of customers’ systems running in a virtualized environment on the VMware Infrastructure platform—a key milestone in the company’s ongoing virtualization initiative. For more information, visit www.availability.sungard.com.
Transcontinental Direct’s Mail-Gard Division Achieves Level 2 Compliance
WARMINSTER, Pa. — The Mail-Gard division of Transcontinental Direct has announced that it has met the requirements for Level 2 compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. Mail-Gard is one of the nation’s leading providers of print-to-mail business continuity and recovery services. For more information, visit www.transcontinentaldirect.com or www.mailgard.com.
Financial Services Consortium Selects MessageOne
AUSTIN, Texas — MessageOne has announced it has been selected by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) to offer the AlertFind emergency notification service to a membership of more than 4,000 financial institutions. Since signing on as a customer six months ago, FS-ISAC has utilized AlertFind to communicate urgent security information to its members. Extending the relationship will make it easier for financial services member organizations to protect employees. For more information, please visit www.messageone.com.
Caterpillar Offers Package Capable of Meeting EPA Tier 3 Standards
PEORIA, Ill. — The Caterpillar Inc. 60 Hz XQ300 rental power package is rated at 300 ekW (Standby)/275 ekW (Prime) and operates at 480/277 volts. Powered by the Cat C9 diesel engine with ACERT Technology, it offers improved performance, fuel efficiency and reliability, while meeting or exceeding EPA Tier 3 and CARB emissions standards for non-road mobile applications.
The XQ300 rental power package includes a UL-approved SR4B generator featuring permanent magnet (PM) excitation, coastal Class H insulation protection and a VR6 voltage regulator with three-phase Volts-per-Hertz sensing. It is also equipped with an Air-To-Air After Cooler (ATAAC) cooling system, and a 1-1,200 amp circuit breaker with adjustable trip for added protection. Its Electronic Modular Control Panel (EMCP) 3.2 control system combines generator set control and monitoring in one module for easy access to controls, metering, protection device settings and diagnostic information. For more information, visit http://go.cateps.com/pp.
News Release for NIEM
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Release 2.0 of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is finished and ready for production use as a model for building information exchange package documentation that will facilitate implementing information exchanges among the multiple communities participating in NIEM. Code-named the “Harmony” release, the primary work of the governance committees and the software engineers has been to create harmony across the communities of interest represented in NIEM regarding the definitions and common usage of data components embedded in the NIEM Core namespace. Where the universal and common data components that are part of the core namespace were changed and impacted the domain specific data meanings and structure, some changes were made to individual domains to ensure that the entire model was semantically consistent. For more information, visit www.niem.gov.
RecoveryPlanner.com Releases New RecoveryPlanner RPX Version
SHELTON, Conn. — RecoveryPlanner.com, pioneers and leaders of the business continuity planning (BCP) software industry, have released a newly re-engineered version of their flagship RecoveryPlanner software, RecoveryPlanner RPX. For more information, visit www.recoveryplanner.com.
MIR3 to Provide OEM Emergency Notifications for COOP Systems
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — MIR3, the technology leader in Intelligent Notification solutions for global enterprises, has signed an OEM agreement with COOP Systems, a leading provider of software and services for continuity planning in the public and private sector.
COOP Systems’ myCOOP product is a next-generation Business Continuity Management (BCM) software package, designed to support distributed and global BCM programs. When combined with the MIR3 global enterprise communication infrastructure, COOP Systems is able to provide a powerful, seamless, real-time solution that quickly and effectively sends alerts and gathers responses when a critical BCM event occurs.
For more information, visit www.coop-systems.com or www.mir3.com.
Hewlett-Packard To Acquire Opsware
Hewlett-Packard announced it would acquire Opsware, a provider of data center automation solutions for the enterprise. According to industry analysts, the acquisition is a good strategic fit with HP’s software portfolio because it addresses server and network automation capabilities in the data center.
For more information, visit www.hp.com.
Symantec Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Symantec is celebrating its 25-year anniversary over the next several months and is kicking off the celebration with a website to highlight both Symantec as a company, and also the revolutionary developments in technology that our world has seen during the past 25 years. Symantec will also be updating the site in the coming months as they celebrate the anniversary.
For more information, visit www.symantec.com.
SunGard To Acquire Vericenter
WAYNE, Pa. — SunGard has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire VeriCenter, Inc., a provider of managed hosting, colocation, and infrastructure services. VeriCenter will become part of SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider of information availability and business continuity services. The transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, is not expected to have a material impact on SunGard’s financial results. For more information, visit www.vericenter.com or www.availability.sungard.com.
Strohl Systems Releases New Version of Industry Leading BCP Software
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — Strohl Systems announces that the latest version of its industry leading software, LDRPS, is now available. LDRPS 10.2 features seamless integration with Strohl’s emergency notification system NōtiFind. In addition, through the improved Plan Navigator feature, the new version enables users to build custom interfaces for their users, streamlining and strengthening their plan building efforts.
The new integration ensures a near real-time synchronization of data between LDRPS and NōtiFind and still enables users to contact entire organizations or those assigned only to specific plans. In addition, NōtiFind is now the only emergency notification system which enables users to contact people assigned to core components such as applications, hardware or business processes. This flexibility will enable organizations to save time and money during emergencies by ensuring that only the necessary resources are contacted and will provide clarity to the recovery effort. NōtiFind is powered by Varolii.
For more information, visit www.strohlsystems.com.
CAPS Expands Alternate Sites in
Tri-State, Southeast Regions
SHELTON, Conn. — CAPS Business Recovery Services (CAPS), a leading provider of alternate sites for business continuity and disaster recovery in the Northeast (as well as planning services and related software), has completed agreements and plans for expansion of new sites in the Tri-state area (Northeast) and Southeastern United States. The new sites are located in Shelton, CT and Duluth, GA, with others also under consideration. The Atlanta area facility will be open in Q4 of this year, and Shelton in Q1 2008. The expansion is driven by customer demand and strategic value added to the overall service offering from the increased geographic footprint.
For more information, visit www.capsbrs.com.
SunGard Launches
New Version of Paragon Software
WAYNE, Pa., — SunGard Availability Services has launched a new version of its Paragon software which expands the information availability planning and management tools organizations can utilize to help them ensure uninterrupted access to their business data and systems. The software raises the bar in helping organizations manage their overall information availability program by making it easier to link business continuity and disaster recovery plans with specific business strategies, and expanding options available in managing real-time manpower deployments and communications during disruptions.
The new capabilities advance each SunGard Paragon component including Profiles, Impacts, Plans, Situations, and Notifications.
For more information, visit www.availability.sungard.com.
Spacenet Introduces Custom Emergency Communications Vehicle
MCLEAN, Va. — Spacenet Inc. has introduced its new mobile Emergency Communications Vehicle (ECV) for disaster recovery and first-responder organizations. The vehicle serves as a transportable command post that can typically be deployed in ten minutes or less and provides converged data, voice and video communications. The ECV represents Spacenet’s new service offering for custom mobile emergency response vehicles. Spacenet debuted the vehicle at a recent event near Washington D.C. attended by local dignitaries, and plans to demonstrate the vehicle at other upcoming events.
For more information, visit www.spacenet.com.
Adelphi University
Selects MessageOne
AUSTIN, Texas — As part of an effort to broaden its emergency notification and crisis communication channels, Adelphi University recently partnered with MessageOne. Adelphi will use MessageOne’s AlertFind emergency notification system to instantly broadcast urgent messages and deliver instructions to the campus community.
For more information, visit www.adelphi.edu or www.messageone.com.
BNET, Send Word Now Partner For Corporate Emergency Access System
NEW YORK, NY — Business Network of Emergency Resources Inc. (BNET) the ‘not-for-profit’ corporation, dedicated to establishing practical, effective emergency and crisis management solutions for businesses and the designer of the innovative Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS) has announced a partnership with Send Word Now, the leading provider of on-demand alerting and response services. This new alliance integrates BNET’s Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS) with Send Word Now’s real -time mobile alerts via text and voice messages on cell phones, BlackBerry and Treo devices.
The CEAS system together with Send Word Now’s on-demand alerting and response service were used in this summer’s steam pipe explosion on Lexington Avenue in New York City. Steam and mud were forced from the ground near Grand Central Station on East 41st Street from Third to Lexington Avenue forcing people to evacuate the area. With the Send Word Now service, BNET was able to send text or voice alerts to CEAS member’s cell phones and PDA’s. They were notified immediately when CEAS was activated by the City and were given status updates on the situation.
For more information visit www.ceas.com or www.sendwordnow.com.
EVault Unveils Unified Recovery Platform for Fully-Integrated Backup and Recovery Solutions
EMERYVILLE, Calif. — EVault, Inc., a Seagate Technology company, has announced the Evault Unified Recovery platform powered by InfoStage 6, delivering the industry’s only fully integrated data protection platform for both physical and virtual environments available in Software as a Service (SaaS), licensed software or managed services delivery options. Extending already advanced technology that more than 20,000 customers worldwide rely on, the EVault Unified Recovery platform is built to scale; simplifies data protection for complex IT environments and decreases the possibility of downtime for small, mid and large sized enterprises.
The EVault Unified Recovery platform powered by InfoStage 6 is available now for EVault SaaS, software, and managed services customers as well as through service providers offering data protection services based on EVault technology. For more information, visit www.evault.com.
New York City Office Of Emergency Management Activates Corporate Emergency Access System
NEW YORK — As a result of the aftermath of the steam pipe explosion the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has officially activated for the first time the innovative Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS). CEAS is designed by the Business Network of Emergency Resources (BNet). BNET is a ‘not-for-profit’ corporation, dedicated to establishing practical, effective emergency and crisis management solutions for businesses through partnerships with local government.
BNet’s CEAS program, in addition to New York City, has also been implemented in Buffalo, New York, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stamford, Connecticut. More cities like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are expected to participate in the near future. Any city, county or state can adopt CEAS through a written agreement with BNet. Once adopted by a municipality, any business can elect to participate in the program, assigning a designated number of CEAS cards to critical employees or contractors, prior to any emergency or disaster.
CalAmp Announces Definitive Agreement to Sell the TelAlert Software Business Unit to MIR3, Inc.
OXNARD, Calif. — CalAmp Corp., a leading provider of wireless products, systems and services, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its TelAlert software business unit to privately-held MIR3, Inc. MIR3 is a technology leader in enterprise notification solutions for global enterprises. Total consideration for the transaction, comprised of cash, a note and preferred stock in MIR3, is valued at approximately $10 million. The transaction, which is subject to obtaining customary consents and approvals, is expected to be completed shortly.
For more information, visit www.calamp.com or www.mir3.com.
DataCore First to Offer Downloadable, ‘Free to Try’ Thin Provisioning
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — DataCore Software has announced that it has made thin provisioning easily available by download to anyone who wants to try it. Thin provisioning is revolutionizing storage management and energy savings in data centers around the world, but most potential users have limited access to the technology because vendors restrict their thin provisioning solutions to work only with their own higher priced storage arrays and disks. DataCore makes thin provisioning an open network-based service that works with nearly all storage brands and devices. DataCore’s affordable hardware independent, thin provisioning software solutions enable any business to fully participate in the cost saving benefits of virtualizing and consolidating its storage. By offering storage consolidation and thin provisioning as a complete solution, DataCore gives users the two punch combination required to knockout inefficient, storage proliferation and its damaging consequences to their businesses and our world.
For more information, visit www.datacore.com.
Jewish Hospital, St. Mary’s Host Disaster Response Demonstration
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare hosted a one-of-a-kind internal preparedness exercise on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. For the first time, a hospital was able to integrate multiple software platforms, which are used in the day-to-day operations of the facility, to respond to a mock disaster in an effort to improve its actual response capabilities.
For more information, visit www.facilityone.com, www.choicepoint.com/imapdata or www.tridium.com.
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