Government regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
and European Data Protection Act require financial institutions to have an effective business
continuity plan to protect operations and the integrity of customer data. Banks and insurance
companies must safeguard customer account information. Brokerage firms need accurate transaction
records. The challenge is to find a way to achieve these results at an affordable price tag.
High Availability and Disaster Recovery for Financial Services
IT professionals at banking, insurance, brokerage and other financial services organizations
understand the importance of protecting business-critical applications and the consequences of
business interruption. There are tangible losses such as revenue, breach of contracts, or ratings
downgrades that may result from a business outage and intangible losses, like the impact on reputation,
market share or employee retention. Financial service providers are looking for High Availability
and Disaster Recovery solutions that:
- Protect Data. The security of company data – from personal employee information
to confidential customer records to transaction history - is a primary driver for the disaster
recovery services of financial institutions.
- Provide Continuous Access to Business-Critical Applications. Global capital
markets require 24x7 operations. Employees and customers must be able to connect to business-critical
applications at any time, day or night, even in the event of a disaster.
- Ensure Regulatory Compliance. The current regulatory climate requires the implementation
of policy, process management, monitoring and reporting solutions that ensure accountability and compliance
with all National and International policies, from Sarbanes-Oxley to the Data Protection
and Freedom of Information Acts.
- Decrease Risk. Financial services CIOs are getting increased pressure from presidents,
board members and other corporate executives to develop and test disaster recovery plans that ensure
minimal disruption to revenues, productivity and customer satisfaction.
- Provide a Seamless Experience to Users. Whether the result of planned or unplanned
downtime, the process of failover from a primary to a secondary server hosting business-critical
applications must be seamless to the user.
- Are Easy to Administer & Test. Adopting High Availability and Disaster Recovery
solutions that are easy to administer and test is paramount to a business continuity plan’s success.
Research shows that complexity and/or high resource requirements discourage use, negating
the purpose of the solution.
