PLDT offers new business solution

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is now offering a solution that helps clients recover from man-made or natural disasters with negligible or zero disruptions in their business operations.

Called Brains Continuum, the product is a combination of software and hardware that will protect a client’s precious data stored in digital repositories by having them stored in back-up sites.

PLDT senior vice president Alfredo S. Panlilio said PLDT can say with confidence that this is the first and only solution in the country that addresses the needs of the business community for continuous operations even after disasters such as the Sept. 11 event in the US.

"Financial institutions and large companies which depend on reliable and continuous transmission of data to run their businesses need a solution such as Brains Continuum to help them serve their clients better," he said.

"It will also help them stay in business since any downtime can mean lost opportunities that competitors can take advantage of."

For her part, PLDT vice president Nerissa S. Ramos explained that this new service takes advantage of PLDT’s fully redundant and reliable Brains (Broad and Robust ATM and IP Networking Solutions) network, which is the country’s first CISCO Powered Network (CPN).

"Through PVCs, or private virtual circuits, the company provides alternative conduits for data transmission to a back-up site. PLDT also ensures reliability by offering annual or semi-annual mock disaster recovery drills similar to the fire drills conducted by building administrators," she added.

The need for disaster recovery measures has been made more urgent as a result of two circulars released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2001 requiring banks, non-bank financial institutions with quasi-banking functions, investment houses with trust functions, non-stock savings and loan associations, and all other non-bank financial institutions to submit their business continuity plans.

These circulars required that the business continuity plans must ensure minimal disruption of bank operations, minimize financial losses through lost business opportunities or asset deterioration, and ensure timely resumption of normal operations.

Aside from these business entities, large corporate customers and government institutions with centralized database systems and with many branch offices accessing the database will also benefit from a disaster recovery solution.

ePLDT managing director Ray C. Espinosa said reliability and redundancy go hand in hand in providing the perfect solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity.

"Our co-location services through Brains Continuum provide customers with backup servers in a managed and secure disaster recovery site. On-site UPS (uninterrupted power supply), inverters, generators, air conditioning, and fire suppression systems combined with 24x7 maintenance support contribute to an ideal disaster recovery solution," Espinosa said.

Aside from that, managed network connectivity, server and storage hosting, and on-site tape vaulting make up the rest of the Brains Continuum package.

Brains Continuum is a new addition to PLDT Business Solutions’ arsenal of information communications products and services for corporate clients.