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IBM Opens Center to Protect Companies' Data

The 72,000-square-foot facility is designed to protect companies’ information through cloud storage in case of disruptions, such as IT system failure, data breaches and human error.

IBM opened a new cloud data resiliency center Monday, which is part of the company’s 4 million-square-foot plot of property in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The 72,000-square-foot facility is designed to protect companies’ information through cloud storage in case of disruptions, such as IT system failure, data breaches and human error.

Mike Errity, vice president of IBM business continuity and resiliency services, said the space will also have more than 100 work area recovery suites, where clients can come in and work from the location in the case of business disruption.

The facility will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with security measures including guard patrols, CCTV surveillance, recovery offices and tape vaults.

Monitise, a mobile banking and payment service, is one of the companies using the facility.

“Banking, paying and buying on mobile is becoming an increasingly integral and recognizable part of daily life – so for us as a mobile money provider, delivering a quality, always-on service is essential,” said Adam Banks, executive vice president of technology at Monitise, in a release.

Errity said that the landscape for data recovery has changed over the past several years, and an IBM release points out that the market for business continuity and disaster recovery is expected to grow to nearly $32 billion by 2015.

“What has changed is that there is very little acceptance of a slow recovery,” Errity said. “Over the years, companies have designed recovery from between 24 and 72 hours, the typical standard. In recent years, clients are expecting near-instant recovery time without any data loss.”

According to a recent report by Rachel Dines of research firm Forrester, the amount of businesses using cloud storage for disaster recovery has been low, with about a 15 percent adoption rate. However, about 38 percent of companies use co-location (a physical data center where space and storage are available to businesses).

The Forrester report discusses the distance between companies and recovery sites, as natural disasters can be a cause for business disruption.

“Site separation has also been a topic of hot discussion, especially after Hurricane Sandy proved to many organizations that the separation between their sites was not sufficient,” Dines writes in the report. “According to the latest survey, average distance between sites is approximately 600 miles. While there is no absolute right answer for how far apart recovery sites should be, the rule of thumb is that they should not be subject to the majority of the same risks.”

Monitise’s American locations are both in California, with global locations in Hong Kong and London.

In discussing the reasons IBM chose RTP as the location for this center, Errity said geography was one of the top five reasons because there is little concern for natural disasters in RTP.

The other four reasons he said were: the talent and skill base of people in the area; the connection to local universities to recruit students; an efficient energy cost; and the ample network capacity of RTP.

Errity said IBM will not release the number of employees working at the facility.

©2014 The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)