Safeguarding the company

TORONTO - "If there's no business, there's no need for IT," stressed Elizabeth Beaver, senior manager, business recovery for the CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Co.
Beaver's office near the main door in the elegantly restored 1929 banking hall on Toronto's Bay Street has a brass plate identifying it as the Crisis Command Centre. A classic wood table with a half dozen chairs, dwarfed by the distant height of the ceilings, is where executives meet to discuss the business continuance for CIBC Mellon's two operating entities: CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Co., a global custody provider and CIBC Mellon Trust Co., a supplier of transfer agency and corporate trust services. The company's presence amid the heritage building's pillars and arches that silently assure a solid foundation underscores CIBC Mellon's new tag line The Freedom to Focus on Your World.
"Clients and customers aren't sitting back anymore being quiet," said Beaver, speaking also as president of the Toronto chapter of Canada's Disaster Recovery Information Exchange (DRIE). "They're being very vocal on how much they are wanting to be protected. If they're coming to you for a particular service, they want to make sure that you're here today and tomorrow no matter what else is going on. They want to make sure their interests are protected. We're seeing new clients say 'yes' or 'no' depending on the recoverability of organizations and how they can protect themselves."
Seeming to be as certain as death and taxes is a competitive necessity for financial institutions. In a world still mindful of the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks and concerned with current political global tensions, a heightened tension greets news of a stolen hard drive, pilfered credit card numbers and Internet attacks such as the Slammer worm. At stake is customers' confidence in their financial institutions' ongoing protection of their personal information.
The 'always on' nature of the Internet and the increasing speed of the financial world - even before achieving straight-through processing - leaves no tolerance for data loss or down time. Not when there are mega dollars in transit between financial institutions, noted Anna Frazatto, VP of professional services, Agility Recovery Solutions (formerly GE Capital), in Mississauga, Ont.
"If any of those services are not available for even a short period of time, if you cannot meet customer satisfaction, you can lose the faith of your customer base and that spells death to a business."
Financial institutions are now setting data loss and outage time goals, reports Ralph Dunham, manager, business continuity and disaster recovery