HP unveils second disaster recovery center in S'pore
SINGAPORE--Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced the opening of a new center to provide business continuity and disaster recovery services to businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.
The facility is part of a US$100 million investment announced in September, in business continuity and recovery centers in Europe, Singapore and the United States, according to HP. It is the second business recovery facility established by HP in Singapore--the first center was set up in 1999.
Tan Lee Chew, Southeast Asia Managing director and vice president of HP's technology solutions group, said the new center will be able to serve up to 100 customers in the Asia-Pacific region. It will also have the land capacity to double its current physical size of 10,000 square feet, she said at a media briefing Tuesday.
The new center, operational since August, offers both remote and physical recovery services for IT and non-IT business processes across sectors such as financial services, healthcare and manufacturing.
Jane Rushton-Young, HP's regional business development manager for business continuity and availability services in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, noted that about 70 companies in Singapore currently use the company's facilities in the two business recovery centers.
She added that HP has so far managed 14 business emergency situations in the island-state, with recovery ranging from less than one day to nearly 12 weeks. According to Rushton-Young, the average duration of a recovery effort, from the time a disaster occurs to when business operations are back on line, is five days.
She pointed that many businesses are still lacking in, or not up-to-speed in implementation business continuity and availability strategies, although companies are "becoming more risk-aware and putting in place more processes" to safeguard against threats such as Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
Last week, analyst firm IDC also noted that many businesses in the Asia-Pacific region are not well-protected against security breaches and natural disasters, and only 36 percent have in place disaster recovery and business continuity plans.