Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

BrokerageAmerica's Blackout Begets Backup: Page 8 of 8

BrokerageAmerica's first mistake was not getting a backup site under way, but plans for the site are finally in the works (see "The Hard Sell,"). "We should have had another standalone site ready to go on its own, instead of having to put this all together again," says Anthony Martinez, senior vice president and head of the company's trading operations (who has since left the firm).

The only option was to build another temporary setup for the traders. So BrokerageAmerica rented space from RoyalBlue, its ASP, and set up shop there. The good news was that the firm was able to ride off the two DS-3s it uses to connect to RoyalBlue's back-end Fidessa trading system. "We plugged in a Cisco router and they patched us into their network and then back to our New Jersey site, so we could trade out of that, too," says Simon Janason, IT manager for BrokerageAmerica.

The bad news was that the relocation effort cost the firm more than anticipated. The moves to the Internap makeshift conference room and to RoyalBlue's site cost about $400,000. "We're still adding it up," says Martinez, who expects that the firm will likely tap out its $1 million insurance policy in the wake of the disaster.

Martinez's advice: Don't wait to set up a disaster-recovery site. If disaster strikes, it can be costly if you don't have a backup site of your own.