Jersey will offer New Yorkers peace of mind.As recent history has reinforced, the risks businesses face are nearly impossible to quantify and every contingency cannot be planned for months or years in advance. However, what has also been reinforced is that prudent businesses must reevaluate their practices from the worst-case perspective. Until now, many financial institutions were satisfied with an operational and data redundancy Writing data to two or more locations for backup and data recovery. For example, data can be stored on two or more disks or disk and tape or disk and the Internet. See disk redundancy and data recovery. achieved through the development of backup data centers located within close proximity of their primary facilities--sometimes on the same block, but more often within a one or two mile radius. Having experienced a major, regional disruption and the resultant widespread loss of power, telecommunications and employee mobility, these institutions have completely reevaluated the assumptions underlying redundancy. The impetus for this reevaluation has come not just internally from the information technology department, executive suite and board, but from government oversight organizations as well. A white paper from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Controller of the Currency, taken together with an in-depth assessment by Congress' General Accounting Office, has identified significant risks to financial markets from deficiencies in key organizations' procedures and facilities. These, taken together with the requirements imposed by Sarbanes Oxley, mean that more attention is focused now on implementing data facilities continuity strategy than ever before. The guidelines of the SEC/OCC/ FRB See Federal Reserve Board. white paper suggest backup facilities be located "as far away from the primary site as necessary to avoid ... the same risks as the primary facility" without imposing a proscribed PROSCRIBED, civil law. Among the Romans, a man was said to be proscribed when a reward was offered for his head; but the term was more usually applied to those who were sentenced to some punishment which carried with it the consequences of civil death. Code, 9; 49. distance. Accordingly, some firms are locating backup centers in remote locations in the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest. Others are locating closer to primary Northeast operations--in eastern Pennsylvania or upstate New York Upstate New York is the region of New York State north of the core of the New York metropolitan area. It has a population of 7,121,911 out of New York State's total 18,976,457. Were it an independent state, it would be ranked 13th by population. . However, most "core" firms will either strengthen or establish a New Jersey location in the next 18 months. Why? Technology limits the range in which a synchronous Refers to events that are synchronized, or coordinated, in time. For example, the interval between transmitting A and B is the same as between B and C, and completing the current operation before the next one is started are considered synchronous operations. Contrast with asynchronous. mirror site can be located. While firms may additionally develop asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. secondary centers or data bunkers in remote markets for an added layer of redundancy, the primary data centers of financial institutions must be able to connect with clients, clearing organizations and the markets, and cannot exist totally independently in a remote location. Thus, firms are tied to the New York metropolitan area New York–Northern New Jersey–Long Island is the most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the third most populous in the world, after Tokyo and Mexico City. . Much of the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of metropolitan demand will land specifically in New Jersey. Many areas in the region outside of New Jersey represent elevated risk levels on the basis of proximity to nuclear facilities, seismic activity and tornado tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and where it reaches the earth causes great destruction. probability. Moreover, New Jersey's telecommunications, electrical and transportation infrastructure are well developed, operate independently of New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and offer high levels of redundancy in many areas. Finally, New Jersey's well-established technical workforce can meet the staffing demands of data center operations. Current demand for facilities incorporating a significant data continuity component in New Jersey, as tracked by GVA GVA general visceral afferent system of nerves. Williams, exceeds 1.3 million s/f. Throughout 2004, early movers secured the best facilities. With very few remaining suitable facilities available to meet this unique demand, renovation of existing facilities and greenfield Greenfield, town (1990 pop. 18,666), seat of Franklin co., NW Mass., at the confluence of the Deerfield and Green rivers, near their junction with the Connecticut; settled 1686, set off from Deerfield and inc. 1753. construction is expected to accommodate the bulk of these requirements. However, relatively few sites or existing facilities in New Jersey can accommodate the intense infrastructure demands of these facilities. Power requirements for individual facilities approach 10 megawatts and require dual feeds from separate substations to provide reliability. Telecommunications must be provided from multiple carriers able to provide a minimum of OC-48 or better. And with physical vulnerability a major concern, sites must be larger and located at a distance from hazards like highways, rail lines and flight paths. Fortunately, these sites and facilities do exist in New Jersey--often as a result of the major infrastructure investments made by previous corporate users. Expect significant, unpublicized absorption and construction over the coming months, as these facilities ideally exist anonymously and invisibly, strengthening the reliability and resiliency of our financial system. COLTON BROWN ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR GVA WILLIAMS NEW JERSEY |
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