Business continuity briefs:
13th April 2006

'Business continuity briefs' provides a summary of new product and services press releases and other useful resources published in the last 24 hours.

ICM sets date for opening of new London Business Continuity Centre
On Tuesday 16th May 2006 ICM is officially opening its latest Business Continuity Centre in Romford, a new site designed for the specific demands of the London and Essex markets. This £30m investment allows ICM to provide a large scale outer London business continuity solution to London companies. Only 20 minutes by train from Liverpool Street station, the London Essex centre spans 73,000 sq ft with 1,700 workplace and dealing positions. For more details or to register to attend the launch event, telephone 08701 22 22 00

Companies failing to address the weak link in information security
Organisations are doing little to address the most serious threat to their information security and technology infrastructure, according to new research by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Human error was responsible for nearly 60 percent of information security breaches experienced by organizations over the last year, according to the fourth annual CompTIA study on information security and the workforce. That figure is significantly higher than one year ago, when 47 percent of security breaches were blamed on human error alone. Yet despite the prominent role that human behaviour plays in information security breaches, just 29 percent of the 574 organizations that participated in the survey said that security training is a requirement at their company. Only 36 percent of organizations offer end-user security awareness training. http://www.comptia.org/sections/research.aspx

Master Plus provides mission critical power protection
The new ‘Master Plus’ from Riello UPS is a multi-mode uninterruptible power supply specifically designed for data centres and telecoms installations.

The Master Plus UPS is easy to operate and maintain, with low installation and operating costs, and sophisticated configuration and remote monitoring options.

Master Plus is highly configurable. Each of the power modules (100, 120, 160 and 200kVA in size) can be configured to work in one of four operating modes: On-line, Standby On (Economy), Standby Off (Emergency Lighting) and Smart Active where the UPS decides itself on which operating mode to work in. In addition the modules can be operated in parallel up to a maximum of 1.6MVA and synchronised with the output of other third party UPS already on site.

Hot plug in technology allows additional Master Plus modules to be connected into live systems to provide instant system upgrade and enhanced operation. Once connected the new Master Plus module receives instructions from the existing set and starts to support the load. Hot upgrades remove the need to expose the connected loads to raw mains and prevent system downtime. http://www.riello-upspr.co.uk/view/73/

Senior management unaware of implications of MiFID, finds KPMG International survey
Nearly 50 percent of board members and senior managers in financial services organizations lack awareness of the implications of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), according to a KPMG International report written in co-operation with the Economist Intelligence Unit entitled ‘Capturing value from MiFID’.

MiFID is expected to have some of the greatest impacts of all financial services legislation introduced in the last five years. However, this report indicates how few Boards have fully appreciated the impact this wide reaching Directive is likely to have on their business when fully implemented in November 2007.

The report, based on a survey of 199 financial services companies across Europe, found that only 29 percent of companies have even assigned a project manager to oversee the implementation of MiFID and only 17 percent have allocated a budget to prepare for MiFID. 35 percent of respondents thought senior management’s lack of awareness was one of the biggest threats to their business being ready for MiFID. Indeed less than 50 percent of respondents said their organisation had even reviewed the Directive. www.kpmg.co.uk

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•Date: 13th April 2006• Region: Various