28 May 2009: London - SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider in Information Availability and the world’s fifth largest global IT managed services provider*, was on Wednesday night named “Business Continuity Service Provider of the Year” for an unprecedented sixth time at the annual Business Continuity Awards. SunGard has been nominated for this award on 10 occasions in the 11 year history of the awards. SunGard was also a finalist in the Business Continuity Management Planning Software of the Year, Data Centre Strategy of the Year and Most Innovative Product of the Year categories, highlighting the strength and breadth of its services portfolio.
Commenting on the awards, Keith Tilley, managing director UK & executive vice president Europe, SunGard Availability Services, said: “We're delighted to be recognised as the Business Continuity Service Provider of the Year for an unparalleled sixth time. The business continuity industry continues to evolve and adapt to changing risks and social trends and it has come a long way since the days when it focused purely on IT disaster recovery and backup. The recent emergence of swine flu and the growing trend towards cloud computing are just two of the next challenges businesses will need to adapt their business continuity strategies to address, especially as the convergence of business continuity into other areas of ensuring availability – such as managed services – continues.
“In today's uncertain economic climate, as organisations look to make cuts in different areas of their business, business continuity is one area that should remain bullet-proof. Research has shown that customers are increasingly likely to switch providers if they don't experience a good service, so if an organisation does not have the resilience to continue operating following a business disruption, it is putting both short term profits and long term business survival at risk.”
* Tier 1 research Spring '09 - Managed Hosting Global Report.