Special contribution article: SunGard 'Availability services' provide business continuity strategies in collaboration with NEC

The SunGard Availability Service is a pioneer of the disaster recovery industry and one of the leading providers of information availability solutions, which include business continuity/disaster recovery, managed IT and professional cconssulting services. Since its establishment in 1978, SunGard has maintained a 100% successful rate in handdling over 25,000 disaster recoveries for more than 10,000 clients in North America and Europe. In 2004, NEC Corporation concluded a knowledge transfer agreement with SunGard in order to access itsportfolio of services. The terms of the agreement included consultation on Bussiness Continuiity (BC) issues business continuation via alternative systems in case of disaster and recovery testing snd training. The expertise provided by SunGard has helped NEC in starting its new BC service that mainly trgets Japanese enterprise by using NEC itself as a reference point. The service is also based on the experience and achievements that NEC has gained in long years of exxperience with regard to its SI and outsourcing business. This report is intended to introduce the cconcepts developed by SunGard with regard to next generation BC as well as a description of the actual services it has developed in North America and Europe; it also defines the relationship of SunGard with NEC.