Updates on new breakthroughs in the Cloud Computing, Disaster Recovery, and Managed Hosting industries are a must-read

SunGard Availability Services today announced the refocusing of its consulting services practice to improve the resilience of its clients’ operations. SunGard Consulting helps organizations build the most effective strategy for managing operational risk while ensuring availability through innovative business continuity strategies, enabling technologies such as cloud computing, and improving efficiencies through high-performing IT operating models.

SunGard Availability Services today announced that it is the recipient of a Cisco Partner Summit theater award for Cloud Partner of the Year in the service provider category. Cisco unveiled the award at its annual channel partner conference in San Diego, Calif.

SunGard Availability Services today announced latest additions to its Enterprise Cloud Services portfolio. A new Managed Workflow feature further enhances the built-in resilience of SunGard’s enterprise-ready Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering by helping customers proactively reduce the risk and exposure associated with making system changes to live cloud environments. SunGard has also added a non-managed virtual machine option that customers can utilize for non-mission critical environments.

SunGard Availability Services today announced a technical preview of its fully managed enterprise-grade, Apache™ Hadoop™-based data analytics platform. By providing a managed service, the SunGard Unified Analytics Services^sm (UAS) will free up organizations from having to manage their own data analytics infrastructure and enable them to focus instead on gleaning business insights from their Big Data assets. The SunGard UAS will provide the hardware, software and networking required for each customer’s Big Data analysis.

SunGard Availability Services will highlight the importance of “Disaster Preparedness” at the 2012 DRJ Spring World Conference (booth #415-419), March 25-27, 2012 at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla. SunGard will launch its new Test Management Software Solution and kick off its Mobile Recovery Unit Tour at the DRJ Event.

SunGard Availability Services today announced the company has been recognized as a "Top 20 Coolest Cloud Infrastructure Vendor" by CRN magazine for the company's Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution.

SunGard Availability Services today reported several of its customers were impacted by the Boston Back Bay electrical fire on March 13, 2012. Nearly 300 employees unable to return to their facilities resumed business operations on March 14th at the end-user Workforce Continuity Center in Marlborough, Mass.

SunGard Availability Services today announced it will provide highly available cloud backup through Amazon’s Direct Connect services to both Amazon Web Services and SunGard cloud customers during the course of 2012.

SunGard Availability Services today announced the company has been honored with a 2011 Excellence in Cloud Computing Award from TMC’s Cloud Computing magazine for its Enterprise Cloud Services. SunGard has distinguished itself in the market by delivering a fully managed cloud environment with enterprise-grade application availability and security.

SunGard Availability Services announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with NAV CANADA, Canada’s private sector civil air navigation services provider, to offer SunGard Workforce Continuity Services at the NAV CENTRE conference facility, located in Cornwall, Ontario. An industry leader in workforce recovery, SunGard provides organizations with temporary employee workspace, equipment, secure access, email, and telephone connectivity in the event of a business interruption or disaster.

The calendar has closed on what many are calling the “Year of Disasters.” The United States set a record with 12 separate billion dollar weather/climate disasters in 2011, with an aggregate damage total of approximately $52 billion, according to NOAA. These incidents have prompted many organizations to reconsider the human element during a crisis or major news event, and evaluate how they communicate with employees, suppliers, investors and customers.