IBM Business Continuity Technologies Bring Peace of Mind to Gulf Coast Regional Bank
St. Martin Bank & Trust Co., a mid-sized financial services institution located in
St. Martinville, La.
,
is using IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) to
ensure uninterrupted services and protection of crucial data in the
event of a hurricane or other disruptive event. The expanded
relationship enables St. Martin Bank & Trust Company to meet
stringent resiliency requirements and reduce the need for split-second
decision making during an emergency.
A
pillar for more than 75 years in the Gulf Coast communities it serves,
St. Martin Bank & Trust Co. has 11 branches located along
hurricane prone Interstate 10. In spite of Mother Nature's efforts, and
in a challenging financial environment, the bank has not only survived,
but thrived – in the past year purchasing the American Bank of Welch
and adding five new branches. However, while the institution's
singular focus on the region has made it more important to the local
community, it has also made it more vulnerable to the storms that
repeatedly threaten the area.
Faced
with three major hurricanes since 2006 -- Katrina, Ike and Gustav --
St. Martin Bank & Trust needed a way to ensure its critical
services remained operational and its customer data was protected in
the face of potential disasters. Similar to many institutions its
size, it did not have the resources to maintain and manage a facility
in another geographic location, so the company looked to IBM Global
Technology Services - Integrated Technology Services to implement a
"hot site" in Boulder, Colorado. A
customer of IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency services since 1990,
IBM assisted St. Martin Bank in analyzing and updating its disaster
recovery readiness and continuity strategy to include the new facility
and capabilities.
"Without
the luxury of moving our data to another branch elsewhere in the U.S.,
the IBM solution has become vital to serving our customers," said Matt Simar, vice president and IT manager of St. Martin Bank & Trust. "IBM
has taken the headache out of our system recovery. It works that well.
We ship our tape to them. They restore the system. They bring the VPN
up and we're ready to go."
In
the event of an emergency or system outage, the IBM Boulder hot site
team is ready to provide St. Martin Bank - full operational access
within 24 hours or less - the subscribed IBM System I server,
associated disk, software, tape drives and network connectivity. With a
dedicated IBM project manager and onsite technical personnel, the
solution also includes remote console and web virtual private network
clients (Web VPN) - thus allowing St. Martin Bank IT staff and
employees the flexibility to physically or remotely access their
recovery environment at the Boulder hot site.
"Mid-sized
companies are increasingly turning to IBM's Business Continuity and
Resiliency Services to plan, implement and manage IT operational risk
management strategies," said Marc Dupaquier, general manager of IBM's Global Mid Market Business. "By helping reduce
the impact of particular risks St. Martin Bank & Trust faces
operating along the U.S. Gulf coast, IBM is helping to bring peace of
mind to the bank and its customers."
IBM
BCRS has been providing commercial recovery services since 1989. In
each of the 456 outage emergency events supported, IBM clients have
been 100% successful in recovering their mission critical applications.
Worldwide
IBM has more than 150 Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) Centers
in 55 countries and an army of 1600 experts. IBM BCRS offers a rich set
of solutions supporting multivendor architectures and tools that
provide advanced recovery techniques intended to minimize the risks
related to an disaster or outage.