Business continuity / disaster recovery (BC/DR) has become an essential business strategy which makes up part of the best practices for organisations today. In light of terrorism, malicious hacking, geopolitical tension and natural catastrophes, the security and resilience of an organisation's infocomm infrastructure have become a day-to-day concern for businesses and management.
A world-class business hub with excellent infrastructure, Singapore is ranked 2nd on the Networked Readiness Index by the World Economic Forum for 2004, and is rated as the 2nd most competitive nation according to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2004. The island-state offers all the necessary attributes as a centre for business continuity and disaster recovery.
Business continuity and disaster recovery fundamentals are strong in Singapore because of its:
Free from natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, Singapore is well known as a major financial, transportation and infocomm hub, and is home to more than 7,000 multinational corporations. Many use it as a launch pad to expand into the region. With the most connected airport in the Asia Pacific, Singapore's excellent air transportation hub links Europe, North America and the rest of the world with 3,100 flights to and from 151 cities in 52 countries, served by more than 60 airlines.
Singapore offers a sound financial and legal system, strong intellectual property protection, low corporate tax and various incentive schemes to companies establishing business operations here. It has also developed a framework of policies and infocomm skills to provide a pro-business environment to work and live in.
Singapore is linked to the rest of the world by an extensive network of submarine cable systems, with 28 terabits per second of high-speed submarine cable capacity, and houses more than 1 million square feet of data centre space with capabilities that meet stringent standards in security, availability and service-level quality.
The value chain supporting business continuity and disaster recovery in Singapore includes global and local leaders in business continuity consultancy, infocomm technology solutions, data centre and work-desk recovery services, and infrastructure and connectivity solutions. A ready pool of trained and certified professionals is on hand to provide the full spectrum of business continuity and disaster recovery services.
Singapore is the first country in the world to introduce a Standard and Certification programme for BC/DR service providers. Developed by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the IT Standards Committee (ITSC), the Standard specifies the stringent requirements for BC/DR service providers. These requirements benchmark against the top practices in the region and stipulate the operating, monitoring and up-keeping of BC/DR services offered.
Seven BC/DR service providers have been certified under the new Standard. They are: Hewlett Packard, IBM, NCS Pte Ltd, and Singapore Computer Systems for the full BC/DR Service Provider category; and Equinix, SingTel Expan and StarHub for the Disaster Recovery Facility category.
By engaging a certified BC/DR service provider, assurance is provided to the end-user and frees the company to focus on its core competencies. This enhances the companys competitive advantage as it is able to achieve stringent Recovery Time Objective, minimise business and data loss; and enjoy uninterrupted services. The certification also serves as a quality mark to inspire service providers to upgrade themselves to provide better services.
For more information, please contact ida_industry@ida.gov.sg.
To obtain a copy of the Standard document, you may contact SPRING at:
SPRING Singapore
Corporate Sales
3rd Floor
2 Bukit Merah Central Singapore 159835
Tel: +65 6279 3920
Fax: +65 6377 0669
Email: sales@spring.gov.sg
URL: www.singaporestandardseshop.sg/Product/Home.aspx