OBT deploys Melb node for cloud services continuity

Peter Dinham
Monday, 12 December 2011 14:52

Private cloud services provider, OBT, has deployed a Melbourne node which it says will provide cloud services continuity, offering additional disaster recovery, high availability and failover services with the addition of the new point of presence in Melbourne.

According to OBT managing director, Shane Muller, with capability now in place to failover from both Sydney and Melbourne, the company's new service will help businesses to implement 'various measures to enhance corporate governance, risk management and internal control practices.'

'Business continuity is vital to our customers because they need access and quick recovery to information on a regular basis,' Muller said, adding that security, reliability and scalability are natural concerns for domestically focused business.

'Business continuity is vital to our customers because they need access and quick recovery to information on a regular basis. With capability now in place to failover from both Sydney and Melbourne, our new service will help businesses to implement various measures to enhance corporate governance, risk management and internal control practices,' said Shane Muller, managing director, OBT.

Muller said security, reliability and scalability were natural concerns for domestically focused business, and he adds, 'in a country like Australia, businesses are unfortunately all too familiar with the impact of natural disasters. Indeed, Brisbane's floods earlier this year demonstrated the power of the physical environment to disrupt business. 

'Managers understand that natural disasters are more commonplace than rare but power failure*, IT hardware failure and human error can also cause mass chaos. Successful organisations of any size realise that any disruption, regardless of how small, will have an impact on the business as a whole.  Our new Melbourne node will now further assist companies in complying with their disaster recovery and business continuity requirements.'

Muller cites statistics from Eaton Industries' Australian and New Zealand Blackout Tracker Annual Report for 2010 that found that Queensland reported the greatest number of power outages with 29 incidents followed by a tie between New South Wales and Victoria with 17 outages each.

Eaton also reported that storms were responsible for the three most significant blackouts reported during the year with the biggest outage occurring in Perth when storm gusts and torrential rain cut power to 150,000 people, while a lightning strike in Darwin took second place honours when it cut power to 130,000 people for over ten hours, while the third most significant outage occurred when strong winds downed power lines and interrupted power for 100,000 people in Palm Beach, Queensland.