Balancing IT Risk + Reward in the Financial Sector
In this, the first of our two-part dive into the financial sector, we will begin by taking a look at the risks and rewards of establishing business contingency plans and compliance strategies.
In the Financial Sector, Uptime is Critical.
And if you don’t have a contingency plan already in place, you might be in trouble. Having a robust, well-thought-out disaster recovery plan is more critical than ever in the financial sector, where service interruption can have disastrous long-term consequences. You need immediate failover. But disaster recovery isn’t the only concern you should have.
Business continuity is equally important. The need for secure and reliable data backup is obvious but what else do you need to keep your enterprise operating? Line items should include office space within the region and facilities suitable for hosting your team for days, and even weeks in the event of a worst-case scenario.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Start Here: Direct LTx is Eastern Pennsylvania’s premier data center colocation provider. Just an hour west of Philadelphia, your organization can benefit from the following:
Data center hosting both above and below ground in an area with zero flood risk.
24/7/365 On-Site Security
Low Seismic Risk
6 Megawatts of Power Availability with Power Grid Diversity
Ample business continuity office space available for your team.
Amenities include office space, staging/breakdown areas, conference rooms, loading docks, warehouse space, cafeteria, and vending.
Facilities for showering and bunking down, whether for a day, a week or longer if required.
Is Your IT Infrastructure Strategy Complicating Compliance and Adding Unnecessary Risk?
All financial organizations are structured differently than they were a decade ago. Focusing on your key business strategies by outsourcing non-core functions has become Business 101.
But you need to do so in a way that allows you to maintain the service quality that your customers have come to expect as well as the key compliance standards, including SOC 2, PCI, FISMA, ISO 27001, that your industry demands.
Turning to the cloud can be risky. Amazon Web Services (AWS) had three outages in December 2021 alone. Are you ready for the cloud to be your single point of failure? Keeping all your critical business data and applications in the public cloud carries risks:
Financial Risk: The risk associated with downtime is enormous. The lost production revenue during the downtime is less critical than the distress and distrust it generates. You never want to give your customers a reason to start looking for your replacement.
Compliance Risk: Is your current IT infrastructure solution providing the concurrently maintainable, secure data center footprint that your certifications require? Don’t jeopardize your hard-earned compliance achievements. Continuing investments in resiliency and security are required to maintain the standards that earned those certifications.
Risk of High Employee Turnover: Cloud architects, cloud and software engineers, and administrators are not only highly paid, but famous for jumping at the first offer from the next startup. Despite a high payroll you may not end up with a cohesive, loyal team.
Reputation Risk: The financial sector is critical to everyone’s lives. An outage of any length is not only a terrible inconvenience for customers in critical moments, but also frequently front-page news. Not being available for your customers is something that can result in serious long-term damage to your business.
These are all elements that have helped compliance-sensitive Direct LTx customers achieve and maintain hard-won industry certifications. They can help your financial enterprise achieve and maintain stringent compliance standards as well.
CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE:
Ask About Our 15-Year Uptime Record: Reach out to us today to see how a hardened, secure colocation environment can particularly benefit compliance-sensitive firms in the finance sector. We’d love the opportunity to show you how we have assisted enterprises like yours since 2006.
Contact Us Today: Fill out the form below or email sales@directltx.com to arrange for a consultation with Mike Barbarick or Joe Dufner to discuss the infrastructure solutions that Direct LTx can help you architect to fit your specific requirements right here in Eastern Pennsylvania.