Companies all over the globe rely on IT to communicate with their customers, suppliers, partners, banks and their staff. The coming of age of the internet as a real-time business tool linked to every part of the production cycle means that downtime is no longer acceptable.

It is simply not sufficient just to protect business information. In the event of a disruption organisations must keep people and information continuously connected. This is what we call Information availability.

Zero downtime is not a luxury. It is a fundamental and essential requirement for many businesses: financial institutions, the travel sector and the major retailers, for example, already understand this. If customers and suppliers are unable to interface with your business it will be felt on the bottom line - rapidly. And what about the company's reputation?

Furthermore, an increasing number of regulatory bodies insist that business systems of risk management are in place, robust and effective.

As the cost of high bandwidth connectivity continues to fall more businesses can benefit from the security that managed IT solutions bring.

SunGard's managed services mean that your company's critical information, and therefore its viable operation, is less than a blink away.