ePLDT puts up disaster recovery facility in Cebu

MANILA, Philippines — The ICT arm of PLDT Enterprise has put up its first disaster recovery facility in Cebu to help ensure the operational continuity of businesses in the region.

The disaster recovery facility serves as a data backup site or alternative office space, which companies can use to recover and restore their IT systems or operations in the event of a failure or natural disaster.

ePLDT said such site is a crucial component of any company’s business continuity plan (BCP), and is part of standards on operational risk management.

It said highly regulated industries, such as banking and financial institutions, are required to abide by a clear and complete BCP to keep its services running no matter the circumstances.

“The Cebu DR facility is part of ePLDT’s initiatives to fortify businesses’ BCPs as we continue to face disasters and disruptions. We believe that disaster recovery is key to strengthen the resiliency of businesses,” ePLDT president and CEO and PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups senior vice president and head Jovy Hernandez said.

The disaster recovery facility, housed in ePLDT’s VITRO Data Center Cebu 2, will have 100 disaster recovery seats available for enterprises.

Nico Alcoseba, vice president and head of ICT business for PLDT Enterprise, said the Cebu’s disaster recovery facility is assured of being seismic zone-4 compliant, which means it is able to withstand strong earthquakes.

“And with 12 layers of security, businesses are assured of its safety and security,” Alcoseba said.

ePLDT said the facilty’s features ensure the operational continuity of businesses in the event of power failures, which is further backed by its 24/7 security and customer support.

The facility is also designed to minimize vibrations on the building where the servers are co-located, therefore ensuring optimum protection of the customer’s equipment.

“The disaster recovery facility will enable Cebu-based enterprises in developing their own business continuity plan and becoming compliant with global standards,” ePLDT said.

“It benefits from all the service level agreements available within the facility which includes physical resiliency and power redundancy – making it an ideal business continuity site for manpower relocation and a backup site for IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster,” it said.

ePLDT in 2019 inaugurated the first stand-alone disaster recovery facility in North Luzon with the VITRO Clark DR Site.