Be prepared for calamities, businesses urged

Rey Lugtu Jr., Globe Telecom vice president for marketing, discuss Globe’s Business Continuity forum at a briefing in Cebu City Marriot Hotel. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

There should be enough infrastructure to enable business continuity after a  calamity.

Rey C. Lugtu Jr., Globe Telecom vice president for IT Solutions Group, said this is an important factor for businesses to continue to operate and grow when faced with calamities

Lugtu said encouraging businesses to be more prepared for disasters is part of the Globe Business’ campaign for business continuity.
Globe Business is the information and communications technology arm of Globe Telecom.

With the economy growing, the Philippines needs to ensure that there is enough infrastructure to keep the economy growing after a calamity.

Lugtu said Globe is taking an active role to provide that infrastructure such as  cloud-based disaster recovery solutions  where data is stored in remote servers in major cities  of the country in case the computer banks of a company are disabled.

“We have one Data Bank here in Cebu within our office in the IT Park. The data bank allows companies to store their data, and, rest assured, they can still access them even when their offices are hit bya  calamity,” he said.

CLOUD-BASED

“The cloud-based services also allow them to access their information anytime anywhere,  he said.

In Cebu, the industries they are serving include financial institutions, IT/BPO, retail, manufacturing, distribution, transportation, healthcare and the government.

Globe said it sees more demand for cloud-based products and services after the series of calamities  like earthquakes, typhoons and severe flooding.

“What we want to focus on further  are the small and medium enterprises. We want to be able to serve this segment because they are the ones who need to grow more,” Lugtu said.

He said  different packages are avilable to suit  different needs of small and medium enterprises at rates they can afford.

Lugtu said a part of the firm’s thrust was the holding of a Cebu Business Continuity Forum last week to educate small and medium enterprises of the need for more disaster preparedness.

Globe officials and government experts led by Ambassador Marciano Paynor of Ayala Corp.’s external and government relations provided Cebu businessmen with information about the importance of preparation and prevention for untoward eventualities.