VZ: Verizon Business Helps Power COOP Systems' Global Expansion of Web-Based Business Continuity Service

To meet the growing global demand for its Web-based business-continuity planning services, COOP Systems Inc. is bolstering its offering by selecting Verizon Business' world-class data center services. The services include remote backup and restore capabilities that help back up the databases that COOP Systems maintains for its enterprise customers.

"Verizon Business Premium Data Center Services give COOP Systems a reliable and secure infrastructure platform upon which we can continue to expand our worldwide base of enterprise customers seeking the next generation of on-demand, Internet-based business continuity management tools," said Chris Alvord, CEO and founder of COOP Systems. "Verizon Business has the global resiliency that our customers need as well as a proven track record meeting the unique demands of a 'software-as-a service' provider like COOP Systems."

COOP Systems delivers its flagship myCOOPTM business continuity management software package via the emerging software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, in which the application is hosted by COOP Systems rather than by the customer. The software is delivered over the Web to help ensure availability of critical information. The delivery model also helps control set-up and operational costs and reduce strains on internal enterprise client resources.

With myCOOPTM, large and distributed businesses across the world can create business continuity plans and manage the response and recovery processes after major incidents. This includes the ability to manage the multilocation tasks of crisis-management and emergency-response teams.

Verizon Business Premium Data Center Services help enable COOP Systems to control its own infrastructure and maintenance costs and enable the SaaS provider to focus its IT resources on customer service and development of new Web-based continuity-planning features.

"Growing acceptance of on-demand services are fueling greater interest in managed service providers such as Verizon Business," said Jeff Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies Inc., a strategic IT consulting company, and the founder of the Software-as-a-Service and Managed Service Showplace directories. "This agreement is another example of how Verizon Business is expanding its portfolio of on-demand services and creating an ecosystem of SaaS vendors to meet the information technology and business needs of customers with global requirements."

Verizon Business Data Center Services provide companies such as COOP Systems with 24/7 availability of a flexible and robust infrastructure capable of handling variable usage levels. As a Remote Backup and Restore customer, COOP Systems gains immediate access to bandwidth- and storage-efficient technologies including user-initiated restores via a Web-based management tool, automated over-the-network restores and daily backups for remote locations.

Alvord said his company, which has prospective new enterprise customers in Asia and Europe, may soon need to expand the number of Verizon Business data center locations for customers who prefer in-country data center availability. "With Verizon Business, we have a cost-effective strategy in place to meet our expansion needs without impacting our customers or our core business processes," he said.

Verizon Business has more than 185 data centers in 22 countries and one of the most expansive global IP networks in the world.

About COOP Systems
COOP Systems (www.coop-systems.com), headquartered in Herndon, Va., is a global provider of continuity planning software. With a special focus on large clients with distributed planning needs, increasing numbers of innovative private and public sector clients have chosen myCOOPTM, a Web-based continuity planning program for on-demand business continuity management.