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Tuesday November 27 12:53 PM EST
Disaster Speeds Upgrades
By Rutrell Yasin, InternetWeek
dailynews.yahoo.com
Several tactical solutions deployed by Merrill Lynch & Co. following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are now permanent parts of the firm's IT infrastructure.
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New York--Several tactical solutions deployed by Merrill Lynch & Co. following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are now permanent parts of the firm's IT infrastructure.
Merrill Lynch, with help from AT&T, Cisco and fiber optic provider Terabeam Corp., pulled together a high-speed laser-based communications network, VPN and a voice-over-IP system within 72 hours after 9,000 employees had to evacuate Merrill's headquarters at the neighboring World Financial Center, said executive vice president and chief technology officer John McKinley. Merrill has gradually begun returning to its offices, but some won't be available until first-quarter 2002.
The 1.6-mile fiber link, deployed within a week of Merrill's order under arduous conditions, provided 1-Gbps communications from Manhattan to new trading floors in Jersey City, N.J. It was key to getting the company back in business after much of its AT&T and Verizon connections were inoperable. The fiber link will remain in place.
"It was a great tactical addition that will be a part of our permanent infrastructure," McKinley said.
Despite redundant communications, Merrill still needed more.
"We had a diverse communications network, but both providers were taken out of the market," McKinley said. |
