NEWS ANALYSIS|IMPLEMENTATION|INVESTMENT FIRM IMPROVES DISASTER CONNECTIVITY SERVICE
By Stewart Eisenhart
As seen in Hedge Fund & Investment Technology,
December 1, 2006

Commonwealth boosts security with Pragmatix Gold Contract

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Commonwealth Advisors, a Louisiana-based investment management firm, has implemented Pragmatix's Pragmatix Gold managed IT service platform to improve disaster recovery, data management and retention, and compliance efforts.

Following operational and connectivity challenges caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, Commonwealth sought to deploy a more secure and easily replicated infrastructure as well as more comprehensive record-retention capabilities.

The Pragmatix Gold platform includes the Microsoft Small Business Server product hosted at an IBM e-business hosting facility and maintained by Pragmatix staff.

Along with Pragmatix Gold, the vendor also provided several IBM Express managed services to Commonwealth's package, including IBM Online Backup for off-site electronic data back-up and storage; IBM Email and Web Security for incoming email monitoring; and IBM Email Recovery for hosted email back-up in the event of business disruptions.

Total lift-out

As a result of the implementation, Pragmatix handles all IT issues for Commonwealth, enabling the manager to focus on core competencies.

"The biggest wake-up call for us was Hurricane Katrina," explains Jim Richard, facilities manager at Commonwealth, adding that Commonwealth is based just 100 miles north west of where the 2005 storm's epicentre hit.

"We had our servers here with tape back-ups, but what Katrina showed us was that keeping things on-site and not really having a viable partner was not a solution."

Richard adds that Pragmatix now securely holds and replicates Commonwealth's data, and provides more expansive internet connectivity for the manager. "We can now replicate anywhere in the US, which was one of our key goals," he says.

"We also went back and reassessed our disaster recovery, because we saw what happened to so many of our friends who lost everything after Katrina. For example, our original internet provider was based where Hurricane Rita went through, and they were knocked out. We now have duplicity around the US to provide our connectivity."

Compliance

The Securities and Exchange Commission regulations regarding data security, retention and storage also prompted Commonwealth to seek third-party assistance, according to Richard.

Bill Abrams, Pragmatix president, explains that the Commonwealth implementation took about a month, but that some technical issues are still being ironed out. "We had the basic service ready for them in roughly four to six weeks, and then it took another several weeks to convert some of their mailboxes and their remote office - there were a number of steps to go through," Abrams reports.

"There are a couple of lingering implementation issues, and we are probably into the third month working on those points. Generally, when we talk to clients, we tell them to expect a four- to eight-week implementation. We have the basic service ready in four weeks, and then it takes a few more weeks to get the clients fully converted and operational."

Abrams says Pragmatix has been offering its IT service to buy-side clients for about a year; roughly a dozen managers have signed on so far.

The bottom line: If a manager does not have the internal resources to develop comprehensive data and disaster recovery policies, there are outsourcing and technology providers who can.