AT&T Wins Frost & Sullivan 2010 Product Leadership of the Year Award for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Services North America

DALLAS, June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With the reality of man-made and natural disasters, businesses and organizations across the U.S. are responding more to the need for business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) planning. Communication service providers (CSPs) with the most well-defined BC/DR portfolios are looking to take on a greater role in enterprise BC/DR, especially in cases where they are the primary network provider, according to Frost & Sullivan.

AT&T* has been awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2010 Product Leadership of the Year Award in Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Services North America, recognized for its business continuity services features and functionality, innovation, acceptance in the marketplace, customer value, and quality. This award is based on Frost & Sullivan's recent research of CSP BC/DR strategies and portfolios, in which the CSP that best fulfills the role is AT&T.

"Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are about business survivability. In the case of a disruption, large or small, BC/DR needs to address topics, including technology, organizational decision-making, workflow continuity, and communication," said Lynda Stadtmueller, Senior Research Analyst, Business Communications, Frost & Sullivan. "In defining its portfolio, AT&T has taken a broad, comprehensive view of BC/DR, offering a wide range of valuable services as well as professional consulting services and guidelines that help a company identify critical business processes that go beyond IT."

"AT&T excels in educating the enterprise space on the risks and need for BC/DR planning and offering services that match its customers' needs, risk tolerance, and budget."

AT&T offers a wide array of business continuity services, encompassing disaster planning, vulnerability management, recovery preparedness, and communications readiness. AT&T Business Continuity Services are comprehensive, providing enterprises with business-impact analysis, risk assessments, enterprise hosting, cloud computing, application management services, a full continuum of storage solutions, high-availability network solutions and network, and IT security services.

AT&T also conducts several Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) exercises a year – the next one planned for July 13 – 14 in San Jose. These exercises simulate major disasters, and involve rolling out dozens of equipment-filled trucks that act as AT&T's mobile central offices, satellite transponders, and cell towers. They are designed to test, refine, and strengthen AT&T's business continuity and disaster recovery services in order to minimize network downtime. By simulating large-scale disasters and network service disruptions, AT&T can apply and refine best practices for rapidly restoring communications to government and business customers.

Additionally, AT&T recently released the results of its annual study(1) on business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness for U.S. businesses in the private sector, now in its ninth consecutive year. The study found that businesses across the U.S. are responding more to the need for business continuity planning in which 83% of organizations responding to the survey have a business continuity plan in place, up 14% in the past five years.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

(1) For more information on the AT&T 2010 Business Continuity Study, including the complete research results and comparisons to previous years, visit www.att.com/businesscontinuity-news.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest 3G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising. In 2010, AT&T again ranked among the 50 Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE® magazine. 

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATTNews. Find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ATT to discover more about our consumer and wireless services or at www.Facebook.com/ATTSmallBiz to discover more about our small business services.

© 2010 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. 3G service not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.