IT Availability Now Sungard Availability Services

Cyberattacks aren’t new, but the cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving.
The latest IBM Cost of a Data Breach report revealed the most common initial attack vectors are compromised credentials at 19%, phishing at 16%, and cloud misconfiguration at 15%. This means that the top 50% of initial attacks were caused by some type of human error.
On this episode of IT Availability Now, Sungard AS experts discuss what businesses must do to stay resilient in 2023. Listen to this full episode to learn:
Why businesses must invest more in cybersecurity training for employeesHow organizations can prepare for the “human element” in their security postureHow to build defenses to protect against your industry’s most pressing threatsWhy overlooking cybersecurity basics and headcount reduction could leave your business more vulnerable than ever Why moving workloads to the public cloud doesn’t diminish the need for disaster recoveryMatt Parsons is Director of Network and Security Product Management at Sungard AS. Matt’s background and specialty is in network and security architectures, helping enterprises build secure, resilient, and highly available private and public cloud infrastructures.
As Security Consulting, Senior Manager at Sungard AS, Asher de Metz helps companies identify risks and secure their systems by conducting security audits and tests to avoid cybersecurity attacks. With almost 20 years of experience in information technology and security, Asher has been involved in hundreds of IT-security projects and has provided security counsel to some of the largest companies throughout the U.K., Europe, Middle East and North America within the financial, government, retail, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing industries. 
As a Security Consulting Solution Principal at Sungard AS, Robert Corso has a strong focus on assisting the sales team during client pursuits by providing solution development for Security solutions. He participates in solution implementations such as PCI Audits, Information Security Risk Assessment and CISO advisory services and provides expertise in the definition, design, implementation, and adoption of Sungard AS security solutions for clients.
Darpan Thaker is a cyber and IT resiliency thought leader with more than 25 years of experience in IT. He has been with Sungard Availability Services for more than nine years. Darpan has helped many organizations in successfully meeting their complex resiliency requirements. He was recently awarded with a patent for Recovery Maturity Index (RMI), which is a systematic process to determine status of IT disaster recovery maturity and areas of improvement based on a well-defined quantitative analysis.
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Businesses today are more and more aware that they need to know the risks they are inheriting from their third-party vendors. And they must determine which of those risks warrant mitigation in some real way.
On this episode of IT Availability Now, host Servaas Verbiest and guest John Beattie, Principal Consultant at Sungard AS, examine this complex and timely topic, digging into everything from customers’ biggest concerns to effective third-party risk management. Listen to this full episode to learn:
The differences between “preventive” and “reactive” responses to risk and identifying what controls third-party vendors have for eachWhat happens when organizations place too much stock in “prevention”How businesses can evaluate third-party risk as it pertains to ransomwareThe top risk areas related to post-ransomware recoveryAs Director of Product Field Strategy at Sungard AS, Servaas Verbiest assists businesses and organizations in realizing the full potential of cloud computing by thinking strategically, deploying rapidly, and acting as an ambassador for the cloud ecosystem. While at Sungard AS, Servaas has worked with more than 1,000 unique clients across multiple industries on complex application deployments, re-platforming, public cloud integrations, private cloud deployments, application lifecycle, and hybrid cloud model development.
As a Principal Consultant at Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS), John Beattie works closely with organizations to implement third party risk management programs and reduce operational risk by establishing new business continuity and disaster recovery programs or transforming existing ones to improve effectiveness.
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Container adoption has been increasing for years, and the trend is expected to continue. Gartner forecasts that 70% of businesses will run containerized applications by 2023 and 90% will do so by 2026. 
Yet, while organizations constantly throw around the term containerization, many don’t fully understand the concept.
On this episode of IT Availability Now, host Servaas Verbiest and guest Erik Krogstad, Senior National Cloud Architect at Sungard AS, explore this popular topic, breaking down what a container is, and how businesses should use and secure them. Listen to this full episode to learn:
The benefits of containers Why organizations use containers, and what’s driving recent adoptionWhat containers can be used forContainer security best practicesHow compliance requirements influence container usage

As Director of Product Field Strategy at Sungard AS, Servaas Verbiest assists businesses and organizations in realizing the full potential of cloud computing by thinking strategically, deploying rapidly, and acting as an ambassador for the cloud ecosystem. While at Sungard AS, Servaas has worked with more than 1,000 unique clients across multiple industries on complex application deployments, re-platforming, public cloud integrations, private cloud deployments, application lifecycle, and hybrid cloud model development.
Erik Krogstad is the Senior National Cloud Architect at Sungard AS and serves as lead for the company’s Cloud Center of Excellence. With more than 20 years in the IT industry, Erik has extensive experience in designing and transforming IT infrastructures and architectures to meet the business and IT needs of fortune 1000 companies. 
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

The mounting threat of ransomware – a 13% increase in attacks year over year, per Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigation’s Report – has organizations taking a closer look at the cyber kill chain. But what exactly is the cyber kill chain and how can it keep your business secure?
On this episode of IT Availability Now, host Servaas Verbiest and guest Shannon Davis, Global Director of Partner Readiness at Alert Logic, discuss this hot-button topic and why businesses today can’t neglect the kill chain. Listen to this full episode to learn:
The origins of the cyber kill chain, including how the name came aboutHow the cyber kill chain has evolved The key components of the current cyber kill chainWhy the cyber kill chain is such an integral part of a company’s security postureHow to ensure your organization maximizes the kill chain

As Director of Product Field Strategy at Sungard AS, Servaas Verbiest assists businesses and organizations in realizing the full potential of cloud computing by thinking strategically, deploying rapidly, and acting as an ambassador for the cloud ecosystem. While at Sungard AS, Servaas has worked with more than 1,000 unique clients across multiple industries on complex application deployments, re-platforming, public cloud integrations, private cloud deployments, application lifecycle, and hybrid cloud model development.
Shannon Davis is Global Director of Partner Readiness at Alert Logic, regularly consulting with companies to increase awareness of the current threat landscape and the security solutions and best practices available to stay protected. He is focused on the development of and investment in strategic relationships that allow those concepts and conversations to scale globally across the network of Alert Logic partners. Shannon has over 10 years of IT sales and marketing experience with expertise in Cybersecurity, MSP, MSSP, AWS, Azure, VMware, OpenStack, managed hosting, and more.
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Multi-cloud remains the “de facto standard” among enterprises, according to Flexera’s 2022 State of the Cloud Report, with 89% of businesses taking this approach. Yet, while many companies would love to follow suit, they don’t know where to start.
On this episode of IT Availability Now, host Servaas Verbiest and guest James Mora, Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Sungard AS, discuss what organizations should consider when developing a multi-cloud strategy. Listen to this full episode to learn:
How to determine the right cloud strategy for your business and what this looks like in practiceWhy you must plan for how you will support and maintain these new environmentsWhat steps your organization should take to ensure it properly maintains and supports a multi-cloud environmentAs Director of Product Field Strategy at Sungard AS, Servaas Verbiest assists businesses and organizations in realizing the full potential of cloud computing by thinking strategically, deploying rapidly, and acting as an ambassador for the cloud ecosystem. While at Sungard AS, Servaas has worked with more than 1,000 unique clients across multiple industries on complex application deployments, re-platforming, public cloud integrations, private cloud deployments, application lifecycle, and hybrid cloud model development.
James Mora is Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Sungard Availability Services. James has more than 20 years' experience in Product Engineering. In this role, he is focused on providing pre-sales solutioning, product engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, security operations and customer implementation support for Cloud and Managed Services. James joined Sungard in 2016, and has since transformed engineering into an Agile and DevOps organization delivering flagship Private and Public Cloud services.
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.

Sixty-three percent of businesses are now considered heavy cloud users, running over 25% of their workloads in the cloud. Yet, as companies become further immersed in the cloud, there’s still a lot they don’t know.
On this episode of IT Availability Now, host Servaas Verbiest and guest Erik Krogstad, Senior National Cloud Architect at Sungard AS, discuss questions customers frequently ask about the cloud. Listen to this full episode to learn:
How to build a successful cloud cultureHow to address the networking component when implementing cloud deploymentsHow to determine the right cloud for your organization

As Director of Product Field Strategy at Sungard AS, Servaas Verbiest assists businesses and organizations in realizing the full potential of cloud computing by thinking strategically, deploying rapidly, and acting as an ambassador for the cloud ecosystem. While at Sungard AS, Servaas has worked with more than 1,000 unique clients across multiple industries on complex application deployments, re-platforming, public cloud integrations, private cloud deployments, application lifecycle, and hybrid cloud model development.
Erik Krogstad is the Senior National Cloud Architect at Sungard AS and serves as lead for the company’s Cloud Center of Excellence. With more than 20 years in the IT industry, Erik has extensive experience in designing and transforming IT infrastructures and architectures to meet the business and IT needs of fortune 1000 companies. 
Listen and subscribe to IT Availability Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podchaser, deezer, Podcast Addict, Listen Notes, and more.