The LIN provides networking services to Lloyd's, the world's leading insurance market. NDR and Topio Inc, a provider of next generation data replication solutions, announced their partnership in March 2003 and NDR's Real Time Data Backup service is the latest addition to the company's portfolio of continuity services.

Dave Perry, infrastructure delivery manager of Lloyd's said about NDR's Real Time Data Backup service: "The significant challenge facing the majority of the Lloyd's Insurance Network (LIN) community is the area of data recovery. An initiative conducted by Lloyd's to investigate the best and most effective solution to address this dilemma resulted in the identification of the NDR Real Time Data Backup service. The solution meets our requirements - operating across multiple server and storage boundaries with negligible performance degradation, over any distance. It resolves the 'backup window' and 'data loss' issues common with current data protection solutions, as well as being LIN compatible, making it an excellent solution enabling the LIN community to implement an effective, data protection strategy."

Fred McFarling, sales & marketing director at NDR, said of the service: "Growth of data and the requirement for its 24 hr availability has put pressure on many organisations to implement or revise business continuity plans and the need for instant access to critical data has never been higher. Recognising this demand, NDR has introduced this service, built around Topio's TDPS software solution, to provide a cost effective solution with guaranteed access to real time data. We chose this partnership with Topio because it is clear that the company understands both the technical and customer needs of enterprise class disaster recovery and provides software that can deliver."

NDR's Real Time Data Backup service offers both a local and remote option. Replication and backup of real time data can take place at either a secure managed NDR location or within the customer's own infrastructure. It is offered in conjunction with the full range of flexible recovery options that NDR provides, which include off-load of equipment at customer site, mobile computer unit, remote connection and business recovery centres. There are now four NDR recovery centres across the country in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Uxbridge.