Bats survives disaster recovery test
BATS Global Markets (BATS), a leading operator of securities markets in the U.S. and Europe, today announced the successful and total operation of its U.S. equities exchanges BZX and BYX, and BATS Options, from its disaster recovery (DR) site on March 13th as part of its Business Continuity Planning (BCP) process.
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As part of this BCP test, the company's global headquarters was disconnected from all outside network access for the entire day, mirroring what could happen in an actual disaster situation. All of BATS' Kansas City-area employees reported to the DR site and conducted their daily routines from the secure and remote location. The BATS offices in New York City, Jersey City, and London continued normal operations.
"Since our last disaster recovery exercise, the company merged with Direct Edge and now operates four U.S. stock exchanges giving us significantly more U.S. equities market share and increasing the reliance on critical business functions performed at our headquarters," said Chris Isaacson, Global Chief Information Officer at BATS Global Markets. "Our expanded operational footprint underscores the need for rigorous business continuity planning and we are continually testing our infrastructure redundancy to ensure we are equipped to handle any potential disaster scenarios.
"Operating our day-to-day business from a back-up facility in a seamless manner, with no disruption in service or performance, is a testament to the ongoing efforts we put into the testing of our business continuity planning process," he added.
Last year, BATS fully operated its U.S. businesses from its DR site on two occasions. While last week's BCP test marked the third time BATS' primary office was completely disconnected from outside network access, the company does test its DR site monthly. For one full day each month since 2008, the company's Operations, Technology, Regulatory and Surveillance teams have operated from the DR site, with the primary headquarters remaining online.