Foreshore offers backup solutions

Andrew Jarrett, Foreshore
Sales and Marketing Director



Polly Skibinski of Foreshore, Scott Elphinstone of Five
Continents, Mark Stablar of Cayman Prep School,
Bill Messer of Five Continents and Nancy Saur of
Bodden Compliance Services.



Polly Skibinski, Chris Evans and
Andrew Jarrett of Foreshore.

(l-r) Foreshore team Polly Skibinski, Area Manager,
Andrew Jarrett, Sales and Marketing Director and
Christopher Evans, Managing Director explained the
benefits of online data storage to Cayman’s business
community. James O’Neill, Managing Director of Bank
Austria Cayman Islands was one of the financial firms
to benefit from digital back-up after Hurricane Ivan.

Wednesday,  April 20, 2005

To take advantage of the growing demand for business continuity and disaster recovery initiatives particularly in the wake of Hurricane Ivan and in the face of a new hurricane season, Foreshore presented its internet data back up and solutions to the business community recently. 

Based in Jersey, Foreshore caters to financial centres in small countries. The primary service offered to clients is the ability to send daily backup of data over the internet to a secure vault in Jersey where the data is encrypted. 

“The data is sent over existing internet connections and overnight so the communications cost is negligible,” said Christopher Evans, Managing Director of Foreshore. “The data is sent using partial information and using industrial strength encryption, that even if it could be intercepted en-route it would yield no information of value to a third party.

“Finally, the data is securely stored in two electronic vaults situated in two separate world class data centre buildings about four miles apart in Jersey.”

Managing Director for Bank Austria Cayman Islands, James O’Neill, said their bank was down for less than two days from Hurricane Ivan as a result of using online data backup service with Foreshore.

“Several years ago, I was in the New York office when the first incident with the World Trade Centre happened and US regulators insisted that we take disaster recovery seriously. So when I came down to the Cayman Islands in 1998 we took the same approach.”

He further explained they needed an offshore back up because Cayman is an Island. They chose a company based in Jersey because it is a British territory with a strong financial centre. For two years Bank Austria backed up their data online using Foreshore technology that was a smooth process. 

On the Thursday before Ivan hit, its staff was sent to Jersey and the bank was back in business within a couple days. 

“We were closed a day and half and lost no revenue at all. Our down time was primarily due to travel time.”

Sales and Marketing Director Andrew Jarrett of Foreshore said Foreshore’s location in a regulated financial centre instils confidence to clients. He addressed questions, regarding encryption and which laws the data falls under, Cayman or Jersey. 

“The data can only be read by individuals who have the authority by virtue of a key,” said Mr Jarrett. “The key belongs to the company who owns the data and nobody else. There is no useful information to be gained without the key. 

“The second common question concerns how safe the data would be if it was seized under a warrant. In these circumstances the issues are broadly the same, the data has no useful information until it is unlocked and the sole entity that is able to unlock the data is the company that owns it. 

“The information cannot be unlocked and subsequently viewed without the knowledge and cooperation of the company that owns it,” explained Mr Jarret.

He added that the information is encrypted and unreadable to anyone else. It is in virtual cold storage and therefore not subject to the regulations of the jurisdiction of where it is held.

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