Briefs

InfoWorld.com (09/19/01); Grygo, Eugene; Jones, Jennifer

TowerGroup estimates that it will cost about $3.2 billion to repair
the damaged IT infrastructure on Wall Street in the wake of last
week's terrorist attack in New York. TowerGroup's Larry Tabb says that
some 30,000 securities positions that were located in the World Trade
Center will need to be replaced, along with some 15,000 to 20,000
positions that were in nearby buildings. Restoring hardware such as
workstations, PCs, servers, cabling, minicomputers, etc., will cost
$1.7 billion, according to Tabb. More costs will be incurred from
relocating personnel and maintaining disaster recovery sites so that
firms can continue to do business while restoration proceeds. SunGard
CEO Jim Simmons says the company is employing a half-dozen East Coast
recovery centers with hundreds of people to relocate displaced
financial firms. WorldCom's Linda Laughlin says that her company and
other carriers have provided co-location services, temporary office
space, and phone lines. Some 9,000 to 14,000 businesses in New York
have been affected by the disaster, according to Verizon. Meanwhile,
TowerGroup says the reconstruction effort at ground zero will proceed
over the next 12 to 24 months.

See http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/09/19/010919hntowercost.xm