IBM and Cisco Systems have teamed up to offer government and corporate customers an emergency network and communications service aimed at preventing disruption after system failures.

The IBM Management for Crisis Response solution has been designed to be integrated into daily operations with a package that will bring together hardware, software and satellite capabilities under one "end-to-end managed service".

The team hopes this will help ease the burden of pulling together disparate components when critical problems arise.

Features will include a suitcase-size kit that can be easily deployed, a server rack module and even a six-wheel truck offering a medium-sized network.

"Cisco and IBM have created this service to dramatically change this response and recovery capability from being an afterthought to an essential business imperative that will greatly enhance recovery efforts," said Joe Pinto, senior vice president of technical services for Cisco.

Philippe Jarre, vice president of IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services described the new service as "the industry's only true end-to-end crisis response solution."

Analyst Charles King at Pund-IT reckons the IBM/Cisco tag team could prove cost-effective for some organizations.

“Being prepared for every extreme occurrence is an incredibly complicated and costly proposition,” he said. “Leaving the complex technology part of the preparation to the likes of IBM and Cisco and then calling them when the need arises may be a better way to go.”

IBM and Cisco are rumored to be going through tough times around their storage networking partnership with Cisco said to be eying closer ties with EMC. The companies, however, have put such discord behind them to partner around a couple of recent, large services deals.

The new service is available immediately and you can listen to IBM's podcast here. ®

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