TREVOSE, PA – February 4, 2009 - Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, today announced it is investing $1 million to increase protection of data driving the industry.

The investment, which is in addition to ASI’s already extensive annual spending, includes upgrades to disaster prevention and recovery systems at its primary site and the establishment of a remote information backup facility. 

The new remote facility is housed more than 800 miles away from the primary site, depends on a different portion of the nation’s power grid and source, and is located alongside backup systems for Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s largest financial services firms.

ASI’s primary data center at its headquarters now features advanced air sampling tools that use lasers to identify any smoke quickly and valves that automatically distribute extinguishing gases when a fire is detected.  It also includes a separate water sprinkling system, and uses sensitive climate controls that constantly monitor the environment.

The improvements are particularly important as more industry companies are indicating that they rely upon ASI's data to grow their business every day. 

“ASI provides the best online products to help distributors sell more, including Websites, client presentations and business management tools,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI.  “We've always been committed to protecting our data and information, and no other industry company can match the level of dependability that ASI provides for its technology products and services.”

“I’m confident that we can minimize the risk of downtime during almost any unplanned interruption,” Andrews said.  “ASI is always looking for ways to provide distributors and suppliers with more time for selling, and maximizing up-time for the services they need to grow their business is an important way to accomplish that.”

The modern disaster prevention and recovery systems at ASI assure members that online services they depend on to increase sales are protected around-the-clock using the newest technologies.

“If there is a natural disaster or other emergency, ASI has taken steps to help ensure that our products, including ESP Online and over 10,000 LogoMall Websites, will be operating,” said Keith Tuskey, chief technology officer at ASI.  “Even if a regional power grid shuts down, we can respond quickly by activating the new remote backup facility.”

ASI also provides more dependability for Websites it hosts, including SuccessfulPromotions.com, PromoMart.com and LogoMall Websites, by using multiple Internet service providers.  In the event one service provider experiences a disruption, the stream of data among ASI, suppliers, distributors and decorators will be switched immediately to another provider to support continuous operation.

For more information about ASI’s disaster prevention and recovery systems, contact Keith Tuskey, chief technology officer, at ktuskey@asicentral.com.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 26,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 22,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from more than 3,500 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.  Visit www.asicentral.com.

Contact

Dawn Marie,
Executive director of corporate communications

Email industry news and press releases to Chris Ruvo, Digital News Director and Promogram Editor at cruvo@asicentral.com

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