SunGard's disaster recovery business got a boost last week when it announced plans to buy Strohl Systems, a provider of business continuity planning (BCP) software and services that, like SunGard, is based in Pennsylvania.

Strohl Systems is a little known success story that has quietly built a solid customer base in the BCP space, particularly among community banks and credit unions. The King of Prussia-based company counts more than 2,000 customers in 20 countries on its roles, including nearly 30 percent of the Fortune 500. It also has a sizable Power Systems (formerly System i) business, which is one of the areas that SunGard targets with its DR and hot site services.

In addition to providing BCP services, Strohl develops several BCP software products, including LDRPS, its continuity planning software; BIA Professional, a business impact and risk assessment tool; the NotiFind notification solution; and its virtual emergency operations center tool, Incident Manager powered by WebEOC.

The acquisition by SunGard will ensure Strohl's expertise is maintained in the premiere BCP operation, says Brian Turley, Strohl CEO. "For the past 20 years, Strohl Systems has been solely dedicated to the design, development, distribution and support of business continuity software," he says. "We see our heritage as a perfect complement to SunGard's 30 years of helping companies prepare for and recover from disruptions."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Going forward, SunGard will maintain Strohl's tools, even LDRPS, which offers features that duplicate SunGard's Paragon offering.