With Rita Looming, Pulse Moves Switch to Data Center in Dallas

With Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Gulf coast of Texas, Pulse EFT Association Inc. announced today it has moved processing operations from its Houston data center to a redundant center in Dallas. Cindy Ballard, executive vice president for the electronic funds transfer network, called the move “purely precautionary” in a statement. The network says its switch is functioning normally at the Dallas facility and should be able to maintain uptime throughout the hurricane. Forecasters have downgraded Rita to a category 4 storm but say it remains very dangerous. They expect Rita to make landfall along the Texas and southwest Louisiana coast some time early Saturday. Houston-based Pulse, which was acquired late last year by Discover Financial Services LLC, completed work in 2003 on its new switch, a major upgrade that included the redundant platforms in Dallas and Houston. The network claims more than 4,100 financial institutions as members. It links more than 250,000 ATMs and 3.2 million point-of-sale terminals for use by some 90 million cardholders across the country.