| These days the swine flu scare may be settling down | | | | numbers of sites, possibly all sites, being shut down? If |
| a little. But it's still there and not going away any time | | | | the swine flu truly turns into a major pandemic, will the |
| soon. Many people are taking extra precautions to | | | | IT infrastructure be able to support this new way of |
| avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily - the top one | | | | doing business? |
| is to avoid crowded places. And those crowded | | | | Companies are willing to pay for an extra server or |
| places for many, 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, | | | | two for Disaster Recovery, in case the main servers |
| are corporate office buildings. | | | | running their VPNs break or the data center they're |
| That's right - telecommuting is a popular option these | | | | located in go down. But in general they tend to size |
| days to avoid the germ-ridden corporate cafeterias, | | | | their solution assuming a certain % (say, for example |
| restrooms, and cubicle mazes. And in some cases, it's | | | | 5%) of the company is working at home at any given |
| not just an option, but a requirement. Some large | | | | time. Most companies will not pay to have numerous |
| companies have temporarily shut down facilities in | | | | spare servers, licenses, and bandwidth available for the |
| areas that are most heavily impacted by the swine flu. | | | | unlikely event of a world-wide pandemic of epic |
| They're telling their employees to work from home. | | | | proportion that requires 20%, 50% or more of their |
| But what is the impact to this innocuous-seeming | | | | employees to work at home concurrently. The cost vs |
| solution? | | | | risk analysis simply doesn't add up. |
| The answer: a mad scramble for IT workers to make | | | | It looks like Swine Flu is not shaping up to be the |
| sure the infrastructure can handle the sudden dramatic | | | | massive pandemic that the media was originally |
| spike in telecommuting. That precious Virtual Private | | | | painting it as. But it certainly could have been. Every |
| Network or VPN that allows employees to "tunnel" into | | | | CIO/CTO of every large company has probably been |
| the corporate intranet from home needs servers | | | | sweating about this one and whether the infrastructure |
| running to support it, licenses for concurrent | | | | is going to fail under their "reign". They can't justify |
| connections, and internet bandwidth. And as volume | | | | shelling out the big bucks to beef it up, so they're |
| grows, these resources become overloaded. If there | | | | crossing their fingers and hoping the "big one" will |
| aren't sufficient servers, etc, then everyone (not just | | | | happen after they've retired and some other poor |
| the people in the location that was shut down) will | | | | shmuck has taken over. |
| suddenly see drastic reductions in quality and speed to | | | | What can you do? Well for one, make sure you're set |
| their remote connection. They may even start losing | | | | up now to telecommute - that you have the equipment |
| their connection intermittently and have to keep | | | | you need and know how to setup your VPN. And |
| reconnecting. | | | | start using it, even a day or so per week. The more |
| While those who usually work in the office and are | | | | people who start telecommuting on a regular basis, the |
| just working from home temporarily may tolerate this | | | | more resources IT can justify now, and the less |
| inconvenience, the die hard career telecommuters who | | | | impact there is if a major pandemic really does send |
| work from home every day will certainly notice the | | | | the whole company to work from home! Depending |
| difference. And chances are they'll be calling the help | | | | on your position in the company (especially if you work |
| desk and yelling at whoever will listen. That adds up to | | | | in IT), if you can start asking probing questions to |
| increased support calls which means even more IT | | | | management about telecommute capacity, it might just |
| costs. And don't forget the increased support costs | | | | get them to try to prepare a little better for the worst |
| from the large number of people who find themselves | | | | case scenario. |
| trying to work remotely for the first time and don't | | | | One more thing - if there is a major rush on |
| know how to setup their connection properly. | | | | telecommuting, when you have your VPN going, don't |
| While some companies may have the extra capacity | | | | disconnect. The licensing limitations (among other |
| to handle one or two sites being shut down here or | | | | things) may be set on a first-come, first-served basis. |
| there, do they have the capacity to handle large | | | | |