flu.GIFThe Irish Examiner recently ran a story that claims the Irish economy could suffer a €2 billion loss due to a bird flu outbreak in this country.  Now while not wanting to join in the “chicken little” hysteria that sometimes surrounds bird flu, it is worthwhile thinking about how prepared is your business continuity plan for a large number of your staff being ill, refusing to come into work in case they get ill or indeed dieing as the result of some epidemic be that bird flu or not.

Most companies I review that have a disaster recovery plan in place focus mostly on their IT infrastructure and not on the people, processes and other resources needed to continue business in the event of a disaster, natural or otherwise.  So while you may have something in place to recover your servers in the event of a disaster I urge you to look at other areas of you business to see if that could survive.  After all no point in having servers and networks available after a disaster if you do not have the people around to use them or indeed support them. 

I also recommend not falling into the trap of thinking your key workers can work remotely in the event of a problem by accessing the network via the your Virtual Private Network (VPN).  Most VPN’s are designed for the occasional remote access by users working late, from the road or from home.  Could your VPN cope with the load of all your key workers trying to access the network at the same time?  If not you better decide now who you prioritise and how to do so.

About the Author: bhimport

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