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Contributed Article by Pete Foley, President and CEO, RingCube Technologies
Pandemic Planning: What Businesses Need to Do to Prepare for Potential Catastrophe
Every year, the flu and its complications affect thousands of individuals nationwide. Businesses and governments across the globe are not immune and many are developing plans to ensure employees can be productive outside of the office in response to this upcoming flu season, which generally takes place between October and May with the peak of the season falling between later December and March [1]. However, in light of the H1N1 outbreaks popularly known as the "swine flu", which is expected to infect between 10 and 40 percent of the workforce and having the most significant impact on people between the ages of 10 and 64 [2], the 2009/2010 flu season is far more serious as compared to previous years hence the declaration of a pandemic crisis by most governments. In June of 2009, the WHO officially declared H1N1 a pandemic.
Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention FluView Report
While employee absenteeism naturally increases during the flu season, since most of the key workforce fall under the age of 64, these numbers should be of concern to employers.
As a preventative measure against spreading flu germs, employers should make provisions for remote access for employees working away from the office because of their own illness or to care for others. In some cases employees are staying at home to prevent themselves from contracting H1N1 and then transmitting to family members. This is a particular concern for women professionals with children. One of the most vital elements of business continuity plans is employee productivity. As the economy slowly digs itself out of the recession, the prospect of purchasing, migrating, or even replicating every employee desktop to a laptop is not a realistic or financially viable solution. But there are available cost effective solutions that can aid businesses in pandemic planning that factor in employees being out of the office and continuing productivity.
Guidelines for Pandemic Planning
The recession of the past year has forced IT departments to be as strategic as possible and many companies have turned to server and desktop virtualization to stretch IT dollars and lower technology costs. While I expect 2010 to be an economic recovery year, a potential flu epidemic is something that businesses need to prepare for. Managed desktops in this uncertain health climate are much more than about saving a buck in the IT budget. It is also about keeping businesses agile and able to quickly respond to unexpected changes in the employee workforce.
With the highly contagious aspect of the H1N1 virus, industry experts including analyst firm The Burton Group, are suggesting that businesses practice "social distancing" in the workplace to limit physical contact between employees in light of a flu outbreak. This "social distancing" includes the enablement of employees to work remotely. When developing pandemic plans, factoring in the possibility that employees may not be able to come into the office must be considered, as well as technological modifications to employee desktops to accommodate these circumstances.
Technology elements in a pandemic plan for business or government should include:
- Ensure that you have the information technology and infrastructure needed to support multiple workers who may be able to work from home (e.g. desktop virtualization solution).
- Be prepared to implement multiple measures to protect workers and ensure business continuity. A layered approach will likely work better than using just one measure (e.g. remote access VPN, virtual desktops, VoIP, collaboration software, etc).
- Sufficient VPN, Firewall and related infrastructure to provide high levels of service for increased remote access by staff.
- Identify essential business functions, essential jobs or roles, and critical elements within your supply chains required to maintain business operations. (e.g. secondary site for office workers, when primary office must be closed)
- Planning by your suppliers and vendors overseas. Currently India and Northern Europe are already seeing a rising H1N1 rate. Some governments in these regions require companies to take stronger actions than US-based governmental organizations require.
- Allow employees to stay home if they are ill, have to care for ill family members, or must watch their children if schools or childcare facilities close. (e.g. at-home worker solution)
The Business Case for Desktop Virtualization
In general, desktop virtualization has the potential of offering tremendous cost advantages for enterprise IT if the right approach is implemented. Desktop virtualization separates the desktop software (an end user's applications, data, and settings) from the underlying PC platform which lowers management cost, increases security control, extends the life of existing PC hardware, and provides flexible deployment options.
Minimizing downtime in the event of hardware failure, natural disaster or flu epidemic will be crucial during the continued recovery and having the ability to provide employees with their personal desktop in a pandemic scenario is an area where I expect desktop virtualization to be key.
Flavors of Desktop Virtualization for Remote Employees
IT organizations can enable cost savings programs that allow users to leverage employee-owned laptops instead of corporate issued devices in the event that an employee is unable to come into work because of the flu. Another desktop virtualization option is virtual workspaces where there is no need for a second operating system, which means no requirement for additional Windows licensing costs and licensing complexity. Unlike other desktop virtualization approaches, virtual workspaces allow end user applications to operate with less than one percent of overhead running close to full performance, which is often critical to the success of many knowledge workers and mobile professionals. The bottom line is that desktop virtualization enables IT departments to deliver anytime, anywhere access to a secure and controlled computing environment that keeps employees productive whether they are working at the office, at home or traveling.
What to Look for in a Desktop Virtualization Solution
In the event of a pandemic situation, desktop virtualization solutions can enable employees that use a corporate PC in the office to access their desktop computing environment within a virtual workspace running and remain productive without organizations having to build out their data center.
Three specific qualities to look for in a desktop virtualization solution include:
- No second operating system to license or manage
- Flexible deployment options including running off a portable devices such as USB drives, streaming over the network, and/or executing locally on PCs
- Offline mobility that allows employees to use their virtualized desktop when they are mobile and to synchronize between multiple devices.
Use Case
ING Group, the #1 ranked Fortune Global 500 commercial bank, has recently deployed a desktop virtualization solution as a part of the organization's business continuity plans. In the event of a catastrophe or pandemic situation, employees that use a corporate PC in the office to access their desktop computing environment can do so remotely through the newly deployed virtual workspace, which transforms any Windows PC into the employee's familiar desktop where users can access their files, applications, and settings just as if they were on their own corporate office PC whether online or offline from the network.
My top predictions for 2010:
- Organizations that deploy desktop virtualization solutions will have the agility to ‘not lose a step' because their employees will remain productive despite H1N1 caused absenteeism.
- The demand for client and desktop virtualization will increase significantly in 2010-2011.
- Windows 7 adoption will be a catalyst for greater adoption of desktop virtualization not only to improve business continuity but to increase user mobility and reduce PC management costs.
About the Author
Pete Foley brings more than 15 years of technology management and entrepreneurial experience to his role as president and CEO of RingCube Technologies. Most recently, Pete served as president and CEO of Port Authority Technologies, chairman and founding CEO of InfoBlox, and co-founded two systems integration and consulting companies. Pete earned his BA in Economics and Political Science from Yale University.
[1] http://www.flufacts.com/about/season.aspx
[2] Burton Group data