IT Infrastructure

What do those 3 words have in common?  They are certainly 3 words that you usually don’t use in a single conversation, let alone a single sentence. But in this day and age, maybe we should.  Let me ask the question this way:  How would a pandemic outbreak affect your IT infrastructure given the layoffs forced by the economy?

Not only do we need to worry about IT infrastructure, how about business continuity?  IT managers need to look at business continuity and disaster plans.  The problem today is that consolidations, layoffs and restructurings may have scrambled response plans. People who were once part of a critical team may now be collecting unemployment.

While the CDC isn't calling the swine flu outbreak a pandemic, and the World Health Organization has raised its threat level, which at Level 4 in its six-level scale because the swine flu currently has "sustained human-to-human transmission."

I’m recommending that managers review their call lists and decision-making chains. There could be a weakness in plans because of organizational restructuring that people need to very quickly take a look at.

If an organization does not have a specific pandemic plan, any plan that considers a "significant absence" of employees may work as an alternative plan.

The standard model used in pandemic planning is to consider what would happen to a business if 40% of the workforce was absent for an extended period of time.

In 2006, in response to earlier concerns about the bird flu, Gartner Inc. offered specific suggestion to IT departments, such as storing 42 gallons of water per data center worker, enough for a six-week quarantine.  This may seem a little extreme, but I have to ask the question, How prepared are you?  Maybe a our IT Wellness Check could shed some light