Remote Access Solutions are Integeral to Business Continuity

This is part two in series of discussions about the role social distancing and remote access plays in business continuity. In part one I established that social distancing slowed the transmission of the Spanish Flu. In this article I will discuss how social distancing (in the form of remote access to the work place) can be used as a business continuity strategy.

IT typically focuses on catastrophic events when considering disaster recovery and business continuity. What if my server fails; or my server room catches fire; or my server fails and my server room catches fire. Events like these have a low likelihood of occurring but still have a high business impact. Thankfully they are known quantities with measurable parameters that can be easily understood and mitigated by skillful engineers.

But it doesn't have to be an event of a catastrophic nature that brings a business to a grinding halt – all it takes is something that stops employees getting to their place of business.

Potential Show-Stoppers

Your business continuity plan needs to consider events that are broader in scope than simply disastrous circumstances – at the very least you need to consider how your plan deals with restricted or limited access. By way of example:

Civil Unrest – The democracy protests in Hong Kong earlier this year stopped traffic for days (South China Morning Post, 2014). Even after the police had cleared the protests the students came back a number of times causing further disruption. Local business owners were deprived of valuable income as they lost passing trade. Some companies (okay admittedly, L’Oreal) stopped travelling to Hong Kong for the duration of the riots (Stampler 2014).

Unusual Security Risks – The day of the G20 meeting to be held in Brisbane later this year has been declared a public holiday to ease security concerns and traffic congestion. While most roads will remain open residents are being urged to walk due to road closures and traffic routing. Even things as mundane as rubbish collection will be impacted to ensure security (G20.org, 2014). You can be sure that if it comes to a choice between protecting world leaders or your ability to get to the office you aren't getting into the office today.

Unlawful Activity – Yesterday in Canada a gunman killed a soldier on guard at a war memorial in Ottawa and then entered the parliament buildings where he was himself shot and killed (ABC News, 2014). Ottawa was placed on lockdown for 10 hours while the authorities tried to establish if there was more than one gunman involved. Security will no doubt remain at a heightened level for days because of this event and not only in Canada. In reaction to the news the Australian parliament in Canberra increased security measures at the parliament building (ABC News, 2014) which will have the effect of making everything and everyone moving through parliament, that, much, slower. If this continues it will extend to all government buildings, then all local government buildings and so on.

Armed police outside Canada's parliament building after a gunman entered the building and fired shots (Reuters, 2014)

You can be sure that if there is a persistent and immediate security threat in your city your employees will resist going to work. If that threat materialises absenteeism will skyrocket! How will your business cope?

Personal Experience

During the APEC meetings held in Sydney in 2007 large parts of the city were cordoned off to traffic and businesses asked themselves serious questions. How would we continue if our building is threatened and we have to evacuate? In the insurance company I was working for at the time we shared a large building with several American companies so for us the possibility of evacuation was real. We redrafted our business continuity plan so key members of staff and critical IT equipment could meet at an alternative location (the CFO’s garage, as I recall). Underwriters were issued with pre-paid mobile phone cards using different carriers so they could continue to make business calls and meet clients if the normal network was out. A lot of information was printed and stored securely at our alternative location.

We had the luxury of time and could plan how to deal with APEC disruption for months before the event occurred. I gave regular updates to staff in the form of lunch meetings about developments in travel restrictions and what to do if stopped by the Police. Extraordinary Police laws were put in place and staff needed to be kept informed or they risked being arrested for things as simple as carrying a bag of marbles (marbles can be a problem for mounted police). If access to our building had been suddenly restricted we would have been inconvenienced but not in serious trouble. Exciting times.

Easy Solution

Our APEC plans were exciting, but not terribly efficient. Thankfully technology has now progressed to the point where all of these issues can be easily circumvented by setting up a simple and robust remote access strategy and your business can continue with very little if any disruption. There are no economies of scale and this kind of technology is available to any business that has internet access. But you need to think about it now – if you do so on the day you need it it’s too late.

• Give your people access to your systems so they can work from remote locations. This might even have the kinds of positive effects as mentioned in the previous article.
• Ensure you set up a remote access system that gives your employees all the functionality they need. I’ll discuss some of the typical functional requirements in the next article.
• Virtualise your core systems and set up site replication or other data centre disaster recovery strategies to give yourself some resilience in this area. This point is far outside the scope of this article but is in itself reasonable easy to do.

Conclusion

Having an effective remote access strategy is an essential part of your business continuity strategy. Whereas previously a business would have had to hire alternative accommodation and relocate office staff they can now very simply have them work from home – probably for less than a traditional warm site would cost and with a lot less disruption.

Part One: Social Distancing and Remote Access

References:

ABC News (2014), Gunman killed inside Canadian parliament after shooting soldier dead, [online], Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-23/canadian-parliament-in-lockdown-after-gunman-shoots-soldier/5834692, [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014]

ABC News (2014), Ottawa attack sees security beefed up in Canberra. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-23/security-beefed-up-at-federal-parliament-after-ottawa-shooting/5834960 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014]

G20.org (2014), Traffic and Transport | G20 2014. [online] Available at: https://www.g20.org/community_information/brisbane_locals/traffic_and_transport [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014]

Reuters (2014), Ottawa Lockdown. [image] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-23/photo-essay-ottawa-canada-shooting-soldier-killed-parliament/5835184 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014]

South China Morning Post (2014), Hong Kong wakes up to major traffic disruption after Occupy protests around the city, [online], Available at: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1603742/hong-kong-wakes-major-traffic-disruptions-after-occupy-protests, [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014]

Stampler, L. (2014). L'Oreal Halts Business Travel to Hong Kong Amid Protests. [online] TIME.com. Available at: https://time.com/3450003/hong-kong-protests-loreal [Accessed 24 Oct. 2014].