Maintaining Business Continuity During a Global Crisis

We are living through troubling times. Greeted each day with seemingly endless waves of distressing news, it can feel like we are powerless to change the course of world events. Yet in the midst of this chaos, there is something we can do. If we can keep our organizations running, they can continue to provide the essential services people all over the world depend upon.

As governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic range from prevention and protection to mitigation, organizations must respond quickly to the dramatic changes these efforts have had on business. Whether you’re struggling to respond to spikes in usage, communicate effectively with a newly remote workforce, or ensure that all employees have access to the applications that allow them to do their jobs, here are some simple tips to help you adapt to our new reality.

Assess your Applications

• Start by evaluating your critical applications to ensure that they remain available to customers and employees.
  
  
• Address any potential problems due to applications that are not remotely accessible or require key personnel to remain operational.

Prioritize your Resources

• Determine the services that will be available remotely and communicate that to users.
  
  
• Create a system to determine whose access has priority, if you cannot support full remote capacity.

Check your IT Capacity

• Confirm you have enough network bandwidth, VPN capacity (concurrent user licenses), corporate laptops, and IP addresses to enable remote access for all users who will require it.
  
  - If capacity is lacking, either acquire more or develop a plan to address the shortfall.

• Make sure you have sufficient licenses for authentication solutions—including multi-factor authentication (MFA)—for secure remote user access to critical applications and data.

Communicate your Strategy

• Create a plan to ensure that communications with customers, channel partners, business partners, vendors, suppliers, and other third parties continue uninterrupted.
  
  
• Train your users on the productivity tools available to them while working remotely, including how to access the VPN, how to setup MFA, how to use collaboration tools, etc.
  
  - Communicate the IT resources available to support remote workers if/when they have technical issues.

• Develop and share ways that managers and employees can collaborate and maintain contact while working remotely.

In these uncertain times, it’s important to focus on the aspects of the situation that remain under our control. While this list of tips might look overwhelming, just start at the top and work through it item by item. You’ll emerge with a solid plan to help your business meet the challenges that exist today—as well as those that are still unforeseen.

If you have questions or would like assistance in navigating this new terrain, F5 is here to help. Contact us here.