Getting Your IT Network Ready for the Olympics
Is your organization's IT infrastructure ready to facilitate productivity and collaboration during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? The Olympics is going to be a very chaotic time and you'll want to make sure you have the services, support and security in place before the Olympics arrive.
It's not just the IOC and the athletes coming to our fair city -- we'll be playing host to thousands of media organizations, official delegations and private companies in just a few months. Local organizations have a lot to gain as well from the attention paid to Vancouver and BC. If you represent a local business looking to be able to sustain uninterrupted business operations, you'll want to ensure your IT network and collaboration capabilities are set up properly.
Do you have collaboration capabilities in place?
The ability to work remotely, possibly with mobile computing devices, is going to be essential in a city choked with gridlock. Many organizations with an established presence in Vancouver will want to facilitate employees working from home. Most types of businesses will want reliable collaboration tools in place to allow your organization to operate effectively.
This raises a number of considerations. Will you have secure access to the various applications such as webmail or other messaging systems to work remotely? Some will be looking for upgraded capabilities offered by enterprise portals, where employees can interact with other people, applications, processes, documents and other content through a personalized and secure role-based gateway.
Another consideration is the devices you'll be using if you're working remotely. Will you need Blackberry wireless solutions to enable work while you are at Olympics venues or related events? It's not just the software and web presence you need to consider, but also the kind of hardware you're going to use to access collaboration tools.
Your organization may require a custom website, web application or web portal set up so that your colleagues or employees can work remotely. Perhaps your business requires an update to your website to offer Olympics-themed content or applications (think badges, updated bulletin boards, calendars and more).
Will You Have Reliable Network Security and Support When You Need It? During the Olympics, the entire city's network infrastructure will be under higher stress at the same time as it's road infrastructure is choked off, preventing employees from reaching the office. Will you have network support available for your employees who are working remotely or from home if they run into problems? Will you have IT support to assist or substitute for your in-house IT people who may also be working away from the office? You may need to supplement your existing services or outsource support to a local provider. If you are thinking about outsourcing to a partner, you'll want that partner to be familiar with your infrastructure well before this period.
Your network support provider must be able to deal with expected security challenges as well. All the world's hackers and organized criminals will have their eyes focused on this scene just as much as everyone else. Consider having a Web Security Assessment or Network Security Assessment done on your web assets and network infrastructure so necessary vulnerability fixes can be carried out before your business risks begin to increase. When the world is watching, you don't want your organization to be the cautionary example of a "could-have-been-prevented" data breach for everyone else.
Now would be a great time to ensure that your web-facing assets and internal network are made secure with antivirus, firewal, patch management and an overall security assessment. At a time when big deals and big stories are happening, you don't need a keylogger on your computers passing all your private information to the bad guys.
To learn more about how PCIS can prepare your organization so you'll get maximum performance from your computer network before and during the Olympics, email info@pcis.com or for more information
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