Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Are Businesses Prepared for Workforce Disruptions? New Cisco Study Says No…

I’ve recently discussed keys to avoiding network failures and tips to being prepared for network disasters. A recent study by Cisco highlights the need to continually keep network continuity at the forefront of our minds.

The survey finds that organizations are not ready to operate as usual during workforce disruptions because they haven’t set-up the proper networking infrastructures to support remote work by a high percentage of their employees.


Here are some of the highlights of the survey:


- 74 percent of the 502 IT decision-makers surveyed said that fewer than half of their employees were currently set up to work remotely.

- Asked why more employees did not have remote access, 38 percent said that business requirements did not necessitate it.


- Only 22 percent of those top decision makers felt that their current remote access solutions have contributed to their disaster preparedness.


- Just 15 percent of the respondents listed "pandemic or other disaster preparedness" as a top business driver for providing remote access to employees, and only 5 percent listed it as the primary business driver.


The study suggests that organizations are more focused on business needs under normal conditions than on remote access for business continuity purposes. In this economic environment that is not so surprising. Of course, it only takes a road closing, really bad weather or widespread illness that affects employee productivity and company revenue to change that focus.


Cisco also posted a YouTube video with a preview of the findings from the survey, if you’re interested in more details.

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