Most of us are by now aware that the coronavirus (and the associated disease which frequently results from infection, COVID-19) has had major impacts within the IT supply chain. This has resulted in shortages in IT equipment from nearly all major vendors, and across all classes of devices. Savvy business owners are planning for the lack of general availability by ordering what’s in stock when it’s in stock to keep business processes from breaking down.
But not all businesses have turned their attention to the human impacts of a far-reaching epidemic. Widespread concern for safety will almost certainly lead to a much greater demand for remote working capabilities, and IT providers may struggle to keep up. In order to prepare for the possibility that the majority of office employees will follow government recommendations to stay home to help, smart IT leaders are taking the following steps:
1. Increasing bandwidth, remote connectivity infrastructure, and security to help mitigate the increased risk and demand of a higher percentage of remote workers
2. Ensuring that employees understand the methods and capabilities of remote access to the business environment
3. Developing remote user policies and guidelines to ensure that business continues to be conducted on secure, managed endpoints or through zero-trust interfaces
4. Authoring and disseminating response plans and safe practices for reducing risk of spread
A few resources which can potentially be of use as you plan your own response are listed below:
How HR leaders are preparing for the Coronavirus
Checkout Steve Roger’s blog addressing the challenges hardware manufacturers face: Is The Coronavirus Affecting Lenovo Hardware Availability?
Mike Kaufman, Vice President of the Managed Infrastructure & Cloud Services (MICS) Division, leads the team responsible for helping companies develop a modern IT strategy that includes a combination of cloud hosting, managed platform and application services and on-premise technology.