Planning for crisis

Network Optimization This newsletter is sponsored by Blue Coat Get the latest on Web Acceleration Tools Discover how to significantly improve document delivery times for users that are physically away from your centralized data center. A document that takes 80 minutes to delivery to a user across the globe could be delivered in three minutes with Web acceleration. Learn how your IT organization can benefit from this technology. Listen to this Webcast now. Network World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 10/04/07 Planning for crisis By Ann Bednarz Early last week a pair of finance industry organizations kicked off a pandemic flu exercise that runs though Oct. 12. The purpose of the exercise is threefold: to help financial firms understand the potential risks a pandemic poses to the sector; to provide an opportunity for firms to test their pandemic plans; and to examine how the effect of a pandemic flu on other critical infrastructures will impact the financial services sector The Financial Banking Information Infrastructure Committee (FBIIC) and Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) are conducting the exercise, which calls for participating firms to respond to a series of scenarios updated throughout the three-week project. I plan to keep tabs on the exercise, which more than 2,700 firms registered to take part in. I’ll share information about the results in a future newsletter, once FBIIC and FSSCC make their findings public. Executive Guide:Virtualization Meets Reality Virtualization is being used to make the most out of everything from applications and servers to desktops and storage. But as companies expand their reliance on the technology, challenges mount. Read this guide authored by a host of Network World editors and review this timely topic. Click Here for More Information In the meantime, F5 Networks (which clued me in to the pandemic flu exercise) used the launch of the FBIIC/FSSCC project to highlight how its own security and traffic-management tools can be used in tandem to help enterprises bolster their business continuity and disaster recovery readiness. The idea is to give remote users secure access to corporate resources -- which is critical if traditional office sites aren’t accessible in the event of a crisis such as a flu pandemic and scores of employees wind up telecommuting.  F5’s integrated business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities combine the functionality of its FirePass SSL VPN appliance, which provides secure remote and WLAN client access, with the company’s Big-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM) for load balancing. “This integration helps organizations maintain user access for remote workers by virtualizing globally distributed FirePass clusters, as well as monitoring and managing user access to each FirePass VPN device,” F5 states. Linked together, Big-IP GTM can periodically poll each clustered FirePass device and direct concurrent user logon requests to a FirePass device with available licenses without requiring an IT administrator to do anything manually. By combining traffic management with an SSL VPN, a company can balance application access to prevent outages and handle the increased load that occurs when there’s an unexpected surge of employees working remotely, according to F5. Remote access and load balancing are just two of many technologies enterprises will depend on in the event of a crisis that disrupts normal business operations. What tools do you think are most critical? Please send me any comments you’d like to share.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Ann Bednarz is an associate news editor at Network World responsible for editing daily news content. She previously covered enterprise applications, e-commerce and telework trends for Network World. E-mail Ann. This newsletter is sponsored by Blue Coat Get the latest on Web Acceleration Tools Discover how to significantly improve document delivery times for users that are physically away from your centralized data center. A document that takes 80 minutes to delivery to a user across the globe could be delivered in three minutes with Web acceleration. Learn how your IT organization can benefit from this technology. Listen to this Webcast now. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network Optimization Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007