Networks

The data centre is fully operational, employees are available to work but can't physically access the data and information resources they need to perform their job because weather conditions are poor and roads are closed, or there's a rail strike, or a demonstration or a health or family issue.

Network downtime costs you money

An effective business continuity plan must include ways to ensure that essential business functions can continue, even if employees cannot access the office.

Employees should be able to connect to their data centre from any computer anywhere; from their own homes, the homes of friends, the airport or from temporary offices.

Dial-up remote access is an option but is costly, provides a slow connection and is not feasible if a large number of people need to dial in during an emergency [unless there is a large modem bank - costly in itself].

IPSec-VPN offers certain benefits for site-to-site and some employee remote access needs. it does however need special client software installed on a company-owned PC or other machine. the solution assumes that the employee has access to that particular machine. A reliable business continuity plan needs to enable employees to access enterprise resources from any computer.

SSL-VPN [single socket layer virtual private network] offers a platform for providing access in the event of an emergency since it provides remote access from any Internet-connected computer. SSL-VPN provides web-browser-based access to corporate applications and files through a single configurable web page or set of pages.
It must, of course, be built so that it is impenetrable to hackers at the operating system, network protocol and application level.