UK internet bandwidth may not be able to meet demand if winter
flu forces an unprecedented number of people to work from home,
says analyst firm Gartner.
The US Center for Disease
Control has warned that business can expect up to 40% of the
workforce not to be in the workplace for an extended period of
time.
The problem is that local residential internet connections will
not be able to cope with such surges in demand, said Eric Paulak,
managing vice president at Gartner.
"Carriers typically do not design for excess residential
capacity," he said.
Residential broadband users are vulnerable to oversubscription
because dozens of users typically share a single connection to main
network.
Carriers are encouraging businesses to use mobile phones and
other wireless broadband access as an alternative, said John
Girard, analyst at Gartner.
But, he said, this could lead to wireless system overload, so
businesses need to consider all three internet-access methods for
their business continuity strategies.
Businesses need to set up a variety of strategies, said Roberta
Witty, research vice president at Gartner.
"They need to decide in advance which business operations
require heavy internet usage and stagger operations to increase the
chance of getting the needed bandwidth," she said.
Three strategies for improving bandwidth
- Install network optimisation software on all laptops to make
best use of limited bandwith
- Use client browser applets that work with data-centre-resident
application delivery controllers to reduce bandwidth and
latency-induced performance problems
- Use 3G, WiMAX or satellite technologies where possible to
bypass wired connections