Business Continuity in the Face of Unplanned Events

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In the midst of weathering a worldwide economic downturn of historic proportions, the forces of nature seem to have even turned on us.  The world is now confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently elevated their level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 3 to phase 4, reaching its highest level ever. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has declared a public health emergency. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has activated its Emergency Operations Center in an effort to respond to this health threat, with the acting leader of the CDC stating that more swine flu cases should be expected and that businesses should be prepared and plan for the effects.

So, how can you, your employees, and your business prepare to continue, as unabated as possible, during this impending worldwide health crisis? You can't have productivity slow down, not even for a minute, now more so than ever; because with the current economic conditions, every minute of lost productivity hurts your bottom line.  What would you do if you needed to shutter your business for a day, a week, or longer due to a fast spreading viral infection?  Could your business survive, particularly in the face of today's tough economic times? What would your employees do? Could they work from home, if necessary, keeping your business up-and-running and money-making?

Business continuity - the concept of keeping your business running and even thriving in the face of a disruption or disaster - should be top of mind for every business and world leader - especially today.

Juniper Networks provides some of the simplest, quickest - and most secure - means of continuing your business in the face of impending manmade or natural threats. Even if you were forced to shutdown your business due to a disaster or a health threat, your employees could work from home or another office outside of an affected area, securely accessing your business' network and the resources necessary for them to be productive, via Juniper's SA Series SSL VPN Appliances.

Authorized employees - and other users that you enable, such as contractors, for example - can continue to enjoy secure access to the files and data that they need to do their jobs and continue to be productive for your company, at anytime, from anywhere in the world. All they need is Internet access and the appropriate authentication to be productive within seconds. That's the key: Juniper's secure remote access solutions ensure that users are able to access only the areas of the network or data that you have authorized them to access, and no other.

Even if authorized users are logging in from a home computing device, a kiosk in an airport or other location, you can still make sure that they are adhering to a minimum baseline of device security and malware protection, to help protect your network - the lifeblood of your business - from hacks, threats, or other dangerous, disruptive issues.

Juniper's SA Series Appliances also include robust collaboration tools, allowing meetings to be scheduled or conducted online, at the spur of the moment, with attendees securely and safely sharing information.

Plus, if you also deploy Juniper Networks Unified Access Control (UAC) in your network, UAC and SA can share user identity, further limiting access to the most sensitive network resources while easing authorized user access to those same resources. This ensures that no matter where an employee logs in from, they will be able to access your network and its sensitive resources only if they are authenticated and authorized to do so. Plus, UAC can ensure that every employee device adheres to at least your minimum baseline of security and malware protection.

If you aren't already reviewing and implementing a plan for business continuity today, it would be more than prudent to devise one - and quick! The economic survival of your business, your livelihood - and those of your employees - really does hang in the balance.