Posts Tagged ‘London Blizzard’

Fragile Urban Infrastructures Require Flexible Response

Thursday, January 7th, 2010
London Blizzard

London Blizzard

This is the time of year when I most miss living in Switzerland. My friend took the attached photograph of blizzard conditions in London for which the city is never prepared. Public transportation and all other essential services grind to a halt with such weather. Businesses need to plan for workers to telecommute from home. This necessarily requires explicit procedures for the use of company-issued laptops. Laptops should be used for business purposes only, as surfing popular consumer sites through the Internet browser expose the business to more risk of malware and other intrusions. Exercise special care for file storage, as you want to discourage saving files to the hard disks of laptops where they can be lost or damaged. The use of a virtual private network will allow secure access to company computing facility and proper backup of files across the network. When the forecast is unclear, encourage telecommuting to keep employees from traveling on unsafe roads. Advance planning will limit the impact weather-related disruptions on your business.