Will the Internet get the flu?

Submitted by acohill on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 07:50

We've been telling our clients for over a year that they need a plan for a pandemic in which people are told to stay away from the office and work from home. But the Internet was never designed for that--at least not the cheesy "entertainment" Internet that most of us have at home. I put the word "entertainment" in quotes because once when I was working at home and was having Internet problems, my Internet provider told me their home Internet service was strictly for "entertainment" and they could care less about my inability to get any work done.

And there is the whole flu pandemic/work from home problem in a nutshell. DSL and cable modem Internet services were never designed to support business class work. Cable modem service, while typically faster than DSL, is a shared service, so in peak load times, your cable modem connection can quickly slow down to dial up speeds. And the asymmetric bandwidth (very small upload capacity) means you can forget about trying to upload business documents of any size from home.

If we all have to stay home for two weeks because of a major flu outbreak this winter, don't expect to get much work done. The Intertubes will be as clogged up as our nasal passages.