Citrix, IBM team up for Disaster Recovery

A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting suggests productivity losses of up to US$1.36mil for a company with a workforce of 5,000 in the event of a three day workforce disruption. This premise provides the impetus behind the new Virtual Workplace Continuity service product to be offered jointly by IBM and Citrix Solutions. Global Vice President for IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services, Phillippe Jarre said that the new solutions will, "help employees, partners and suppliers to communicate, collaborate and access vital applications and data in the face of a workforce disruption."

The solution will simplify the process of reconnecting dispersed employees to the business tools they need to work away from the office, such as e-mail, ERP and CRM systems. The solution, which will employ the use of USB device, will begin pilot testing next year. For more information click on these related links: Official Press Release Joint Citrix and IBM website IBM: Virtual Workplace Continuity Businesswire article: Citrix and IBM

Bird Flu: online resources The internet is by far the best resource for bird flu preparedness for the business continuity community. Although some of the content on these sites relates to specific local issues, the majority of the content contains information that most business continuity professionals will find invaluable.

Here are 5 of our favourites: 1. UK Resilience Bird Flu Checklist for Businesses link 2. Queensland Government, AU A comprehensive online resource website including FAQ, a Government Action Plan and most usefully a Business Continuity Planning Notes pdf link 3. US Government Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, response and Recovery Guide for Criticall Infrastructure and Key Resources link 4. Foreign & Commonwealth Office Factsheet for British Nationals travelling or residing overseas link

5. Q&A with the experts on how to prepare for bird flu link Bonus link: we also thought you'd like this video Brent Woodworth, head of the IBM Crisis Response Team: Bird Flu Continuity Planning link

Don't be "Hacked-off" The BBC recently conducted an exercise dubbed 'The Honeypot'. This involved putting an unprotected Windows PC online to test, in a controlled, isolated environment, the perils and pitfalls of internet security.

The month long test attracted over 50 attacks a night and ultimately resulted in the the machine becoming so clogged with adware and spyware that it was rendered unusable and could only be shut down by "pulling the virtual plug. Highlighting the need for greater internet security on a much larger scale is BT's latest acquisition of the California-based anti-hacker specialist Counterpane Internet Security Inc. for a reported US$40mil. Counterpane currently monitors 550 networks worldwide for multinational and Fortune 100 customers.

“Counterpane is a welcome addition to BT’s global professional services community. As more and more of our customers seek to exploit the opportunities of globalisation, we are finding that increasingly business critical applications are dependent upon the resilience and security of their infrastructure," according to Andy Green, CEO BT Global Services. For more information click on these related links: BBC: Trapping hackers in the honeypot BT Press Release: Counterpane Internet Security Aquisition Hi-tech crime Glossary PC Security Quiz (a bit of fun really!)

Move over MS Office: Google Docs Two of the most important tools for the Business Continuity professional now come free and online with Google Docs & Spreadsheets; a fusion of Google Spreadsheets and the online word processor package Writely which it acquired along with its recent purchase of UpStartle.

Currently in a very competent public beta form, Docs & Spreadheets provides users with an uncluttered, no-nonsense interface within which they can easily create, edit and save documents. Users are also able to share documents with specific colleagues and publish them as Web pages. As well as saving and archiving documents online, Docs & Spreadheets also allows saving of files to desktop in the common formats including .doc, .xls, odf, .pdf and .rtf. Although not yet a realistic replacement for Office for the corporate enterprise, Docs & Spreadheets may well prove to be a supplementary tool in the workbelt of many a BC professional.

For more information click on these related links: Docs & Spreadsheets Microsoft Office Live

World's Smallest Phone American VoIP company Vonage has launch what it has dubbed the "World's Smallest Telephone". It is, essentially a 250MB USB memory stick with VoIP software and a 2.5mm stereo earpiece/ microphone. The V-phone plugs into any Windows PC with broadband access providing the user with a portable phone line with great international call rates, and multiple inbound geographical phone numbers. Related links: Vonage V-Phone VoIP

Ultra-mobile sat-nav Last month saw the first mobile phone sat-nav solution as Navman's Travel Assist S60 was released for Nokia smart- phones. Users can enjoy all the usual sat-nav goodies including either UK & Ireland or Western Europe map sets, real-time traffic announcements and 1.25 million points of interest. NavPix embeds GPS co-ordinates into photos taken with the phone's camera allowing users to text an image to a fellow NavPix/smartphone user who can subsequently view directions from their current location to the original location of the photograph. The software is either coupled with a battery-powered or compact cigarette lighter Bluetooth GPS receiver. Hot on Navman's heals is ALK's launch of CoPilot Live. ALK's solution is available for Sony Ericsson M600i and P990 UIQ smartphone models. Related links: Navman Stuff Magazine on Navman Nokia ALK Stuff Magazine on CoPilot

BC Buzz Sahana is a world class, free and open source Disaster Management System used by Governments and the private sector as well as NGO's such as WHO, UNDP and World Food. It was used very effectively after the Asian Tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan and the mudslides in the Philippines. Read more and grab it online at: http://www.sahana.lk Criticall Comment Criticall’s notification offerings allow you to capture location details for the person being contacted at the same time they are sent a message. The GPS, or LBS information is presented back as a point on a map image. This means you can tell where the device was when the SMS/voice message was sent. For an animated online demonstration, go to www.criticall.co.uk/tour.

Resource Corner Useful links and events for the business continuity professional Events Industry Analyst Evening, presentation and dinner  October 30, 2006 Business Continuity for Competitive Advantage Conference October 31, 2006 SIESO Annual Workshop November 6-7, 2006 Survive Annual Conference November 20-21, 2006

Business Continuity Seminar and Resilience Exhibition November 23, 2006 From BS 25999 to Pandemic Flu SIG December 11, 2006 Links Survive Bapco The Emergency Planning Society Intellect UK SEISO The Business Continuity Institute UK Resilience Data Storage Expo Continuity Forum Mi5 - Business Continuity Criticall Limited

Criticall eNews The Criticall eNews bulletin is produced and published by Criticall Limited to advance and encourage the global business continuity community. If you have an article you feel would be of value to other business continuity professionals, please contact the editor on feedback@criticall.co.uk. If you would like to subscribe to future issues or wish to be removed from the subscription list, please email subscriptions@criticall.co.uk with your request.

 Online eNews | Previous eNews | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Privacy | feedback | www.criticall.co.uk