How could your connectivity be affected with the Olympics?

The coming year will see major  events in London and with the increased opportunities there may also come certain logistical challenges for the capital’s businesses.  In order to assist our customers to prepare for these events and avoid potential pitfalls, we at BIS have been communicating for some time with our vendors and local authorities to ensure that we can provide you with accurate information on which to base your decisions around operational readiness.

BIS is based in Central London, and as such, shares with the majority of its customers concerns regarding the impact of the Olympics on transport, infrastructure and the ability of its personnel to operate effectively.  As the Mayor of London succinctly advised “You don’t need to sit under the kitchen table with a tin hat on and eat tins of baked beans for six weeks” but a certain amount of planning can help things run smoothly.

BIS has full DR capability based around staff working from home.  All support call groups are fully routed  to our support staff and access to systems is available 24×7 whether at home or in the office.  In the event of transport gridlock BIS Service Desk support will remain unaffected.

Much of the information regarding the Olympics can be found on the 2012 website – www.london2012.com and on London local authorities’ websites. With regard to the services provided by BIS, the main areas for consideration are:

Data centres
Plans are in place at all BIS Data Centres to take account of the increased pressure on infrastructure – both in regard to the London transport network and the utility infrastructure.  Potential impact is being mitigated as follows:

• Control of staff numbers – requests for annual leave subject to close scrutiny
• Planned maintenance to take place ahead of the Games
• Ensure spares are held at site
• Consultation with supply chain vendors to ensure intentions are clear
• Ensure generation fuel is at maximum capacity
• Establishment of central delivery points for drop-off of spares
• Additional security will be in place at some sites, although every effort will be made not to hamper customers’ own operations
• Access to sites by customers and engineers will be subject to delays – a map of the road network with designated Olympics routes is below:

Connectivity
Many of BIS’ suppliers are planning to implement a change freeze during the Olympics.  Local authorities are restricting work by utilities in order to minimise disruption.  This embargo will apply to the streets shown above.  In addition to the official Olympic routes, the City of London are designating certain streets as “Sensitive” and will be reviewing waiting/loading times as well as streetworks  to these areas.  A full list will be available shortly on the City of London’s website www.cityoflondon.gov.uk .

• Provisioning – there will be some areas where it will not be possible to install new fibre during the Games.
• Delays to installation – depending on the location of your building there could be delays for installation work caused by the security and travel restrictions.
• Faults – if a network problem is a physical issue (fibre break) and the location of the fault is within a restricted area or site designated by the Olympic or local authorities, there may be delays gaining access to the area.
• Change freeze – in order to minimise potential faults due to maintenance activities, most of BIS’ circuit suppliers will be implementing a change freeze on IT and Network activities.
• Internet access – it is anticipated that there will be increased demand placed on the Internet due to online viewing of Olympic events.  BIS has ensured we have ample excess transit to accommodate customers’ anticipated requirements.

What should BIS customers do to prepare?

If you have reliance on a single circuit from your office to the Data Centre or to the Internet, you may wish to consider installing an additional circuit.  This will provide you with resilience should there be a fault on your primary service and the vendors are unable to gain access for fault resolution in a timely manner.

You may wish to review your current Internet access commitments.   Additional Internet transit may be necessary to support additional staff working from home via VPN or increased traffic requirements during the event.

If it is determined that additional Internet transit is required, you should verify that your current circuits and network equipment are capable of supporting this. New circuits will need to be ordered early enough that delivery is not impacted by vendor freezes or restrictions in access to streets.

RSA dongle licenses – if you anticipate having a significant number of employees work from home, you should verify that you have sufficient licenses to cover the increased number of concurrent users.

BIS has ensured we have ample excess transit to accommodate customers’ anticipated requirements. Contact your account manager today for special Olympic offers on transit and circuits, or find more information here.

Written by: Amanda