Web hosting users may need better bandwidth to deal with pandemic

Organisations, such as those using advanced web hosting services, may well be worried about how swine flu will make an impact on their operations.

Companies need to have pandemic plans in place, according to Gartner, so workers can operate from home.

However, work-at-home (WAH) strategies could be at threat from poor residential internet bandwidth, according to the organisation.

"Within the switching office, surges in demand will overload the local connection to the backbone networks, because carriers typically do not design for excess residential capacity," explained Eric Paulak, managing vice president at Gartner.

The company’s Center for Disease Control suggested that 40 per cent of employees will not be in the workplace for an extended period of time, as a rule of thumb for pandemic planning.

Earlier this year, businesses such as those using web hosting packages were advised by Gartner not to panic because of a swine flu outbreak, but act by reviewing and testing their pandemic response plans.

Written by Jermaine Jones.