Remote Access is Essential for Business Continuity – We Must Bridge the Gap

The Bay Bridge, connecting San Francisco to Oakland, California, carries approximately 280,000 vehicles per day. Many of those vehicles are transporting employees to their workplaces in the greater San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area, which is why those of us who work at Cisco headquarters in San Jose were directly affected or know someone who was by the bridge’s recent and unexpected shutdown.  This debacle, caused by failing and falling bridge beams, left thousands of workers stranded, backed up in traffic, or forced to find alternate means of getting to work, such as circuitous commutes, ferries, or public transit.  Others found alternate means of working.
Employees with remote access capabilities and those whose jobs do not require full-time, in-person presences could telecommute during the bridge closing. Although this does not seem like a revolutionary notion in our day and age of anywhere, anytime work and with wireless access in every airport, hotel, and coffee shop, are most organizations gearing up all of their essential employees with the capabilities to work remotely?  Can businesses ensure business-as-usual during major interruptions, such as severe weather, widespread employee illness, or bridge closings?  New data suggests they can not.