The sudden rush in remote work has seen many businesses turn to cloud computing. In turn, this has led to a sharp increase in the demand for IT consultancies and data centers taking extreme measures.
When the coronavirus outbreak frost occurred, nobody knew the full extent of what was about to happen. We didn’t think, over the next couple of weeks, I will introduce my company to the necessary technologies to allow for remote work. Countries like Italy and Spain, the worst affected in Europe, went on lockdown with very little notice, causing the demand for IT consultancies to shoot up as companies needed a solution fast. IT consultants are struggling to fulfill such demands.
Technology solutions companies are enforcing strict methods to help prevent employees from becoming infected. Datacenter managers are taking the temperatures of its employees, restricting the number of visitors and even providing food and water. As more countries resolve to complete lockdowns, employees won’t be able to access their computer at work and for a company to stay in business, cloud computing is the only way forward.
Amazon WorkSpaces has been an ideal solution for many companies. It lives in server-filled data centers and allows companies to store data and software online so that it can be streamed to users in any location.
The Big Rush in Italy
Italy is generally not a culture that uses laptops in offices. IT shop owners have helped multiple clients become cloud-based, some of those overnights. And this has included mass purchases of laptops from Amazon. so employees would be able to work from home.
All of this comes at a cost, mainly because of the significant increase in security that is required when working from outside the office. Additional security checks must be carried out on all of the employees’ devices, as well as any last-minute changes or tweaks that are needed.
New Protocols in Data Centers
The main concern is what would happen if data center employees became infected and caused these critical locations to be shut down. Stringent methods have been put into place with many data centers not allowing clients or consultants into the building. The workforce has been reduced to only the core skilled workers.
Temperatures are being taken at 210 data centers operated by Digital Reality Trust Inc. Cleaners of the locations must use solutions that have a minimum of 70% alcohol content on areas that are considered high touches such as door handles and biometric readers. Staff is provided with sleeping quarters, food, water, and fuel for up to 72 hours.
At VMware Inc, the major vendor of remote working tools has split employees into smaller teams so that extra shifts can be covered and there is also further backup to ensure an “uninterrupted physical presence”.
Equinix Inc has 200 data centers and temperatures are also being taken. Furthermore, employees are required to complete travel questionnaires and a system is in place whereby is any staff are required to go into quarantine, team members from other data centers will cover the position.
In Conclusion
The sudden increase in business is certainly a positive for IT companies, however, the high demand is causing issues elsewhere. Cutbacks in other areas mean that shipments are taking up to three times longer. The price of some server parts has risen in price anywhere from 5% to 20%. The only thing certain in these uncertain times is that cloud computing is going to continue to increase in popularity.
