FIBERLINK

Enterprises are being forced to take a new look at their business continuity and disaster recovery plans because of the prospect of pandemics, terrorist attacks and local natural disasters. These create scenarios in which central infrastructure may remain intact but employees are confined to their homes or other remote locations.

As one executive put it, “How can a company go from 20% of its employees working outside of the office to 70%?”

Fiberlink’s Mobile Preparedness Program

Fiberlink offers a Mobile Preparedness Program designed to help enterprises put in place technology and processes that can turn office workers into mobile workers in the event of a pandemic, natural disaster, or other emergency situation.

Elements of this program include:

• A low-cost Business Continuity Emergency Condition License (BC-ECL) which allows Fiberlink’s Extend360 Agent™ to be installed on laptops and remote PCs and used for up to eight weeks during emergencies.
• A Profession Services assessment of the enterprise’s requirements for mobile security and connectivity in the event of a pandemic or other threat to business continuity.
• Optional arrangements to host the infrastructure for SSL VPNs, RADIUS servers, and two-factor authentication.

Ensuring endpoint security

Keeping endpoint systems and data secure is especially important in times of crisis, because more critical data will be downloaded to laptops and more critical business processes will be run from remote locations.

Fiberlink’s technology and services can ensure the security of mobile systems and data by deploying and updating a wide variety of endpoint security applications on mobile computers. These applications include:

• Personal firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPS), to block hackers.
• Anti-virus and anti-spyware tools, to block viruses and spyware programs.
• Patch management and vulnerability management tools, to keep operating systems and other key software updated with security patches.
• Zero-day protection, to quarantine new varieties of malware before they can be identified by standard anti-virus and intrusion protection systems.
• VPN software, to create secure connections from remote systems to corporate networks.

Fiberlink’s Mobile-NAC (Network Access Control) capabilities also help protect the corporate network in the event of a crisis.

Protecting against data loss

More mobile systems and exceptional working conditions create a greater risk of loss and theft.  

Fiberlink offers a Backup and Recovery service that allows data to be stored off-site and recovered if a computer is lost or damaged and a Data Encryption service that prevents sensitive information from being read if a computer is lost or stolen.

Fiberlink also offers services such as Device Control and Information Protection that can prevent the copying and distribution of sensitive information by unethical or reckless employees.

Global Connectivity Services

Fiberlink’s Extend360 Mobility Platform makes connectivity as simple as possible for mobile and remote workers. The software detects all of the connection options that are available and allowed for that user – dial-up, ISDN, PHS, broadband, Wi-Fi and mobile data (cellular wireless) – and lets the user select from among them with one click.

In addition, Fiberlink’s Connectivity Services add a critical layer of redundancy and additional capacity to an enterprise’s connectivity options. Mobile employees can take advantage of Fiberlink’s agreements with Tier 1 ISPs, DSL and cable service providers, hotel broadband service providers, Wi-Fi hotspot service providers, and cellular and other wireless carriers. In all, Fiberlink’s customers can utilize 65,000 access points in more than 150 countries.

SSL VPNs

Fiberlink offers a managed service to administer SSL VPN software and hardware. Instead of setting up their own infrastructure to manage SSL VPNs, enterprises can outsource this activity to Fiberlink.

For more information

For more information read Fiberlink’s White Paper: Planning for a Pandemic: Turning Office Workers into Mobile Workers for Business Continuity.