Five ways to keep your network up-and-running during the Olympics

Don’t risk an internet meltdown. Get your IT sorted to ensure your business makes it through the Games unscathed

By Dominic Monkhouse, MD EMEA, PEER 1 Hosting

The Olympics are all but upon us – which is a good thing for sports fans all over the world, but not so good for the people responsible for avoiding downtime of businesses’ IT infrastructures being put under immense pressure. Work will have to continue for businesses under what will feel like unprecedented circumstances, particularly as London’s networks take on the trafficking of massive amounts of new inbound and outbound data.

For many businesses, the Olympics bring the potential of increased business whilst also presenting potential of increased complexity. We have had a number of enquiries from businesses based in and around London and the South, who are dependent on the internet, whether it’s for back office SaaS applications, ecommerce sites, customer service portals, virtual training or anything in between, who want to make sure their business benefits rather than suffers from the increased activity in the capital.

To take advantage of the opportunities the Olympics is presenting, businesses will need their systems to work reliably, every time and without question. Here are my top five tips in choosing a hosting solution to ensure that happens:

1.       Ensure your solution is ‘walled in’ to rest assured that you are insulated from even the worst of stresses on London’s IT infrastructure. It needs to be contractually as well as technically robust. This will guarantee peace of mind to you and those in your business to continue company as usual even in the biggest net traffic storms.

2.       Double check your SLA to ensure your provider has exactly the right people in place to support the network, and ensure their support is available round the clock. Web hosting and data centre experts understand the specific type of attention a business requires. If its support is only 9 to 5 it’s likely their experience and expertise is limited.

3.       Prepare for any possible crisis; remove the looming risk of network failure. Prepare your business for load balancing through your ISP’s CDN (content delivery network). Whilst customers within London may receive a fast response from your website, those in other geographic areas outside London around the world are likely to experience a lag in their connection to your website during the summer games.

4.       Optimising your online presence; look into enabling and optimising every angle of your online presence, re-assessing your network for efficiency and compatibility across different devices, platforms and business applications.

5.       Converse with your own team members; receive feedback and set out strategy.  Seek advice on strategy from your provider surrounding telecommuting. If they have the right experience and expertise, they can provide you with personalised advice from day one.

The Olympics will be a great showcase for the capital if businesses get the chance to shine when the pressure is on. The right hosting provider can take the stress off the business managers and IT departments, who can then continue making strategic contributions, rather than fire-fighting difficulties which should never have arisen in the first place.

PEER 1 Hosting has launched its own ‘Team 2012’ to offer assistance to businesses needing to stay online during the Olympics. Visit Peer1hosting.co.uk/london-2012-games, call 02380 926 309 or email [email protected].