Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 43 | Page 19

TRENDING COVID-19 PANDEMIC CAUSES MASSIVE SHIFT IN WORK STYLES Service providers have faced huge demand as people across the globe work from home during the Coronavirus pandemic. Gunter Reiss, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at A10 Networks, explains what this means for businesses and how they can cope. As the shelter-in-place orders spread across the country and around the world, it has placed a huge burden on businesses of all sizes and the service providers that serve them and millions of their customers around the globe. While a massive shift to working from home is an obvious consequence of these orders, it has likely taken most by surprise as bandwidth requirements skyrocketed within a few short weeks. At the very same time, we are grappling with the reality of schools being closed, in-person events being cancelled and social distancing becoming the new black. It has been a shock to say the least. How do businesses cope? The global crisis is affecting organisations in many different ways. We’re not dealing with the more anticipated worldwide spikes in Internet use caused by the World Cup or the Olympics for which service providers can plan. In fact, streaming services are being asked to throttle their services back so the Internet doesn’t ‘break’ now that consumers are not only home working but home gaming and watching programmes. And business services like video conferencing and SaaS applications are experiencing unprecedented use for work, schoolwork and connecting with others. “ FOR BUSINESSES FACING THESE ISSUES, IT’S CRITICAL THAT YOUR APPLICATION SERVICES CAN MEET THE NEW LEVELS OF DEMAND. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 19