nanog mailing list archives
Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready?
From: Marshall Eubanks <tme () multicasttech com>
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:43:47 -0400
Hello; On Apr 18, 2006, at 1:53 PM, David W. Hankins wrote:
On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 02:05:41PM -0400, Jared Mauch wrote:Back to the original question, how well could you cope for such an event? It's always challenging to think about what would happen as sometimes it includes the unexpected.All the guidance suggests you're going to lose as much as 40% of your workforce.Well, what intrigues me, is: which 40? I don't think the virus is going to select sales, marketing, and Tech support in that order (unless it'san STD epidemic, har har). Were that the case we might actually look forward to such outbreaks.
The most likely disease vector is, from what I have heard, airline travel. Assorted people from all over are brought together for a meal (or, at least, bogus pretzels) in a confined space for a few hours, then released back into
the general population.So the NANOG and IETF crowd would probably be the first to go. Since I travel a lot, and to the same meetings, I can't say that that this seems like a good
idea to me.If any of this actually starts happening, we all may become very interested in
video conferencing. Regards Marshall
On the other hand, at *every* substantially sized network I've worked at, the Network Engineering types that might reasonably do something useful in such an emergency situation are generally: 1) A close-knit group, going to lunches together and cohabitatingcubicles so as to avoid exposure to aforementioned sales, marketing,and tech support or customer service. Indeed, at a few places I worked, they even spent most every weekend together. For all the rest of the world decrying geeks as socially inept, they are highly efficient at social assimilation of their own kind. 2) Given a 'low desirability' office space. No windows, usually poor air circulation. It is often called "The Back Room" or similar, oris located in a space you wouldn't expect to find humans. This isn't(usually) anyone being mean: engineers seem to like dark corners,something about making it easier to read monitors, and locations thatprovide fewer interruptions due to unlikelyhood of foot traffic.3) Better at taking care of their networks than themselves. Or at least, more willing to - too frequent is the case I see an engineer, hacking, coughing, and wheezing at his monitor, plucking away at the keyboarddeep into the night.So there you have it. They're likely to come to work even though they're sick (presuming they don't know it's a lethal virus), where they work and spend all their face-to-face time in close quarters with recirculated airwith the rest of the company's engineers.It's like someone intentionally optimized this function specifically tobe the most pessimal. So I think it's actually highly probable that a meatspace-viral vector would take out the entire engineering staff at most service providers I've worked at if only one of them caught the bug. I have to imaginethis is representative of other work environments. We all seem to sharethe same collective experience in this sense, at least the folks I've talked to. And that loss would be way under 40% of the total company's staff, a mere blip really. So, which 40% can you afford to lose? How likely is it that the 60%that's left behind will be able to do the job? Will they need step- by-step instructions so that even an untrained monkey can muddle through? -- David W. Hankins "If you don't do it right the first time, Software Engineer you'll just have to do it again." Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. -- Jack T. Hankins
Current thread:
- Is your ISP Influenza-ready? David W. Hankins (Apr 17)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Jared Mauch (Apr 17)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Steven M. Bellovin (Apr 17)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? David W. Hankins (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Marshall Eubanks (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Barry Shein (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Crist Clark (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Susan Harris (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? David W. Hankins (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Rusty Dekema (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Barry Shein (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Randy Bush (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Steven M. Bellovin (Apr 18)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Michael . Dillon (Apr 19)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Joseph S D Yao (Apr 21)
- Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready? Jared Mauch (Apr 17)