I’ve been holding off any “oh no, the swine flu is going to get us all. run for your lives.” type posts. Not that any kind of influenza is a joke. If I recall correctly, influenza as a whole regularly kills some 150,000 people in a normal year.

However, just because I’m not very concerned doesn’t mean that others aren’t. Given the popular media’s fear-mongering to which many have succumbed, I would not be surprised to see serious disruptions in otherwise robust systems.

From an IT perspective, I urge people to consider how they will keep their systems running in the event of widespread absenteeism. If you already have a business continuity plan, good for you. If not, now is the time to quickly get one together. Copy from your neighbor if that’s what it takes.

Map out your critical goals for the time period you anticipate experiencing abnormal behavior. Everything on this list takes top priority. For example:
1) Maintain service on all mission-critical systems
2) Continue to monitor and respond to security events
3) Continue regular patch testing and implementation cycle
4) Contain any spread of potential infection internally
5) Identify and maintain contact with chain of command for executive decisions and alternates in chain

Then, identify what activities/resources will be necessary in order to accomplish those goals. For example:
1) Require at least two admins on call with remote access capability at all times. Require at least  one security admin on call
2) Enable remote monitoring on mission-critical systems
3) Confirm hot standbys functional. Consider upgrading warm or cold standbys
4) Bring up out-of-band communications channels (IRC, Jabber, etc.)
5) Produce and circulate copies of critical daily reports on out-of-band channels
6) Enforce policies restricting employees with high fever from the office
7) Agree upon and establish secondary command chains in case primary is unreachable

Finally, educate everyone on the plan and test it! It’s generally accepted that reduce service levels will result from activation of any contingency plan. The idea is that you will be able to set that service level ahead of time.

Ask your vendors about their business continuity plans and share yours with them.

There may or may not be a pandemic but that doesn’t mean there won’t be overreactions. Control variability now while it’s still easy to do so.