Indeed, the COVID-19 outbreak has forced many to ask questions, and rethink the nature of work.

Workplaces are mandating employees to work remotely and, for now, that seems to be the mainstay.

Craig Malloy, CEO of Lifesize, believes that there will be a complete U-turn in the ‘hows’ and ‘wheres’ of normal work: “This is a massive shift in how we work that has happened almost overnight”, he said, “and we’re never going back.”

Will telework be the go-to working style after the crisis dissipates? This will be the biggest post-pandemic question that all employers will have to ready themselves for.

Of course, while many businesses will already offer some form of flexibility, many with more concrete working styles will have found the jump much more of a struggle.

Given the question over lockdown timescales, it’s difficult to predict whether we’ll see a widespread move to remote working, but there are a few clues that suggest that full-time telework may not happen any time too soon.

# 1 | We don’t have the right technology – yet

Take the video conferencing tool Zoom as an example. What became an overnight corporate hit (within the first quarter, its daily user base soared from ten million to 200 million), is now bearing the repercussions of poor data privacy practices.

‘Zoom-bombings’, lack of end-to-end encryption and data mishandling shed light on how ill-equipped the application was to handle large-scale remote workforces that assumed privacy of their business conversations would be assured.

As its number of users grew rapidly, Zoom’s rival Microsoft Teams wasn’t having a smooth ride either: users experienced two massive blackouts within three months, affecting up to 44 million users.

Will there be enough time for these videoconferencing leaders, or even up-and-coming rivals, to prove there’s a truly reliable solution to keep up face-time with our teams?

# 2 | Infrastructure is not ready

Most network providers would argue otherwise, claiming to have enough bandwidth. But bandwidth isn’t the issue, it’s about how long this surge in demand could last.

Even with enough bandwidth, limitations of devices will be a bottleneck.

Company VPNs, for example, can only accommodate a limited number of people, and not an entire workforce. Remote work would also mean no access to corporate grade networks, which many business tools would require.

# 3 | People are not ready

Remote working will not fly if employees are not ready for it.

Career planning site Zipia.com recently reported that only 51 percent of respondents prefer working from home, and 60 percent do not expect it to be permanent. This is highly suggestive that almost half of the workforce are not prepared for such a change.

If so, pushing for telework could become a waste of time and resources that results in an overall loss in business productivity.

DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE – WILL DATA PRIVACY MATTER DURING THE PANDEMIC?

Adlina AR | 8 April, 2020

Successfully implementing remote work is difficult, and definitely time-consuming. To expect companies to go fully remote after the pandemic might be wishful thinking, but only time will tell if remote work could become the new normal.

While the current situation may push some businesses who were on the fence around the arrangement to commit wholesale, others may be looking forward to returning to a physical, tangible workspace – a center of operations and place to bring everyone together.

What we can be certain of is that the tools we need for remote working will develop and flourish throughout this period, while businesses will continue to adapt and gain crucial experience in remote working strategy and its advantages.

As such, it may be more likely that businesses become more comfortable with a degree of flexibility, which could allow them to down-size office space and accommodate a slightly more mobile workforce.

The post A remote working future? Maybe ‘flexible working’ comes first appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

From collaboration tools to virtual learning, cloud-based applications are being used to buoy businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the crisis has underscored the need for businesses to not only digitize workflows but move them cloudwards in order to stay fully operational wherever their workforce may be.

BUSINESS IN CHINA IS RECOVERING – BUT THE SITUATION’S MORE COMPLICATED

Emily Wong | 8 April, 2020

For large firms with big budgets, undertaking various levels of cloud computing has been much more viable so far. Resources can be allocated to expedite and ease projects and migrations, regardless of their scale, and the talent to oversee these initiatives can be taken on without breaking much of a sweat.

For smaller businesses, however, the move to cloud has been more cautious, largely by necessity, given the cost and scale of the undertaking and the notoriously lofty costs attached to public cloud players like Alibaba Cloud, AWS, and Azure.

But often it simply comes down to a lack of know-how as to the possible benefits, and just how accessible, flexible and transformational they can be, particularly thanks to new cloud computing services as alternatives to the big-budget market-leaders.

Charging up the business

With a wealth of cloud computing services across Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), companies can find the services they need without heavy software or hardware overheads. A subscription can provide companies with the cloud power they need, which can quickly be scaled up and down, and configured to meet changing requirements.

For that fee, a service provider can handle the hardware upkeep, software patching and updates behind the curtains. Smaller businesses therefore spend less of their valuable time and limited resources on tech, and more on operations to drive their growth and customer experience.

Always connected from anywhere

By its nature, cloud facilitates access and real-time collaboration from anywhere with an internet connection, which can boost operational efficiency and alignment on the go.

With a cloud storage service, whether it’s Google Drive, pCloud, OneDrive or DropBox, to name just a few popular examples, employees can quickly access whatever information or data they need (and have access to), and ensure that everyone is up to speed with any updates, wherever they’re located.

Added security

The post Small businesses – it’s time to tap into cloud computing appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The pandemic had spotlighted its vulnerability (and the consequence thereof), forcing thousands of companies to either throttle down or shut manufacturing plants.

The pandemic was indeed unprecedented. However, many of the struggles suppliers faced were not new, and are elephants in the room that might’ve already been present pre-pandemic.

The lack of visibility across the chain is one such elephant, and it is a huge one.

Transparency hasn’t quite been a priority for various reasons, such as the fear of losing trade secrets, or the risk of sensitive data getting compromised. Though justified, transparency cannot be compromised – it is crucial to understand and reduce the impact of disruption on all in the ecosystem.

This can start with eliminating paper-based processing. Trade is miles behind other industries in this: take the “Bill of Lading”, for example, which is still filled out by hand.

When COVID-19 struck, physically coming into the office for wet signatures and paper printouts was no longer possible, drastically slowing down the already lagging process.

For the most part, however, companies are just short-sighted, blinded by the hefty price tag and complexity in going digital. Digitization helped in risk management – those who adopted digital means like e-signatures fared much better than those who didn’t.

Suppliers may be wary about sharing business details, with concerns of losing commercial advantage, or having customers side-step them.

To have data distributed to more than two parties and concurrently maintain data integrity, the current Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Excel communication systems will not suffice.

Blockchain can, and is already, serving as a good technology to use in this respect: Permissioned blockchains can give suppliers control over who to share their data with, without point-to-point integration.

Buyers are already offering programs that incentivize suppliers to share their data, but this often stops at Tier 1 suppliers.

Visibility issues thus stem from Tier 2 suppliers or even further up the supply chain. Financing across all tiers is crucial. Blockchain, again, can be used to ensure that crucial data such as performance and risk is shared safely with financiers and other parties that they might not have a direct relationship with.

HOW CHINA’S LUXURY BRANDS RODE OUT THE STORM WITH DIGITAL EXPERIENCES

Emily Wong | 7 April, 2020

After the COVID-19 crisis dissipates, suppliers will be faced with a choice: heed the lessons learnt from this crisis, or cross their fingers in hopes that such a disruption would not happen again. But shakeups are bound to happen, and it is those that developed from this crisis who will be winners in the long run.

The post Were supply chains blindsided by a lack of visibility? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

That means the world is watching. How China’s economy responds, though markedly different from others around the globe, could be an indication of how other markets follow.

With the virus seemingly in retreat, China is easing on regulations – lockdown measures are being lifted, allowing for some measure of normalcy to return, and shuttered businesses to begin operating again.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which monitors the cloud computing usage of about 2.2 million businesses, reports that 76.8 percent of SMEs nationwide have resumed work within the last week.

One of the most positive aspects is that Chinese consumers are ready to resume spending again, according to a report by McKinsey, but priorities have changed during the crisis.

While spend on consumer products like skincare and makeup have been temporarily outset by cleaning products – 53 percent of respondents said they spent more on these – up to 70 percent of consumers expect to resume pre-crisis consumption.

HOW CHINA’S LUXURY BRANDS RODE OUT THE STORM WITH DIGITAL EXPERIENCES

Emily Wong | 7 April, 2020

While the outlook on Chinese consumer confidence is broadly positive, brands may not be able to go back to a pre-pandemic comfort zone anytime soon, owed to impact from overseas.

There is a softening global demand – the virus has hit hard on China’s key trading partners, which include US, Europe, South Korea and Japan. China might be able to get production up and running, says Steve Cochrane, chief Asia Pacific analyst at Moody Analytics, but weakening consumer sentiment worldwide will reduce or even eliminate the demand for goods from Asia.

And it’s not only about softening demand – supply chains, and the many co-reliant partners involved in that complex ecosystem – have been severely crippled by the outbreak.

Many international firms have manufacturing facilities in China, and it takes time to get these supply chains up and roaring again. But as Chinese factories are just resuming activities, there are complicated reverberations.

French carmaker Fiat, for example, announced that it will be halting productions in Serbia because it can’t get parts from China, Korean car manufacturer Hyundai suspended production in South Korea for similar reasons.

Supply chains are complex – when one link is disrupted, the entire system is broken or thrown off kilter. Even with Chinese manufacturing companies working at full capacity, Bruce Pang of China Renaissance Securities noted, they might “receive a second hit from the drop in a trading partner’s supply, and vice versa.”

WHY BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM DISNEY WHEN IT COMES TO STAYING RELEVANT

Adlina AR | 6 April, 2020

There is no denying that China’s economy is turning a corner, but a resumption of economic activities “does not guarantee a sharp V-shaped rebound,” wrote ANZ Research economists Raymond Yeung and Zhaopeng Xing.

Regardless of how strong their presence is in China, businesses would be short-sighted to bank all their hopes on the Chinese market alone. With the end to the economic fallout of this pandemic nowhere in sight, the only certainty we have right now is that more uncertainty abounds.

The post Business in China is recovering – but the situation’s more complicated appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The compromised information included contact details, loyalty account information, personal data, and guest preferences.

From mid-January till February 2020, login credentials of two employees at a franchise property were used to access an ‘unexpected amount’ of guests’ personal information. The hotel disabled both credentials immediately and begun an investigation upon discovery.

Currently, the hotel has said that it has “no reason to believe” that payment information, account PINs or personal identification information were compromised. But the breach will have done nothing to improve the hotel chain’s already damaged reputation.

Lightning struck twice for Marriott. It suffered a massive breach in 2018 – personal details of 500 million customers were stolen, leaving the hotel with a hefty fine to pay of US$152 million by the ICO.

With both breaches happening within such a short period of time, it’s easy to chastise the hotel – but the fact is that it could happen to anyone (the same fate befell aviation giants British Airways and Cathay Pacific in 2018 and 2020), and all could stand to learn from Marriott’s experience.

Here are a few pointers businesses can take from Marriott’s dual misfortune

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CISCO LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT FOR APJC

Adlina AR | 3 April, 2020

# 1 | Time is of the essence

In the first major breach, Marriott Group CEO, Arne Sorenson, said that hackers had been in Marriott’s system since July 2014, but the team only realized it in September last year, after engaging third-party providers.

They also waited for three months before revealing this breach – and it costed them dearly.

The second time round, however, Marriott’s security team managed to minimize dwell-time and they reported the breach early, which significantly reduced the number of potentially impacted customers.

# 2 | Simple techniques can be deadly

Credential abuse (especially privileged ones) is an extremely popular breach strategy – most data breaches are caused by some form of insider threat.

While financial data was not stolen in Marriott’s case, the information obtained was still incredibly valuable, and could be used for phishing attacks.

A “never trust, always verify, enforce least privilege” approach should always be taken in security, and CIOs can proactively avert potential breaches by running audit sessions and mandating measures like multi-factor authentications (MFA).

AN ‘INTEROPERABLE’ DIGITAL ECONOMY? THAT’S THE AIM FOR AUSTRALIA AND SINGAPORE

Emily Wong | 1 April, 2020

# 3 | Plan, plan, plan

Marriott’s misfortunes highlight the importance of having detailed, updated threat models.

It might have been a challenge for Marriott to detect credential misuse as many employees have access to customer data, but if the hotel had adequate monitoring controls, they might’ve been able to spot the problem in good time.

Some key behaviors to look out for could include the time of day data was access, scope of access, and if data was accessed in line with the SOPs in place.

Organizations will also need to know their IT environment inside-out, and ensure that employees are fully aware of the implications of poor security practices.

The current surge in remote working calls for unprecedented levels of vigilance.

Attackers won’t wait until a business is stable to launch an attack, and companies are most vulnerable when they are in the midst of change.

The post Marriott gets breached again – what can businesses learn? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

From disrupted supply chains to production halts and plunging sales, they can no longer rest in the comfort of what used to be a niche, profitable market – few people tend to buy luxury goods in a crisis, it seems.

But these brands have proven time and again that they are capable of reinvention under pressure, and can even come out the other side stronger. With China showing clear signs of recovery, we can look to how certain luxury brands in the market turned to innovative digital strategies to help them ride out the storm.

# 1 | Interactive WeChat pop-ups

Lockdown measures had forced brands to turn towards e-commerce platforms – especially WeChat – to drive sales.

Louis Vuitton and Prada have omnichannel platforms that incentivize customers and make it easy for sales associates to communicate with them, giving customers the same, personalized in-store experience. According to Prada, this had a bigger commercial impact than WeChat ads.

Louis Vuitton took it a step further by having its first show ‘re-see’, where Chinese celebrities such as Liu Haoran and Dilireba share their show experience and personal favorites with customers, and these products proceeded to become bestsellers.

Exclusivity and prestige are what keeps customers coming for luxury items, and Louis Vuitton did so by sliding in teasers of their upcoming products into re-see sessions, further driving sales.

Finally, getting customer information (such as WeChat accounts and phone numbers) allowed the brand to be in touch with customers.

# 2 | Ride the Shoppertainment wave

British luxury brand Burberry took full advantage of the shoppertainment movement when customers couldn’t make it into physical stores.

Live-streaming brought in the cash – the brand recently had influencer Yvonne Ching live-stream her Burberry experience on Tmall, which garnered over 1.4 million views, and most of the featured products were sold out.

Shanghai-based homegrown brand Icicle also relied heavily on live streaming, but did it across various platforms, including TikTok, with each session raking in an average of US $71,000.

WHY BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM DISNEY WHEN IT COMES TO STAYING RELEVANT

Adlina AR | 6 April, 2020

# 3 | Boundary-pushing VR and AR

2020 is the year of VR/AR, and brands are utilizing it to deliver a fully-immersive experiences to customers.

Parisian fashion house Lanvin partnered up with Chinese video platforms Douyin, Yizhibo, iQiyi, and luxury e-commerce platform Secoo to broadcast it’s Paris fashion show, where the audience gets to have a front-row view with VR.

Fashion bloggers were invited to live-stream behind the scenes action, garnering the hashtag #lavin over 5 million views.

Riding on this success, the brand went ahead and built a VR flagship where customers could shop virtually by connecting with local sales associates via WeChat.

Burberry too has been having its hand at AR, and had already ran a few VR campaigns pre-pandemic.

Not too long ago it collaborated with Google to launch an AR shopping tool where, through their smartphones, customers can see products at scale in their respective environments.

The virus might seem like a retail apocalypse, but underneath the gloom and doom, it has actually been a catalyst for brands to refine online and omnichannel strategies.

Luxury consumers are accustomed to high standards of service in stores, so emphasis was placed on using digital to create personalized experiences of equal quality.

The post How China’s luxury brands rode out the storm with digital experiences appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

With advances in e-commerce tech, as well as warehousing and logistics, geographical borders don’t really exist in the world of online retail – at least, they don’t really need to – and that presents huge opportunities for brands and retailers to access new markets and, ultimately, create a bigger pool of customers than ever before.

Of course, selling internationally isn’t straightforward. Merchants can be reluctant to go beyond their domestic market, where everything from taxes and customs, languages, payment instruments and fulfillment is different. 

There is also the potential for fraud and data breaches, an occurrence of any is enough to bring a business to its knees – particularly if they’re in the dark about local laws and regulations. 

For retailers online, however, those risks can be managed and shouldn’t deter companies from reaping the benefits of cross-border selling. There are a few pointers that retailers with borderless horizons can follow. 

Trust the locals

To capture hearts (and market share), retailers need to focus on localizing their products. All aspects of the product need to resonate with the customer – including hiring locals to handle certain non-core business operations.

According to a study by Pitney Bowes, 83 percent of cross-border retailers put faith in local third-party vendors – whether its carrier networks, payment services or fraud management.

SHOPPERTAINMENT – THE INNOVATIVE SECRET TO E-COMMERCE SUCCESS RIGHT NOW?

Emily Wong | 27 March, 2020

From culture to language to customer preferences, it is the locals that will know the market best. Getting to know and trust local specialists may take a while, but it will ensure the best service is achieved for the buck, and shoppers receive a service they’re used to. 

Even within a country, culture varies drastically from city to city. These nuances make a world of a difference and, without pursuing insider knowledge, even household-name-status brands can easily misstep. 

The fall of e-hailing service Uber in Southeast Asia is a testament to this. It was taken down by its local competitor Grab – where Uber failed to provide value to its customers, Grab was quick to plug the gaps. 

To escape traffic jams, for example, Grab started putting its motorcycle taxis, GrabBike, on the roads. At a time where cash was still king, Uber wouldn’t budge on its card-only policy, Grab knew taking cash was an important differentiator – and ultimately, Uber was no longer viable in the market. 

Local expectations

Up to 76 percent of shoppers prefer to transact in a local currency, so a key aspect of serving an international market is to use a currency that locals use daily.

Customers also do not like hidden fees – for a good overall experience, merchants should focus on working with the right payment providers to ensure that fees are clearly stated, without any hidden transaction fees that would only appear after a customer checks out. 

Payment providers could also help merchants in understanding regional price preferences, and displaying pricing in familiar conventions.

BUSINESSES THAT WANT TO GROW MUST BE READY TO ADAPT

Emily Wong | 16 March, 2020

Avoiding international sales may seem like a safe bet for now, but it will not encourage business growth. Business is all about risks, some are worth taking, some are not. This one is definitely one that is worth banking in on.

The post Crossing borders with e-commerce means connecting with the locals appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Since the beginning of the year, Chinese mobile payment vendors have seen their numbers plunge.

Strict lockdowns and physical distancing measures have been keeping people indoors and cutting down on discretionary spending, leaving most bricks-and-mortar stores empty.

This makes mobile payment vendors unfortunate victims, as offline transactions make up the bulk of their business.

But Chinese payment giants remain steadfastly optimistic about the market outlook.

Alibaba’s Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Zhang, framed the epidemic and all its eventualities as a Black Swan event, and has sent a resolute message that the firm’s AliPay will indeed be hurt, but it will be a one-off event.

Tencent’s WeChat Pay also vowed to recover fast.

James Mitchell, Tencent’s chief strategy officer, said that while business dipped during the Lunar New Year Holiday, they are already rebounding with “supply coming back, although there is still some suppression in demand.”

China has been working hard to establish itself as a cashless society. The move to mobile payments was relatively smooth: convenience was the goal, digital maturity enabled it, and the technology was readily available.

Regardless of age group, the Chinese have widely embraced going digital – there are 800 million mobile phone users, with 86 percent of the population using e-wallets to pay for everything from clothes to food and taxi rides.

Going cashless has its benefits. For one, it’s convenient for both the merchant and the customer. Handling physical cash is cumbersome, easy to lose, and difficult to keep track off.

Businesses could also integrate incentive programs into mobile payment applications, enabling them to retain customer loyalty. There is also the obvious benefit of speeding up the transaction process. An additional plus, particularly in the current climate, is reducing contact as money changes hands.

But is mobile payment the future, and should we all look to follow in China’s footsteps?

While mobile payments are convenient, there are some negative effects. Loads of sensitive information is collected and stored each time we pay by phone, and that means we are placing trust in the robustness of providers’ security measures.

If retailers implement cashless policies, they are at risk of sidelining members of society that don’t or can’t use mobile payment tech. Or, for example, even lucrative tourists. In some parts of China, no amount of greenbacks can get a tourist a bottle of water – merchants only accept mobile payments, and without a Chinese bank account, foreigners cannot do so.

While providers may be seeing a dip in mobile payments now, many retailers that remain open are pushing customers to use contactless payment methods, due to them lowering the risk of transmission.

DON’T LOOK DOWN! FLYING TAXIS ARE BECOMING SERIOUS BUSINESS

Emily Wong | 1 April, 2020

With retailers, and many customers, enjoying the added convenience, these sort of policies may stick around long after the current crisis resides. In this regard, the COVID-19 pandemic may actually kickstart a further movement towards mobile payment technology in the long run.

The post Are mobile payments the future? COVID-19 could see it go either way appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

On the front lines of an organization’s battle against the virus is the CFO. CFOs play a central role in keeping the business grounded as firefighting measures go on, and also in readying the business to thrive once things start looking up.

CFOs, after all, are the guardians of the company’s financial health, and having a sound, financial footing will be critical to ensure the survival of a business.

Optimize cash reserves

One of the immediate challenges that the CFO would have to address is that of liquidity.

The economic implications of hard lockdowns (such as the one in China) are great – there is an estimated 40 to 50 percent decrease of discretionary consumer spending. Businesses will be shuttering, and will have to rely on cash reserves to keep afloat. CFOs need to optimize cash reserves and actively seek opportunities to increase capital.

This might include doubling down on customers that are delaying payments, tapping into lines of credits and, if necessary, seek relief on debt covenants to strengthen the balance sheet while they still can. Setting up such a cash ‘war room’ can help CFOs curb spending, and effectively trim the fat where needed.

Prepare for the unexpected

With heightened uncertainty, finance teams will need to rely more heavily on a range of scenarios, instead of individual time-horizon-based frameworks. Brainstorm through two or three integrated scenarios with multiple eventualities, and outline clear thresholds or trigger points that suggest what actions will be taken, and when.

This involves a whole lot of forecasting on the effects of the pandemic on various business facets, so CFOs can consider roping financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams in, as they work closely with individual business units.

Communicate internally

Finally, the CFO must take lead in proactively communicating the organization’s financial crisis strategy to employees, boards of directors and investors.

The organization’s priority is to preserve cash and deploy it dynamically, and this must be clearly communicated organization-wide. All business units are to understand “why this matters now”, and what their specific role is in upholding the “cash culture”.

Frequent investor communications would be highly recommended – it is essential to demonstrate that executives are quick in taking action, and to ensure confidence among all stakeholders where it’s due.

NOW’S THE TIME FOR ORGANIZATIONS TO SHOW THEIR HUMANITY

Emily Wong | 31 March, 2020

A crisis of this scale will not only reinvent organizations, but also reveal vulnerabilities and opportunities for performance improvement. Not only that, it will accelerate technology adoption by shedding light on what it takes to drive productivity when labor is unavailable.

This is the silver lining – businesses will come out of this storm more resilient, more lean, and well-equipped with the tools and strategies that will help tackle another unprecedented challenge, which will inevitably come.

The post How the best CFOs are leading their organizations through a crisis appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Vodafone, which operates in more than 65 countries, reported that it has already seen an uptick in data traffic by 50 percent in some markets. What we’re seeing in a matter of days and weeks, said Cisco’s chief technologist Chintan Patel to CNBC, is an “increase we would normally expect to see in a year.”

This surge in internet traffic is uncharted waters. With the end of the pandemic (and social distancing measures) nowhere in sight, will the internet be resilient enough to keep things ticking over, or will it break under the pressure?

As a whole, network providers seem to be confident that there is enough capacity to cope, but governments and regulators worldwide may not be sharing the same confidence.

JUST HOW PRIVATE ARE YOUR ZOOM MEETINGS?

Emily Wong | 30 March, 2020

Australia isn’t taking any chances, and already has collaborated with five private telcos in forming a special task force to moderate network congestion and capacity issues. The EU had also called upon streaming giants to reduce streaming quality to ease up network strains.

The likes of Netflix, YouTube and most recently, the newly-launched Disney+, have since responded by cutting down bandwidth and reducing bit rates. YouTube has said that it was “committed to temporarily switching all traffic to standard definition by default,” with Netflix also agreeing to reduce its traffic by 25 percent.

Videos, especially data-intensive applications, already take up 70 percent of all network traffic. Throw videoconferencing tools into the mix, our new work-from-home lifestyle has become a massive bandwidth hogger.

Experts are cautioning network providers against false optimism. The problem really isn’t with capacity, but with the sudden spike in demand. They are “designed to cope with the peak” of web traffic, said Patel, and now the peak is at a “longer time and longer duration.”

But aside from bandwidth issues, there is another issue looming – that of capacity for maintenance. As wireless as things may seem, the fact of the matter is the internet is still made up of miles of cables that require a fair amount of maintenance. If engineers are required to self-isolate, for instance, how would these work continue smoothly?

While the current infrastructure can still cope, it is the sudden shift from corporate networks to consumer equipment that stands a good chance of ‘breaking the internet’. Employees that could previously access complex tools via business-grade connections now have to tap into them remotely, via home connections. And even if they have robust connections, business VPNs might be overwhelmed – VPNs were not built for mass usage, and adding on capacity can be difficult, costly and time-consuming.

CAN CLOUD COMPUTING SUSTAIN THE REMOTE WORKING SURGE?

Emily Wong | 31 March, 2020

So, the answer to whether the internet would break is no, not yet. Life could, to a certain extent. But it definitely wouldn’t hurt to pick up a book (or roll out the yoga mat) rather than binge-watching Tiger King on Netflix.

The post Will the COVID-19 pandemic be enough to break the internet? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.