Using WiMAX for effective Business Continuity During and After Disaster

Abstract

Disasters occur in different forms and at different times. It can be man-made or natural. In either case businesses can suffer immensely due to interruption to various Information Technology (IT) services. With global warming natural disasters are predicted more often than before. Further, with freely available tools on the Internet more and more hackers are exploiting system vulnerabilities to craft unexpected system failures. With today's heavy dependency on IT, business success exclusively depends on the availability of IT services. Hence sustainability of IT services has become a major concern to organizations. Therefore, establishing network connectivity to an emergency site and enabling system availability will be of immense significance to the success of businesses under disastrous conditions. In this context, the applicability of mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology to establish network connectivity during and after a disaster is to be investigated. Although, there are many business continuity solutions dealing with other IT services, the problem of network failure and the ability to quickly establish network connectivity locally and remotely are to be explored in this study.