What is your pan flu plan?

Flu pandemic could choke Internet, requiring usage restrictions Expected surge in online traffic puts telework plans at risk Patrick Thibodeau February 12, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Many companies and government agencies are counting on legions of teleworkers to keep their operations running in the event of an influenza pandemic. But those plans may quickly fall apart as millions of people turn to the Internet for news and even entertainment, potentially producing a bandwidth-choking surge in online traffic.

There are a number of agencies and organizations that have, as their backup plan, the use of the Internet and its technologies for more than just pandemic flu. Like most telecom companies, the Internet is not sized to handle a full load. With the amount of traffic that is currently being consumed by spam, pop-ups, and other superfluous noise, expecting the Internet to be able to take the load when people are at home and expected to use it to do actual work is not something any network engineer would bank on. Of course, with an expected illness rate of 40%, there will be a lot of people at home, but I don't know that they will have the time or energy to go online.