Citrix and IBM unveils Project Kent

At its recent iForum Global 06 business and technology conference, Citrix Systems Inc., an application delivery infrastructure provider, and IBM, unveiled plans for a new solution cryptically named Project Kent which aims to provide personnel the ability to connect to applications, data and people during disruptive events like fire, natural disasters, transit strikes, and severe weather.

That means you still get to work even if a severe snowstorm prevents you from bodily showing up at the office.

Citrix's solution will be offered as a part of IBM's Virtual Workplace Continuity product. The solution integrates emergency notifications, employee updates, access to applications, and communications and collaboration. According to Citrix, the solution will use USB sticks to simplify the access to business tools during dire situations.

The Virtual Workplace Continuity product will be available from IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services unit. The new solution also supports IBM's Contingency Planning Assessment, a pandemic preparedness service.

A recent commissioned study on workforce continuity by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Citrix found that while many companies have implemented disaster recovery plans to protect their data centers, they haven't taken the necessary measures to connect employees to the business tools they need to work away from the office, such as such as e-mail, ERP and CRM systems, and end-user data. The study indicated that only 25% of enterprises feel they are ìvery preparedî to reconnect the workforce in the face of a major disruption.

The Forrester study said that a 5,000-strong company would suffer a $1.36 million productivity loss as a result of a three-day workforce disruption. Compound this by a recent survey of Disaster Recovery Journal readers, which highlighted that it takes up to five days for the workforce to return to normalcy after an event, and you'll see that the potential losses are pretty huge.

Forrester's study indicates that, over time, company spending on workforce continuity could approximate the current spending on data center continuity.

According to Citrix and IBM, their solution:

• Secures status and whereabouts of employees and provides resources to address personal and family safety;
• Surveys employees to understand hardships, needs, and the like;
• Sends notifications, via SMS, voice calls, and e-mail, to employees to update them on the status of the event and the operational plans of the company;
• Automatically collects emergency contact information from employees which can then be used to contact that employee;
• Provides employees information and application access so that they can work away from the office;
• Provides remote communications and collaborations capabilities including call redirection, secure instant messaging, and IP softphone capabilities.