Business in the greater Johannesburg area has been urged to develop a survival plan for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Des Little, MD of network and support specialist Computer Pro, has compiled a survival guide to what has been touted as the biggest conference in world history.
About 15 000 government delegates from around the world plus 40 000 non-governmental organisation (NGO) delegates are expected at the summit, from 24 August to 4 September.
Adding to the pressure is the fact that the summit is expected to be a target for various protest groups. Summit organisers have allowed for "days of expression" that will allow for demonstrations by some of the organisations on various issues.
While the main inter-governmental conference will take place in Sandton, the NGOs will meet at the Nasrec conference and exhibition grounds south of Johannesburg.
"What if a company suffers a file server crash or a power failure on an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) - not to mention things like power failures due to possible riots?" Little asks.
"In addition, with the massive traffic congestion expected due to the 60 000 visitors and delegates, just imagine how long it will take a technician to get on site. Downtime could be extensive."
He points out that Sandton has become something of a financial hub and downtime for a stock brokerage firm - or any other firm - means a loss of potential revenue.
Businesses should arrange for a specialised technician to be on-site during the summit. "Normally companies have on-site technicians, but these technicians deal with first-line support and will not be able to deal with major technical problems. Specialised technicians may be needed."
Organisations should also ensure that they install a second server on-site in the event of a crash, he says. In addition, because telecommunications are likely to be severely strained, companies should not rely on single lines of communication to their service provider. They should consider putting in an ISDN backup line. "This will at least give them two switches to connect through."
With the influx of people, the quality of cellular phone transmission could also be severely impacted- something companies should also consider if they have staff out in the field.
Little says firms should also consider keeping critical spares on-site, such as additional hard disks, and should look at setting up a mirrored system with a second server.
"Also, test your critical equipment, such as UPSs and tape drives, to ensure they are functioning properly. Before changing tape media, check the on-screen report that the backup was successful."
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