As revelations of a strained and shaky power grid continue to trickle out following last months massive power outage that hit the Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada, many businesses worry that the next blackout could cascade their way (see DR Fans: Few Black Eyes From Blackout and Net Up, Phones Busy in Blackout).
But Boris Sherman, the director of operations at United Airlines Loyalty Services (ULS), says hes not losing any sleep at night.
The August 14 blackout didnt make it to Chicago, where ULS, United Airlines Inc.s e-commerce subsidiary, is located, but Sherman insists that his company wouldnt have lost a dime if it had. If the blackout had come this far, he says, Im very confident that both our data centers would have remained up.
What makes Sherman so confident? Realizing that shutting down the united.com Website, which has more than 30 million unique visitors a day, for even few minutes could deprive the company of millions in revenue, the ULS subsidiary implemented a Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) disaster recovery setup nearly two years ago, he says (see DR Fans: Few Black Eyes From Blackout).
[Ed. note: Sharp-eyed readers will recall that ULS last year installed CreekPath Systems Inc.'s SAN management software -- see United Puts SAN on Autopilot. These guys love their vendors, eh?]
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
