Corona Virus - What are you do doing to prepare

[BlakeRichardson]

I just wondered what everyone else is doing to prepare for the corona virus and the possibility of self isolation.

The good things is Meraki is cloud managed so thats a win right out of the gate! I am i nthe process of writing my departments pandemic plan as in NZ this isn't really something we have had to think about until recently. 

We have systems the usually aren't available remotely that we are having to find ways for staff to access. 

It's all hands on for me at the moment. 

[PhilipDAth]

>It's all hands on for me at the moment. 

Me too!  Except we are deploying remote access solutions as fast as we can.

[Uberseehandel]

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@PhilipDAth wrote:

>It's all hands on for me at the moment. 

Me too!  Except we are deploying remote access solutions as fast as we can.

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Having had 3 years of using Office365/Azure/Exchange in the Cloud, I can say that it works really well for remote users, whether self-isolating or just not in the office.

There are ready to use tools for Team activities, sharing files, online conferencing etc, we also have our desk phones forwarded to smartphones running Bria. There is encryption for confidential stuff.

We have had to help set up remote PTP links for those folk who do not have fast enough LTE in their area.

I suspect that an unintended consequence of Covid-19 will be an increase in the take up of Cloud-based services.

Programming shops are going to have to install ovens for heating frozen pizzas, all-in-one automatic espresso machines should also be in demand.

Remote access will become pervasive at all organisations.

So Meraki - please allow the Z3C to connect to an available WiFi, make vMX services available at prices that small organisations can afford and produce versions that function on Cloud providers other than MS and Amazon.

[cmr]

We've set up our whole HQ for SSL VPN with 2FA and are going through making sure everything is available on our trusty Citrix XenApp farm.  Also getting quote for more VMware horizon licensing as unlike some vendors they haven't offered temporary licenses for free just yet... 😉

When we moved our HQ to a location where we couldn't have servers we had to learn how to manage them remotely and now that's somewhat handy!

[Bettencourt]

Don't forget that Cisco has temporarily made Cisco Webex free for all to help you and your colleagues collaborate while working remotely during these trying times.

[Uberseehandel]

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@Bettencourt wrote:

Don't forget that Cisco has temporarily made Cisco Webex free for all to help you and your colleagues collaborate while working remotely during these trying times.

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Its good to hear that Webex is available.

Now that more people will be using MX/Z boxes at home - please, please pretty please Meraki -

• release a configuration for the Z3C to allow it to connect to available WiFi networks
• implement the multicast igmp-proxy so that home networks do not have be disrupted if a Meraki gateway is installed at home.

honestly, it isn't rocket science 🚀 🚀🚀

not for the lovely clever engineers at Meraki 😎😍👨‍💻👨‍🚀

[kYutobi]

I cannot enter work for 2 weeks since I returned from travel on a cruise and it is a school and no one is there to begin with but again thanks to Meraki, your statement @BlakeRichardson : The good things is Meraki is cloud managed so that's a win right out of the gate!  We prepared remote solutions and Google classroom studies for kids at home. 

[Roger_Beurskens]

I've been on leave this week beginning monday again.
The week before is was traveling through germany, doing a rollout of some 25 retail shops with mx67's and ms120-8lp's.. been away 5 days and did some 3500km.

There are also 2 shops for this customer based in vienna... the plan was to fly there the 31st of march but as dutch guy i'm not allowed into austria.

As the shops really have no it knowledge we are trying to help them do the rollout of the firewall and switch trough a video conference.

Everything is configured in the portal so normally it would be possible to install it without knowledge and a little help...
My colleagues have been lots of remote work roll-out this week, via remote access vpn, MS Teams, azure windows virtual desktop, scaling up rds farms etc etc etc..

All in all, in IT world there is a lot of work to do now.. Hope it stays this way and all stay healthy.