SmallBizResource Blog -- Internet

The Cables That Bind Us

Posted by Gayle Kesten Friday, Feb 1, 2008, 03:17 PM ET

One of my son's favorite books is about a computer-savvy kid forced to cope with a sudden, tragic loss that shakes him to his very core.

Power failure.

In this tale, written by Suzanne Collins, a bereft Charlie McButton has no choice but to find new means of non-electricity-based amusement. At first he takes his frustrations out on his little sister, but, long story short, winds up having so much fun using his (gasp!) imagination that when power is restored ... well, let me not spoil the entire story.

Of course the situation is not so happily-ever-after in India and the Mideast, where they've been scrambling to reroute online traffic following major disruptions in Internet service courtesy of two snapped cables in the Mediterranean Sea. A third cable, off the coast of Dubai, also broke today.

Separately, yesterday morning AT&T Mobility subscribers in the Midwest and Southeast were unable to get online via their iPhones and BlackBerrys.

"Anything that interrupts international connections is a big deal," Tom Weekland, a managing partner at Diamond Management and Technology, told Chicago Times. "Hospitals get imaging diagnostics from Asian radiologists. Even small companies have payrolls prepared in India. If connections are broken, or even degraded, it impacts business here."

Here, there and everywhere, even for one-person shops. Personally speaking, this blogging business would be nothing less than impossible. (By the way, bloggers in India are fuming.) The offline editing work that could keep me busy in the meantime is all well and good, but without an online connection I can't e-mail the documents back to my client.

How badly would an Internet outage affect your business? Would it bring operations to a grinding halt, or just a slow churn? Do you have a Plan B?

Because when you're running a business, a good game of hide and seek can last for only so long.

Internet