Watching
the Olympics from the office may not only impede employee productivity, but
could also slow network performance and interfere with critical applications.
“A high volume of streaming media can easily put a strain on the
enterprise network and interfere with necessary business applications like
email and on-line commerce,” said Jayanth Angl, senior research analyst with
Info-Tech Research Group. “When a home-town hero is in the medal round of
competition, the enterprise network may be pushed beyond its limits as
everyone accesses bandwidth-intensive video coverage.
The concern over available bandwidth is especially great since many
online news sites are offering extensive live and archived coverage on their
websites. According to CCTV.com, the official internet/mobile phone browser
broadcaster of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, they will offer approximately
3,800 hours of Olympic coverage to the online world. Additionally,
NBCOlympics.com and CBCSports.ca will provide approximately 2,200 and 1,500
hours of coverage respectively to individuals searching for an online feed of
the Games.
“The Olympics present an opportunity for companies to clearly communicate
corporate guidelines for accessing high bandwidth content such as live
streaming video,” said Angl. “Some firms decide to completely block access to
such material, while others enable access during lunch hour and after hours,
or some other selective filtering of content to ensure the availability of
network resources.”
By taking proactive measures and clearly communicating policy,
enterprises will ensure that their employees will remain productive and their
networks unfettered by high bandwidth, non-business traffic, even during
compelling times like the Olympics.
