Network outage - again

So a major cellphone network went down again today at around 10.30am. This affects those south of Taupo. It's only now coming back up again.

Bit of an interruption to your day, isn't it? No cellphone for 4 hours of a working day. Since we rely on it so heavily, and continuity of service isn't garranteed, it makes sense to have a plan for what to do when it ceases to work.

Obviously, not working isn't a particularly viable option for an extended outage of anything vital - going to the nearest cafe when the server crashes doesn't keep anything but the cafe in business.

Business continuity planning - it's important, and it's not just about what you are going to do after an earthquake, it's how to you keep your business going when the phones don't go, or the power goes out, or your server crashes, or the sprinklers in your building go off by accident, or all your staff get norovirus, or someone vital to your business actually needs to use the 20 weeks of leave they have owing to them. How do you keep going?