Mitigating COVID-19 business disruption with cloud computing

Business disruptions have become a known threat that business leaders plan for across multiple scenarios in order to mitigate negative impacts and ensure business continuity. However, a majority of business leaders did not see a global pandemic as a threat to their business and many did not plan accordingly.

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organisation. A pandemic is the spread of a disease on a large scale across multiple continents or worldwide. An unforeseen disruptive event of this magnitude is referred to as a “Black Swan” event. A black swan event is one that has not been predicted and has a critical impact on all aspects of life and business, and mitigation of these impacts is often limited.

As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic has and will have a profound impact on the global economy, unlike anything since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Due to the widespread lockdowns and social distancing requirements employed worldwide, COVID-19 created an immediate short-term disruption on businesses that was felt throughout the world. It is expected that this pandemic and its disruption will lead to long-term economic, social, and cultural changes.