Sure works to secure critical infrastructure

As custodian of critical island infrastructure, Justin Bellinger said Sure was supporting businesses as well as being ‘well practised’ in its own business continuity plans.

Sure staff were used to working remotely and collaboratively, with the company working across seven island territories overall, while the leadership team was meeting daily to scenario plan and update procedures as necessary.

‘Guernsey is our home. We want to make sure it’s as safe and secure as possible in every respect. So we’re here to make sure the island keeps moving, the island keeps going, we maintain productivity and we’re here to help wherever we can,’ he said. ‘We’ve extensively tested our working-from-home capabilities and we’re very much working with our customers in helping them with their collaboration tools and their plans for if they move their staff to working from home, from disaster recovery sites and generally helping them with their planning.’

Mr Bellinger said there had been more businesses looking to support remote working and highlighted how Sure had plenty of capacity and the island’s communications infrastructure was highly resilient.

‘The broadband infrastructure is dimensioned for that domestically, obviously. Many of our companies that we work with, and indeed we do ourselves, do use cloud-based services. So we are already using that infrastructure, that capacity. More than 85% of all homes on the island can get super-fast broadband.

‘We have got the highest broadband penetration in the world in Guernsey, so most households are well equipped to deal with this. Business operations can rest assured

that they will be absolutely fine.’

On staff welfare, he said: ‘As you know we work in seven island territories. Each of those island territories have only got one hospital so we are mega-mega cautious.’

More hand sanitisers have been installed in the firm’s offices, with health and safety of staff paramount.

On its retail shops, Mr Bellinger said the situation was being monitored, with more hand sanitisers and wipes already in place.

‘We will follow government advice on that. We’re also planning for what happens if we pause those parts of our operations. What does that look like? Naturally we can’t pause the critical parts of our infrastructure, we are custodians of critical national infrastructure here in Guernsey. So those plans are in place, but there are some bits where we could pause or defer.'