Several companies have scrambled to offer collaboration and security solutions for employees working from home, as the Coronavirus spread forces increasing numbers to avoid the office.
Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook have advised their Seattle-based staff to stay home for the next few weeks. The city was the first in the United States to register a COVID-19 case this January, when a man returned from family vacation in Wuhan, China, where the virus is widely believed to have originated.
With far more workers expected to be sent home in the coming days and weeks, as the virus spreads quickly worldwide, cybersecurity firm Cloudfare has reached out to fellow tech leaders. It has compiled a list of services offered by major providers at its Open For Business Hub. These include three free months of Box’s file sharing platform; expanded Google Cloud conferencing services and half a year of free Microsoft Teams, a collaborative solution.
“We’ve gotten to know each over over the past few years, and that allowed us to pull this together quickly,” said Cloudfare CEO Matt Prince. His company has offered free use of security products to small businesses, as experts predict an uptick in breaches related to remote working. More than 110,000 people have been confirmed infected with the virus. Twenty-one deaths have been recorded in the US so far.