Imagine it’s the Monday after Thanksgiving. Renovations on the first floor of a historic building in a major U.S. city are just resuming after the long weekend. Suddenly, a crash as the backhoe backs into a column, knocking it to the floor amid sparks from electric and communications cables. To everyone’s relief, nothing catches fire and the immediate situation for the construction crew is quickly brought under control.

But another emergency is just starting for a busy logistics company on the seventh floor. The cables dislodged by the collapsing column supplied them with power and Internet. Hundreds of employees are cut off from their customers, their drivers, and the critical packages for which they had guaranteed a safe and on-time delivery. It’s quite a busy season for them. With millions of dollars in shipments hanging in the balance, every second counts in getting the company’s systems back up and running.

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